Gender and Time

8/9/2019 Gender and Time

1/22

University of Pittsburgh- Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education

Politics, Gender, and Time in Melanesia and Aboriginal AustraliaAuthor(s): Eric Kline SilvermanSource: Ethnology, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Spring, 1997), pp. 101-121Published by: University of Pittsburgh- Of the Commonwealth System of Higher EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3774078 .

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2/22

POLITICS,GENDER,AND

TIMEIN MELANESIAAND

s

MORIGINE

AUSTIA

FJ b /

Eric Kline Silverman

Tt/

DePauw

University

t

This article

interprets the symbolism and politics of Iatmul time (Sepik River,

Papua New

Guinea).

Social life is structured by different

forms of time (e.g., totemism, myth,

Omaha terminologies, ritual). Furthermore,

mythic history is a mode of ritual politics.

Finally,

Iatmul time symbolizes paradoxes of gender. The article concludes by

comparing

the temporality and gender of Melanesian

cosmology with the Aboriginal dreamtime.

(Time, politicsS gender, Iatmul, Melanesia,

Aboriginal Australia)

Anthropologists

since Durkheim have arguedfor the social generation of

time (see

Gell 1992: ch. 1). Evans-Pritchard's 1940) analysis of Nuer zstructuraltimen is

particularly

striking. Not only did Evans-Pritchard argue for a

determinant

relationship

between social organizationand time, he implied that Nuer

temporality

was radically

different from our own Western conceptions. This dual

emphasis on

social determinationand cross-cultural

variationhas shaped he

anthropological tudy

of time with

few exceptions (see Fabian

1983; Gell 1992).

Bourdieu

(1977) and Munn (e.g. 1992) challenge the notion that time

is simply

a structureof

social life that differs around he world. They focus on the

phenomeno-

logical experience of time (see also Wagner

1986: ch. 5) and the use of time as a

symbolic resource in the pursuit of social strategies. This article draws on their

perspectives to

analyze history and

temporality in Tambunum an Eastern Iatmul

village along the middle Sepik River in

Papua New Guinea.l I offer three related

ethnographic

and theoretical arguments.

First, the

pace of social life is structured

by multiple forms of history and time.

Each temporal

modality corresponds to a

particular social context. Second, the

society lacks a

static and objective mode of history particularly mythic

history7

because Eastern

Iatmul often construct their past in accordance with

contemporary

politico-ritual strategies. Eastern Iatmul tend

not to recollect the past for its own

intrinsic value.

To borrow from the languageof Sahlins (1985), past

zhappenings

become historical aevents only when they aresocially and politically relevant in the

present.

Likewise, zeventst must Elt into one or more culturally specific

temporal

frameworks.

The third argument s that local concepts of time symbolize

paradoxes

of Iatmul gender

and cosmology If, along with Levi-Strauss, we

understandculture

to be

unresolvable problems that arise fromthe imposition of order onto

natureS hen

gendered time in

the Sepik River is a symbolic response to the problem of a

riverine

environment

that is locally phrased in a

reproductive diom.

In

developing these themes, I begin with the relationship between

totemism,

mythic history, and contemporarypolitics. I

next present data on

spatiotemporality

and narrative discontinuous time, followed by repetitive and cyclical time and a

101

ETHNOLOGYvol. 36

no. 2, Spring 1997 pp. 101-21.

ETHNOLOGY, c/o

Deparment of Anthropology The University of Pittsburgh Piesburgh PA 15260 USA

Copyrighte 1997 The

University of Pittsburgh.All rights reserved.


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3/22

102 ETHNOLOGY

debate

on the

temporal

dimensions

of Omaha

kinship

erminologies.

Subsequent

sections

analyze

parallelhistory,

chronology,

itual ime,

andgendered

emporality.

The article

concludes

with a

comparison

etween

Easternatmul

mythichistory

and

the Aboriginal

oncept

of the

dreamtime.

This,

I believe,

is the

firstattempt

n the

literature

t

comparing

he

temporaldimensions

f thesetwo

cosmologies.

TOTEMIC

NAMES

AND

THEPOLITICS

OF HISTORY

With

a population

f

about1,000,

Tambunum

s

the largest

Iatmul-speaking

village.

Patrilineal

descent

groups (clans,

lineages,

and branches)

orrespond

o

cosmological

ategories

hat

are defined

by hereditary

otemic

names

tsagl).

These

names

encodea

mode

of history

and emporality

hat s

crucial or

village

social life

(Bateson1932, 1936;Harrison1990;Wassmann 991; Silverman 996).

In

whatis one

of the few

uncontested

lementsof

mythichistory,

the

original

state

of the

worldwas

aquatic

Swadling

1989).

At an undeterminable

oment, he

waterwas stirred

by

wind,

and andsurfaced.

There

was a totemic

pit

(tsagiwangu)

that s

often

envisioned

s the center

of the

world; t is

said obe located

n the Sepik

Plains,near

heSawos-speaking

illage

of Gaikarobi.

Male

ancestorsmerged

rom

the

pit, separated

he

sky

from the

earthwith

forkedbranches,

and

created

he

perceptible

world

through oponymy

r naming.

Historyand

time

effectively

began

with the

migrations

of these

ancestors,

who, by

conferring

otemic names

to

phenomena,createdthe

zpathsX

yembii)

of the world.

Each path

is a cosmic

category

hat

corresponds

o

a descent

group.As

a collective

memory,

he

physical

referents

f

totemicnames,

especially

he landscape,

nable

Eastern atmul

o know

their

distantpast.2

Totemic

namesdetermine

itual

prerogatives

and

rights,

andcustodianship

ver

ceremonial

bjects uch

as masks

andbamboo

lutes.

For this

reason, he

ownership

andknowledge

f

names an

be fiercely

ontested.

Although

otemic

pecialiststsagi

nuffl0a)

andthe

hereditary

ather (nyait)

of eachpatriclan

igilantly

afeguard

nd

remember

clan names,

disputes

are

common

(Bateson

1936:125-28;

Silverman

1996:39-41).

Fromthe eticperspective f anthropologicalnalysis,humanactioncanbe said

to alter

(and determine)

he

totemicsystem

and mythic

history.

But at the

level of

local

ideology

oremic

self-representation,

he status

of names

andmythic

history

s

less apparent.

Sometimes

otemic

categories

or paths

are said to

exist

immutably

beneath

attndasfikiit,

r underlying

ruth)

he

surfaceaiwat)

of humanity.

Menwill

appeal

to this timeless

cosmology

in

orderto

lend

their version

of history

a

supposedly

ealrather

hanpolitical

ustification.

Although

mensay

that

heir otemic

system

s timeless,

hey also

privately

gree hat

politicalactions

uch as debates

nd

disputesalter

mythic

historiesand

totemic

paths.

In this way,

all totemic

conf1gura-

tions

of the past

are contestable

Harrison

990;

Silverman

996:42-45).

ndeed,

o

concerned

re men

with

the politics

of totemic

history

hatthey

becomenoticeably

uneasywhen

askedabout

he names

andmigrations

f

rival

descentgroups.

