CULTURE
Some Cultural Rules and Practices
- Melanesians use a different time system than the rest of the world: Sunrise, Sun High, Sunset and Dark Night.
- If some event is scheduled to start at a time, then it is at that time when people begin to ready themselves to attend at a later time.
- The islander will always agree with you, even if he doesn't ... but you'll never know.
- Don't compliment an islander on his or her clothing, because tomorrow those very same clothes may appear on your doorstep washed and neatly folded.
- Same sex siblings can be brothers and opposite sex siblings sisters. Now think about that.
- Cousins are brothers and sisters (sometimes) and blood aunts and uncles are sometimes mothers and fathers.
- Men rule - but women own the land. Humm.
- Men are expected to live in their wife's village.
- The first born belongs to the father, all the rest belong to the mother.
- Bride prices are paid by the boy's family to the girl's family - and any other family member who helped raise the girl. Don't worry they kept track.
- You cannot harvest from or cut down my tree even if it is growing on your land ... because its my tree.
- You cannot address a brother or sister-in-law by their name. You address them as "Tambu".
- In some cases you may not even speak to a mother or father-in-law. Tell your wife (husband) and they'll tell their parent.
- You may not be seen in public with an unrelated person of the opposite sex unless the two of you are going to get married, and only after it has been announced publicly.
- You may not marry a person in the same clan. Clan identity is determined by the mother.
- Melanesians are supremely democratic. Everyone must express his or her view - no matter how l o n g i t t a k e s, zzzzzzzz.
- A man in charge is called a Big Man and you can usually tell which man is the Big Man by seeing how big he is.
- There is no need for a welfare system because of the wantok (one talk) system. You must take care of me if we are far from home and if I am from your village. When I ask for money, food, or a place to sleep, you must give it to me. And this applies to politicians too.
- The most important people are those who give things away, not the ones who have things.
- In meetings and church, men sit on one side and women on the other.
- In some areas, hand clapping is not done during singing. Instead people stomp their feet in unison, turning the whole floor into one giant drum! Quite an amazing sound.
- You may find out that the Melanesian does not care a wit about how much money you have, how much education you have or what you do. What they want to know is about your family.
Art is an integral part of island culture. Western culture has produced amazing works of art, but their authors are not commonly found in the populace. However, island art seems to be an expression of the common man, more democratic - if you will - not the product of an art elite, or of schools, or of exhibitions and clinking champagne glasses.
This is certainly not a work of art (unless you think of God as the artist). It is, however, arguably an artifact. This Triton shell was used to summon men to meetings in Manginuna Village on the south coast of New Britain. The village leader, or "committee", would blow through the hole made in the side. However, just blowing does nothing. You must purse your lips as if you're blowing a trumpet, and that's what produces a booming baritone sound. I have no idea how far the sound carries, but suspect in a jungle village where there are absolutely no city sounds, it will be immediately noticed by everyone far and wide.
Kundu drums are used for festivals or dances. It's a remarkable creation in that all it takes is a light thump with a finger on the lizard skin cover to produce a booming sound, a sound that one would think only a much larger instrument could make. I suspect the reason for its effectiveness is the hour-glass design. Note the geometric design cut into the surface. It was unique and so stood out from all the others I had seen. For some reason unknown to me, once I arrived in the USA where the air is much drier, the lizard skin slackened and the drum lost is ability to function. Maybe if I take it back to a humid climate the skin will tighten up and the drum will become useful again.
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This fruit bowl from Umboi Island (PNG), was probably only carved for local use and not tourists since the island is so remote. The craftsmanship is marginal but in a way, that makes it more interesting since tourists items would be perfect and therefore unrealistic.
Clearly the bowl is supposed to be the representation of some animal. I think it might be a turtle, but don't know. |
An ebony wood carving of an ancient Solomon Island's god (Toto Isu or Nguzu Nguzu) holding a head. The Solomon Islanders were head hunters. This would be placed on the bow of a war canoe. I once read that Charles Darwin said that any person being shipwrecked on a South Pacific island had better hope the message of the missionaries had preceded him.
