Mainly culture-related terminology

[Thomas H. Slone]

Another sea creature:

kramsel: 1. bailer shell (Melo amphora or M. ethiopicus) 2. shellfish 
(Murphy, 1985: 165)

Cultural terms:

bikman: 1. leader 2. the more specific anthropological term "big 
man." A big man is a village leader who has acquired his personal 
power via his own merits, such as oratory, magic, courage, hunting, 
farming, animal husbandry, and exchange of wealth. From this personal 
power, the big man develops a faction of supporters. The concept of 
"big man" is not applicable to all of PNG (Oliver, 1989: 1144-1145).

dewel, tewel (from the English "devil"; Steinbauer, 1998: 105): "A 
dewel is a deceased's spirit and may be malign or tutelary depending 
on whether it is shown proper respect or on whether the mortuary 
rites have been performed properlyŠ." (Murphy, 1985: 30)

garamut: a canoe-shaped hardwood log (often from Vitex cofassus), 
hollowed out with only a slit opening, that produces a loud sound 
when struck (Mihalic, 1971: 86-87; McLean, 1994: 52). The signal drum 
is also known as the slit-gong or slit-drum (McLean, 1994: 52). V. 
cofassus is found at up to 2000 meters elevation (Lemmens et al., 
1995: 507). The slit-drum is found primarily with maritime and 
riverine peoples of the Sepik, Madang, Morobe, Manus and New Ireland 
provinces, as well as in northern New Britain Province (McLean, 1994: 
52-54). Use of signal drums is primarily restricted to men (McLean, 
1994: 52). See also Gourlay (1975).

kago kal, kago bilong ol tumbuna: cargo cult. A cargo cult is a 
millenarian and millenialist religion that is often short lived. The 
premise of cargo cults is usually that material goods were 
erroneously given to white people rather than Papua New Guineans, and 
that by performing certain rituals these goods will be returned to 
the Papua New Guineans. Such beliefs were sometimes reinforced by 
similar traditional beliefs (e.g., see Berndt, 1992: 74-75 and Slone, 
2001: 109). For a contextualization of the cargo cult concept, see 
Lindstrom (1993).

kal: 1. species of bird (Mihalic) 2. cult (especially cargo cult) 
(Lawrence, 1986)
Question: Does anyone know what kind of bird this is?

kastom: custom (Dutton and Thomas, 1985: 367)

kundu: a small, wooden, hourglass-shaped drum often used in 
traditional singing and dancing. The top of the drum is covered with 
lizard, snake or marsupial skin and an adhesive of either tree gum or 
blood mixed with lime (McLean, 1994: 4). The hand drum is widespread 
in New Guinea, but is absent from Manus Province as well as parts of 
southern Eastern Highlands Province and interior Gulf and Morobe 
provinces (McLean, 1994: 4-6).

majik: magic, sorcery (Dutton and Thomas, 1985: 369)

mak bilong tambu: a sign that indicates ownership. It often consists 
of leaves tied together, indicating that the object or area is 
off-limits to others.

mambu: 1. bamboo 2. pipe, tube 3. a flute made out of bamboo 
("bamboo" is also called mambu in Tok Pisin). Two main types of 
flutes are played in New Guinea: the panpipe and single-tube flute 
(McLean, 1994: 17-24). Panpipes are widely distributed in the 
Highlands, but are also found in many other locales (McLean, 1994: 
17-19). Single-tube flutes are divided into two categories: 
side-blown and end-blown. In New Guinea, side-blown flutes are 
primarily associated with sacred rituals. Sacred flutes have been 
used mainly in maritime and riverine parts of the Sepik, as well as 
large parts of Morobe, Eastern Highlands and Simbu provinces (McLean, 
1994: 20-24). The sacred flute often has a phallic association. It 
was traditionally hidden from women, and it was associated with 
ritual homosexuality and initiation rites (e.g., see Herdt, 1984). 
See also Gourlay (1975).

maus bilong dewel, maus bilong tewel: bullroarer, a musical 
instrument consisting of a wooden slat whirled on a string.  These 
were (are?) used by men in traditional religious contexts (e.g., see 
Williams, 1977: 116-117).

