<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Kairiru</title></head><body>
<div>I just finished reading<i> Village on the Edge: Changing Times in
Papua New Guinea</i> by Michael French Smith (University of Hawaii
Press, 2002). It's not strictly an ethnology but follows up
Smith's 1994 ethnology<i>, Hard Times on Kairiru Island</i>.
Kairiru is a coastal island near Wewak. Page numbers and quotes
are from Smith (2002) except as noted.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>staus (p. 90): a contraction of sithaus</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>lus lus (p. 91): "very loose or weak"</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>bembe (pp. 137-138, 193): "magic for obtaining money from
the dead". The original meaning of bembe is butterfly (from
Gazelle Peninsula according to Mihalic). Has anyone else heard
of this meaning or does anyone know how the word could have attained
this meaning?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>cowboy [kauboi] pilai (p. 147): sexual escapade ("Ol i
cowboy pilai long bus!")</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>gudpela [gutpela] pasin (p. 31): the tradition of internal
harmony and kindness towards strangers that is rooted in the belief
that God arrived in Kragur Village prior to the arrival of Christian
missionaries</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>beten korona (p. 193): rosary (Mihalic on p. 374 lists
"roseri" and "korona" for rosary)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>divelopmen (p. 193): development (widespread usage, I
believe)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>kastom (p. 194): "leaders whose authority rests on
indigenous criteria" (Mihalic only defines this as the
immigration meaning of "custom" on p. 107)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>tredstoa (p. 195): trade store (widespread usage, I
believe)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>kentin (p. 194): a village store (from canteen). Does this
differ from tredstoa?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>klen (p. 194): clan (widespread usage, I believe; is "lain"
more commonly used?)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>komiti (p. 194): a village council deputy (Mihalic has this as
any member of the council on p. 114)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>mi pasin (p. 194): "selfishness, individualism"</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>saveman / savemeri (p. 194): knowledgeable man / woman</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>straksa (p. 194): "lines of descent and genealogical
relations" (from structure)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>susokman (p. 194): an urban person (from shoe-sock-man)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Tom Slone</div>
</body>
</html>