Argonauts of the Western Pacific - Bronisław Malinowski (darmowa biblioteka online .TXT) 📖
Argonauts of the Western Pacific to rozprawa naukowa autorstwa Bronisława Malinowskiego. Jest ona efektem wyprawy badacza na wyspy Toulon i wyspy Trobriandzkie.
Malinowski opisuje w niej przede wszystkim rytuał Kula, ukazujący zdolności handlowe ludów tam żyjących. Rytuał polega na wymianie biżuterii, opierającej się na pewnych szytwno ustalonych regułach związanych m.in. z równą wartością wymienianych przedmiotów. Malinowski upatruje w przedstawicielach społeczeństw pierwotnych wcielenia Argonautów z mitologii greckiej, którzy udali się po Złote Runo. Rozprawa Malinowskiego została oparta na wynikach jego metody badań antropologicznych — metody uczestniczącej, a nie wyłącznie obserwacyjnej. Jego działalność była przełomowa dla antropologii, która do tej pory bazowała na prowadzeniu obserwacji, a także rozszerzaniu założeń na kolejne wyniki badań.
Bronisław Malinowski był polskim antropologiem i socjologiem publikującym w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku. Prowadził badania społeczeństw pierwotnych w różnych zakątkach świata.
- Autor: Bronisław Malinowski
- Epoka: Współczesność
- Rodzaj: Epika
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I wish to close this chapter by adducing a few texts of native information. In the previous chapters, several statements and narratives have been put into the natives’ mouths and given in quotations. I wish now to show some of the actual linguistic data from which such quotations have been derived. Numerous utterances of the natives were taken down by me as they were spoken. Whenever there was a native expression covering a point of crucial importance, or a characteristic thought, or one neatly formulated, or else one especially hazy and opalescent in meaning — I noted them down in quick handwriting as they were spoken. A number of such texts, apart from their linguistic importance, will serve as documents embodying the native ideas without any foreign admixture, and it will also show the long way which lies between the crude native statement and its explicit, ethnographic presentation. For what strikes us at first sight most forcibly in these texts is their extreme bareness, the scantiness of information which they appear to contain. Couched in a condensed, disjointed, one might say telegraphic style, they seem to lack almost everything which could throw light on the subject of our study. For they lack concatenation of ideas, and they contain few concrete details, and few really apt generalisations. It must be remembered, however, that, whatever might be the importance of such texts, they are not the only source of ethnographic information, not even the most important one. The observer has to read them in the context of tribal life. Many of the customs of behaviour, of the sociological data, which are barely mentioned in the texts, have become familiar to the Ethnographer through personal observation and the direct study of the objective manifestations and of data referring to their social constitution (compare the observations on Method in the Introduction). On the other hand, a better knowledge of and acquaintance with the means of linguistic expression makes the language itself much more significant to one who not only knows how it is used, but uses it himself. After all, if natives could furnish us with correct, explicit and consistent accounts of their tribal organisation, customs and ideas, there would be no difficulty in ethnographic work. Unfortunately, the native can neither get outside his tribal atmospheres and see it objectively, nor if he could, would he have intellectual and linguistic means sufficient to express it. And so the Ethnographer has to collect objective data, such as maps, plans, genealogies, lists of possessions, accounts of inheritance, censuses of village communities. He has to study the behaviour of the native, to talk with him under all sorts of conditions, and to write down his words. And then, from all these diverse data, to construct his synthesis, the picture of a community and of the individuals in it. But I have dwelt on these aspects of method already in the Introduction and here I want only to exemplify them with regard to the linguistic material directly representing some of the natives’ thoughts on ethnographic subjects.
XVI shall give here first a text on the subject of the priority in sailing, which as described in Chapter IX, is the privilege of a certain sub-clan in Sinaketa. I was discussing with a very good informant, Toybayoba of Sinaketa, the customs of launching the canoes, and I tried, as usually, to keep my interlocutor as much as possible to concrete details and to the stating of the full sequence of events. In his account he uttered this sentence:
„The Tolabwaga launch their canoe first; by this the face of the sea is cleared”.
I thereupon perceived that a new subject had been brought within my notice, and I headed my informant on to it, and obtained the following text, sentence after sentence:
The tolabwaga sub-clan and their sea-faring privileges1 Bikugwo (He might be first), ikapusi (he fall down) (it is launched) siwaga (their canoe) Tolabwaga (Tolabwaga), boge (already) bimilakatile (he might be clear)bwarita (sea).
2 Igau (Later on) kumaydona (all) gweguya (chiefs), tokay (commoner) siwaga (their canoe) ikapusisi (they fall down) (are launched) oluvyeki (behind).
3 Kidama (Supposing) takapusi (we fall down), takugwo (we are first) bitavilidasi (they might turn (on) us) baloma ( spirits); bitana (we might go) Dobu (Dobu), gala (no) tabani (we find) bunukwa (pig) soulava (necklace).
4 Makawala yuwayoulo (Alike (lashing creeper)): bikugwo (he (it) might be first) isipusi (they bind) siwayugo (their wayugo lashing), iga’u (later on) yakidasi (ourselves).
5 Takeulo (We sail) Dobu (Dobu), gala (no) bikugwasi (they might be first) Tolabwaga (Tolabwaga); okovalawa (on sea front) boge (already) aywokwo (he was over).
6 Obwarita (In sea) tananamse (we consider) kayne (whether) isakauli (he run) taytala (one (masculine)) lawaga (his canoe), ikugwo (he is first).
