Culture
The Orokaiva
Professor John Dademo Waiko is the only Melanesian scholar to have studied the physical and social relationships in his own society, the Binandere people of Oro Province, in depth. His account in 'A Short History of Papua New Guinea' explores the physical, social and spiritual relationships of his village and details how they are interwoven into his community.
The border between the Koiari (Central Province) and the Orokaiva (Northern Province lies at Templetons Crossing No 2 on the Kokoda Trail). Northern Province extends to the beaches of Buna, Gona and Sanananda. The provincial capital is Popondetta.
The Binandere people in the Popondetta area see themselves as located within a family and among a small group with whom they have built strong bonds. In turn, a Binandere views members of other societies on the basis of kin associations and alliances that might have been fashioned between the Binandere and the other society in the past through war and trade, or today through business or politics. Much Binandere behaviour is determined by obligations and enmities within a close network of people. All are judged on how they fulfil their obligations to others. They hare also very conscious of their location by place. The roots of the Binandere are anchored at the arapa of thei hamlets, where they grew up and to which they make conscious and constant reference in later life.
The significance of the arapa is that this physical space binds all people who reside on it as a single entity. Its members enter into a kind of contractual obligation with one another which means that if and when one of them is affected by something, then another member is expected to act in response.
The arapa could be the area between the mando, women's house, and the oro, men's house, both of which face each other, or it may be just the front space of a house in a particular section of the village. The physical charter of a c community contains the idea that one belongs to a fixed place or arapa. From there one is linked in a web of relationships that underlie rights and obligations within the confines of the arapa. If a person violates these rights and the obligations, the rights granted to him or her by kinship will be affected.
Although the arapa is bare ground, usually swept by women, it is a highly respected place. This sense of honour is expressed in the killing of a pig whenever an adult falls in an arapa when the ground is slippery. On a rainy day, everyone grips the ground tightly with their toes to avoid falling. Even if the fall is an accident, the owners of the arapa make absolutely certain that relatives of the fallen do not accuse them of haning set up a snare to trap inturders withy evil intent who try to enter other peoples's arapa. The pig killing is a declaration that the owner is innocent and that the fall is in fact an accident.
The centre of the arapa in the village is marked by the fire place in front of and underneath each house. for the women, their hearth is for the fire to cook vegetables - taro, banana, potatoes, pumpkin, greens - with pieces of meat and fish in large clay pots of conical shape of various sizes.
For men, the fire place is in a hall without walls where both formal and informal meetings take place. Social interaction among male members of the nuclear family occurs here everyday at early dawn and at dusk, except when it rains and the fire burns underneath the house. This is a place of informal learning as the male elders teach codes of behaviour, family history, legends, and other traditions. Almost every day this knowledge is told and repeated. By the time children reach adolescence they will have heard these various testimonies a thousand times.
The arapa is also a formal gathering place where men come together to discuss issues of general concern. Formal feasts and major ceremonies are conducted in this area, where the sponsors are received, entertained, and fed, and from which the distribution of pig meat and vegetables takes place. In times of disputes or conflicts, the parties stay put on their own arapa and speeches are delibered from them. Decisions are handed down here after the 'big men' have made their public statements. Formal negotiation about marriage and bride price also occur on the arapa, as well as the exchange of brinde wealth. Late in the evenings, two elders might meet to discuss sorcery. Nowadays, village committees and coucillors use the arapa to discuss community matters and business concerns.
A well-known feature of the society has to do with the manner in which discussions are conducted, decisions reached, and recommendations carried out. The arapa provides the forum for both private conversation and the public debate to arrive at a consensus with which the majority of people present feel comfortable. A decision reached collectively can hold together those present, at least temporarily, until the decision is implemented. If agreement can not be reached, then at least this forum contains the basis for any further debate.
Being an integral part of the arapa entitles household members to benefit from the fruits of one another's labour, whether in sharing garden produce, a big catch of fish, rendering services, or raising a pig for another close kin in the olden times, or even assistance to be elected to a public office nowadays. Each member is regarded as a resource person and is expected to contribute something, whether economic or emotional, towards the well-being of the arapa as a corporate entity.
Everyone relies upon each other as a source of material and moral support in good and bad times. As such, the household as a unit is a captial resource when any kin undergoes a lean period. Whenever an arapa member is in need of a valuable item such as a pig that is not easily available, then other member provide it. Simply put, every member regards the other as ujiwo, a capital resource, from which assistance of any kind comes forthe in good and bad times through the obligatioin of kinship.
The underlying principle of arapa is goodness. Although Leo Hannett used the term 'tribe' in a loose manner, he nonetheless desribed this value well:
'It is manifested in that personal jumane concern for others, that sense of oneness, and that feeling of brotherhood which flows in the blood of every member of the tribe. Why must such good qualities be thrown away? Isn't the world today yearning with anguish for just such qualities? I would rather be a tribalist, feeling at one with and being olved by many than be an individualist who is more likely to be shipwrecked with the inhumane disease of lonliness.'
In the absence of the state, the ethical system of the Binandere emphasised the importance of reciprocity among people. The cultivation of sympathy and co-operation must begin in the family, as defined by arapa, and then extend by degrees into the village, clan, and to the tribe. Relationships could expand from the nuclear family along definite kin lines to include the extended family bounded by the charter of the arapa, and through which candidates could channel their bids for election as a member of a council, a provincial, or national government. This, in may ways, in fact, it is possible to think of parliament as a national arapa.
Although the above account is of one small society among many, the underlying attitudes described here are to be found in many other regions. Like the Bindandere, the people of most Papua New Guinean societies had strong affinity with theri land and did not separate the social from the political, or even the past from the present.