They

do




4/22

POLITICS,GENDER,AND TIMEIN MELANESIA

103

not want to appear guilty of stealing names and trying to restructure the past in

accordancewith their own politico-ritual strategies.

CONTESTED SPACE AND HISTORY

In 1988, the village had nearly completed a guest house that stands across the

river on a point of land called Agumurl. Agumoimbange,the hereditary ather of the

Shui Aimasa patriclan, claims that his ancestors created the location. Along with

other senior men from the clan, Agumoimbangeplaced his name on the guest house

contract, which was cosigned by the Sydney tourist company that funded the project.

But Njumwi, a junior man from a different lineage within the Shui Aimasa clan,

protested the agreement since he was neither consulted during the negotiations nor

invited to sign the document. This caused a series of totemic debates inside the cult

house. Njumwi attempted o assert totemic authorityover Agumurl by arguing that

his lineage ancestors and not those of Agumoimbangenamed and zgave birth to the

location. As a contemporaryzhappening, the lodge became an zevent through the

politics of mythic history and totemism.

Since Njumwi's lineage ls demographicallyand politically minor in the village,

his claim over the guest house's ground was unable to become orthodox history. In

a broad sense, Njumwi's goal was to reorganize the totemic and politico-ritual

hierarchy of the patriclan by challenging the dominant mythic history. His

protestations, in fact, rekindleda series of totemic disputesthat reputedlyextend back

to the mid-nineteenthcentury, prior to European contact. The feud concerned not

only the jural arrangementof the clan but the very legitimacy of lineages. Material

wealth or money was not a primaryconcern, since the guest house employs men and

women from all descent groups as night watchmen, grass cutters, carpenters, house

cleaners, etc. Instead, men were competing for the symbolic power of names and

mythic history.

The totemic name of the disputed ground, Agumurl, is cognate to Agumoim-

bange's patronymic. Since personal names are totemic names, Eastern Iatmul

intimately identify with totems through zvonsubstantiality (Harrison 1990:48).

Njumwi denied that the name of the ground was Agumurl; however, he also claimed

that its real name had been forgotten. In this sense, Njumwi's protest was less of a

claim to ownership and more of a thinly veiled threat to Agumoimbange's personal

identity, political authority, and totemic erudition.

This debate illustrates that the Eastern Iatmul past is memorable within the

framework of totemism only in so far as it pertains to contemporary politics and

totemic identity. Through his own version of history, Njumwi sought to reorganize

the clan hierarchyand sever Agumoimbange'spersonhood rom an important ocation

in the mythic history of the village. But Njumwi's lineage has few members; most

have migrated to the cities of Papua New Guinea. Furthermore,his political status

has been marginal ever since he became an ardent Christian after violating a sexual

taboo. For these reasons, gerontocratic onsensus was able to mute Njumwi's version




5/22

104

ETHNOLOGY

of

history and

expunge

its fictitious

happenings

rom the

collective

and totemic

memoryof

past

events. Although

Njumwi

and Agumoimbange

othargued

or the

existence

of an objective

past

thatis

unaltered

y human

politics,

the practice

of

Eastern

atmulhistory

allows

for

no lasting

ense of historical

ealism.

Another

ncident

also reveals

the importance

f

totemichistory

for

deElning

present

events. The

lineage

ancestors

f Gamboromiawan,

totemic

specialist

and

one of

my key research

ssistants,

migrated

o Tambunum

long

theKorowari

nd

Korosameri

ivers,southern

ributaries

f the Sepik.

Several

earsago,

while

he was

visiting

Korowari

villages,

Gamboromiawan

aw

a lakethat

was

absentEom

the

totemic

geography

f his lineage.

The ake

existed

n the

phenomenal

ealmof

human

experience

but it

lackeda totemic

name. To

solve this

dilemma,

Gamboromiawan

himself

gave

the lake

a name

and thus totemic

existence

in the Eastern

Iatmul

cosmos.He selecteda Korowariatherhana Iatmulname.Butthis was irrelevant.

The

important

ssue

was simply

that,

because t

existed,

the lake

required

name.

In the

discourse

of totemism,

contemporary

appenings

equire

mythic-historic

justiflcation

o become

real.

SPATIOTEMPORAL

YTHIC

HISTORY

AND

CONTINUITY

Munn(1977,

1986, 1992)

and others

Burman

981;

Damon1990)

repeatedly

emphasize

he relationship

between

culturalconstructions

f time

and space

in

Melanesia.

n the

caseof Eastern

atmul, his

is particularly

rue

for mythic

history.

Althoughempirical

evidence

often supports

ocal

migration

accounts

Wassmann

1990),

I am more

interested

n the symbolism

of these

movements.

During

their

primordial

migrations,

ncestor

eroes,

amongother

accomplishments,

lanted

rees,

builtcult

houses,

and naugurated

ituals.

Eachmythic-historic

vent

corresponds

o

one

or more

totemic

paths.Individual

amesrefer

o points

n space

and time(see

also

Wassmann

990, 1991).

Taken ogether,

all

the paths

of a descent

group

evoke

ancestral,

creative

place-to-place

ravel involving

increasing

xtension

from an

origin

placet

(Munn1992:101).

This form

of totemic

ime is

spatialand

directional,

nonrepetitive,

uccessive,

and

continuous.

nshort,

t

is a vector.

Internally, otemicchantsevoke another ense of spatiotemporality. chant

begins

with the public,

visible,

orsurface

names

of a

group's otem,

which

refer o

its

creation

at a

speciE1c ode

in ancestral

pace-time.

As

the

chantproceeds,

ts

names

moveX o

another ncestral

ocation.

Butunlike

patiotemporal

ectors,

which

are

formed

by a series

of totemic

paths(a

pathof paths,

one could

say), a single

chant

alwaysreturns

o its

original pace-time.3

onsequently,

otemic

chants

evoke

three ypes

of spatiotemporality.

irst,

eachname

s a

point in space-time.

Second,

individual

athsshift

between wo

locations,

beginning

nd

endingwith

the space-

time

of

a totem tself.

Finally,

a set of

totemicpaths

s a vector

hat

deElnes

descent

group

and recalls

its

primordial

migrations.

Totemic

orms

of time enable

Eastern

Iatmul o knowtheirpast.But they also arousedeep emotions n menandwomen

concerning

heir

ancestors,

ecentlydeceased

kin,

andtheir

children's

uture.




6/22

POLITICS,

GENDER AND TIMEIN

MELANESIA

105

Since

totemicnamesarepersonalnames,the village

population t any moment

can be

said to embodyhistory.Thisembodiments also spatial

ince Eastern atmul

build their houses in

descent-groupwards, which are

dispersed hroughout he

village.Similarly,as we have seen

the local landscapes delineatednto zones that

are

claimedby descentgroupson

the basis of ancestral amesand migrations.The

spatial groundingof time also

influencesthe local perceptionof seasonality.

Tambunumatriclans oughly

orrespondo the fourIatmul irectionsmentioned y

Bateson

1932:254-55; ee alsoWassmann 991 10-11, 203).

