Chapter XX. Expeditions between Kiriwina and Kitava
I–II Account of an expedition from Kinwina to Kitava. I — Fixing dates and preparing districts. II — Preliminaries of the journey. Departure from Kaulukuba Beach. Sailing. Analogies and differences between these expeditions and those of the Sinaketans to Dobu. Entering the village. The youlawada custom. Sojourn in Kitava and return. III — The So’i (mortuary feast) in the Eastern district (Kitava to Muyuwa) and its association with the Kula.
Chapter XXI. The remaining branches and offshoots of the Kula.
I — Rapid survey of the routes between Woodlark Island (Murua or Muyuwa) and the Engineer group and between this latter and Dobu. II — The ordinary trade carried on between these communities. III — An offshoot of the Kula; trading expeditions between the Western Trobriand (Kavataria and Kayleula) and the Western d’Entrecasteaux. IV — Production of mwali (armshells). V — Some other offshoots and leakages of the Kula ring. Entry of the Kula vaygu’a into the Ring.
Chapter XXII. The meaning of the Kula.
Introduction. The subject, method and scope of this inquiry
I — Sailing, and trading in the South Seas; the Kula. II — Method in Ethnography. III — Starting field work. Some perplexing difficulties. Three conditions of success. IV — Life in a tent among the natives. Mechanism of „getting in touch” with them. V — Active methods of research. Order and consistency in savage cultures. Methodological consequences of this truth. VI — Formulating the principles of tribal constitution and of the anatomy of culture. Method ot inference from statistic accumulation of concrete data. Uses of synoptic charts. VII — Presentation of the intimate touches of native life; of types of behaviour. Method of systematic fixing of impressions; of detailed, consecutive records. Importance of personal participation in native life. VIII — Recording of stereotyped manners of thinking and feeling. Corpus inscriptionum Kiriwinensium IX — Summary of argument. The native’s vision of his world.
I
The coastal populations of the South Sea Islands, with very few exceptions, are, or were before their extinction, expert navigators and traders. Several of them had evolved excellent types of large sea-going canoes, and used to embark in them on distant trade expeditions or raids of war and conquest. The Papuo-Melanesians, who inhabit the coast and the outlying islands of New Guinea, are no exception to this rule. In general they are daring sailors, industrious manufacturers, and keen traders. The manufacturing centres of important articles, such as pottery, stone implements, canoes, fine baskets, valued ornaments, are localised in several places, according to the skill of the inhabitants, their inherited tribal tradition, and special facilities offered by the district; thence they are traded over wide areas, sometimes travelling more than hundreds of miles.
Definite forms of exchange along definite trade routes are to be found established between the various tribes. A most remarkable form of intertribal trade is that obtaining between the Motu of Port Moresby and the tribes of the Papuan Gulf. The Motu sail for hundreds of miles in heavy, unwieldy canoes, called lakatoi, which are provided with the characteristic crab-claw sails. They bring pottery and shell ornaments, in olden days, stone blades, to Gulf Papuans, from whom they obtain in exchange sago and the heavy dug-outs, which are used afterwards by the Motu for the construction of their lakatoi canoes.3