John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series Torembi and the Sepik A Study of Village Life in New Guinea |
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Topic No. 23: Opening a New Spirit House ~ Photos 446 - 495 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series Torembi and the Sepik A Study of Village Life in New Guinea |
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Topic No. 23: Opening a New Spirit House ~ Photos 446 - 495 |
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| 446. Major events in the history of a community may also be marked by special celebrations: and the highlight of my first visit to Torembi was the opening of a new haus tambaran. (Decorated gable end) |
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| 447. It had taken two years to build. The materials as well as the labour were provided by members of the moiety involved, both from Torembi and neighbouring villages. The finishing touches, in readiness for the opening, were carried out the day before, when the women were banished to the bush, so the men’s magic would remain secret. |
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| 448. In front of the haus stood the rounded ceremonial waak. In the old days this would have been a mound of earth on which were piled the bodies of enemies captured or killed in battle. In this case, it was simply a small, fenced enclosure, carefully decorated, and connected to the Spirit House by a length of cane from which were hung emblems of garden spirits. |
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| 449.The adjacent dancing ground was outlined by coconut palms planted by village ancestors. From the size of the trees it’s obvious that the area must for generations have been the scene of celebrations like this…for Spirit Houses are usually built on old established sacred sites. |
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| 450. Since women, traditionally, are not allowed to enter a Spirit House, and the festivities were scheduled to last for three weeks, benches were built for them on either side of the dancing area. So women were catered for, even if it was out of doors. |
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| 451. The inside of the house had also been decorated. Oil paints flown in from Wewak, were used to clean up one of the old drums and some of the bark screens. |
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| 452. The flute players hiding in the loft, whose job was to impersonate the spirits, had decorated their instruments with rings of feathers. |
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| 453. And there was a new male debating stool. Though usually positioned inside the house he was allowed out-of-doors for the sing sing. |
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| 454. His female counterpart spent the whole time out of doors, in company with the other women. She was dressed and decorated like a girl from the village, with the usual kina shell round her neck, and a bilum on her back made of coloured string. |
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| 455. The official opening of the Spirit House was scheduled for dawn, when in a brief ceremony the leading men of the village invited the spirits of their ancestors to occupy the building prepared for them. As they entered the building, the spirits sang their songs (from the loft!) and cries of happiness rose from the crowd as each of their ancestors returned. |
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| 456. The first rays of sunlight illuminated the totem at the apex of the gable: and gradually, as it rose above the palms, the sun’s light worked its way down the end of the building – to the decorated areas beneath – with their painted faces, wild fruits, flowers and feathers. |
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| 457. The masks in the walls of the loft represent their most famous ancestors. And the open spaces, or holes, between them, are the eyes of the house. |
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| 458. Once the spirits had occupied the building they had to be fed, so a pig was killed, cooked and divided into as many pieces as there were families represented in the house. |
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| 459. Next a piece of meat was hung up alongside the space allocated in that house to each member of the moiety. It was typically attached to a hook fixed to one of the posts supporting the roof. This was the fanciest of the posts since it was close to the space allocated to the man whose family had done most to build the house. |
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| 460. In other cases the meat was simply hung up alongside each man’s personal possessions. This post displayed the owner’s kerosene lamp, his water bottle (in the wooden bracket), his favourite headband and some of his bedding. Later, the ancestral spirits were given betel nut to chew on as well: and both meat and betel somehow disappeared mysteriously quite early in the morning. |
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| 461. It was now necessary that the ‘ears’ of the house be opened as well as its eyes. The job was given, first, to a man wearing purple shorts and a bunch of leaves; but he was soon joined by others, also provided with spears. |
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| 462. As they danced, the crowd urged them on, and the spears were thrown – with great accuracy – striking the ears … that is the ends of the gable on either side of the masks. |
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| 463. This was all too exciting for some of the women present, and they took off in a supposedly spontaneous display of celebration, dancing round and round the house. As they danced some of them waved garden tools. Others carried leaves … or wore them. |
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| 464. Other women, with less energy to spare, spent their time checking on how much money each family had contributed towards the cost of the opening. The bank notes were attached to spears stuck into the ground at each end of the building. |
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| 465. The main celebration, with wholesale singing and dancing, did not begin till the heat of the day was past, and it continued thereafter from late afternoon until sunrise for 21 days. |
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| 466. The flutes were played throughout this period, day and night, and the women who had danced first did so again from time to time, with their leaves and their grass skirts flying in the breeze. |