ShuiAimasa Pig Clan)

oversees

he world hat ies northofthe SepikRiver,which

Bateson pellsmevambut-

agwi.

MboeyNagusamaySagoClan)claims

kubalanggowi-gwi, he world hat ies

south of the river, including he

New GuineaHighlands.

Woli-agwi, he eastern

worldof the LowerSepikand he

Bismarck ea, belongs o Mogua Fish Clan).The

SepikRiver Avusett)tself s the totemicdomain f theWyngwenjap atriclanRiver

Clan).

Finally,west is called ambzen-agwi,hichrefers o the

UpperSepik regio

thatbeginswith Yambun illage, a

traditionalerminus f the Eastern atmulworld.

This direction s not, however,

claimedby any one clan in

Tambunum.

Eastern atmulalso associate

winds (mut)with totemicregions. Shui Aimasa

claims hepwivu-mut ind hatblows

from he northern rinceAlexanderMountains

during he

rainseason.Mboey

Nagusamay wnsmabEinjua-mut,he cool breeze hat

drops

romthe Highlandsn the earlymorning.Mogua'swind

is woli-mut, he dry-

season

wind that flows down the river from BismarckSea.

Lastly, Wyngwenjap

claimsbaralagwa-mut,he northwestmonsoonwind thatoriginates n the Upper

Sepik.4Overall, then, Eastern

atmulhave multiple orms of space-time:names,

paths,sets of paths hatcorrespond

o ancestralmigrations, irections,and winds.

NARRATIVESOF THE

PAST AND

DISCONTINUOUS ISTORY

Time

in totemicpaths s continuous ndspatiotemporal.

et Eastern atmulalso

portray

he past with myths of discontinuous,argely

atemporal vents. Although

these

eventsoccurred uring ncestralmigrations,mythic

epresentationsreseparate

from he successive pace-timehat

organizes otemicpaths.

The historyof the Mboe

NagusamayclanS for example, is a series of patrilineagemigrationsalong the

Korowari-Korosameriiver system.

EasternIatmul can recall this history as a

continuous emporal equenceof pathsandchants.

Alternativelyshey can depict t

as

disconnected arrativemythsthat detail separate vents

such as the creationof

sago and

a primordiallood.

Each

temporal orm zrememberst diifferentense of

history.5When Eastern

Iatmulwant to emphasize

ontinuityand direction, hey appeal o spatiotemporal

paths. In

a totemic dispute, men often recountpaths of

space-time n order to

demonstratehata contested ame

its into heirown ancestralmigration nddescent-

group

history.In fact, the entirety f the world,fromcosmic

creation o the present?

can be summarized ith a few

sweepingpathsof totemic

history.However,Eastern

Iatmul efer o mythicnarratives

hen heywant o recollect n

detailspecificevents




7/22

106

ETHNOLOGY

and

locations.

Totemic

pathsand

myths,we

couldsayS

are

inverse

Elgures f the

same

historical

rope.

Bothcontain

otemic

names.

Buttemporality

nd

direction

re

in the

background

f myth,

yet in the

foreground

f totemic

paths.

Inthis

way, the

meaning

of

myth is largely

narrative,

whereas

he meaning

of totemism

s spatio-

temporal.

Both

ypesof

historical

hought

nd emporality

re

unrelated

o chronology

see

below).

As

Bateson 1936:223-24)

notes:

lW1hen

a Iatmulnative

is asked

about some

event in

the past, he

can as a rule

give an immediately

relevant

answer

to the

question

and does not

requireto describe

a whole

series of

chronologically

related

events

in orderto lead

up

to the event in

question.

The Iatmul ndulge

very little

in the sort

of

chronological

rigmarolewhich

. . . is characteristic

of

those

primitive people

who have

specialised

in

rote remembering.

This observation

emains rue

today.

Bateson

1936:224)

also

notes that

totemic

debates

are

handled

by the speakers

not as a continuous

arrative

but

as a series

of

small

details.

Thisrequires

larification.

When

otemic

debates

nclude hanting,

men recount

he

past

as a continuous

patiotemporal

equence

hat lacks,

strictly

speaking,

narrative

tructure.

But men

also recite

discontinuous

mythic

narratives.

In

otherwords,

Bateson

did

not differentiate

emporal

ontinuity

rom

narrative

er

se.

Discontinuous

istory,

like

spatiotemporal

ime,

is political.

In fact,

my own

presence n the village

prompted

he creation

f a potentially

ew myth

(whatmay

betermed

a

zfakemytht6)

hatallegedly

accounts

or the

originof

ritual

artby a

pig

spirit

of the

ShuiAimasa

patriclan.

According

o

its author,

he fake

mythdetails

a

legitimate

astaevent.

But

t exists

only as

narrativeince

the event

doesnot

fit into

any spatiotemporal

r totemic

path. Although

the

fake myth

lies outside

the

consensual

erontocratic

iew

of the patriclan's

ast,

its author

will soon

inherit

he

position

of

patriclan

father, whereupon

e maytry

to use

his new

authority

o

anchor

he fake

myth nto

a totemic

path.It

would

henbecome

an actual

mythand

its

historical

zevent

would be

commemorated

n several

temporal

orms. The

invention

of

the fake

myth

was a clear

attempt

by its author

o demonstrate

is

totemiceruditiono the anthropologist howasrecording illagemythology.Thus

it illustrates

nce

again hat

he past

s shaped

by different

modes

of timewhich

are

shaped

by sociopolitical

oncerns

and

contexts.

REPETITIVE

RCYCLICAL

EMPORALITY

ND

OMAHA

TERMINOLOGY

Eastern

atmul roup

personal

amesand

genealogical

evels

into wo

alternating

44lines

mbapma).

A

male

Ego and his

FF, SS,

etc., belong

to one line;

the

other

line includes

Ego's

S and

F (see also

Bateson

1936:244).

Thus

a man inherits

he

names

of his

FF, and

gives them

o his SS, in

perpetuity.

hesystem s identicalor




8/22

POLITICS,GENDER,AND TIMEIN

MELANESIA

107

women,

who receive names rom

FFZ andbequeathhemto BSD. On the basis of

shared

names,persons dentifywiththe living, dead,and uture

agnates n their ine.

These

identiElcationseneratea sense of repetitiveor

ziterative history (M.

Schuster1990; see also Panoff 1969:160-61).A person'sactionsare often said to

replicate

hose of paternal

randparentsreciselybecause heyhave he samenames.

This is especially rue or the

FMBSDor iai marriage reference,whereEgo andhis

wife ideallyhavethe same

patrinames s theirFF andFFZ respectively Figure1).

Should

he exact namesdiffer,these

alternate-generationinare still identiEled ith

each other

since they and their namesbelong to the same

line within the lineage.

Through

he namingsystem, then, the past becomes

noncumulative nd cyclical,

repeating very secondgeneration.

A=d A

FF

| (FFZ)

A = O

Ego iai

(ego)

Figure 1:

Iai Mamage and Names

Living people may even be

held accountable or the

actions of their past

namesakes. llness is often attributedo mystical etribution

vai) thatresulted rom

a lineal

grandparent's orcery or ritual transgression.