This is another example of an ebony wood carving. It's a small model of a village drum. The full size drum would be quite large and sit on the ground. The user would strike large sticks or small logs perpendicular across the opening and produce a sound that would carry for miles. Note the intricate hand-carved shell inlays in both carvings. |
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"4 Pela Wailduk Ol i Painum Pis long Swamp" - "Four wild birds (?) find fish in the swamp" by James Kera 2001. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Melanesians, maybe even all pacific islanders, like geometric design. And asymmetric geometric design is very common in Melanesia. Some of it, like this one, is fascinating and colorful. Some geometric carvings are, however, distracting to me. They seem to detract from the theme of the artwork itself. Nevertheless, not understanding the significance of the geometry, I should not make any judgement and simply observe that it's ubiquitous in Melanesian art. |
A totem, part of the cargo cult, in the Pomio area of New Britain (PNG) representing the Ten Commandments. The natives were so influenced by World War II that they adopted bits and pieces of western culture and religion in order to gain the wealth and cargo that surrounded them during the war. When the war was over and the Americans and Australians left, the locals believed that more cargo would arrive in the form of jeeps, boats and other things ... if only they followed the practices they observed among the military during the war.
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A Solomon Islands man carving a shark swimming in a circle from the trunk of a tree. When finished, he will kill a small shark, remove its teeth and put them into the carving. Then carve the eyes from a trochus shell and put them in too. Finally, he'll sand and rub the shark with his hands until its wood is smooth and shiny.
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Christmas In the South Pacific
Here's a short essay by a former native of Papua New Guinea about one single event in their calendar: Christmas.
Here's a short essay by a former native of Papua New Guinea about one single event in their calendar: Christmas.
"I grew up in a small village on a small island in the South Pacific. There is no fresh water, electric lights, cars, roads or any buildings like here in America. Also there are no watches or clocks; we use the sun to tell the time.
My village sits in a cutout of our island. Behind us the hills rise up rather steep. I think all the rocks are really old coral. Most of the houses sit on stilts. The village is made up of two rows of houses. One row is very close to the ocean. My house was only about 50 feet from the water, and behind the ocean row is a large empty area like a dirt road; and on the other side of that is the second row of houses. We don't live in our houses though. They are only used for sleeping and keeping our valuable possessions. The only people inside their houses during the day are sick people. Everyone else is outside, sitting under their house to keep cool, or working, visiting, fishing or playing.
Christmas is our most important holiday. The day before Christmas is a great time with my large family and many friends; so it is never boring. Before we come together on Christmas day everyone is given a job to do - sometimes in groups. Men go fishing, kill a pig or chickens, and women often go to the garden to get food.
The women take care of the mumu. A mumu is our way of cooking underground. A hole is dug in the ground to make an oven. It is about a foot deep and 2.5 to 3 feet across. The food is placed inside, then hot stones are put on top covering the food; and then the stones are covered with banana leaves. If the men do not kill a pig they fish. After fishing some chase down chickens to add to the meal. Our chickens are not kept in pens so we have to chase them down with a stick. However, the chickens are not wild but they are owned by different people, so you must make sure it is your own chicken you are chasing and about to kill. But it is not too difficult. Each one has a mark on it identifying it with a family.
Our gardens are used to supply different kinds of bananas, coconuts, pumpkin leaves, different kinds of mangoes, taro and many other spinach-like greens and many different types of fruits like pineapple, rambuton, guava, five-corners, and pamalo, and others. Also we have a nut called gallip nut. It looks like an almond but tastes similar to a brazil nut, but is soft.
When the men have returned with the fish, and the chickens have been caught, and the garden foods have been gathered, all of it is placed together inside banana leaves. coconut is scrapped and the minced coconut meat is sprinkled on the food and the food soaked in coconut water and all of it is wrapped and tied with the spine of the coconut frond and buried in the hole. It usually takes about two to four hours to cook the food. Mumus that begin the night before Christmas stay all night in the earth. But some mumus begin cooking early Christmas morning.
The women sweep the village clean; everyone takes a bath and goes to church. Even the dirt ground is swept so there is no rubbish anywhere. In the afternoon the Christmas celebration begins. The church bell rings and all the families come together by their family groups. The families will bring mats and lay them on the ground starting at the pastor's house. Everyone sits down forming one large circle. Each family places their own mumu in front of the center of that family.
The feast begins. But no one is required to eat his own food. If you see something with another family you like, you can go get some. That way we share and laugh and talk until the feast is finished. Once the feast is over the children play games. My father use to offer money for the winners. It was never much money, but we all thought we were rich whenever we would win ten cents.
I want to go home, sit under my family's house and laugh and tell stories about all our good times. I miss my home and all the fun we used to have."
Kelita
My village sits in a cutout of our island. Behind us the hills rise up rather steep. I think all the rocks are really old coral. Most of the houses sit on stilts. The village is made up of two rows of houses. One row is very close to the ocean. My house was only about 50 feet from the water, and behind the ocean row is a large empty area like a dirt road; and on the other side of that is the second row of houses. We don't live in our houses though. They are only used for sleeping and keeping our valuable possessions. The only people inside their houses during the day are sick people. Everyone else is outside, sitting under their house to keep cool, or working, visiting, fishing or playing.