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| 467. The rhythms for the dancing were established not by a garamut but by kundu drums and choruses sung by the dancers themselves. One man got carried away early on and brought out a flute …but it was soon returned to the Spirit House. And the elders assumed none of the women had seen it. |
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| 468. The entertainment that first afternoon was provided by the village in which the house was situated -- that is Torembi 2. Both young people and adults got dressed up, with make-up on their bodies as well as their faces, and head-dresses made from feathers. |
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| 469. They moved off in a procession, round and round the haus tambaran, and then round and round the waak. The song they sang then had 155 verses, and took about 12 hours to sing. It celebrated the victories of their ancestors. |
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| 470. The women paraded in grass skirts, and the men carried spears and palm fronds. |
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| 471. They did not dance continuously, however. Instead they’d perform for 15 or 20 minutes, and then take a break, when they would sit, or stand, and talk among themselves, showing off their gear. |
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| 472. This was true of children as well as adults. |
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| 473. For some it was a chance to roll a cigarette, or chew betel. And for those who had left home in a hurry there was even time for a quick shave! |
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| 474. The clothing on display had been improvised with a great deal of imagination. In addition to obvious items like shells, coins, seeds, feathers, flowers and leaves, they incorporated ring-pulls from beer cans on the girl's forehead and caps from beer bottles, together with bright red labels from tins of mackerel. |
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| 475. The commonest headbands among the men were made of cuscus fur … a reminder of the days when they were worn only by those who had killed a man in battle. |
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| 476. About 5 o’clock, the cry went up that the group from Torembi 3 had arrived, and the dancers from Torembi 2 went out to meet them on the river bank. |
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| 477. They danced there together for a while. Pretending they were enemies, they first tried to drive the newcomers away. Then they moved to the dancing ground together. |
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| 478. The dancers from Torembi 3 had darkened their skins, and were quite black … with matching head dresses made from the feathers of the muruk or cassowary. |
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| 479. So they danced again, around and around the haus tambaran, and
around and around the waak. The chorus to their song began:
We’re all going round the stone." |
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| 480. As the sun sank lower in the sky they danced on, well into the night … all night long in fact. |
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| 481. The event looked forward to most was the coming of the dancers from Torembi 1. Being the biggest village it was supposed to provide the best show best show, and seating was at a premium. |
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| 482. The organizers of the celebrations expected that these new dancers would attract a large crowd, so a fence was built around the dancing ground. Traditionally men here built fences to guard their secrets from the eyes of women; but this one had a practical purpose. |
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| 483. This fence made it possible for them to charge admission to those who came merely to watch. It cost about 20 cents to get inside. The fence itself was made from the leaves of sago palms. |
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| 484. Unfortunately, on the day the dancers from Torembi 1 arrived, it was pouring with rain. It was particularly unfortunate for the women who, of course, were not allowed inside the haus tambaran. They had to dance outside in the rain. |
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| 485. The men meanwhile worked up a sweat inside. |
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| 486. In the interval they even posed for photos … in the dry. |
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| 487. Eventually, though, the rain eased up and even the men ventured out of doors, to join the women. They danced around and around the haus tambaran, and around and around the waak. The men went in front, dressed as if for battle. |
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| 488. The women followed them, with grass skirts swinging to the rhythm of the drums. |
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| 489. The group from Torembi 1 included two imaginary characters from the swamp – an old man and an old woman – both played by men…with the help of a pair of coconut shells. |
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| 490. The instructions of the presiding sprits were mumbled into short flutes by men hidden away in a corner of the Spirit House. In this way, the men believed, the women would think that the spirits were in control of the event. |
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| 491. When these had finished speaking, the drums would be sounded and the dancers would set off again. |
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| 492. There was no limit seemingly to the age of those who performed … but the youngest had to eat on the run, as their mothers danced around the waak. |
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| 493.Torembi 2 provided a banquet of pork and rice as payment to the dancers from Torembi 1. |
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| 494. Others brought their own food … mostly pancakes made from sago. |
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| 495. This would have been a very significant day in the lives of the children who danced. They are unlikely ever again to participate in the dedication of a new Spirit House. These are once in a lifetime experiences. Also many of the older men whose knowledge of the traditions of the tribe had made this event possible would be dead in a few years. |
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