Thursday, June 4, 2009

Article Notes: Bartle, Neville

Basic Themes of Melanesian Worldview
Published: self published (?)

Major themes/concepts:
Life is clan-centered
  • Tribe first, self/others later
  • leads to corruption in govt and business
  • resources should be used to help tribe
Life is balanced
  • A gives B a gift. B now owes A one, A can ask for it
  • No giving vs selling, all trade
  • Share the wealth (means lots of people owe you)
  • Pols spread money/projects for votes.
  • A injures B, B can extract revenge from A
  • Modern courts confuse this, causing problems with law/order
  • Friends will pay back/give gifts
Male > Female
  • Males stay and give to tribe
  • Females give to another tribe
  • Males -> Gardener, Females -> Garden
  • Homosexuality is rare/non-existant
  • Sex not mentioned, marriage a way of "sharing the wealth" and making someone owe you
Life's goal is to be "Big Man"
  • Big Man has a lot of people who owe them
  • Happens in Politics lots
  • Pols switch sides as it suits them
  • Polygamy -> lots of people, children, also allies with wives' tribes
Life is measured in events, not a timeline
  • Time is neither linear nor cyclic
  • Series of "nows"
  • "Do you have a headache" will be answered in the affirmative if they have -ever- had a headache
  • Tok Pisin does not have true tenses
  • Little planning for future (food always available, no need)
  • Some remembering of past
Goal of life is well-being & harmony
  • Live in now
  • Life abundant
  • no spirit/physical duality
  • Appease spirits to right physical issues
Power should have results
  • All power should produce
  • Less stress on religious doctrine, more on what it does for the adherent
  • pragmatic life view
  • no need for future planning (food available year round)
Dead live on as spirits
  • Similar to Shinto beliefs
  • Dead influence physical
  • need appeased via sacrifice
  • blood sacrifices have become rare
  • no traditional heaven/hell analogue
More sources of power -> good
  • Polyreligous tendancies
  • "Cover all bases"
Life is to be celebrated
  • Like to feast
  • No indiginous methods of food storing
  • Rather, when abundant, share with everyone. Then they owe you

1 comment:

  1. Lots of debts in their community. I think I'd be confused by it... I know how hard it was to keep track of who owed whom for pizza money during gaming sessions!

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