The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea

The Trobraianders of Papua New Guinea, cover of zine, 8.5x5.5", stencilprint

 The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea is the title of an anthropological study by Annette B. Weiner published by Wadsworth in 1988. I read the book last winter and drew all the photos (by Weiner) from it in the summer. I then collected the images and compiled these in a zine I published in an edition of eight. The covers for them are original stencil prints in a variety of colors. They are a remake of the original cover of the book by Weiner. The zine is #12 in the Ach Ja series I have been publishing since 2015. Some images from the inside can be found here. The same image that was used for the cover is found inside as well as photo 16. The caption reads: "About to leave the house for the first time after giving birth, Borobesa wears a long cape and covers her head." 

The Trobrianders are a rather famous subject of anthropology, as they were the subject of Argonauts of the Western Pacific [G. Routledge & Sons, 1922] by Bronisław Malinowski. Malinowski introduced the practice of 'participant observation' to the field of social anthropology, a practice that was adopted by the field of ethnography became the standard of all anthropological fieldwork. Weiner's book, published 66 years after Malinowski's, is a valuable (feminist) update to the Argonauts, as the original work lacked attention and access to the vantage point of the women of the Trobriand Islands. Weiner did not record any music during her research and, interested, I had to look elsewhere. There are several videos on YouTube that have sounds, and sometimes music, most notably Kama Wosi: Music in the Trobriand Islands [Documentary Educational Resources (DER), 1978] by the filmmaker Les McLaren. Between 1915 and 1918, Malinowski also recorded the Trobrianders on a series of wax cylinders that are now at the British Library. One of the recordings, Ragayewo by Tokulubakiki of 1918, made the Top 100 2022 list. The two paintings for the top 100 series are (first) the portraits of Malinowski and Weiner, and below of Tokulubakiki, his wife Kuwo’igu, and youngest child. Malinowski mentions the singer Tokulubakiki as a close friend. The photographic source for the painting is his. In the photo the singer and his wife are much closer. I separated the two for the sake of the canvas size and double portrait format. It now looks like two pages from a book of photographs.

Bronisław Malinowski/Annette B. Weiner

Tokulubakiki, his wife Kuwo’igu, and youngest child (after Malinowski)