Professor John Dademo Waiko is the only Melanesian scholar to have studied the physical and social relationships in his own society, the Binandere people of Oro Province, in depth. His account in 'A Short History of Papua New Guinea' explores the physical, social and spiritual relationships of his village and details how they are interwoven into his community.
The border between the Koiari (Central Province) and the Orokaiva (Northern Province lies at Templetons Crossing No 2 on the Kokoda Trail). Northern Province extends to the beaches of Buna, Gona and Sanananda. The provincial capital is Popondetta.
The Binandere people in the Popondetta area see themselves as located within a family and among a small group with whom they have built strong bonds. In turn, a Binandere views members of other societies on the basis of kin associations and alliances that might have been fashioned between the Binandere and the other society in the past through war and trade, or today through business or politics. Much Binandere behaviour is determined by obligations and enmities within a close network of people. All are judged on how they fulfil their obligations to others. They hare also very conscious of their location by place. The roots of the Binandere are anchored at the arapa of thei hamlets, where they grew up and to which they make conscious and constant reference in later life.
The significance of the arapa is that this physical space binds all people who reside on it as a single entity. Its members enter into a kind of contractual obligation with one another which means that if and when one of them is affected by something, then another member is expected to act in response.
The arapa could be the area between the mando, women's house, and the oro, men's house, both of which face each other, or it may be just the front space of a house in a particular section of the village. The physical charter of a c community contains the idea that one belongs to a fixed place or arapa. From there one is linked in a web of relationships that underlie rights and obligations within the confines of the arapa. If a person violates these rights and the obligations, the rights granted to him or her by kinship will be affected.
Although the arapa is bare ground, usually swept by women, it is a highly respected place. This sense of honour is expressed in the killing of a pig whenever an adult falls in an arapa when the ground is slippery. On a rainy day, everyone grips the ground tightly with their toes to avoid falling. Even if the fall is an accident, the owners of the arapa make absolutely certain that relatives of the fallen do not accuse them of haning set up a snare to trap inturders withy evil intent who try to enter other peoples's arapa. The pig killing is a declaration that the owner is innocent and that the fall is in fact an accident.
The centre of the arapa in the village is marked by the fire place in front of and underneath each house. for the women, their hearth is for the fire to cook vegetables - taro, banana, potatoes, pumpkin, greens - with pieces of meat and fish in large clay pots of conical shape of various sizes.
For men, the fire place is in a hall without walls where both formal and informal meetings take place. Social interaction among male members of the nuclear family occurs here everyday at early dawn and at dusk, except when it rains and the fire burns underneath the house. This is a place of informal learning as the male elders teach codes of behaviour, family history, legends, and other traditions. Almost every day this knowledge is told and repeated. By the time children reach adolescence they will have heard these various testimonies a thousand times.
The arapa is also a formal gathering place where men come together to discuss issues of general concern. Formal feasts and major ceremonies are conducted in this area, where the sponsors are received, entertained, and fed, and from which the distribution of pig meat and vegetables takes place. In times of disputes or conflicts, the parties stay put on their own arapa and speeches are delibered from them. Decisions are handed down here after the 'big men' have made their public statements. Formal negotiation about marriage and bride price also occur on the arapa, as well as the exchange of brinde wealth. Late in the evenings, two elders might meet to discuss sorcery. Nowadays, village committees and coucillors use the arapa to discuss community matters and business concerns.
A well-known feature of the society has to do with the manner in which discussions are conducted, decisions reached, and recommendations carried out. The arapa provides the forum for both private conversation and the public debate to arrive at a consensus with which the majority of people present feel comfortable. A decision reached collectively can hold together those present, at least temporarily, until the decision is implemented. If agreement can not be reached, then at least this forum contains the basis for any further debate.
Being an integral part of the arapa entitles household members to benefit from the fruits of one another's labour, whether in sharing garden produce, a big catch of fish, rendering services, or raising a pig for another close kin in the olden times, or even assistance to be elected to a public office nowadays. Each member is regarded as a resource person and is expected to contribute something, whether economic or emotional, towards the well-being of the arapa as a corporate entity.
Everyone relies upon each other as a source of material and moral support in good and bad times. As such, the household as a unit is a captial resource when any kin undergoes a lean period. Whenever an arapa member is in need of a valuable item such as a pig that is not easily available, then other member provide it. Simply put, every member regards the other as ujiwo, a capital resource, from which assistance of any kind comes forthe in good and bad times through the obligatioin of kinship.
The underlying principle of arapa is goodness. Although Leo Hannett used the term 'tribe' in a loose manner, he nonetheless desribed this value well:
'It is manifested in that personal jumane concern for others, that sense of oneness, and that feeling of brotherhood which flows in the blood of every member of the tribe. Why must such good qualities be thrown away? Isn't the world today yearning with anguish for just such qualities? I would rather be a tribalist, feeling at one with and being olved by many than be an individualist who is more likely to be shipwrecked with the inhumane disease of lonliness.'
In the absence of the state, the ethical system of the Binandere emphasised the importance of reciprocity among people. The cultivation of sympathy and co-operation must begin in the family, as defined by arapa, and then extend by degrees into the village, clan, and to the tribe. Relationships could expand from the nuclear family along definite kin lines to include the extended family bounded by the charter of the arapa, and through which candidates could channel their bids for election as a member of a council, a provincial, or national government. This, in may ways, in fact, it is possible to think of parliament as a national arapa.
Although the above account is of one small society among many, the underlying attitudes described here are to be found in many other regions. Like the Bindandere, the people of most Papua New Guinean societies had strong affinity with theri land and did not separate the social from the political, or even the past from the present.