This sense of time is

particularly alient when Eastern

atmuldivine the cause of death, sickness, and

misfortune.By choosing or

refusing o identifykin in alternate enerations, hey

transform

alamity nto a meansof evaluating ndactingon

existingsocial tensions.

It is not that Eastern atmulare

unaware f temporaldistinctionsbetweengenera-

tions;afterall, temporal equences

re nherentn mythichistoryandspatiotemporal-

ity. Furthermore, ircularor repetitive ime adoes not logically exclude 'linear'

sequencingbecauseeach repetition

f a given 'event'necessarilyoccurs aterthan

previous

ones (Munn1992:101). am simplysuggesting hat

circular ime coexists

with

linear ime and is a politicalstrategyas well as a

structure f social life.

A senseof nonincrementalnd

cyclical emporality lsoemerges rom he kinship

terminology.A typical Omaha

kinshipsystem has some combination f the lineal

equations

MBD= MZ, MB= MBS,andFZD-ZD . In

Tambunum,MBD= MZ, but

therearealso the

alternate-generationquationsMB=MBSSiMBS and FZD=

DD s&ZD. urthermore,ot all

women n the mother's atriline re ermedzmother

(nyame); only for M, MZ, MBD,

and MMZD, but never MM and MMZ (cf.

McKinley1971a:246,n. 4). Finally, Eastern atmuldo not lump all men in the

mother's

patrilineage nder he same

erm.Instead, hey callthemeitherMF or MB

in

accordance iththe two intergenerationalines. With hese

variationsn mind,the




9/22

108

ETHNOLOGY

Eastern

atmul ystem s often

considered o be an

Omaha erminology

Ackerman

1976; Williamson

1980).

Levi-Strauss1963:74)

uggests hat

Crow/Omahaystems

ontain hreedifferent

ztime

continuums.t

First, there s

intergenerationalime that s

zprogressive,non-

reversible

Levi-Strauss963:301).For

example,women n

Tambunumse separate

terms orMM

(mbanamb),M(nyame),Z

(nyanggae),D (nian),

andDD (na, kaishe-

lagwu).Second, ime s

zstableand

reversible Levi-Strauss

963:301).Consequent-

ly, Eastern

atmulmencall all

women n the father's

motherSs

atrilineai regardless

of

generation. Third, time is

aundulating,

yclical reversibleb

(Levi-Strauss

1963:301).

Hence men use

alternatingerms or

agnates hatcorrespondo

the two

lines: heterms or

father nyait)andson

(nian)are

nterchangeable,hereasFF and

SS areboth

nggwail.

Levi-Strauss's nalysis husseems

consonantwithmy

argument

thatdifferentmodes of timestructurehetempoof Eastern atmul ociallife.

McKinley 1971a,

1971b)argues hat

Crow/Omahaocieties

dispersemarriage

alliances,

hereby

preventingheregular

enewalof affinal inkst

Yet they maintain

the value of

affinal bonds

throughritual exchanges.

Crow-Omaha

erminologies

resolve this

contradiction y

perpetuatinghe original

marriage lliance

hrougha

terminology hat

freezes he passingof

generational

ime(McKinley1971a,

1971b;

see also

Sahlins

1985:53). Barnes

(1976:392)criticizes

McKinley'sfailure zto

distinguish

properly between

lines in a

terminologyand

empiricallineages.

Although

Ego in an

Omahaocietycalls

men in hiswife's lineage

one kin term, his

son calls

them another,and so

on. In this

manner,according

o BarnesSOmaha

terminologies ctually mphasize

ather hansuppress

enerational

uccession.But

this is true,

I suggest,only from

thediachronic r

intergenerational

erspective f

any one

lineage reflecting on

another.From the

perspective

of a single Ego,

generational

uccessionappears

rozendownthe

maternal r affinal ineage.

This is also the

case for the Manambu

f Avatip, a

non-Iatmul epik

society

wherea

4'patrilineages knownby

the nameof the

genealogicallymostsenior

sisterSs

child (preferably

sister'sson) of

its senior iving

generationXHarrison

984:398).

As perceivedby this

sister'schildS ame-sex

members f the

avunculateineageare

terminologically

quated;helineageacquires

orporatedentity

hrough he abolition

of generational istinctions nd ncrementalime. When he nextgeneration scends

to

prominence,he

lineage s

named fter henew senior

nephew.

ntergenerationally,

the lineage is a

series of distinctly

named strata that

emphasizes ncremental

temporality.

But to a single

personnhe lineageappears

o freezetime.

My

point s thatsocialaction

n theseso-called

Omaha ocieties eems o

involve

a

dual senseof time,

one serialS he other

static. The difference

s merelya

matter

of

perspective.Analytically,one

can try to extracta

singularmode of

time from

Omahakinship

ystems.However,we can

betterapprehendhe

multidimensionality

of culture

and social strategies

when we view these

terminologies s

containing

multiple emporalities

hatare structurally

ignificant

n different ontexts.




10/22

POLITICS,GENDER,AND TIMEIN

MELANESIA

109

PARALLELHISTORY

Iatmulvillages are disputatious

ndfissile. Totemicdisputesare common ince,

at some

level, each descentgroupboaststo be the '{fons t

origo of the universe

(Bateson

1936:127). Yet it is not the case that these

cosmogonic assertionsare

necessarilyopposed, or in many

nstances hey generatemultiple,almostparallel,

historical ruths.This allowseach

group o affirm ts primacy

ndautonomy, et also

to

recognize he legitimacy f adversaries.f it is in their

nterest o do so, men from

different ineages and clans will

agree on one totemic cosmology. Yet on other

occasions,men state explicitly hat

awe have our ownhistory, they have another.

Ours is

for us, theirs is for them.- This sense of pluralism s

often evoked when

people

refer to villages that havethe same primalancestors

but differentmythic

historiesof unrelated vents andmigrations.

This

is not to say thatEastern

atmul nvision heirpast as a unitary ramework

with

parallel egments.Rather, herearemultiple r parallel

histories.For example,

the myth

of Mendangumeli, seniorcrocodile piritwho

flooded he world,parallels

the biblical account of Noah

which was introduced nto the Sepik by Catholic

missionaries arlier n this century.However, he two floods

are not combined nto

a single

event. They refer nstead o different et analogous

histories,each truthful

in its own

context. There s no contradiction,ince this view

of the past does not

presupposea unified historical

reality (see also McDowell1985; cf. G. Schuster

1990;

Pomponio1992:51).

Parallelismnfluencesnot only time andhistorybut also a

moregeneralview of

the

cosmos in which there are separate oads (yembii) or

aplanes of existenceX

(Bateson1936:237) nhabited y

humans,witches, tree spirits, and othermystical

beings. Similarly,the totemic

system consists of public or surface(aiwat)names

which

conceal a hiddenessence of realitycalled attndasiikiit.

hus truth s always

layered or Eastern atmul.

