See the Author’s article, “Baloma, Spirits of the Dead,” Part VII, J.R.A.I., 1917, where this statement has been substantiated with abundant evidence. Further information obtained during another expedition to the Trobriands, established by an additional wealth of detail the complete ignorance of physiological fatherhood.
See the Author’s article “Baloma, Spirits of the Dead,” quoted above.
I am using the words religion and magic according to Sir James Frazer’s distinction (see “Golden Bough,” vol. I). Frazer’s definition suits the Kiriwinian facts much better than any other one. In fact, although I started my field work convinced that the theories of religion and magic expounded in the “Golden Bough” are inadequate, I was forced by all my observations in New Guinea to come over to Frazer’s position.
Compare Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., the parallel description of the social institutions in the Trobriands, Marshall Bennetts, Woodlark Island and the Loughlans, Chapters XLIX–LV.
Chapter III The Essentials of the Kula
By “current view,” I mean such as is to be found in text-books and in passing remarks, scattered through economic and ethnological literature. As a matter of fact, Economics is a subject very seldom touched upon either in theoretical works on Ethnology, or in accounts of field-work. I have enlarged on this deficiency in the article on “Primitive Economics,” published in the Economic Journal, March, 1921.
Professor C. G. Seligman, op. cit., p. 93, states that arm-shells toea, as they are called by the Motu, are traded from the Port Moresby district westward to the Gulf of Papua. Among the Motu and Koita, near Port Moresby, they are highly valued, and nowadays attain very high prices, up to £30, much more than is paid for the same article among the Massim.
This and the following quotations are from the Author’s preliminary article on the Kula in Man, July, 1920. Article number 51, p. 100.
In order not to be guilty of inconsistency in using loosely the word “ceremonial” I shall define it briefly. I shall call an action ceremonial, if it is (1) public; (2) carried on under observance of definite formalities; (3) if it has sociological, religious, or magical import, and carries with it obligations.