Trobriand islanders are the inhabitants of Trobriand Island. This is a unique community of people, who despite the civilization and European colonization were able to maintain their authentic traditions and way of life. These people still live by primitive style of living, but some of the impacts of globalization they have taken into their lives. Many anthropologists explored Trobriand culture, but two of them succeeded the most. Let`s have a more deliberate look at this unusual islanders who were able to save their primitive identity among the world of civilization.
Trobriand consists of the four main islands which are located in Solomon Sea and officially they are the part of Papua New Guinea, which is geographically the southern part of Pacific Ocean. The approximate population of the islands nowadays is 12 thousand inhabitants who speak Kilivila language. Firstly, Trobriand was explored by Europeans in 1793 year when the ship Esperance landed on its shore. The island was named after the lieutenant, Denis de Trobriand. But since then, Europeans didn`t have any influence on the island just up to the 1894 year when the first missionaries arrived there. Native inhabitants continued to live by their own habits and didn`t mind Europeans who landed there. The island belonged first to English, but later to Australians.
Speaking about the modern life of Trobriand islanders, it is possible to say that globalization (which came here through European colonization of the island) still had its impact on the traditional culture. But despite all the efforts of Europeans they could have only a slight influence on native inhabitants, mainly because Trobriands are very proud of their local traits. When to mention this island’s traditions, the first thing which comes up to the mind is that they have free love traditions. They don’t care about family traditions and honesty to their partner. Women play the major role in life and even when women have children, they think that is due to the Spirit of Baloma. Trobriands have special cabins on the island where people can spend intimate time with their partner. European missionaries tried to bring moral Christian concepts to the islanders, but they haven’t succeeded to do it by this time. The only notion which they could bring to these people is for men to make presents for their beloved women and that’s unfortunately all we have in common with people who still live by primitive habits. Due to their ‘free love’ relations, now Trobriands have very high level of AIDS and even some tribes vanished because of this severe disease.
Despite the proud temper of the locals, missioners and ethnographers were still able to bring a piece of civilization to this primitive life habits. Europeans brought musical instruments to islanders and passion for music. A big number of schools have been built on islands and many local children go there. By studying, youth become more and more prone to European traditions. Many tourists visit these unusual places and islanders are eager to learn something new from them. Europeans also bring sports to the islanders. The favorite one is cricket. It is supposed to be even political game, as the team that win is the major and representatives of the other team which lose do what the winners prefer them to do.
Since 1894 when the missioners have started to arrive in the island, the biggest contribution has been made by Polish anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski. The most known his works are Argonauts of the Western Pacific and The Sexual Life of Savages in Northwest Melanesia. He made his first trip to Trobriands in the year 1914. Anthropologist is best known for invention of functionalists’ school of anthropology and developing the methods of anthropological fieldwork. One of his biggest contributions was in the study of Trobriand Islanders, in which he outlined the importance of knowing the indigenous language to be able to understand the inhabitants. The scientist studied the marriage, religion and trade cultural features of Trobriands. Malinowski outlined that it is important not only to communicate with them and to find out the trait of culture, but also to share their everyday life and to witness it by himself. Important belief that was stated by him is that which supported Freudian notion of Oedipal Complex – which says that ‘primitive’ people are able to perform same level and types of cognitive reasoning as ‘civilized’ people. That is about the ability of the mind to receive and process information is the same no matter of culture or nationality.
Another great anthropologist who worked on Trobriand culture was Annette Weiner. Long after Malinowski researches, in 1976, she published her work about her investigations about Trobriand culture Women of Value, Men of Renown: New Perspectives in Trobriand Exchange. Weiner took into account the works of Malinowski, further pointing on the role of women in Trobriand Society. Mostly she supported ideas of Malinowski, but she challenged his classical anthropologic works by telling that women in Trobriand are of the first importance. That`s how the approaches of two scientists differ.
Anyway, works of these two anthropologists are classics of the anthropological study and they don`t need to be doubted. They both worked for a long time to prove the notions which they stated and there are many factors which are accountant for their perspectives. Malinowski lived with Trobriand islanders along a very long period of time, he involved himself into their culture and way of life, and moreover he knew the native language and understood Trobriands very well. And Annette Weiner main statement was that women are very significant in this society and she was also right by telling that. Trobriand women can change the partners whenever they want to, they don’t report to their men partners. Trobriand women have free way of life, and what is the most important is that they leave the newborn babies with them and their families, and children don’t go to fathers’ families.
Talking about ethnography and anthropology in the modern world, it is honest to say that these sciences have made a big breakthrough. But still there are challenges which modern ethnographers face with. Some of these challenges are redefining of the concept ‘site’ (it is no longer a physical site of work, but everything becomes more mobile and online), the challenge of representation (as videos, on CD’s, as fiction or on special websites), changing concepts of ‘culture’, the notion of individual in context, a new concept of identity, and also the challenge of solving local problems in the context of a global community.
So, in this paper the life of modern Trobriand Islanders was discussed. The way that they live now didn’t change much from ancient times; they kept their identical traditions and culture. But still European colonization had its impact on Trobriands way of life. This culture has become known due to the works of such great anthropologists as Bronislaw Malinowski and Annette Weiner.
References
Bronislaw Malinowski. (2016). Nndb.com. Retrieved 26 March 2016, from http://www.nndb.com/people/320/000099023/
Malinowski, B. (2002). Argonauts of the western Pacific. London: Routledge.
Weiner, A. (1988). The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea (p. 184). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
