Glasman

[BURTON John]

Funnily enough I was also reading Lattas at Easter.

glasman:
"It is no accident that the Melanesian Pidgin word for shaman is _glasman_
(glass-man), for the shaman uses his visions and dreams like the _glas_
(glass, i.e. spy-glass of field glasses) of the white man to bring what is
distanbt close, to disclose that which is removed or cannot be seen."

Source: Lattas, A. 2000 'Telephones, cameras and technology in West New
Britain cargo cults.' Oceania 70: 325-344

I add _tu ai man_ to this in the web site. Not everyone uses _glasman_. The
comparison with field glasses does not sit with me perfectly, as binoculars
are _kompas_, but the drift of it is entirely correct. Personally, I would
make a comparison with _aiglas_. You put these on to see what you can't see
otherwise.

Thomas - you didn't get the most important of all: "all Kaliai cargo cults
called themselves a _stori_" (p. 343, and Lattas "Cultures of secrecy",
1998).

Lattas also uses the words _netif_  and _kamerim_, to photograph, in the
same article. Any takers?

John Burton