Lakalai Tales: an Analysis

Abstract

The content of the thesis is an analysis of tales from Lakalai, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, which were recorded in 1912 and between 1954 and 1974. It represents an attempt to understand, appreciate, and interpret tales that belong with an oral tradition and culture for which published ethnographic material is available, but which is one I have never personally experienced. The analysis has been based on information drawn from published and unpublished ethnographic material for the Lakalai, together with narrative texts and ethnographic material from other New Britain and Melanesian societies. The thesis details a number of problems met with in the course of the analysis, as well as an analysis of the tales. It explores the significance and meaning of a large variety of spirits, who form the bulk of the cast with whom human characters interact, together with the spirit worlds they represent, in relation to human lives. An attempt has been made to preserve the distinction between truth and fiction as perceived by the Lakalai, while paying attention to narrative fantasy and symbol. Trickster tales, which are regarded as fiction, are treated in a separate chapter. The tales are shown to convey beliefs and values, but also to serve political and economic interests, and to articulate concepts of cosmological, geographical, and social place. The analysis includes discussions on the preservation of values through narratives which are nevertheless open to novelty and change. It also includes discussions on the psychological relationship between humans and spirits, and on spirit depictions which are partly seen to encode human orientations, and relationships, between kin and affines, between kin and 'outsiders', or between humans in village situations, where values can be challenged or affirmed. Other discussions refer to the symbolism of spirits who take anthropomorphic or animal forms, and to the symbolism of phenomena related to the sky world, including fire, the sun, and the moon. An introduction provides basic ethnographic information which is expanded in the following chapters, and describes the nature of the tales and the approach adopted for the analysis. A conclusion considers the problems and merits of the method and approach.