[Mihalic] Comments on new entries

[Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies]

Hi all,

I'd like to question Tom Slone's explanation:

> sospen: additional noun phrase: "as bilong sospen    a North Solomonese
>(Griffin 1989: 26). Lit. 'arse comes from a saucepan' or 'arse belongs in
>a saucepan.' This is a double-entendre, meaning either 'your skin is so
>black that it is burnt' or 'we eat you.' The explanation for the former
>meaning is that the skin of the North Solomonese is blacker than that of
>most other Papua New Guineans. The latter explanation implies cannibalism,
>which probably still exists in a few remote areas of P.N.G. but was
>eradicated in most parts of the country only a lifetime ago, and therefore
>is still in the social conscience." (Slone, 1995)

Firstly, I think we should avoid neo-logisms like "North Solomonese". Has
anyone ever heard this being used here?

More importantly, the literal interpretation of "as bilong sospen" would I
think be better simply as 'the blackened bottom of a used saucepan'. I
don't think there is any implication about anyone's arse coming from or
belonging in a saucepan.

Finally, perhaps I never got the double-entendre (with my head stuck up my
own as, I guess), but isn't the expression simply a comparison between the
black, soot-laden bottom of a saucepan with dark coloured skin? Is there a
suggestion that the skin is burnt? I don't think so. Neither have I ever
heard any relation to 'we eat you' and the link with cannibalism.

Have I missed something here?

Don

Don Niles
Head & Senior Ethnomusicologist
Music Department
Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies
P.O. Box 1432
Boroko 111
PAPUA NEW GUINEA

tel.:	[675] 325-4644
fax:	[675] 325-0531
email:	ipngs at global.net.pg