IDNO

LS.133328.MST

Description

On Strathern's listing: Duplicate from Kuli moka M, 1415.67.D1: Women continuing to dance (peng pokla).

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Western Highlands Province; Mt. Hagen; Kuli tribal area

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Strathern, Marilyn (later Prof., Dame)

Collector / Expedition

Date

16 September 1967

Collection Name

Strathern Collection

Source

Strathern, Marilyn (Prof., Dame)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

LS.133323.MST - LS.133331.MST were identified by Marilyn Strathern as Set 63.

Publication: Original image [N.133259.MST] published in 'Self-Decoration in Mount Hagen', 1971, p.133 and captioned: "Plate 77 Between a conus shell nose-piece and bailer pendant, swathes of trade-store beads. (In contrast with the mørli girls behind, this dancer is heavily oiled". [KH 30/11/2016]

Related Archive: Draft caption for original image [N.133259.MST] in blue folder of book draft with the following text: "One of the wives of men whose own moka was imminent, but who were not participating as donors or recipients on this occasion. As far as the circlet of puklør parrot feathers above the Superb plume, she is fully ornamented. But instead of a further spray of feathers, she has only two lorikeets." [Paper Archives will be deposited at Girton College, Cambridge, date to be confirmed. KH 30/11/2016]

Related Archive: Marilyn Strathern lists "The Kuli moka." [Strathern's word document file]

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: peng = head (p86) (Melpa). [Strathern's Glossary word document, JD 4/27/2017]

Context: pokla = severed, ‘cut off’, see peng pokla werl (p188). [Strathern's Glossary word document, JD 5/3/2017]

Context: peng pokla moke = decoration worn by women to indicate that their husbands will be making moka in the distant future; their decorations are cut off (pokla) at their heads (peng); this phrase describes the effect that the decorations have of covering the body but neglecting the head; they do not dance with the feathers that would indicate their immediate involvement in moka. (pp186,188). [Strathern's Glossary word document, JD 4/27/2017]

Context: peng pokla werl = a dance performed by women to indicate that their husbands will be making moka in the distant future; their decorations are cut off (pokla) at their heads (peng); this phrase describes the effect that the decorations have of covering the body but neglecting the head; they do not dance with the feathers that would indicate their immediate involvement in moka. (pp186,188). [Strathern's Glossary word document, JD 4/27/2017]

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