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  2. Faces of Melanesia

Kitava Islands, Trobriand Islands

Love islands, dog greeter, young dancers, cricket dances, artifact sellers
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Portrait of a girl dancer, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
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Portrait of a girl dancer, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG

  • Dog greeter, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> This Kitava Island dog waded out to greet us. I figured that this photo was unlikely to offend anyone, even though the dog IS naked, LOL. Some interesting research on the Kitava Island diet/health connection has recently been published, which I have summarized below. <br /> <br /> Kitava island and the other Trobriand islands are famous not only for their culture but also for their huge yam gardens, controlled by matrilineal clans, and important in their culture and traditions. They have no electricity, no cars, and no outboard motors on boats. The people are most subsistence horticulturalists. <br /> <br /> In 1989, Swedish researcher Staffan Lindeberg and his team identified Kitava Island as being one of the last populations on Earth where dietary habits match that of the original inhabitants of the island several thousand years ago, as early as 23,000 BP (before present). Sixty-nine percent of their calories come from carbohydrate, 21% from fat and 10% from protein; this is essentially a carbohydrate-heavy version of the paleolithic diet. Lindeberg found that the residents of Kitava live exclusively on root vegetables (yam, sweet potato, taro, tapioca), fruit (banana, papaya, pineapple, mango, guava, water melon, pumpkin), vegetables, fish and coconuts. Less than 0.2% of their caloric intake came from Western food, such as edible fats, dairy products, sugar, cereals, and alcohol (compared with roughly 75% in Western society). Their fat consumption (from coconuts), while low, is high in saturated fat and they have high intakes of vitamins, minerals and soluble fibre, and a low salt consumption. <br /> <br /> Lindeberg's studies of the islanders showed that Kitava Island has a fair number of older residents, none of whom show signs of dementia or poor memory. Death is due to accidents such as drowning or falling from a coconut tree, homicide, malaria, complications of pregnacy and old age. The islanders have undetectable levels of cardiovascular disease, stroke and overweight and they have low blood pressure and no acne. Sounds like a pretty healthy diet to me!<br /> <br /> Pictures of large groups islanders can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/WXzCX">http://goo.gl/WXzCX</a><br /> <br /> 135 mm, 1/640 sec, f11, ISO 160
  • Lei welcome, Kitava Is, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a girl-1, Kitava Is, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a girl-2, Kitava Is, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a girl-3, Kitava Is, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a girl-4, Kitava Is, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a girl-5, Kitava Is, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a girl-6, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> The Trobrianders practice many magic spells, and the spells for beauty are are chanted into coconut oil, and then a person rubs it onto their skin, or into flowers and herbs that decorate their armbands and hair, as you can see here. (This apparently works even for 'ugly' people).<br /> <br /> In the early 1900s, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski lived for several years with the Trobriand Islands and he wrote a series of groundbreaking books that still make entertaining reading today. A short summary of Malinowski’s observations can be read here: <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/savagesex">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/savagesex</a>.<br /> <br /> In Malinowski book ‘The Sexual Life of Savages’ he describes the fascinating sexual customs of the islanders where girls as young as 6-8 start freely having sex, and boys as young at 10-12 years old. As in this photo, the girls went topless, although this is now starting to change due to the influence of the missionaries.<br /> <br /> Malinowski describes how, despite having sex from an early age, the girls rarely get pregnant, and the people don’t believe that sex is the cause of pregnancy. They believe that when people die their spirit takes a canoe to the island of Tuma, and when their spirit get old it shrugs off its skin and turns into an embryo, which a spirit takes back to the island of the living and inserts into a woman and makes her pregnant. Apparently this belief in the lack of connection between sex and pregnancy can still be found today. Since they don’t believe that sex causes pregnancy, there is no concept of fatherhood and the society is matrilineal since you can always be sure who your mother is, even if there is no ‘father’. However the mother’s husband shows great care and concern for the children.<br /> <br /> Malinowski’s work influenced the young Margaret Mead, whose famous book “Coming of Age in Samoa” influenced the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Her description of matrilineal societies such as the Trobriand Islands (‘Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies’) was the cornerstone of the feminist movement.<br /> <br /> Some other portraits of Trobriand girls can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/92JRv">http://goo.gl/92JRv</a><br /> <br /> 125 mm, 1/125 sec, f11, ISO 280, flash fill
  • Children on the beach, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Young women with gifts, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Villagers gathering for a show, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Villagers watching dancers, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Young women dancers, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Young women dancers-2, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Young women doing traditional dance, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Young girl dancers, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Young girl dancers-2, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a girl dancer, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a young girl, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
  • Portrait of a small boy, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG
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