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Box inscription: Side A: Maenaa’adi ’ai’imae (continued - repeat beginning) - Ritual + Omea, Geesuni Etc. 21/5 #4. Side B: Soea’adi - Maenaa’adi.

• 21 May 1990

• Keesing, Roger M., 1935-1993

Located in Series 7) Solomon Islands - Sound Recordings, subseries B) Audiocassettes. Arranged in numbered order from 1 to 181.

This digital sound file was recorded from original audiotape in the Roger Keesing Papers (Box 56, Folder 7).

Audio cassette tape

An ’ai’imae is a story about killings in the past, either told or sung in ancestral chant performances that last many hours.
Batamani Maenaa’adi, a man from Saua ('Aisi'ina, Furi’isi’ina) in the mountains behind Sinalagu Harbour, worked extensively with Keesing. He was still living in 2020. In the past he was a well-known performer of ’ai’imae. This is a style of ’ai’imae called suusuku, which originated in the area inland from Uru Harbour. Maenaa’adi, when younger, performed sixteen or more different ’ai’imae, a prodigious feat of memory. People jokingly called him "Tefi," the tape recorder, for his photographic memory.
Maenaa’adi talks about rituals associated with omea mortuary feasting. He also talks about his great aunt Gesuni, who died in the 1980s.
Soa’adi is an important man who lives at Nu’u ('Aila'o), in the bush just over the coastal ridge above Sinalagu Harbour. He is still living in 2020.
Recording is a continuation of Keesing Cassette Tape 123.

• Malaita (Solomon Islands)
• Melanesia
• Oceania
• Pacific Islands
• Solomon Islands

• Maenaa’adi, Batamani

• Chants
• Exchange
• Kwaio (Solomon Islands people)
• Mortuary feasts
• Ritual

• image
• sound recording

Online finding aid

• Roger M. Keesing Papers

• Heirs of Roger M. Keesing

[Title, Date]. Roger Keesing Papers. MSS 427. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. [Digital Object URL]

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2021-11-15