Christmas is our most important holiday. The day before Christmas is a great time with my large family and many friends; so it is never boring. Before we come together on Christmas day everyone is given a job to do - sometimes in groups. Men go fishing, kill a pig or chickens, and women often go to the garden to get food.
The women take care of the mumu. A mumu is our way of cooking underground. A hole is dug in the ground to make an oven. It is about a foot deep and 2.5 to 3 feet across. The food is placed inside, then hot stones are put on top covering the food; and then the stones are covered with banana leaves. If the men do not kill a pig they fish. After fishing some chase down chickens to add to the meal. Our chickens are not kept in pens so we have to chase them down with a stick. However, the chickens are not wild but they are owned by different people, so you must make sure it is your own chicken you are chasing and about to kill. But it is not too difficult. Each one has a mark on it identifying it with a family.
Our gardens are used to supply different kinds of bananas, coconuts, pumpkin leaves, different kinds of mangoes, taro and many other spinach-like greens and many different types of fruits like pineapple, rambuton, guava, five-corners, and pamalo, and others. Also we have a nut called gallip nut. It looks like an almond but tastes similar to a brazil nut, but is soft.
When the men have returned with the fish, and the chickens have been caught, and the garden foods have been gathered, all of it is placed together inside banana leaves. coconut is scrapped and the minced coconut meat is sprinkled on the food and the food soaked in coconut water and all of it is wrapped and tied with the spine of the coconut frond and buried in the hole. It usually takes about two to four hours to cook the food. Mumus that begin the night before Christmas stay all night in the earth. But some mumus begin cooking early Christmas morning.
The women sweep the village clean; everyone takes a bath and goes to church. Even the dirt ground is swept so there is no rubbish anywhere. In the afternoon the Christmas celebration begins. The church bell rings and all the families come together by their family groups. The families will bring mats and lay them on the ground starting at the pastor's house. Everyone sits down forming one large circle. Each family places their own mumu in front of the center of that family.
The feast begins. But no one is required to eat his own food. If you see something with another family you like, you can go get some. That way we share and laugh and talk until the feast is finished. Once the feast is over the children play games. My father use to offer money for the winners. It was never much money, but we all thought we were rich whenever we would win ten cents.
I want to go home, sit under my family's house and laugh and tell stories about all our good times. I miss my home and all the fun we used to have."
Kelita
Women do not have an easy life.
These women are from the Gazelle Peninsula on the island of New Britain in the country of Papua New Guinea. They work very hard. In this case they're coming back from working in the bush. In one place in the Solomon Islands I came across an area where women were expected to walk for miles each day to get fresh water. And at another time I took a picture (which I lost) of a husband and wife walking through the bush. He was magazine cover muscular - quite an impressive chap, was carrying a bush knife and a little purse-like thing in which he kept his betel nut. His wife, however, was burdened down like these two women, and carrying a small baby to boot.
BUT women own the land! Not the men!
These women are from the Gazelle Peninsula on the island of New Britain in the country of Papua New Guinea. They work very hard. In this case they're coming back from working in the bush. In one place in the Solomon Islands I came across an area where women were expected to walk for miles each day to get fresh water. And at another time I took a picture (which I lost) of a husband and wife walking through the bush. He was magazine cover muscular - quite an impressive chap, was carrying a bush knife and a little purse-like thing in which he kept his betel nut. His wife, however, was burdened down like these two women, and carrying a small baby to boot.
BUT women own the land! Not the men!
For many, culture amounts to nothing more than feathers, dances and drums, which is short sighted because islanders don't dress up and dance every day. Culture has more to do with how the person views the world, what to him is important and then how he acts on his view of the world.
Nevertheless, dances and music do play an important part in cultural expression, albeit a small one. I would be remiss if I didn't include some sights and sounds from the islands. Please look and listen at what I think are unique examples of some aspects of Melanesian culture. When you click on one of these sites, you will be taken to another place on the internet which becomes a door to even more places where you may go to hear and see more of Melanesia.
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The Melanesian Brotherhood is a Anglican religious order based on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Their music is sober, spiritual and gives you a feeling of a profound peaceful eternity.
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Pan Pipes from Santa Isabel Island in the Solomon Islands. I don't know how much of this is due to European influence. Nevertheless, if it is, the presentation is uniquely Melanesian.
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A Bamboo band of the Solomon Islands with some very interesting videos of the culture.
FOOD
Hey let's not forget food. Food is a part of the culture too.
