IDNO

T.132015.MST

Description

On Strathern's listing: Councillor Yi’s moka pena (ceremonial ground), Minembi (tribe) Yelipimbo (clan). Minembi sitting with backs to camera, Tipuka (recipients) clustered in circle.
Rangk (Yi’s father) and Rua, with Minembi house to left full of shells given from Minembi to Tipuka (tribes). A small moka (ceremonial exchange) showing. Yelipimbo = clan of Minembi tribe.
Note the pig stakes and the poklambo: shrub (cordylines) planted at head of ceremonial ground.

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Western Highlands Province; moka pena (ceremonial ground) of Minembi Kambila (personal name)

Cultural Affliation

Minembi Yelipimbo

Named Person

Minembi Yelipimbo Yi (Councillor); Minembi Yelipimbo Rangk; Minembi Yelipimbo Rua

Photographer

Strathern, Marilyn (later Prof., Dame)

Collector / Expedition

Date

7 March 1964

Collection Name

Strathern Collection

Source

Strathern, Marilyn (Prof., Dame)

Format

Colour Transparency

Primary Documentation

Other Information

T.131993.MST - T.132027.MST were identified by Marilyn Strathern as Set 3.

Named Person: "Yi, (Councillor, son of Rangk) Minembi Yelipimbo M ." [Information provided by Marilyn Strathern on 'List of Personal Names', JD 12/6/2016]

Named Person: "Rangk, (father of Yi), Minembi Yelipimbo M." [Information provided by Marilyn Strathern on 'List of Personal Names', JD 12/6/2016]

Named Person: "Rua, Minembi Yelipimbo M". [Information provided by Marilyn Strathern on 'List of Personal Names', KH 21/03/2017]

Context: moka pena = ceremonial ground. [Strathern's Glossary word document, JD 4/24/2017]

Context: moka = 1. General term for ceremonial exchange between partners coordinated in a single set of events, involving gifts of pigs and / or shells according to certain formulae, and in several stages, with the sequences eventually reversing so donors become recipients.
2. Term for the occasion of a ‘final’ gift in such a sequence, at which people – especially and often only the donors -- dance and decorate. The rationale for the gift payments may be in terms of warfare exchange, e.g. for enemy-compensation and ally-reparation payments (in 1970s, esp. N Melpa) or as ‘pure moka’, which includes pig-moka and shell-moka (pp3,48; MS word document “Order B (3) 1967”, p1) where payments to kin or allies may be made under all kinds pretext (1970s, esp. C Melpa). The size and significance of the moka will determine whether or not a festive occasion is made of the final gift. (Melpa). [Strathern's Glossary word document, JD 4/24/2017]

Context: poklambo = a tree at one end of the ceremonial ground, consecrated to ancestral ghosts of the group owning the ceremonial ground (pp84,188) (Melpa). [Strathern's Glossary word document, JD 4/24/2017]

A grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program supported the documentation and preservation of the Strathern photographic collection. [JD 6/11/2017]