Jasmine Daniels
200327893
Anth 248
Birth With the Trobirianders

This essay will cover the Trobrianders habits of birth and infancy and how their ideas on spirits, if and how much Christianity has affected their views on the world. The ideas and theories that anthropologists have written about the Trobrianders has changed over the years. Going over the detail of their theories and how they differ or are similar to one another.
The paper will go into the possibilities of why the theories came to be or how they  have changed, their change in knowledge of the physical form and why they do some of the things that they do, and the contradictions on previous statements made about the Trobrianders. Adoption has a high rate among the Trobrianders and there is a question as to why, which is peculiar considering it is very possible that there is a high infant mortality rate. This paper is to explore the story of their theories and their infants.
For this paper I have brought up a few anthropologists that are experienced with the ways of the Trobrianders, and most importantly for they all studied in different times.  Naming them and giving them all a brief description, as well as what they wrote for convince.
Broinslaw Malinowski is an anthropologist from Poland and is one of, if not the first to research the culture of the Trobrianders, from Poland he did his research starting in 1914, using two sources from him there is a short article as well as his book, The Sexual life of Savages which was published in 1926. Susan Montague is a female whom wrote Trobriand Kinship and the Virgin Birth controversy, and was published in 1971, which came far later and focuses on the theories of how women pregnant. Anette B. Weiner is another female anthropologist that studied in Papua, the Trobrianders specifically and the book this paper uses was published in 1988. This piece of writing being critical on earlier writings and the viewings that they had on the women. But this was subconscious as the view on women was still seen as lesser than men simply due to the time and western culture embedded in their mind. Such as the word 'Savages' used in Malinowski's book which would be unacceptable to use in an ethnography in the modern day.
Mark S. Mosko is works with the University of Australia and published his work in 1998, a critique again on the views of the virgin birth within the Trobrianders, or how it was perceived incorrectly.
The reason that there is particular interest in the dates is because of the changes through the decades, the views that change and comparison between anthropologists.
The beginning starts after the death of  someone, according to multiple anthropologists when someone dies their spirit leaves the body and goes to another island, this spirit is called a baloma, which is commonly mentioned in many of the anthropologists writings. It is a reincarnated spirit of an ancestor and thought in turn that all children have some link to an ancestor that died. In order for a sprit to come to be born again it must first bathe in salt water and then goes through the top of a woman's skull  and settles in her womb.  This doesn't seem to have any similarities to Christianity aside from the fact it requires little in work of the man, and disregards his help with childbirth in every way but one.
In regards of women getting physically pregnant, assuming that it doesn't only take the baloma to do so. The Trobrianders do seem to be aware of the fact that women need to have intercourse to have children,  and do use contraceptives which indicates that they are aware it is men that can cause children, if they are aware that the semen from a man causes it is probably known now, however at the time of when the papers were written is different. But none the less they were aware that intercourse with a man helped, if not forced children and in turn acknowledge that while balmoas may help with pregnancy aren't required.   This is supported by the use of contraceptives by the Trobrian women, that can either be applied to the lining of the woman's vagina or swallowed. But despite them unquestionably knowing that intercourse causes children it seems to remain that they think of the balomas for the cause of pregnancy.
Once a woman is pregnant, which according to Maloknski can be seen through the darkening of nipples, either through that or vivid dreams of ancestors bringing children to them, or the balomas. White clothing will be made for the woman, by the women of the fathers side of the family. At one point they will do something referred to as the Queens chair, arranging themselves into two rows facing each other and forming a bridge for the pregnant woman to walk in, and going into a body of water for cleansing, and proceed to play games which revolve around her. She is lifted out of the water and aren't allowed to touch the soil.
There is a ritual for dying and cleansing skin with leaves magic and shells, another to make skin smooth, clear and soft. The pregnant woman must not touch the ground through the ritual and is then carried to her uncle's house and remains on a high platform, she cannot speak and not touch food with her hands, must wash on mat again from three to five days depending on rank. There is also a ritual for whiteness, absolute isolation from taboo and moral impurity which means men, and no intercourse during this time, garbed in white and covering everything but her face while on the platform. She is also restricted from eating certain kinds of foods, anything that is thought to harm the child. Throughout all of this there are no men ever helping, while it isn't openly said it would be shameful for a man to be around or help with these.
Once labor starts the woman is placed on a mat with her legs apart and knees raised, a maternal relative pushes heavily on her shoulder, it  is forbidden to help the baby out of the woman. There is a mat that the child is to fall onto, and it must be completely placed on before women are allowed to touch it. Should labor be to hard it is thought to be the work of evil magic. One month after child birth she and the infant are to be confined before being allowed to show her face to the common village people.
Once the woman is allowed to go out in pubic once more it is the fathers turn to shine with the job of caring for the child while the mother must tend to her gardens. This includes holding the child, feeding it and ensuring his place as the child's maternal father. Most importantly it also includes adorning the child in shells, either that the father owns or one of the child's close relatives. These show that the child is going to be prosperous and be a influenceal person of the village. By doing this it is also how children are adopted, because through this men are placing themselves in the life of the child, where as the connection to the mother is more by blood,  and people are kept track of by the maternal line within the Trobrianders.


Bibliography
Malinowski, Broinislaw. 1929. The Sexual Life of Savages. New York, Engenics Pub. Co.
Mosko, Mark S. 1998. On "Virgin Birth," Comparability, and Anthropological Method. The University of Chicago Press.
Weiner, Annette B. 1988. The Trobiranders of Papua New Guinea.  Wadswirth Publishing Company.
Malinowski, Broinislaw, Gunter Senft. 2009. Culture and Language use. John Benjamins Publishing company. Netherlands.
Montaque, Susan. 1971. Trobriand Kinship and the Virgin Birth Controversy. University of Chicago.