Malinowski and the Trobriands:
Kula and Magic
•Trobriand Islands are 100 miles east of Papua New Guinea and
600 miles northeast of Australia.
Introductory Background
•Subsistence was fishing and yam
agriculture, both of which were abundant
and produced a surplus.
Coastal/inland/highland distinction.
•Matrilineal society: Descent is traced from
the mother’s line. Inheritance passes from
the mother’s brother to the sister’s son.
•A man was required to gift his sister’s
husband’s family periodically.
•Chieftainships: marriage was polygamous
for those of high rank
Exchange and Trade
•Exchanges occurred within villages,
from a man to his sister’s husband, and
from commoners to the chiefs.
•Also between villages on Kiriwina
island: especially between coast, (fish),
plains (yams) and highlands (steel
axes). Gimwali, often referred to in
derogatory terms.
•The most spectacular and prestigious
exchanges occurred between islands
and was known as kula, involving long
sailing expeditions across the open
sea.
Basic Features of the Kula
•Separation between utilitarian
exchange (gimwali) and ceremonial
exchanges (kula).
•The kula consists of the exchange of
ceremonial items: soulava (necklaces)
that travel clockwise and mwali
(armbands) that travel
counterclockwise.
•These items cannot be kept
permanently, at most for a year or 2.
•Possession of famous kula items
brings that person renown and
prestige.
Sociological Features of the Kula
• The partners in the kula were lifelong trading partners obliged to each other
for hospitality, help and assistance.
• Minor kula exchanges within a group of islands preceded major expeditions.
• Usually one overseas trading expedition per year.
• Upon arrival, visitors would be greeted with a soulava. If they could not
reciprocate with a mwali of equal renown, they offered intermediary gifts,
basi.
• If you knew your partner was in possession of a renowned kula article, he
would be solicited with various gifts, e.g. yams, pigs. If accepted, you would
proceed to the next valuable stage, e.g. steel axes. If enough was given, your
partner would be obliged to part with the soulava or mwali, as the case may
be.
• Example: Sinketa and Dobu: annual expeditions, visitors from Sinketa are
greeted with necklaces (soulava). When the Dobuans return the visit, they
are greeted with mwali (armbands).
• The soulava (necklaces) always travel in a clockwise direction, the mwali in a
counter-clockwise direction.
• Liberality in exchange brings renown; miserliness approbation and even
social exclusion. Attempting to hold onto a renowned soulava or mwali is
considered miserly.
• Social status: chiefs and high-ranking individuals most often circulate the
highest-value kula items; if commoners were to do so, it could be considered
a political challenge.
Prow of a Kula Canoe, c. 1993.
The Kula and Magic
• Each phase of the kula expedition is surrounded
with magical rites.
• These include:
– Canoe building and preparation (6 months): magical
rites to remove wood spirits, rites at the launching.
– Rites before the major expedition aimed at ‘softening’
the Dobuans, making them generous.
– Rites performed just after the outset of the voyage to
prevent shipwreck.
– Also rites to be performed in the event of a shipwreck.
– Finally, rites are performed just before entering Dobu,
involving bathing, anointing with oil, and ritual
dressing to impress the Dobuans.
Malinowski’s Functionalist Views on
Magic, Science and Religion
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Prior to Malinowski, magic was interpreted (by evolutionists) as a primitive form of
either science or religion.
For Malinowski, magic and religion were separate, because they fulfilled different
psychological functions. Religion answered questions that were unanswerable, e.g.
inevitability of death, and of human suffering.
In functionalist terms, magic was closer to science.
He showed how the Trobrianders possessed extensive empirical knowledge of their
environment, including gardening, soils, climate and were also good astronomers, i.e.
knowledge needed in long-distance sea voyages. Human beings have always been
thinking equally well.
Magic began where science ended. “Magic is to be expected and generally to be
found whenever man comes to an unbridgeable gap, a hiatus in his knowledge or in
his powers of practical control, and yet has to continue in his pursuit." Magic
alleviated anxiety and fear in situations which one could not control, e.g. the vagaries
of weather during sea voyages, one part of a crop of yams being destroyed due to an
unexpected pest invasion, etc.
Magical thinking can therefore be found in all societies, e.g. Gmelch’s article on the
talismans and taboos that professional baseball players use to improve their batting
or pitching averages.
According to Malinowski’s functionalist logic, can you think of other magical practises
in our own society?