Dialogics of material culture: male and female in Murik outrigger canoes

Abstract

We interpret material culture using a Bakhtinian model of dialogicality. Metaphoric differences in male and female perspectives of the building rites and iconography of premodern Murik outrigger canoes are adduced. Men view the vehicle in terms of initiation and their war cult while women view it in physiological images of pregnancy, birth, and nurture, as well as in terms of the seductive powers conferred upon female‐cult initiates. We take these two points of view to constitute a contrapuntal dialogue about gender and agency in the reproduction of Murik society.

Masculinity and the culture of rising sea-levels in a mangrove lagoon in Papua New Guinea

“…Most everyone joined the new mission. But men went on staging outrigger-canoe consecration rites (see Barlow and Lipset 1997). A big wave broke over the village, knocking over all the coconut trees but two, ripping up houses, and destroying everything in its path.…”

Echoes of the Tambaran : Masculinity, history and the subject in the work of Donald F. Tuzin

“…From a masculine point of view, but not necessarily a feminine one (see Barlow and Lipset 1997), the canoe-body is associated with the phallus. Outrigger-canoe logs are ritually transformed from female to male when they are cut down.…”

“…These little vehicles replaced the lineage outriggers whose prows were protected by male ancestor spirits and whose construction process and consecration rites also convened dialogue about the relationship of the cultic phallus to the desire of the other (see Barlow and Lipset 1997). Wooden planks, connoting an outrigger platform, are laid down to cover the floors of these dinghies (Figure 3.7), planks on which cargo is stored and people sit, continuing to divide themselves by gender as they used to do when riding on outriggers where men sat near the prow and women sat aft.…”

Dans la Trajectoire des Choses

“…Michael interprétera cet échec comme venant des tensions très fortes pesant sur l'ensemble du village depuis plusieurs mois : conlits territoriaux avec l'un des villages voisins, disputes fréquentes, décès multiples. Forge (1962), Damon (1980), Sillitoe (1988), Mackenzie (1991), Gell (1988Gell ( , 1992, J. Wiener (1995), Barlow et Lipset (1997) …”