CHRONOLOGICALIME

Chronologicalime is linear, ncremental, ndprogressive. t is emphasized y

Western

nstitutions nd such thingsas calendars, overnment,

mployers,andthe

ubiquitouswristwatch.Eastern

atmulhad two traditional otions of incremental

time. One, akin to hours,was

determinedrom the positionof the sun. The other

was

delineatedon the basis of lunarphases. The traditional

months or amoonsX

(mbop)

were:

1.

Mandarimbo:hortage f food (January).

2. Tshiimbuniimbiit: 1sh

argelydormant February).

3.

Kuganniimbiit:ish plentiful

March).

4.

Kambowanmbo:oodmoonlight, ncreased 1sh April).

xs X r ** vv r r r r s s s

>* wunaanllmllt llttleTOOa ay




11/22

110

ETHNOLOGY

6.

Kambokwurlniimbiit:

partially

cloudy

nights (June).

7. Tumbokwurlniimbiit:

overcast

nights (July).

8. Tskinwolimange:

moon

rises in

the early

evening (August).

9. Avawolimange:strong moonlight (September).

10.

Lananmbo:

completely

clear

nights

(October).

11. Lumbanevimange:

crescentmoon

zturns

on its side

(November).

12.

Pagunimmbiit:

cloudy

nights (December).

Bateson (1936:254)

observes:

Nominallythe

year consists

of twelvemoons,

of

which Elveare

moons of

high waterand

Elveare moons

of

low water.

Betweeneach

of these groups

of Elvemoons,

there

is an intermediate

moon.

Butinasmuch

as

the rising and

falling

of the river

is very irregular,

my informants

were

generallydoubtful

as to what

month it was at any given time. The astronomicalyear of 365 days contains of course approximately

thirteen

unarmonths,

so that

with their

theory of twelve

moons in

the year, the

Iatmul

could never

be

precise

in the identiElcation

f the

moons in their

calendar.

But chronological

precision

is not

particularly

useful

since the

timing

of gardening,

ritual,

and

most other

activities

is dependent

almost entirely

on river

flooding.

Westernmonths

only determine

the school

year,

Easter,New

Year's Eve,

elections,

and

so

forth. Even

when Iatmul

traditionally

scheduled

events

such as rituals

in

advance,

they

often postponed

them

until

the flood

season

(Bateson

1936:254-55),

which

they expressly

try to

avoid. I suspect

this occurred

because

of village disputes.

Social practices, then and now, often thwartedchronologicalprecision.

Since temporal

and

seasonal

distinctions

were

traditionally

determined

on the

basis

of a perceived

continuum

(e.g.,

the

movement

of celestial

bodies),

there

was

considerable

chronological

fluidity. Temporal

units

were not

accorded

a numerical

quantity.

Likethe

Tiv (Bohannan

1953),

Eastern

Iatmul

endto aindicate

rather

han

zmeasure

time, despite

an extensive

counting

system.

Their

lunarcalendar

did

not

progress

numerically,

quantitatively,

or

even cumulatively.

Yearswere

unnumbered.

The passing

of days

was organized

only

referentially:

today

(mbambra),esterday

(naramba),

ay-before-yesterday

nangayt),

omorrow

(kinya),

ay-after-tomorrow

(ma),

hree

days hence

(nangaytmboey),

our days

hence

(wainya),nd Elvedays

hence

(satngvande).astern

Iatmul

occasionally

tie knots,

usually

five, on a

cord of

twine

to indicate

the number

of days

thatmust

elapse

untilmarkets.

But this,

too, is

a relative

rather

than absolute

series.

There

is magic

that can

hastenthe

passage of

lunar phases.

But idioms

such as

zlosing

time,- asaving

time, and

aracing

againsttime

are quite

alien.

A sense

of

temporal

scarcity

doubtless

pre-existed

contact.

But it is

exacerbated

today when

persons

must occasionally

choose

between

a

wide range

of activities

suchas repairing

the

school

water tank,

awaiting

the arrival

of tourists,

or traveling

to town

(see also

Smith

1982). Still,

the experience

of

temporal scarcity

is relatively

infrequent

for

most villagers. For example, nearly all men carve tourist art. But, to use Western

idioms,

nobody

has developed

a uniform

pricing

schemethat

systematically

accounts

for

the amount

of

time spent

carving

differenttypes

of objects.




12/22

POLITICS,GENDER,

AND TIMEIN

MELANESIA

lll

Ironically, he

clash betweenEuropean

hronology nd indigenous

emporality

hasgiven Eastern

atmul sensefor the social

generation f time. I heard

tatements

such as

zEuropeans

at lunchat 12:00 noonXor drink a cup of whiskeyat 11 00

p.m.

They recognize the

Westernpractice and power)

of assigning nearly all

activities o a set

chronologicalnterval.A

more flexible sense of time

governs he

pace of indigenous

ocial life (Bateson

1936:254).Menwill

sometimesdrinkbeer n

the

morningwithout eeling that

this timeshouldbe

devoted o otheractivities.A

devotion o time,

however, s in theireyes a

hallmark f

Westernization,nd thus

znative ime

becomesa localmeansof

resisting he domination f

Westernwork

andschedules see

Rose 1992:216).But when

the Western emporal aze

becomes

internalized, hronologybecomes

a meansof ethnic

self-denigration.

ime, in this

sense,

symbolizespostcolonial

ransformationsSmith1994:

ch. 8).

RITUAL

TIME

AlthoughEastern

atmul ime can be

incremental nd linear, he

naming ystem

and otemic

dentificationseemto merge he

present ndpast(see Bateson

1936:35,

n. 1;

Harrison 984:400-01).To

somedegree,so doesthe

cyclical emporality f the

kinship

ystem. This form of time

is alsopresent n Eastern

atmulritualssuch as

curingrites, which

often enact

primordialvents as if they

were occurring n the

present.7

Personsbecome ll whentheyviolate,directlyor throughkinship dentifications

(see

above), ritual

and socialtaboos hat

maintainhe worldand social

life as they

werecreatedby

mythic-historicncestors.

llness n this sense is a somatic

response

to the

moral violation of a

person's ancestral

paths,which are created

anew by

totemic

hanting uringa curing

rite. By compressingime,

chants

mpower otemic

specialists o actsimultaneouslyn

the primordial ast and

the present.

In another

eremonial ontext, he present

actuallyalters he

temporalorderof

the past.Cosmic

creationwas followedby mai

spirits Hauser-Schaublin

983) and

thenhumanity.

Later, accordingo a common

Melanesianmyth, men

stole ritual

sacra

romwomen.

However,Eastern atmul

nearlyreverse his temporal

equence

when they dramatize hese events duringritual in the order of mai, theft, and

creation.The voicesX of the mai

spirits,men

report, vokesadness n

women,who

recall

heir oss of

sacra.Theritual nverts he

temporalequenceof the

primal heft

and the

mai in orderto cast the

entireceremony n a

sentiment hat emphasizes

masculine eremonial

restige.

Umedaritual s relevanthere.

For the Umeda,Gell

(1975:334-46)argues, ime

has two everyday

orms. Diachronic ime

progresses

equentially s durationand

organic

rocess e.g., aging).But

synchronicime s

constituted y staticoppositional

categories e.g.,

seniorand uniorgenerations).

