New book on the Trobriand Islanders

[Gunter Senft]

Dear colleagues!
would you please be so kind as to distribute this book announcement via the list?
Thank you very much and all the best
Yours,
	Gunter



The Tuma Underworld of Love
Erotic and other narrative songs of the Trobriand Islanders and their spirits of the dead

Gunter Senft

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

The Trobriand Islanders’ eschatological belief system explains what happens when someone dies. Bronislaw Malinowski described essentials of this eschatology in his articles “Baloma: the Spirits of the Dead in the Trobriand Islands” and “Myth in Primitive Psychology”. There he also presented the Trobrianders’ belief that a “baloma” can be reborn; he claimed that Trobrianders are unaware of the father’s role as genitor. This volume presents a critical review of Malinowski’s ethnography of Trobriand eschatology ‑ finally settling the “virgin birth” controversy. It also documents the ritualized and highly poetic “wosi milamala” ‑ the harvest festival songs. They are sung in an archaic variety of Kilivila called “biga baloma” ‑ the baloma language. Malinowski briefly refers to these songs but does not mention that they codify many aspects of Trobriand eschatology. The songs are still sung at specific occasions; however, they are now moribund. With these songs Trobriand eschatology will vanish.

[Culture and Language Use, 5] 2011. xvii, 138 pp.
Hb 978 90 272 0287 1 EUR 90.00
E-book 978 90 272 8469 3 EUR 90.00
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Death on the Trobriand Islands and the Trobriand Islanders’ belief in a “baloma” spirit
Chapter 2. The spirits of the dead and their underworld life on Tuma Island: Trobriand eschatology
Chapter 3. The wosi milamala
Chapter 4. The moribund language of the spirits of the dead and its consequences for the Trobriand Islanders’ culture
Appendix I
Appendix II
References
Index


Prof. Dr. Gunter Senft
MPI for Psycholinguistics
PB 310
NL-6500 AH Nijmegen
The Netherlands
 
Tel.:
+31-(0)24-3521 911 (operator)
+31-(0)24-3521 274 (direct)
Fax.:
+ 31-(0)24-3521 300
e-mail:
gunter.senft at mpi.nl

http://www.mpi.nl/Members/GunterSenft



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