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nydus/Argonauts of the Western PacificPublic
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Table of Contents

Chapter XV The Journey Home—The Fishing and Working of the Kaloma Shell

Working the Kaloma Shell (IV.)
Working the Kaloma Shell (IV.) The shell discs, flat and perforated, but of irregular contour still, are now threaded on to a thin, tough stick, and in this form they are ground on a flat sandstone till the roll is cylindrical, that is, each disc is a perfect circle. (See Div. III .)

This technology is associated with an interesting sociological relation between the maker and the man for whom the article is made. As has been stated in Chapter II, one of the main features of the Trobriand organisation consists of the mutual duties between a man and his wife’s maternal kinsmen. They have to supply him regularly with yams at harvest time, while he gives them the present of a valuable now and then. The manufacture of kaloma valuables in Sinaketa is very often associated with this relationship. The Sinaketan manufacturer makes his kutadababile (necklace of large beads) for one of his relatives-in-law, while this latter pays him in food. In accordance with this custom, it happens very frequently that a Sinaketan man marries a

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