The ida rite

resolved his temporal

contradiction. irst, it regeneratedocietyby areversing ime (Leach1961), which

was

still sequentialor

diachronic.Second,the rite

mediatedbetweentime as za




13/22

1

12 ETHNOLOGY

continuous

process

and a

synchronic

opposition

between

young

and old

(Gell

1975:343)

Recently,

Gell

(1992: ch.

5)

revisedhis

interpretation.

nstead

of reversing

time

in

order to

regenerate

society,

ida

represents

a process

undoing

itself

in normal,

forwards-runxiing

ime, not

a process

going

forwards

normally

in backwards-running

lme....

[W]hat

the Umedas

want to do

is regenerate

their world

in

real

time, not

have it continue

inexorably

on its degenerative

course,

but in inverted

time. (Gell

1992:51

52)

Furthermore,

Gell

(1992:52)

now argues

thatsynchrony

and

diachrony

are the

same

form

of time,

since synchrony

is

a classif1catory

mechanism

which arranges

entities

according

to the

real or putative

events

in their

histories.

The ida

ritualdoes

not,

therefore, mediatebetween two differentforms of time. Rather,ida reinforces Wthe

Umedas'

confidence

in the

viability

of their

societyb by

mediating

between

cultural

classifications''

and

some external

zreality

(Gell 1992:53;

see

also Werbner

1989:160).

While

Gell (1992

passim)

is concerned

with

reducing

the cultural

variation

of

time

intobasic,

universal

forms, the

Eastern

Iatmul

datasuggest

thatsocial

life in the

Sepik

occurs through

multipleand

oftencontradictory

orms

of time.

Time

is not just

a

classif1cation

ystem

that attempts

o

orderreality.

It is also

a structure

of social

life

no less

a symbolic

resource.

But

time in the

Sepik River

also has

gender,

and thus

connotes a fundamentalyet unresolvableculturalparadox,to which I now turn.

HERACLITUS

IN

THE

SEPIK:WATER,

TREES,

AND

GENDERED

TIME

Eastern

Iatmul

have a gendered

concept

of time that

juxtaposes

stasis and

change

through

idioms

of trees

and water.

Totemic

chants

commonly

substitute

the word

tapma

coconut

palm) for

ngepma

village),

and migration

accounts

often

focus

on

male

ancestors

planting

trees

(mi) and establishing

villages

(Gell

1975; Tuzin

1992:110-11).

In

ritual,

moreover,

coconuts

symbolize

the heads

of homicide

victims,

whereas

myth associates

coconuts

with testicles

in addition

to heads.

In the

local discourse of kinship,patrilineagesare like treesthatareconnectedby vines and

birds,

which symbolize

women and

marriage

alliances.

Lineagesare

akin

to sprouting

seedlings

that

dropped

rom

an ancestral

ree;the

meaningof

lineagebranches

s here

self-evident.

The

symbolism

of mortuary

ceremonies

supports

these

associations.

Outside

the

cult

house,

men construct

a

nyait mi (father

tree) from

totemic

bamboo

and flora.

Totemic

specialists

gather

around

the father

tree and

chant

totemic

paths that

are

associated

with the

primary

ancestors

and spirits

of the sponsoring

lineages

or clan.

In

spite

of death

and the impermanence

of human

life,

the father

tree signifies

the

perduringgrowthof these descentgroupsandthevitalityof theirancestralor totemic

power.

Overall,

there

is an arboreal

metaphor

n the culture

that

signifies

masculini-

ty,

male fertility,

social

life,

patriliny,

and permanence.




14/22


15/22

114

ETHNOLOGY

it. Both forms

of time, like land and

water, bones

and flesh, are

necessaryyet

antithetical.

Trees and villages

are masculine;

so, too, is dry ground,

especiallywhen

compared o the river. However,we hear n one myth thatland is the creationof

maternal ncestresses

n the guise of

floating slands

or agwi; as seen

above, this

word

is also the SUfflX

for the names

of the four cosmic

spaces. Furthermore,

domestic

housessymbolize

he mythological

gwi that form

the terrestrialworld,

which men continuously

uildin order

o assert he primacy

of human

ociety as

opposed o riverine

rosion.Thesemythological

gwi are sometimes aid

to rest on

the backsof male

crocodile

pirits.But thesecreatures

loat atop he

feminine ea.

Furthermore, ne

of my research ssistants

oted hat n Tambunum,

s throughout

all of

PapuaNew Guinea,

men fightover two things:

and

and women. Thus,

he

confided, and s really eminine.As I argue lsewhereSilverman 996), he gender

of the

Eastern atmulcosmos

is androgynousn

the sense

conveyedby Strathern

(1988). This androgyny

mixesmaleand

emaledispositionsn

a mutuallyontestable

andcontradictory

ay so thatgender

andcosmologyas well

as time

are ultimately

paradoxicalather

hansolidary.

Gendered emporality

s found in

other PapuaNew

Guinean ocieties (e.g.,

Strathern

992:199-200) nd

even in the

West(Macey1987).

The Foi havea sexual

division of space

along an upstream-downstream

xis (Weiner

1984). The male

sourceof the river

is associated

with pearlshells

which move in a downstream

r

female

directionduringmarriage

xchanges

or women.In

a somaticmetaphor,he

front

of the body

(mouth,eyes, ears)

is masculineand west, whereas he anusis

feminine

and east. Foi temporality

manifests

wo directions:upstream

oward

masculine ife and

sociality,and downstream

oward eminine

death.

Much as for

Eastern

atmul,

Foi time is embodied

ime (Weiner1995:56).

AFFINITIES

WITHABORIGINAL

USTRALIA

Many characteristics

f Eastern

Iatmultotemismresemble

temporalityand

(pre)history

n the dreamtime

cosmologies of

AustralianAboriginal

cultures.

Dreamtimerefers to a prehuman et atemporal ra in which ancestorspirits,

anthropomorphic

ndotherwise, reated

he cosmos

by shaping he landscape

uring

migrations ndformulating

he moral

rulesthatgovernsocial

life. Onthese points,

the dreamtime

esembles

Eastern atmul

osmogony.Dreamtime

racksor zstrings

(Rose 1992:52)

correspondo the totemic

pathsof mythic

history.

In theiremphasis

n ancestral patiotemporality,

oth he

dreamtimendEastern

Iatmul otemism

tsagi)privilege patial

ather han emporal

rder Rose1992:207-

07; Morphy1995).

Relations n time

are largely

understood n terms

of spatial

location.For the

dreamtime, owever,

the only temporal

o-ordinatesromwhich

one could

deElnea before

or after are major

disjunctionsXuch as

the sudden

appearanceof ancestors. Between zdisjunctions, Rose (1992:106) claims,




16/22

POLITICS,

GENDER,AND

TIMEIN

MELANESIA

115

zsynchronyprevails-; a

conceptthat is

not apparent n

the temporal

houghtof

Eastern

atmul.

Both

EasternIatmul

andAustralian

Aborigines

memorialize he past

through

myth,narrative, ndnames.Ritual ommemorateshese

memories nd

recreates he

past,especially

ancestral

movementhrough nd

creation f the

landscape ndvarious

spatially

nchored vents

e.g., Morphy

995:201-03).

