Samsam

[John Burton]

This just shows how little one knows. Tom Slone points out the
geographically wide occurrence of samsam and I was surprised by the mention
of highland provinces (because I haven't heard a highlander utter 'samsam'
in 20 years). The usages that Don and Bryant mention are rich in meaning and
obviously the word is indeed well known in some parts. Don says 'widely in
the islands' - but can we be more specific? People in WNB say there's a
samsam on, when people in other parts of PNG would say there's a singsing
on. But do they say this in Kavieng? Manus? Bougainville?

Like Bryant's Sepik informants, the Biangai of Wau formerly valued the art
of avoiding spears and men who could not be touched were called naimbiri.
However, I suspect their ability was considered supernatural rather than
technical. I have not yet heard any movements they may have made called
'samsam'.

John Burton

----- Original Message -----
From: Don Niles
>Certainly "samsam" is used widely in the Islands region to mean 'dance',
>as opposed to "singsing" which is 'sing/dance'. Perhaps it is important to
>distinguish dancers from singers in the Islands because often these
>activities are performed by different groups, in contrast to many other
>areas of PNG where there is not such a distinction. Any ideas on the origin
>of "samsam"?

----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas H. Slone
>I have collected over 1000 Stori Tumbuna from Wantok newspaper onto my
>computer and this assessment of regionalized usage of samsam does not
>agree with this data.  There are 14 occurrences of stories with
>occurrences of samsam.  The authors are from the following locations:

>East Sepik Province: Sawos, Abelam (2), Urat, Iatmul
>Morobe: Lae Town, Bundi/Gende, Mapos Buang, Kate
>Enga (2)
>East New Britain Province: Rabaul Town, Bainings
>New Ireland: Kavieng Town


----- Original Message -----
From: Bryant Allen
>'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.