Fifty Years Ago Today - Learning and Improvization

Monday, September 23, 1963

Bossboy Gul's daughter, Koram, picks up some bits of fiber her mother is making into twine and tries her hand at twisting the bits together.

For a few minutes she concentrates intensely, but as the bits of twine refuse to turn into twine for her little hands, she loses interest and runs off to play with other little girls.

Eventually twisting twine will become a skill she will use to make clothing and string bags, an activity that will keep many hours of her future days occupied. There are no shortcuts for making the bilums (string bags) necessary for carrying small children and garden produce.

The young men who are earning money by working for us as cooks and translators, have found a shortcut for carrying water from the stream to our house. Empty cans from the kerosene we use to fuel our camp stove, Tilley lamp and hurricane lanterns, are slung like a hunted pig from a pole.

<<>><<>><<>>

Fifty Years Ago Today - In Kondibia's yard

Thursday, September 19, 1963

A couple of days later, we walked over to Tenegump again, this time actually going into Kondibia's yard.  Both Kondibia and his wife were happy to see us, though we had always hesitated to enter their yard as their daughter, Kringa, was one of the few kids who continued to be very shy of us.  This time, she screwed up her courage, and encouraged by her father, slowly crawled toward Marek.

At'ema had stuck two digging sticks into the ground and was beginning to tie the lengths of cut twine, prepared by the women in previous days, onto a central piece of twine. This was the beginning of a new fringed skirt - pulpul. 

At'ema's brother, Korip, was busy binding together five sharp wooden points to make an arrow suitable for hunting birds.

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>

Fifty Years Ago Today - Counting for a pulpul

Tuesday, September 17, 1963

Today, for the first time, we see the preparations for the making of a woman's fringed skirt. At'ema has twisted an uncommonly lengthy piece of twine and now, helped by her neighbor, is dividing it into bundles of short pieces of equal length.

She ties off each of the many ends with a neat knot.

Then she places the bundles one by one in the spaces between her fingers.

After all the finger "place-holders" are taken, she hangs the remaining bundles over her forearm until she sees that there are sufficient bundles.

Verbally, the Maring use only two words for counting:
rangwai = one
romai = two
rangwai-romai = three

The kind of "visual counting" we are witnessing today extends the possibilities in a practical way.

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>

Fifty Years Ago Today - Walking through Tenegump

Monday, September 16, 1963

Walking through the hamlet of Tenegump, we came upon Kwingn, six month's pregnant, and her daughter, Kanuk, on the path outside their yard, cleaning their fine pig. Kai, the neighbor girl, had come over to visit, bringing her little nephew, Piag.

After a while, Kai took Piag back to his mother, who was sitting at the edge of the bank above the path.   Meiko, the oldest man in the Fungai clan, was enjoying the sociabilities from the edge of the bank.  

                         

Kai and Piag's mother, Rango, settled down to make twine from bark fiber and possum fur, destined for a new fringed skirt.

Pretty soon,  Piag fell asleep as Rango kept twisting twine.

Below in the path, Kwiank entertained the bigger kids  -  Kanuk and Gunia  -  with a lizard he had just shot with his tiny, handmade bow and arrows.

<<>><<>><<>>

Fifty Years Ago Today - Marek's Pipe

We walked over to Tenegump hamlet and were welcomed by three boys. Marek sat down in the shade of a central tree,  his pipe habitually clutched between his teeth.  Gunia and Maia climbed into his lap, thoroughly enjoying being able to play with an adult man in this totally informal, joking manner.  Kauwia,  slightly older, had his small bow-and-arrow set firmly in hand, ready to hunt lizards in the surrounding overgrowth.  He was also holding a half-smoked cigarette which had gone out.

Seeing the tobacco in Marek's pipe burning merrily, he stepped forward and, in a typical gesture of wheedling, he asked for a light. The other boys were already jealous as they didn't have cigarette stubs of their own.

Continuing his request/demand, Kauwia play-threatened Marek with a typical hand-gesture. 

One might translate this into English as "I'll get you!"  The Italian translation seems even closer: "Mi racommando!"

<>>><><<<>

Fifty Years Ago Today - The Bossboi and his daughter

Gunts Yard, Simbai Valley, Papua New Guinea

September 6, 1963

Bossboi Gul spent several hours with his youngest daughter, Koram, while her mother was gardening.  He gave Koram a special treat of sugarcane, biting off the tough outer bark and handing her little juicy inside bits that she could chew to suck out the sweet juice. The Maring people laughed at our custom of drinking water - cold from streams or heated with tea.  To them, sugarcane, mbo, was what one drank. Thirst could also be quenched with a juicy cucumber straight from a garden.

When it was time to head back to their home in Tenegump.  Gul exchanged a few words with the young men who were gathered in the haus kuk, where they prepared food for themselves and for us, the visiting anthropologists.

Then Gul helped Koram over the fence surrounding the yard, protecting the inner space from visits by the free-ranging domesticated pigs .  Fences protected all yards and gardens, so there were many fences to be navigated every day and children learned young to climb over them.  Gul gave Koram a hand - lifting her in the traditional way the Maring lift their babies, i.e. by grasping one upper arm.

<>>><>>><>

Fifty Years Ago Today - Grandmother Wayakai

September 3, 1963

Gunts Yard, Simbai Valley, Papua New Guinea

Wayakai is looking after her granddaughter, Waruk, while Waruk's mom, Wia, is off working in a garden. Waruk has found a tiny stub of cigarette at the edge of the yard.  The Maring grew their own tobacco  -  single plants near the men's houses, individual leaves picked only as needed and immediately dried over  hot stone near a fire.  

These cigarettes were smoked to the last millimeter, and were passed down from grown-ups to kids as they got shorter and shorter. 

Wayakai let Waruk light the tiny stub with the cigarette she herself had been smoking.

<>>><>>><>

Fifty Years Ago Today - Pete Vayda's Departure from Gunts

On Sunday, September 1, 1963,  Pete Vayda left Gunts. He had lead the Columbia University Expedition to study the Human Ecology of the New Guinea Rain Forest and had spent a year among the Maring-speaking people of the Simbai and Jimi Valleys. The local people gathered to give him a good send-off for the walk from Gunts to Simbai.

Local men lashed Pete's equipment and notes onto carrying poles in readiness for the 2 - 3 day walk to the Patrol Post in Simbai from where he would take a plane to Madang, and from there return via Australia to New York to write up the results of his fieldwork.  

Vayda's was one of the very first anthropological studies to be completed by running the detailed field data through a main-frame computer  -  information carried from the slopes of the Bismarck Mountains and transformed into new understandings at Pupin Laboratory in Morningside Heights. 

<>><<><<>