7 Gala (No) bikaraywagasi (they might command) patile (canoe fleet).
8 Dobu (Dobu), gweguya (chiefs) bikugwasi (they might be first), biwayse (they might come there) kaypatile (canoe fleet) gweguya (chiefs).
9 M’tage (Indeed) Tolabwaga (Tolabwaga) boge (already) aywokwo (he (it) was over) sikaraywaga (their command) ovalu (in village).
The Tolabwaga sub-clan belong to the Lukwasisiga clan, and live at present in Kasi’etana. Only one man and two women are surviving.
10 Simwasila (Their Kula magic) siwaga (their canoe) migavala (magic his), vivila (woman) boge (already) iyousayse (they grasp).
11 „Datukwasi (Our magical property) boge (already) kasakaymi (we give you) megwa (magic) kwaraywagasi (you command) lagayle (to-day)!”
Thus would they say on handing their magic to their male descendants.
Informant’s Commentary.
Commenting on verse 3, the expression, bitalividasi baloma, my informant said:
Bitavilida” (They might turn (on) us): bilivalasi (they might say) baloma (spirit) „Avaka (What) pela (for) gala (no) ikugwo (he is first) Tolabwaga (Tolabwaga), kukugwasi (you are first) gumgweguya (sub-chiefs); kayuviyuvisa (sweepers of the sea) Tolabwaga (Tolabwaga)!
13 Tavagi (We do) gaga (bad); igiburuwasi (they angry), ninasi(mind theirs’) igaga (he bad);, pela (for) magisi (desire theirs) batayamata (we might watch) tokunabogwo (long ago) aygura (he has decreed).
The verbal translation renders word for word the individual meaning of every particle and root, according to a definite grammatical and lexcographical scheme which has been adopted for this text in common with a few hundred more. In this place, I cannot give the commentary and justification of the linguistic details, which will be fairly obvious to a Melanesian scholar, who might, however, find some new and even controversial features in my translation. To other readers, these details are of small interest. I have not included in this translation any distinction between the inclusive and exclusive first person, dual and plural. Of the two tenses which are to be found in this text, the narrative one is translated by the English verb in infinitive, the potential, by the addition of the word „might”. In brackets underneath, the special meaning of a word in its context is indicated, or some comments are added.
The free translation of the text must now be given:
Free translation:
1 The Tolabwaga canoe would be launched first; by this the face of the sea is cleared.
2 Afterwards, all the chiefs’, the commoners’ canoes are launched.
3 If we would launch our canoes first, the spirits (of ancestors) would be angry with us; we would go to Dobu and we would receive no pigs, no necklaces.
4 It is likewise with the lashing of the canoe: first, the Tolabwaga would bind the lashing creeper and afterwards ourselves.
5 On our journey to Dobu, the Tolabwaga would not sail ahead, for their priority ends on the beach of Sinaketa.
6 On the sea it is according to our wish, and if one man’s canoe runs fast, he would be first.
7 They (the Tolabwaga) do not wield the command of the canoe fleet.
8 In Dobu, the chiefs would be first; the chiefs would arrive there at the head of the fleet.
9 But the supremacy of the Tolabwaga ends here already, in the village.
10 The Kula magic, the magic of the canoe, belonging to the Tolabwaga clan has passed already into the hands of their womenfolk.
11 (These would say speaking to their male children):
„We shall give you the magic, the magical inheritance, you rule henceforward”.
12 When the spirits become angry, they would tell us :
„Why are the Tolabwaga not first and you minor chiefs are ahead? Are not the Tolabwaga cleaners of the sea?
13 When we do wrong, they (the spirits) are angry, their minds are malevolent, for they desire that we should keep to the old customs.
XVIComparing the free translation with the literal one, it is easy to see that certain additions have been made, sentences have been subordinated and co-ordinated by various English conjunctions which are either completely absent from the native text, or else represented by such very vague particles as boge (already), and m’tage (indeed). On these linguistic questions I cannot enlarge here, but it will be good to go over each sentence in succession, and to show how much it was necessary to add from the general store of sociological and ethnographic knowledge, in order to make it intelligible.
1. The meaning of the word „fall down” is specialised here by the context, and I translated it by „launch”. The particle boge had to be translated here by „by this” The words about the ’clearing of the sea’ suggested at once to me that there was a special ancient custom in question. Then there is the name of the sub-clan Tolabwaga. In order to understand the full meaning of this phrase, it is necessary to realise that this name stands for a sub-clan; and then one has to be well acquainted with native sociology, in order to grasp what such a privilege, vested in a sub-clan, might mean. Thus, a word like this can in the first place be understood only in the context of its phrase, and on the basis of a certain linguistic knowledge. But its fuller meaning becomes intelligible only in the context of the native life and of native sociology. Again the expression referring to the clearing of the sea required a further comment, for which I asked my informant, and was answered by Phrase 3.
2. In this phrase the expressions „chiefs”, „commoners” etc., are fully intelligible only to one, who has a definition of these words in terms of native sociology. Indeed, only the knowledge of the usual supremacy of the chiefs allows one to gauge their importance and the survival character of this custom, by which this importance is diminished for a time.
3. Here, we have the explanation of the obscure clause in phrase 1, „A clear sea” means the good temper of the spirits which again means good luck. The question as to whether the spirits are to be imagined as actively interfering or helping still remained open. I asked for a further elucidation, which was given to me in the text of Phrases 12 and 13.
4. This contains a condensed reference to the stages of ship-building, previous to launching. This, of course, to be understood, pre-supposes a knowledge of these various activities.
5 to 9. The limitations of the powers of the Tolabwaga subclan are outlined, giving interesting side-lights on the rôle played by females as repositories of family (sub-clan) traditions. Needless to say, this
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