suicide

time

is a socially legitimate form of redress used in the face of specific problems.

Malinowski (1949 [1926]) modelled suicide in the South Pacific Trobriand Islands as a socially legitimate form of redress used by people in the face of specific problems. Malinowski reported the suicide of a sixteen-year-old Trobriand man called Kima'i, who threw himself out of a coconut tree. Kima'i had been in a love affair with a parallel cousin, his mother's sister's daughter. Within the Trobriand kinship system, this affair constituted an act of incest. . .

is not abstract. Rather than natural sequences, gardening activities are the ordinary media of trobriand time-reckoning.

Malinowski (124:210-11) argues that gardening activities rather than natural sequences are the ordinary media of Trobriand time-reckoning, although gardening experts make use of an 'independent [natural] scheme of time-recockoning' (namely, the lunar cycle). (Munn 1992: 96).

is the mundane measure of motion and a means of coordinating activities. Thus gardening sequences (rather than natural sequences) act as the media of trobriand time-reckoning.

In this approach-- whichRigby(164: 429, 432ff) calls 'both abstract and empiricist'-- temporal representations are frequently indigenous vocabulary concepts, suchas termsfor the seasons, the day and its parts, etc (11, 12, 19,48, 49).5 Actionis also carried alongin the time-reckoningframeduein part to concern with the kinds of repetitive processes used to reckon time. Thus, in contrasttoNilsson's(147)designationofanaturalsourcefortime-reckoning, Malinowski(124:210-11)argues that gardening activities rather than natural sequencesare the ordinary mediaof Trobriandtime-reckoning, although gardening experts makeuse of an 'independent[natural] schemeof time-reckoning' (namely, the lunar cycle). However,the emphasis on agricultural activities alsointegrallylinksthenotionof'action'with'nature,' (Munn 1992: 96)

Trobriand IslandersThinkers

Trobriand Islanders