Forge film 06B - Yam display and exchange

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00:01 -- Men play flutes and dance. Three men close together play flutes and kundu drum, while dancing. One younger boy also blows flute, wearing single white feather. 03:02 -- long "female" (bifurcated) yam displayed with yam mask, shell ring, yellow feathers, orange fruits, inside a ritual enclosure. 03:30 -- man wearing mask which covers his mouth, lunges with spears. Mask is adorned with small shells and large pig tusks. 03:50 -- long "male" (straight) yam display. Yam is decorated and suspended vertically above items arranged on the ground. 04:18 -- men carry decorated long yams, suspended horizontally from poles. Yams are decorated with white feathers and palm leaves. These yams and other even larger yams, are displayed, some with masks. 04:55 -- haus tambaran (men's cult house), exterior of large facade. Yams are displayed nearby. Men walk around and look at the yams. 05:58 -- children look at two large pigs which are tethered on the ground. 06:55 -- two men enter village, carrying large highly-decorated long yam, carried horizontally suspended from a pole. 08:06 -- close-up of small mask object on man's back. 08:20 -- man adding feathers to displayed yams. 08:25 -- close-up of rocks, food items and other objects, displayed beneath a large decorated "female" long yam. 08:55 -- Aerial views around Maprik. Small airstrip at Ulupu Catholic mission. Villages with haus tambaran at 9:46. 11:52 -- Food in clay pots for a feast. 12:30 -- men gathered around a kundu drum. 12:55 -- close-up of bird of paradise feather valuable. Clay pots arranged for a feast. People bringing additional foods. Men eating, some from ornate clay bowls. Men chewing betel nut. 16:12 -- haus tambaran and nearby houses. 17:15 -- Men eating yams and sago soup served from large clay pot in front of haus tambaran. 17:43 -- ngwalndu (ancestor/spirit) paintings on facade of haus tambaran, sculpted faces on lower facade, spears and flutes on either side of entrance to the building. 18:16 -- close-up of kundu drums in plaza. Men enter with spear, orating. Men distribute small piles of tobacco leaves and betel. 20:35 -- Men chewing betel nut, holding lime gourds. Long yams are displayed in plaza. 21:45 -- Man cuts top off coconuts and places sipmu tree branches into opening, and places them near ancestral stones. The coconut water will be sprinkled onto the long yams with the perfumed sipmu leaves. 22:46 -- men enter with elaborately decorated long yams, including large woven masks. Pairs of young women enter with poles, some decorated. Group of men, their skins painted black, beat kundu drums. 23:39 -- close-up of yam decorations, woven masks, feather valuables. 24:00 -- pairs of women dancing and carrying vertical decorated poles. Men enter slowly, carrying large decorated yams. Other men dance and play drums. Boys run by flinging perfumed coconut water onto displayed yams. Women and men dance and chant in two opposing lines. Smaller decorated yams are displayed vertically, larger yams are displayed diagonally or horizontally. Some of the yam masks are obscured with fabric, others are covered with small sticks and yellow fruits. 29:29 – large woven cane yam masks, painted ochre, yams decorated with shell ring valuables, yellow feathers, hibiscus flowers, small spears, crimped cordyline leaves. 31:00 – large group of men armed with spears, held vertically, gather in plaza among displayed long yams. 32:30 – distribution of cooked foods, coconuts, betel nuts. 35:20 – men carry yams, accompanied by other men who charge with spears. Singers with have black and ochre pigments on upper body and face. 37:53 – vertically displayed “female” (bifurcated) yam, decorated with mask, shell ring, yellow fruits, fabric. 38:00 – men carry long decorated yams 40:10 – ritual aggression display between spear-carrying men.

• circa 1963

• Forge, Anthony

Located in Series 10) Audiovisual Materials, subseries B) Films.

This digital sound file was recorded from original audiotape in the Anthony Forge Papers (Box 44).

Color film, 16 mm, silent

Activities and objects associated with ritualized display and exchange of long yams, which are used to obtain prestige. "The length of yams, presented to ceremonial exchange partners at the competitive displays that follow harvest, are the measures of the prestige and influence of the individuals of the hamlets and ritual groups into which the villages are divided. The main species of long yams are obviously phallic symbols. When displayed they are profusely decorated with many of the attributes of the carvings in the ceremonial houses, principally with carved wood or basketry masks that are identical in form to those...that are the foci of the major ceremonies. The largest yams are named, usually after the ngwalndu of the clan of the grower." (Forge, Anthony. "Art and environment in the Sepik" Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1965, p. 28)

• East Sepik Province (Papua New Guinea)
• Melanesia
• Oceania
• Pacific Islands

• Abelam (Papua New Guinean people)
• Betel nut
• Ceremonial exchange
• Dance
• Feathers
• Haus tambaran
• Masks
• Musical instruments
• Pigs
• Pottery
• Shell money
• Singing
• Social conflict
• Yams

• video

Online finding aid

• Anthony Forge Papers

• UC Regents

[Title, Date]. Anthony Forge Papers. MSS 411. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. [Digital Object URL]

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2021-11-16