Fw: Samsam

[John Burton]

'Samsam' is used widely in E Sepik. Used specifically to describe the
dancing about of a spearman in a fight employed to avoid being hit by
his opponents . The art of 'samsam' is said to have been more important
that the art of throwing a spear because being hit by one of those huge
bamboo tipped spears was inevitably fatal or crippling. Some of the best
fighters were 'samsam' artists who could dance out in front of the enemy
line, dodge three or four spears and then drive home his own with deadly
effect. 

Also used to describe the dance of a  tumbuan (TP) a man disguised as a
spirit. The Torricelli people used to have a figure with a woven cane
mask, painted, with long fibres of sago covering the body . The wearer
danced about, supposedly so quickly that you could not see his feet and
therefore the women (as dumb as ever) did not realise it was a man and
thought it was a spirit (see Don Tuzin 'The Voice of the Tambaran'
pp40-42 for the Ilahita version, bigger and better than everyone else's
of course). At least in Ilahita, these guys were responsible for ritual
murders particularly of people who had breached the secrecy provisions
of the 'tambaran' (also TP) so it was . 

Now applied generally to anything that jumps about, doges and weaves
etc 

Bryant 


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 
Bryant J Allen - Senior Fellow and Head - Department of Human Geography

Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies - The Australian National
University, ACT 0200                       
Australia. Phone + 61  2   6249 4347  Fax + 61  2  6249 4896