ANTH 0780 (CRN 35171)
Angela Lockard Reed
Trobrianders Study Questions
Introduction and Chapter 1
1. How did Malinowski's ethnographic field methods differ from most anthropologists of his time?
2. What was Weiner's research topic when she first arrived in the Trobriands? What did she eventually study?
3. What impact did tourism have on the Trobrianders? What caused tourism to decline?
4. What features of Trobriand culture did missionaries seek to change? Describe three. What did Malinowski think the effect of missionization would be? According to Weiner why did Trobriand traditions persist?
1. How do people treat someone who is dying?
2. What do the Trobrianders believe causes death?
3. How does a death divide people into “owners” (toliuli) and “workers” (toliyouwa)? Who are the principle workers? Which group makes a greater display of grief? Why?
4. What are the responsibilities of the “workers?”
5. What are the responsibilities of the 'owners?'
6. Why is it important not to fall asleep during the night of mourning after someone dies?
7. What is taken from the corpse before burial? What happens to it?
8. Why would a corpse be buried face down?
9. What do owners give workers in the first mortuary exchange (sigiliyawali)? Why is it harder to "pay" workers if the deceased is polygynous? Which non-owners help the owners?
10. What do workers give owners in the first mortuary distribution? Which non-workers help workers? How is the worker's "payment" ambivalent?
11. How is the memory of the dead person perpetuated in the months following a funeral? Who does it?