Common foods in Melanesia are rice, karikup (a weed that grows in the United States), kumu (a spinach-like vegetable), pitpit (a thing that looks like foxtail), taro, sago, yellow sweet potato, kaukau (similar to a white sweet potato), sugar cane, fish, octopus, squid, dog (often not eaten by coastal people), pig, chicken, many shell fish and many different kinds of fruits: all kinds of bananas, coconuts, pineapple, five-corners, rambuton, pamalo (very similar to a large grapefruit), tin corned beef, coffee, tea, Vegemite, and hard as rock navy biscuits. The traditional Melanesian does not like foods too sweet, so he mostly leaves out sugar, except in tea and coffee and does not eat candy, does not like things too salty, so he leaves out salt, does not like things too cold, so ice is not used. In short, the Melanesian, especially those who live along the coast, eat a very healthy diet.
I will show here two, maybe three recipes.
The first is the ingredients a Melanesian might cook when away from home where many of the foods above cannot be found or produced. As you see it is a simple meal but very tasty and healthy.
Hey let's not forget food. Food is a part of the culture too.
Common foods in Melanesia are rice, karikup (a weed that grows in the United States), kumu (a spinach-like vegetable), pitpit (a thing that looks like foxtail), taro, sago, yellow sweet potato, kaukau (similar to a white sweet potato), sugar cane, fish, octopus, squid, dog (often not eaten by coastal people), pig, chicken, many shell fish and many different kinds of fruits: all kinds of bananas, coconuts, pineapple, five-corners, rambuton, pamalo (very similar to a large grapefruit), tin corned beef, coffee, tea, Vegemite, and hard as rock navy biscuits. The traditional Melanesian does not like foods too sweet, so he mostly leaves out sugar, except in tea and coffee and does not eat candy, does not like things too salty, so he leaves out salt, does not like things too cold, so ice is not used. In short, the Melanesian, especially those who live along the coast, eat a very healthy diet.
I will show here two, maybe three recipes.
The first is the ingredients a Melanesian might cook when away from home where many of the foods above cannot be found or produced. As you see it is a simple meal but very tasty and healthy.
The ingredients are 1 tin of Ox and Palm corned beef (which is meatier than the others on the market) - not 2 like shown, soy sauce, Tabasco sauce (that's my addition, not theirs), onions, tomatoes, and just about any greens you like. Shown are broccoli and, I think, chard. Not shown is the rice and olive oil. Chard can be replaced by any dark leafy green vegetable.
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Throw all the veggies into a large frying/wok-like pan, add a little olive oil, a little water and a little soy sauce. Cook for awhile. (Don't add any salt!). Don't over cook. You don't want the tomatoes to get soggy, but want a sauce to begin to develop in the pan that's a mixture of the oil, water, soy sauce and tomatoes. The onions should be cooked past the crunchy stage, however. Then cover and allow it all to steam.
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Uncover and throw in the Ox and Palm corned beef. Break up the meat. Soy sauce and corned beef have a lot of salt already. Therefore, adding salt is not necessary. (Remember - DON'T ADD SALT!) Cover again and allow it to continue to steam for awhile until every thing is hot and kind of soupy.
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Uncover. It should be steaming. Put some rice on a plate, Spoon the veggie, corned beef concoction over the rice and sprinkle on some Tabasco sauce. Yum. PS If you don't have corned beef use Spam cut up into small pieces. This meal will serve about 4 people for less than $10. And you may find people saying, "I want some more of that ... stuff!"
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Now for a difficult recipe: Igeer.
I don't have any pictures so you'll have to use your imagination. When I get back to the South Pacific, I'll take pictures and put them in here. Therefore the recipe will be in the form of a story and, as you will see, not easy to prepare.
I was in the jungle and told my wife that I was hungry. I despaired because we had no food. We were clearing the bush and making the place ready for construction. My wife spoke to her mother about my dilemma and she got busy. At first I could,'t figure out what she was doing as she began to make a dish called Igeer (roll the 'r' but misspelled I'm sure) (You'll see where pots can be used if banana leaves are not available, but the hot rocks ARE necessary):
1. Collect a fair number of granite rocks about the size of your fist.
2. Arrange half of them in a circle on the ground - a circle about a 1 1/2 to 2 feet in diameter.
3. In another place build a fire ... a nice hot fire that will burn for awhile.
4. Wash the other half of the rocks in fresh water and once the fire is blazing, throw them into the fire.
5. Get some young manki (pronounced mon-key which means little man or boy) to collect banana leaves for you - a fair number to a whole bunch.