People n bothregions

believe

thatritual

nsuresnatural, osmic,

and spiritual

renewal Berndt

1984:198-201).

The

dreamtime nd

sagi are associated

with the creative

or

generative owerof

the

earlycosmos. They

concernboth

znoumenal nd

zphenomenal

eality Myers

1986:49).But

Australian

borigines avea

moreprofound

enseof reverence

oward

the

manifestations f dreamtime

ncestors han

heir Sepik

River

counterparts. or

Eastern

atmul,

opographiceaturesare

important

inks to the past

only insofaras

theyhavetotemicnames,which hemselves mbodyancestral ower.For Australian

Aborigines, he

landscape tself

has

spiritual charisma

Berndt1984:177;

Rose

1992:46). Sincethe

distantpast for

Eastern atmul s

signiE1edirst by

namesand

then

only secondarily y

the landscape,8

he dreamtimes

more zgrounded

Rose

1992:57) hanmythic

history.Perhaps his

explainswhy the

past is

so contested n

the

SepikRiver: names

are more diffuse

than

topographicaleatures.

Moreover,

Australian

Aboriginesseem to

understand he

dreamtime o be

fundamentally

unalterable y

humansor deeply

rooted,almost

existential, easons

rather hanfor

overtly

political

concerns.

Aborigines

believe thatan

indestructibleessence or

life force links a

person

with a totem

and spirit-child

Stanner

1965:232;Tonkinson

1978).Eastern

atmul

also identiify

with totemic

names and their

referents.

Accordingto

linear and

incremental

ime, theancestors

ived n thepast.

However, hey are

also active n the

present

hrough he

actionsof

livingnamesakes

as in Tambunum)

r people who

identifywith

ancestral paces(as

in the

dreamtime). ndeed,

dreamtime

piritsand

Eastern

Iatmultotemic

crocodilesare said to

influence f not

determinehuman

pregnancy see above;

Tonkinson1978;

Myers 1986:50).

Thusthe ancestral

ower

of the

past in both

regionsremainsa vital

force in the world

today. Indeed,

Layton

(1995:229)

suggests that we

compare he

landscape n

Aboriginal hought

o an

zabacus nwhichpeoplearebeadswhose'value' culturaldentity) s determined y

theirpositionon

. . . a board

whose

structures inturn

determined ythe

placesand

journeysXof the

dreamtime.

Furthermore,

AustralianAboriginal

cultures, like

Eastern atmul,

compress ime

during

ritual Munn1969:

199-200).They

also tend

to

condenseEuropean

eligiousmythology

andtheir own

cosmology

nto a unified

temporal

cheme(Rose

1992:208),whereas

Eastern atmul,we

have seen, tend to

envisionparallel imes.

Dreamtime

ncestorseemto

havecreated he

world n sucha way

thata speciElc

social

group is

associatedwith a natural

pecies (Bateson

1936:244-45;

Maddock

1972:28;

Berndt1984:177).

This form of

cosmological

essentialism s alien to

Easternatmul,whobelieve n a pluralistic astof parallelpathsrather hana single

unified

past.

Lots of ancestors

reated roves of

sago, but none

created he species




17/22

1

16

ETHNOLOGY

in a

single

act.

There

are

always

other

ancestors,

rom

other

groups,

even

within

he

same

village,

who

will

have

created

heir

own

ancestral

ago.

This,

too,

tends

to

result n

a greater

ncidence

n

feuding

over

the past

than

n

Aboriginal

Australia.

Many

anthropologists

ave

noted

that

the

dreamtime

mplies

a

conservative

worldview:

['Islhe

structure

of

the world

and

life was

Elxed

once-for-all

at

a remote

time

in the

past....

The

possibilities

for men's

life

were

determined.

(Stanner

1963:253-54)

Maddock

1972:129)

echoes

this

view:

zThere

is among

Aborigines

a

profound

resistance

to

crediting

themselves

with

their

own

cultural

achievements....

Aborigines

claim

credit

only

for

f1delity

o tradition.

Aborigines

believe

in two

cosmiceras:the atemporal reamtime nd

thepresent

(Munn

1970:144;

Williams

1986:49-51).

The

dreamtime

tself

ies

outside

he

brackets

f incremental

nd inear

temporalty.

t is

a zsingle,

unchanging,

imeless

sourceX

Myers

1986:52)

that

surrounds

r exists

behind

or below

the

present

era

of

time

per se

and

humanity

(Rose

1992:205).

t

is, as

Stanner

1956:52)

o aptly

puts

t,

zeverywhen.

Although

mythic-historic

r ancestral

ower

also

suffuses

he

contemporary

ra

in

the Sepik,

this

belief

is salient

mainly

during

itual

rather

han

everyday

activities.

Both

Eastern

atmul

nd

dreamtime

osmologies

re opaque

bout

irst

causesX

(Stanner

963:266).

Butthe

Aborigines

elieve

n

a profound

ense

of

cosmological

stasis.

Prior

o

ancestral

reation,

he

dreamtime

ontained

what

Stanner

1960:

113-

18)callsaexistence-classes.Ancestorsmerelyplaced ntities nto hesepre-existing

categories.

For

Eastern

atmul,

by contrast,

mythic-historic

ncestors

and

spirits

created

all

cosmic

categories

hrough

naming.

The timeless

era

of the

dreamtime

onsisted

of a featureless

andscape

ntil

the

appearance

ndcreative

migrations

f ancestors.

After

he ancestors

reated

heland

and

Law,

there

was

a dramatic

osmological

reak

hat

eparated

he

dreamtime

rom

the

present-day

ra

of history

wherein

humans

discover

dreamtime

reations

and

follow

the

Law.

Eastern

Iatmul

also

believe

in

a

pretemporal

ra;

namely,

the

primordial

sea.

It, too,

was

followed

by

a period

of

ancestral

creation

and

migration theeraof totemism.But

the

cosmological

reak

between

mythic

history

and

today,

or

ancestors

and

humanity,

s

less

distinct

and

disjunct

han

it

is in

Aboriginal

cosmology.

This

may

explain

why

Eastern

Iatmul

do

not

assert

the

Aboriginal

redo

that

zto

be

human

s to

reproduce

orms

(Maddock

1972:129).

Instead,

hey

assert

dentifications

etween

ersons

and

mythic-historical

ersonages.

According

o

Munn

1970:

144),

Aborigines

re

afreed

rom

heir

historicity'

r

'mortality'

by integrationX

ith

dreamtime

bjects

and landforms;

objects

that,

because

hey

exist

in

both

the

past

andpresent,

are

no

longer

anchored

o

a specific

time.

Eastern

atmul

do

likewise

hrough

dentification

ith

totemic

phenomena

nd

the

alternate-generation

aming

system.

Many

Aboriginal

ultures

also

organize

namesandkinshipermsaswellassubsectionswithalternate-generationndcyclical

structures

Meggitt

1962;

Levi-Strauss

969

[1949];

Berndt

and

Berndt

1970,

chs.




