Argonauts of the Western Pacific

by Bronisław Malinowski

„We say basi, for it does not truly bite, like a kudu (tooth); it just basi (pierces) the surface; makes it lighter”.

The equivalence of the two gifts, vaga and yotile, is expressed by the word kudu (tooth) and bigeda (it will bite). Another figure of speech describing the equivalence is contained in the word va’i, to marry. When two of the opposite valuables meet in the Kula and are exchanged, it is said that these two have married. The armshells are conceived as a female principle, and the necklaces as the male. An interesting comment on these ideas was given to me by one of the informants. As mentioned above, a gift of food is never given from Sinaketa to Kiriwina, obviously because it would be a case of bringing coals to Newcastle. When I asked why this is so, I received the answer:

„We do not now kwaypolu or pokala the mwali, for they are women, and there is no reason to kwaypolu or pokala them”.

There is little logic in this comment, but it evidently includes some idea about the smaller value of the female principle. Or else perhaps it refers to the fundamental idea of the married status, namely that it is for the woman’s family to provide the man with food.

The idea of equivalence in the Kula transaction is very strong and definite, and when the receiver is not satisfied with the yotile (return gift) he will violently complain that it is not a proper „tooth” (kudu) for his opening gift, that it is not a real „marriage”, that it is not properly „bitten”.

These terms, given in the Kiriwinian language, cover about half of the Kula ring from Woodlark Island and even further East, from Nada (Loughlan Islands) as far as the Southern Trobriands. In the language of Dobu, the same word is used for vaga and basi, while yotile is pronounced yotura, and kudu is udu. The same terms are used in the Amphletts.

So much about the actual regulations of the Kula transactions. With regard to the further general rules, the definition of Kula partnership and sociology has been discussed in detail in Chapter XI. As to the rule that the valuables have always to travel and never to stop, nothing has to be added to what has been said about this in Chapter III, for there are no exceptions to this rule. A few more words must be said on the subject of the valuables used in the Kula. I said in Chapter III, stating the case briefly, that in one direction travel the armshells, whilst in the opposite, following the hands of the clock, travel the necklaces. It must now be added that the mwali — armshells — are accompanied by another article, the doga, or circular boar’s tusks. In olden days, the doga were almost as important as the mwali in the stream of the Kula. Nowadays, hardly any at all are to be met as Kula articles. It is not easy to explain the reason for this change. In an institution having the importance and traditional tenacity which we find in the Kula, there can be no question of the interference of fashion to bring about changes. The only reason which I can suggest is that nowadays, with immensely increased intertribal intercourse, there is a great drainage on all Kula valuables by other districts lying outside the Kula. Now, on the one hand the doga are extremely valued on the main-land of New Guinea, much more, I assume, than they are within the Kula district. The drainage therefore would affect the doga much more strongly than any other articles, one of which, the spondylus necklaces, are actually imported into the Kula region from without, and even manufactured by white men in considerable quantities for native consumption. The armshells are produced within the district in sufficient numbers to replace any leakage, but doga are extremely difficult to reproduce as they are connected with a rare freak of nature — a boar with a circular tusk.

One more article which travels in the same direction as the mwali, consists of the bosu, the big lime spatulae made of whale-bone and decorated with spondylus shells. They are not strictly speaking Kula articles, but play a part as the korotomna gifts mentioned above and nowadays are hardly to be met with. With the necklaces, there travel only as an unimportant subsidiary Kula article, belts made of the same red spondylus shell. They would be given as return presents for small armshells, as basi, etc.

There is one important exception in the respective movements of necklace and armshell. A certain type of spondylus shell strings, much bigger and coarser than the strings which are used in the Kula, are produced in Sinaketa, as we saw in the last Chapter. These strings, called katudababile in Kiriwinian, or sama’upa in Dobuan, are sometimes exported from Sinaketa to Dobu as Kula gifts, and function therefore as armshells. These katudababile, however, never complete the Kula ring, in the wrong direction, as they never return to the Trobriands from the East. Part of them are absorbed into the districts outside the Kula, part of them come back again to Sinaketa, and join the other necklaces in their circular movement.

Another class of articles, which often take a subsidiary part in the Kula exchange, consists of the large and thin polished axe blades, called in the Kiriwinian language beku. They are never used for any practical purposes, and fulfil only the function of tokens of wealth and objects of parade. In the Kula they would be given as kaributu (solicitary gifts), and would go both ways. As they are quarried in Woodlark Island and polished in Kinwina, they would, however, move in the direction from the Trobriands to Dobu more frequently than in the opposite one.