muramura: medicine, good magic. Example from Wantok's Stori Tumbuna: 
"Ol i paitim kundu na mekim muramura long buai na daka na smok na ol 
i wok long givim tasol long dispela yangpela meri." (from a Gende 
speaker in Madang Province). Muramura is also used in Torres Strait 
Creole and Police Motu (Shnukal, 1988: 167; Wurm & Harris, 1963: 54)

pe bilong marit: brideprice. Throughout New Guinea and other parts of 
Oceania, it was customary for a groom's family to give a gift of 
valuables to the prospective bride's family. This gift was considered 
part of an exchange, because the future-wife was considered a source 
of wealth from her skills at gardening and animal husbandry. This is 
not universal though. For example, some New Guinean cultures practice 
sister-exchange instead (Oliver, 1989: 586-587, 707-708, 732-733).

puripuri: magic, sorcery (Dutton & Thomas, 1985: 374; Murphy, 1985: 148)

sangumaman: secret ritual murderer (Steinbauer: 1998, 88)

tanim het: 1. (verb phrase) to turn ones head 2. a courtship custom 
that is restricted to the Hagen People of the Southern and Western 
Highlands Provinces.  "Boys and girls line up face to face, the boy's 
left ear being placed on the girl's right ear, and then the faces 
roll until the boy's right ear touches the girl's left ear." (Lobban, 
1985: 31)

Examples from Wantok's Stori Tumbuna:

"Oltaim planti man bilong olgeta hap long Hagen i save kam tanim het 
wantaim tupela."

"Olgeta nait ol yangpela man long Ples Bibine i save go long Ples 
Kongibul.  Na tanim het o kukim nus wantaim ol yangpela meri bilong 
dispela ples."

tanim plet: to commit incest. "A member of the family such as a 
sister or daughter is associated with providing food. A man guilty of 
tanim plet turns over the plate, making a mockery of its purpose." 
(Smith, 1990: 279-280)

===

Additional references:

Berndt, Ronald Murray (1952). "A cargo movement in the Eastern 
Central Highlands of New Guinea." Oceania 23: 40-65.

Dutton, T[om] E & Thomas, Dicks (1985). A New Course in Tok Pisin 
(New Guinea Pidgin). Pacific Linguistics, Series D, Number 67. 
Canberra: Australian National University.

Gourlay, K. A. (1975). Sound-Producing Instruments in Traditional 
Society: A Study of Esoteric Instruments and their Role in 
Male-Female Relations. Port Moresby & Canberra: New Guinea Research 
Unit, The Australian National University. New Guinea Research 
Bulletin 60.

Herdt, Gilbert H., ed. (1984). Ritualized homosexuality in Melanesia. 
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Lawrence, Peter (1986). Rot bilong Kago. Port Moresby: Institute of 
Papua New Guinea Studies. Translated by Bil Tomaseti.

Lindstrom, Lamont (1993). Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of Desire from 
Melanesia and Beyond. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Lobban, William D. (1985). "A collection of children's singing games 
of Papua New Guinea." Oral History 13(2).

McLean, Mervyn (1994). Diffusion of Musical Instruments and their 
Relation to Language Migrations in New Guinea. Kulele: Occasional 
Papers on Pacific Music and Dance 1. Boroko, Papua New Guinea: 
Cultural Studies Division, National Research Institute.
No. 52. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.

Shnukal, Anna (1988). Broken: An Introduction to the Creole Language 
of Torres Strait. Series C, No. 107. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 
The Australian National University.

Slone, Thomas H. (2001). One Thousand One Papua New Guinean Nights: 
Folktales from Wantok Newspaper. Two volumes. Oakland, CA: Masalai 
Press.  http://THSlone.tripod.com/masalaipress.html

Steinbauer, Friedrich (1998). Neo-Melanesian-English Concise 
Dictionary: New Guinea Pidgin-English. New York: Hippocrene Books.

Williams, Francis Edgar (1977). "The Vailala Madness" and Other 
Essays. Schwimmer, Erik, ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Wurm, S. A. & Harris, J. B., eds. (1963). Police Motu: An 
Introduction to the Trade Language of Papua (New Guinea) for 
Anthropologists and Other Fieldworkers. Pacific Linguistics Series B, 
No. 1. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University.

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