samsam

[Jean Kennedy]

Mid-70s - 80s, samsam was used in Manus for dancing, especially the
flamboyant full-frontal dances of men.  Thus: 1. little boys practising
penis-shaking, whom I was trying to photograph surreptitiously, were
described (disparagingly by teenage girls) as traitrai tasol long samsam
olsem bikman.
2. a very stiff line-dance punctuated by blasts from a whistle, performed
by sullen school children dressed in someone else's (not Manus) idea of
traditional costume: em singsing bilong tolai.
I'm not sure that the sing/dance distinction is clear from this; rather I
wonder if singsing in Manus didn't apply rather more broadly to gatherings,
and samsam to a particular kind of performance.
cheers, jk.     




Dr Jean Kennedy
Visiting Fellow
Archaeology and Natural History
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200

jkennedy at coombs.anu.edu.au
telephone 02 6249 5974