[PapuanLanguages] Query regarding words for power(/mana)

[Andrew Pawley]

Dear Alan

First, I agree with Keesing's main point. For example, in the Oceanic language Wayan (W. Fijian) mana is a verb meaning (1) (of a person) able to make  things happen, be effective, have creative power, (2) (of events predicted or wished for) come true, be realised, with transitive form manati- affect or overcome s.o or s.t. , have a strong effect on s.o.   As a (derived) noun mana is glossed (1) power to make things happen, effectiveness, creative power, (2) (of an event foretold) the act of coming true. (from the Wayan dictionary draft). 

Among Papuan languages it is tempting to see a connection with Selepet (Huon Peninsula) manman 'life sustaining power' (Selepet-English dictionary, K and N  McElhanon 1970) but I fear the similarity is accidental. Selepet has a verb man- (1) to live,  (2) to practise (a custom)' which is the base for the reduplicated form.  I think this is an old TNG verb root, with cognates elsewhere meaning 'live, exist, stay''. See entry *mVna- 'be, live, stay' in my computer file 'Some TNG etymologies'.

Andy
 
________________________________________
From: papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au [papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au] on behalf of Alan Rumsey [Alan.Rumsey at anu.edu.au]
Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2013 2:36 PM
To: papuanlanguages at anu.edu.au
Subject: [PapuanLanguages] Query regarding words for power(/mana)

Dear Papuanists,

For an upcoming workshop on the concept of ‘mana’ I am going to be giving a presentation in which I take up Roger Keesing’s (1984) argument that western construals of that concept as attested among Oceanic Austronesian languages were/are largely erroneous insofar they take it to have been  thought of as a kind of magical substance. He argues that with the possible exception of some eastern Polynesian cases Mana is not a "thing" but “a state inferred retrospectively from the outcome of events”. One of his main pieces of putative evidence for this is linguistic: in most Oceanic languages ‘mana’ is not referred to with a noun but predicated with a stative verb.

In this connection I have three questions for you:

1. For those of you who work on Papuan lgs in areas where there is contact with Oceanic Austronesian ones, are you aware of any possible instances of words such as mana or namana that are likely candidates for diffusion from Austronesian? If so, what can you tell me about their grammar and range of uses/senses?

2. For all of you, is there a word in the Papuan lg(s) you work on that means something like ‘power’? If so, what can you tell me about its grammar and range of uses/senses?

3. For all of you, when speaking in the Papuan lg(s) you work on, do people use a word something like ‘pawa’ that has evidently been adapted from Tok Pisin or English? If so, what can you tell me about its grammar and range of uses/senses?

Ref:  Keesing, Roger 1984. Mana Revisited. Journal of Anthropological Research 40:137-56.

Any info you can give me along these lines would be greatly appreciated, and, of course gratefully acknowledged in the paper.

Best regards,
Alan

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