Friday, March 18, 2005

Get on the boat

Arriving at the domestic terminal in Port Moresby, Linus is nowhere to be found and he doesn't show until ten minutes before the flight takes off. No worries, this is just our introduction to Trobriand tinme where minutes and hours are as flexible as the fresh water flowing in and out of the tidal inlets. Nonetheless, we all make it onto the flight and arrive smoothly at our lodge in Alotau. It is a breath of fresh air after Moresby to be able to walk outdoors and chat with local people.

That evening, our lodge is hosting the "Miss Alotau contest"! Beautiful young girls are on parade with labels such as "Miss Heavy equipment" and "Miss Nawae Construction." This event is accompanied by an Indian buffet cooked by a bunch of Indian locals who show up in Saris. We have to laugh at the crazy mix of cultural elements. Where are we?

The first people we meet at our lodge are a polish couple who have come to PNG to visit the Trobriand Islands and track the footsteps of (drumroll please) The "famous" anthropologist Malinowski! They are most interested in Mal's interpretation of Freud's oedepous complex in the context of a matrilineal society . . . hmmm.

The next day we gather our provisions, buy our tickets and board the 24 hour boat to the Trobriands. As the boat passes various islands, Linus points out the places where he and various colleagues have done fieldwork. The landscape is breathtaking and now I understand why Mal spent so many endless paragraphs describing landscapes, the sunsets, the shades of the sky, the foliage in his diaries. I'll take the real thing though and I won't bore you , like he did me, with my own descriptions.

With us on the boat is an Italian Nun who just recovered from near death Malaria and is on her way back to Kiriwina. She is a reminder of the now very strong presence of Christianity on the Island. "Pretty much everyone is christian" Linus says. About 80% are United church and 15% Pentecostal. During Mal's time, the missionaries were just getting a foothold in the islands and he railed against them in his diary. He also ignored thier presence in his ethnography. He saw them as a destructive element to traditional Trobriand culture.. Linus seems to agree, pointing out that so much time is taken for Christian events, gatherings and feats, that the regular productivity of a Trobriander is reduced. We later heard others talk about the negative influence of the christian calendar on planting cycles?

Finally the island comes into sight and the boat slowly approaches the wharf at Losuia. Hundreds of people have come to meet the boat. They stand staring as we dock. Upon descent, the madness ensues, Everyone is clamouring to unload the cargo to see thier newly arrived relatives. It seems like everyone knows eachother and Linus knows everyone. We're her: "The islands of Love." Did Malinowski coin this phrase? We crash at our lodge where the generator is down(phone lines on the island are also down) and go to sleep by the glow aof a kerosene lamp ready to begin our explorations.

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