Not Feasting with Friends: the Meaning of Meat in Anganen

Nihill, Michael

doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.2001.tb02753.x

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

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“…These posters also call for the addition of "lots of colored vegetables" to "staple foods, such as taro or green banana," the goal being to enhance meat and starch meals with added nutrients in the form of vegetables not ordinarily considered necessary for a satisfactory meal. It is worth noting that, while cuts of a pig, cow, or sheep are divided and distributed during ritualized exchange in an elemental fashion, these posters encourage valuing foods for their nutritional components rather than for their role in building social relationships (see also Nihill 2001;Linnekin 1991;Young 1971;Kahn 1986;Schram 2018). The kind of cooking-as-conceptualizing illustrated in the posters renders fat as excess or waste, not as a valued element-although fat is precisely what makes these meats valuable as (delicious) gifts.…”

Section: Elemental Eatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elemental Eating: Samoan Public Health and Valuation in Health Promotion

Hardin¹,

Kwauk²

2019

The Contemporary Pacific

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Every Samoan has claim to land. There are plenty of mangoes, pawpaws, bananas and breadfruit falling off and rotting on the ground, plenty of fish in the sea. The problem is too many people are coming into town and loathing [sic] around. They are lazy and do not want to go back to their village to work the land. They should stay in their village where their lands are and develop it. (Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, quoted in Field 2012) Comments like these, reported on the Samoan government website, by Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, the current prime minister of Sāmoa, are controversial yet predictable. The idea that there is food "rotting on the ground" is an often-repeated lament that suggests that poverty would cease if people worked their plantations. Incidences of cardiometabolic disorders such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as obesity, are often roped into this discussion. The idea is that if people used their land to produce crops, then they would have access to "free" foods that are healthy and have an opportunity for robust physical activity. If people valued agricultural work and the foods they could harvest, then suffering-both in terms of poverty and diseases like diabetes and hypertension-would decline. Prime Minister Malielegaoi presented a compelling logic, one that Samoan public health practitioners have also articulated, but these comments belie contestation over the value of certain kinds of labor and foods. Public health, as a loosely defined set of partners and organizations, is critical in contouring these food discourses (see Bell, McNaughton, and Salmon 2011; Guthman 2011). In Sāmoa, from the former public health arm of the government, the Ministry of Health (moh), to global health

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Section: Elemental Eatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elemental Eating: Samoan Public Health and Valuation in Health Promotion

Hardin¹,

Kwauk²

2019

The Contemporary Pacific

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Dangerous Visions: the Cassowary as Good to Think and Good to Remember among the Anganen

Nihill

2002

Oceania

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The cassowary, although no longer a popular animal for possession or gift exchange in contemporary Anganen, is good to think in the Levi-Straussian sense and good to remember. Its excessive violence may stand for the violence of which men are capable. This is the case for inter-group warfare. It also refers to intra-community hostilities, not sharing cassowary meat being a frequent cause for clan fission and an agonistic exchange called rawa where those conceptualised as brothers engage in the competitive slaughter of, ideally, cassowaries. The article primarily concerns rawa and its extraordinary character. It is typified by paradox and danger despite the displacement of anger from direct attacks on humans to the slaughter of animals. Rawa protagonists throw blood and uncleaned entrails at each other while shouting the vilest of insults in the hope the opponent will eventually not respond and lose the contest. However, while escalation of a dispute to the level of rawa is evidence of failed mediation, this competitive exchange establishes the condition for eventual intervention and, via a communal feast of the slaughtered animals, the resumption of strong community relations, including those between the former protagonists. The final ethnographic section focuses on the fact that warfare and rawa were prohibited by the Australian Administration. Anganen men feel they were disenfranchised by the Administration, in part because they were denied access to the culturally lauded male pursuits of being warriors and rawa men. As such, that cassowaries are thought to have been much more popular in the past is central to my claim they are good to remember. 258Oceania 72, 2002

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Kabit, RimbuandOpa: Modalities of Anganen Sacrifice¹

Nihill

2010

Oceania

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At the time of colonisation and missionisation that quickly saw their abandonment, the Anganen practised two male exclusive cults in which animals were sacrificed in the hope of influencing powerful spirits. One cult, kabit, was only staged to overcome serious affliction thought to be sent by the spirits to individuals of subclans or women married into them. That is, it was a reaction to spirit power. The other cult, rimbu, while practised in response to widespread problems of humans, pigs and gardens, was also undertaken in the hope of increased health and productivity, and thus a possible action as well as a reaction. The paper describes and compares the cults. One major theme is male empowerment, as rimbu not only underwrites male power over others, it is also about empowerment to act on the world as well. While obviously radically different in many respects, at least in local consciousness, the adoption of opa, the giving of money, produce and labour to the church, has resonance with the pre‐colonial situation. Mostly it is undertaken to please what the Anganen see as a vengeful God based on Old Testament stories. However, on occasions such as the lead up to the yasolu pork distribution, the most prestigious event in Anganen, big men may ostentatiously present large gifts of money to missionaries or men may purchase cattle to slaughter, cook and distribute their meat on the opening of new churches. Both instances are beyond emulation by most in the community and, like rimbu may be, venues for male empowerment.

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Not Feasting with Friends: the Meaning of Meat in Anganen

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Elemental Eating: Samoan Public Health and Valuation in Health Promotion

Elemental Eating: Samoan Public Health and Valuation in Health Promotion

Dangerous Visions: the Cassowary as Good to Think and Good to Remember among the Anganen

Kabit, RimbuandOpa: Modalities of Anganen Sacrifice¹

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Not Feasting with Friends: the Meaning of Meat in Anganen

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Elemental Eating: Samoan Public Health and Valuation in Health Promotion

Elemental Eating: Samoan Public Health and Valuation in Health Promotion

Dangerous Visions: the Cassowary as Good to Think and Good to Remember among the Anganen

Kabit, RimbuandOpa: Modalities of Anganen Sacrifice1

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Kabit, RimbuandOpa: Modalities of Anganen Sacrifice¹