[An-lang] body = house = boat = family

[James Fox]

Dear Miriam,

If you want more examples of house = body = boat among
Austronesian-speaking populations, I would suggest you look at the book I
edited, INSIDE AUSTRONESIAN HOUSES.  It appeared in our Comparative
Austronesian Project series in 1993. My article in the volume, "Memories of
Ridge-Poles and Cross-Beams: The Categorical Foundations of a Rotinese
Cultural Design" should provide you with some good examples but almost
every paper in the volume has similar examples, at least for house = body.

Yours, Jim Fox


At 10:48 PM 3/02/2004 +0800, Geoff Wade wrote:
>Miriam,
>
>  You may find the following item of interest:
>
>  Pierre-Yves Manguin "Shipshape Societies: Boat Symbolism and Political
> Systems in Insular Southeast Asia" in  David G Marr and A.C. Milner
> "Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries" (Research School of Pacific
> Studies , ANU, 1986) pp 187-214.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>geoff wade
>
>         -----Original Message-----
>         From: an-lang-bounces at anu.edu.au on behalf of Miriam van Staden
>         Sent: Tue 03/02/2004 22:14
>         To: AN-LANG at anu.edu.au
>         Cc:
>         Subject: [An-lang] body = house = boat = family
>
>
>
>
>         Dear Austronesianists,
>         Throughout the Moluccas and the Timor area, and in both the
> Austronesian
>         and Papuan groups, we find models of the 'whole' of society and its
>         'parts' that involve the domains of the human body, the house,
> the boat,
>         and the family, including the ancestors. Interestingly, often the
> same
>         lexical items are used to refer to parts of bodies, houses,
> boats, and
>         family or ancestral relationships. For example, Tidore - one of
> the Papuan
>         languages of North Halmahera - has a single term that can be used
> to refer
>         to the spine of the body, the ridge of a roof, the keel of a
> boat, and to
>         one's parents or ancestors.
>         To use (at least) one of these models seems only natural, especially
>         for these seafaring island people, but what interests me is
> whether outside
>         this region we also find the same set of models, and indeed similar
>         conflations of meanings as in Tidore. My question to you is then
> whether
>         this is commonly found throughout 'Austronesian', or whether it is
>         restricted to Eastern Indonesia. Does anyone have useful references?
>         Thank you very much!
>         Miriam van Staden,
>         University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
>
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