6. Get another young manki to climb a coconut tree and throw down several coconuts - maybe 10 or so?
7. And send another young manki into the jungle to find all kinds of eatable leafy greens. Don't worry, the boy will know what is eatable.
8. Carefully place the banana leaves on the ground between the ring of rocks in one direction ensuring they overlap each other as well as the sides of the rocks, then do it again but cross-wise in the other direction. (By this time I had stopped work and was staring at my mother-in-law's project.) You will be making a banana-leaf-rock bowl on the ground that's water proof!
9. Break each of the coconuts and make sure the coconut-milk (although green coconut coconut-milk looks like water) is collected into your banana-leaf-rock bowl on the ground. Also scrape all the coconut meat into your bowl (not easy to do unless you have a scraper). When you finish you will have a banana-leaf-rock bowl full of coconut water and shredded coconut meat.
10. Dump in all the leafy greens that the boy found in the jungle, and then pick up each of the very hot fire rocks with tongs made from old bamboo and put them into the concoction too.
11. After a few minutes the concoction will begin to boil from the hot rocks, and those rocks will impart some flavor to the cooking greens too.
12. After a few minutes use the bamboo tongs to remove a pile of greens flavored by the rocks and coconuts onto a banana leaf in your hand (that's the plate).
13. Dig in - eating with your fingers of course - that's part of the recipe. It's an amazing and delicious flavor. Nothing like it on earth.
PS Eating Island food cured all my stomach problems ... and I had a lot since childhood.
One of the secrets to island cooking in Papua New Guinea is that very few spices are used. Foods are used to spice up other foods: skinned bananas and greens cooked with chicken for instance.
Making the Melanesian Version of Bread: Tapiok (on the way)
1. Back to the islands in 2022 where I must get a bunch of pictures
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3.
I don't have any pictures so you'll have to use your imagination. When I get back to the South Pacific, I'll take pictures and put them in here. Therefore the recipe will be in the form of a story and, as you will see, not easy to prepare.
I was in the jungle and told my wife that I was hungry. I despaired because we had no food. We were clearing the bush and making the place ready for construction. My wife spoke to her mother about my dilemma and she got busy. At first I could,'t figure out what she was doing as she began to make a dish called Igeer (roll the 'r' but misspelled I'm sure) (You'll see where pots can be used if banana leaves are not available, but the hot rocks ARE necessary):
1. Collect a fair number of granite rocks about the size of your fist.
2. Arrange half of them in a circle on the ground - a circle about a 1 1/2 to 2 feet in diameter.
3. In another place build a fire ... a nice hot fire that will burn for awhile.
4. Wash the other half of the rocks in fresh water and once the fire is blazing, throw them into the fire.
5. Get some young manki (pronounced mon-key which means little man or boy) to collect banana leaves for you - a fair number to a whole bunch.
6. Get another young manki to climb a coconut tree and throw down several coconuts - maybe 10 or so?
7. And send another young manki into the jungle to find all kinds of eatable leafy greens. Don't worry, the boy will know what is eatable.
8. Carefully place the banana leaves on the ground between the ring of rocks in one direction ensuring they overlap each other as well as the sides of the rocks, then do it again but cross-wise in the other direction. (By this time I had stopped work and was staring at my mother-in-law's project.) You will be making a banana-leaf-rock bowl on the ground that's water proof!
9. Break each of the coconuts and make sure the coconut-milk (although green coconut coconut-milk looks like water) is collected into your banana-leaf-rock bowl on the ground. Also scrape all the coconut meat into your bowl (not easy to do unless you have a scraper). When you finish you will have a banana-leaf-rock bowl full of coconut water and shredded coconut meat.
10. Dump in all the leafy greens that the boy found in the jungle, and then pick up each of the very hot fire rocks with tongs made from old bamboo and put them into the concoction too.
11. After a few minutes the concoction will begin to boil from the hot rocks, and those rocks will impart some flavor to the cooking greens too.
12. After a few minutes use the bamboo tongs to remove a pile of greens flavored by the rocks and coconuts onto a banana leaf in your hand (that's the plate).
13. Dig in - eating with your fingers of course - that's part of the recipe. It's an amazing and delicious flavor. Nothing like it on earth.
PS Eating Island food cured all my stomach problems ... and I had a lot since childhood.
One of the secrets to island cooking in Papua New Guinea is that very few spices are used. Foods are used to spice up other foods: skinned bananas and greens cooked with chicken for instance.
Making the Melanesian Version of Bread: Tapiok (on the way)
1. Back to the islands in 2022 where I must get a bunch of pictures
2.
3.
Thank you and please come back. This page will be updated because nothing is static.