18/22

POLITICS,GENDER,

AND TIMEIN

MELANESIA

117

4-5;

Rose 1992:74-79, 111-12).

But historical r temporal

yclicity is

rarelynoted

explicitly n the

literaturebut see

Stanner1956:60;

Williams1986:30).

Both the dreamtime nd

Eastern atmul otemism

understand osmic creation

through

dioms of genderand

reproductionMunn 1969,

1970; Hiatt 1975; Rose

1992:42;Morphy

1995:197).However,

anthropologistsave not for the

most part

elucidated xplicitlythe genders

of Aboriginal imes. The

MurinbataDreamtime,

Stanner 1963:270)

poeticallywrites, acould

not deny

Chronosbut gave Adrasteia

the

triumph.-Here,

implicitly,masculine ime

is an illusionof historical

tasis that

ultimatelygives way to feminine

emporal

lux. Similarly,Eastern

atmulsignify

dissolution ndchangewith a

metaphor f femaleriverine

rosion. Politically,men

in

Tambunumry to

transcendemporality nd

asserta timelesscosmos

in order o

support laims o

totemic ntitlements

Silverman

996:43-45).Cosmologically,hey

do this in order o assertmasculine rimacy n a worldof riverine luidity.Like the

dreamtime, astern

atmul otemism denies he

erosionsof

time (Myers1986:52).

But it does so in a

widerdiscourse oncerning

he genderof the cosmos.

For

Yarralin osmology,

dying is likened

o washing out (Rose

1992:209).It

is akin

to the seasonalrainsthat

cleanse he maternal arth,

erasing the marksof

ordinary ime . . . preventing he

accumulation f past

events (Rose 1992:217).

Ordinaryife, which

beginsand

ends in a short, inear,and

ncrementalime frame,

is merely emporal

oisewhencomparedo the

eternity f the dreamtime

nd ts vast

cosmological ycles

of floods(Rose

1992:217).9

CONCLUSIONS

In a

much-notedet criticized

assage,Levi-Strauss

1966:233-34) oldlydivided

the

world nto ahotX ndzvold

ocieties.Hotsocieties,such

as our own, internalize

history as the prime

mover of sociocultural

evelopment.

Coldsocieties, Eastern

Iatmul

and

AustralianAborigines ncluded,

subsumehistory and time

under all-

encompassinglassifications

Stanner 963:

139-48).Accordingo Harrison

1990:73-

76),

Levi-Strauss ailed to

distinguish

between deologyand practice.

Hence the

coldnessof culture,

one couldsay, is opposed

by the hotnessof society

andpolitics.

ButLevi-Strauss as alsoaware hatsome so-called oldsocietieshavemultiple

forms

of time. This

understanding,ather hanhis hot-cold

distinction, s

the most

insightfulplace

from which to

analyze ime and history

in the Sepik River and

beyond.It is not the

case thatpeople simply

ive their lives within a

temporaland

historical rame hat admitsor

denieschange.Rather,

peopleact in

meaningful nd

strategicways; in short,people

haveagency.Furthermore,

ulture s not

a seamless

web of

signif1cations:t contains

paradoxes rproblems.

The pursuitof solutions o

these predicaments

s a source of the

passion of culture. Time and

history are

importantor

anthropologicalnalysisnot

simplyas

structureshatgovern ocial ife.

Rather, hey are

symbolicresources nd

semioticsystems.

I

argued hatEastern atmul

have different orms of

time and historythat are

related

o distinctarenasof

social life. Within he realm

of totemism, here is no




19/22

neutral

history.

The

present

cannotbe

explained

on the

basis of

an

apolitical

and

flxed

sequence

of

mythic-historic

vents.

Instead, the

contemporary

political

conElgurationf the

village

validates he

totemic

and cosmic

organization

f the

universe.Historyand ime aresymbolic esources sedby agentswhoconstruct nd

alter

their

world.

Yet at the

sametime

action s

constrained

withinthe

normative

temporal rames

of

institutions

uch

as

totemismand

kinship.

Finally,

time and

history are

a

semiotic

system

through

which Eastern

atmul

confront

undamental

cultural

and

moral

paradoxes

oncerning ender,

stasis,

andchange.

NOTES

1.

Fieldwork in

1988-1990

was funded

by a

Fulbright

Award and

the

Institute for

Intercultural

Studies.

A visit in

June-August1994

was

supportedby the

Wenner-Gren

Poundation or

Anthropologi-

cal Research and DePauw University. I am grateful for this assistance. Previousversions of this article

were

presented at

the 1992 and

1993

Annual

Meetings of

the

Association for

Social

Anthropology

in

Oceania.

The

reference to

Heraclitus

was

offered by G.

Ogan,

who, along

with D

Lipset,

provided

additional

comments. I also

thank A.

Wohl. But

I accept

full

responsibilityfor

this article.

2.

Sometimes

latmul

will erect

stones, which

are rare

in the Sepik

floodplain,

to

commemorate

historic

events

such as

successful

raids on rival

villages

(e.g., Bateson

1970

[1937]:133;

Silverman,

In

press;

Jorgensen

1990; Kahn

1990).

3. A

similar

concept is

reportedby

Lewis

(1980:61-62) for

song

cycles

among the

Gnau of the

West

Sepik.

4.

Ecological and

seasonalmodes

of time are

common in

Melanesia(e.g.,

Panoff 1969;

Scaglion

and

Condon

1979;

Burman1981).

The

common

anthropological

practice of

representing his form

of time

with diagrams is criticizedby Goody (1977: ch. 4) and Bourdieu(1977:105-07).

5.

This is

similar to the

concept of

a

chronotype

Bender

and Wellbery

1989),

which is

derived

from

Bakhtin's

(1981

[19371)

chronotope.

6.

Fake

myth, like

Dundes's (1989)

';fakelore,

can

be attributed

o an

identiElable

ource and

differs,

in

the case

described

here, from

Hobsbawmand

Ranger's

(1983)

invented

tradition,

which uses

images

of

historical

permanence as

ideological

justifications

for

social

institutions.

7.

Leach (1961),

Gell

(1975:329-46,

1992: ch. 5),

Bloch (1977),

Harrison

(1982), and

Werbner

(1989), among

others,

discuss the

concept of

ritual

time.

8. As a

result,

perhaps,

Eastern

Iatmul

cosmology lacks a

sense of

ecological unity

between

humanity

and

nature that is

associated

with the

dreamtime.

Indeed, recent

accounts of

Aboriginal

cultures often

conclude

with a

moral plea for

Europeans

to heed the

ecological

wisdom of

Aborigines

(e.g., Rose

1992).

Nothing in

Eastern

Iatmul

cosmology, to

my

knowledge, would

engendersuch a

plea,

however

much I

might

wish to do

so in this

era of

unrestrained

ogging.

9.

Although some

readers

might be

dissatisfied with my

generalizing

the

Aboriginalcase

and then

comparing it to

Melanesia, this

exercise

was

able to suggest

the

presence of

gendered idioms

of time

in

both

regions, a

suggestion

that has not

been offered

or

demonstrated

until now.

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Documents

Transcript of Gender and Time