John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series Torembi and the Sepik A Study of Village Life in New Guinea |
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Topic No. 14: Roles and Responsibilities ~ Photos 238 - 255 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series Torembi and the Sepik A Study of Village Life in New Guinea |
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Topic No. 14: Roles and Responsibilities ~ Photos 238 - 255 |
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| 238. In a classless society like this, in which the basic element is the largely self-sufficient family unit, there is no need for professional specialization, since everyone of necessity is multi-skilled. The basic division in work, therefore, is not between families but within families – between male and female roles. Besides hunting, butchering domestic pigs, building houses, and helping with the clearing of gardens and the cultivation of yams, men also make most of the tools … in this case sago scrapers and a digging stick. (Also see video extract number 13) |
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| 239. When making spears the shaft is shaped with an adze, and then oiled to make it more pliable. |
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| 240. The portion that needs straightening is then heated over a small fire … but not burnt. |
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| 241. It is then straightened under pressure, and checked, before it is oiled and heated again … as often as required. (Also see video extract number 14) |
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| 242. In addition, men are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the village, and the settlement of disputes. Problems are debated at length in the Spirit House. |
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| 243. In the old days, men were also kept busy fighting other tribes, over land and hunting rights. Now they have time to rest, play cards (for money earned by their wives at markets), and (occasionally) care for the youngest children while their mother is away working in the forest. |
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| 244. While the workload of the men has clearly been reduced, a woman’s responsibilities remain unchanged. They do all the housewifely chores common in other societies … cooking, washing, making and mending clothes, and keeping house. |
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| 245. They look after the children, most of the time, and also care for the animals. Besides cooking the food, they produce most of it themselves … scraping sago, growing vegetables, and gathering food and firewood in the forest. (Firewood collection) |
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| 246. And after heavy rains it is their job to clean out the gutters under the house. |
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| 247. They weave baskets and fish traps, and they process the fibres for billums and skirts. |
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| 248. For skirts, the juvenile leaves of sago palms are shredded and soaked in the river before they are taken inside, where the individual strips are painstakingly split with a knife … in this case while the woman is also feeding her baby. |
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| 249. These thinner segments are broken into finer strands by being scrunched up first, and then rolled up and down the woman’s leg (in much the same way as fibres are rolled across the thigh under pressure to make the string for billums). |
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| 250. Bundles of this “grass” are then hung up to dry … before being knotted together to form a skirt and coloured using a variety of vegetable dyes. (Also see video extracts 17 & 18) |
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| 251. Women also do all the shopping. In other words, they work hard here, and do not have not time to sleep during the day like the men. They grow old quickly and die at an early age. Anna, shown here, was only 26 years old. |
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| 252. If widowed a woman is unlikely to remarry – provided she has a good house or a son capable of building her a new one. She is well able to feed herself and her children, since she retains the right to use the lands of her dead husband’s clan; so there’s little point in her marrying again and burdening herself with another mouth to feed. Many people here also believe still that if a woman remarries she will die from sorcery. (Widow at cremation) |
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| 253. In contrast, a man who loses his wife will usually remarry, since he is incapable of surviving on his own … unless he moves in with relatives. This man is in mourning for his wife. She died two weeks earlier in giving birth … having previously produced twins one year and triplets the next! |
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| 254. Children, too, have work to do and often care for the younger members of the family when their mother is busy elsewhere. Boys sometimes help care for animals and also fish in the river, but they don’t do very much. Instead they play in the forest much of the time, imitating their fathers. |
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| 255. Needless to say, girls play less and work more – like their mothers. From an early age they are expected to help around the home – especially with cooking – and they also go with their mothers to market and help carry the produce. |
Text, photos and recordings
by John Tyman
Intended for Educational Use
Only.
Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum,
Oxford University, 2010.
Contact Dr.
John Tyman for more information regarding licensing.
Photo processing, Web page layout,
formatting, and complementary research by
William Hillman ~ Brandon, Manitoba
~ Canada
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