The bilum is the mother of us all : an interpretative analysis of the social value of the Telefol looped string bag
Date
1986
Authors
MacKenzie, Maureen A
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Abstract
This thesis examines the production and use of the looped string bag among the Telefol speakers
of Papua New Guinea with emphasis on the interpretation of the string bag as a useful and
socially meaningful product. It analyses the practical activities in which men and women engage
in in relation to the bilum, and the ways in which it is used within various social contexts to
fulfill their different interests.
The background to Telefol life is introduced in terms of the distinction between women and
men, which encodes the wider themes of the differentiation between nurturing and killing. These
dimensions are seen as polarities which frame Telefol social, economic and religious life within
the village, and thus the contexts in which the string bag is made and used. Yet it is made clear
that the nature of these polarities is also ambiguous.
In introducing the object of analysis a detailed visual account of all the types of string bag
produced by the Telefol is provided. The use of indigenous labels and categories clearly points
to the fact that women, who make the ‘principal form’ of string bag within the domestic realm,
classify the bags according to construction processes and correlated looping techniques, while
men reclassify according to the elaborations which they add within the realm of the exclusive
male cult. This evident gender differentiation provides the basis for the structure of the rest of
the thesis.
The analysis then focuses on the most characteristic Telefol string bag, and examines the way
in which it is constructed as a cultural product. Equal emphasis is placed on the role of the
manufacturer in material technical production, and the role of the recipient in extending the
potential of the bag through use, and thus completing its production. The morphological,
functional and metaphorical attributes of the string bag are all examined and the bag is shown
to be a multivalent artefact which is differently perceived according to particular social or ritual
context, and the age and gender of the interpreter. The Telefol statement ‘the bilum is the
mother of us all' is taken as the key to interpretation.
The concluding discussion presents a consideration of the ways in which the bilum is used to
differentiate between women and men by emphasising their antithetical natures and polarised
activities, and yet simultaneously to highlight their identity of interest in the combined task of
social reproduction and cosmic regeneration. The opposing notions of gender antithesis and the
interdependence and integration of the sexes are both articulated through the string bag. It is
argued that the Telefol string bag is a medium for both women and men to confront dissonance
in the paradoxical nature of their relationship.
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