J. Pouwer ,,Loosely structured in Netherlands New Guinea

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 116 (1960), no: 1, Leiden, 109-118

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he book under review, for which Van der Leeden was awarded a doctorate at Leiden University, contains only part of the Tresults of the thorough and intensive research carried out between 1952 and 1955 in the Sarmi area (northern New Guinea) by the author, then Government Ethnologist in Netherlands New Guinea. This doctor's thesis only deals with the western interior of the Sarmi area, viz. the region between the Mamberamo in the west and the Woske in the east. The culture of this area differs from that of the eastern part. Then, the author concentrates on two communities in the western interior, and only compares them with the rest of the western inland region in two brief paragraphs. Finally, after giving a rapid survey of the culture as a whole, he limits his discussion to the social aspect of the culture concerned. In other words, his study is limited both geographically and thematically. The reader may wonder what the ethnographic and theoretical value may be of such an intensive study of the social life of two miniature communities, the Samarokena and the Mukrara which have 68 and 71 members respectively. In my opinion, its value lies in the fact that it is a study of man and community in a marginal situation. We learn that the population of the western interior has to make, maintain and give content to its living in natural surroundings which are "merciless and in some respects even hostile, and which supply the inhabitants with little more than the barest necessities of life" in this case sago and pork. The landscape consists of marshlands and steep hills, and is characterized by erosion of the cultivated soil, floods and earthquakes. The semi-nomadic way of life of these communities, the very slight density of the population, the diffused settlement pattern, and the small

Review of A. C. van der Leeden, Hoofdtrekken der socuJe struktuur m het Westelijke bmnenlcmd van Sarmi (i.e. "The principal features of the social structure in the western inland regions of Sarmi") Eduard IJdo, Leiden 1956.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 10:25:54PM via free access 110 DR J. POUWER. size of the local groups — seldom more than 100 individuals — are undoubtedly all connected with the scantiness of the natural resources. One of the dangers always threatening these small communities in their unfavourable habitat is that of becoming extinct (p. 158). The great merit of this study is that Van der Leeden has always kept this marginal situation in mind when analysing and synthesizing his data. He does not deal with and as an abstract system, existing in vacua, but he projects them onto the concrete reali- ties of human beings and their world. It is for this reason that the book, in spite of its highly specialized and technical character, which makes it unsuitable for the general reader, yet presents us with the almost infinitely varied and always fascinating spectacle of living human beings, whom we recognize and appreciate as fellow-men.2 An intense interest and warm sympathy for his Papua fellowman is the foundation of Van der Leeden's scholarship and was the stimulus for his field research, which he carried out in extremely difficult cir- cumstances, and while suffering from ill-health. Such intensive studies of man as bearer of culture in a marginal situation are rare in cultural . It is my conviction that they can give us a more profound insight into the main subject of anthropological research, i.e. the way elements are integrated in, and into, culture, and the interaction of individual and community. In fact, they can do so better than many descriptions of larger communities, which always run the risk of too much generalization, and thus of becoming little more than blueprints. A second point in favour of this work is the writer's scrupulous and objective manner of collecting, analysing and presenting his facts, and the great theoretical knowledge he displays. When one knows from one's own experience how, even in his undergraduate years at Leiden, Van der Leeden was "steeped in Levi-Strauss" as no other, it is simply comical to read the review of his thesis by Rodney Needham in Man (Vol. LVIII, June 1957, nr. 112), in which he is advised to read Levi- Strauss ! His painstaking, systematic presentation and interpretation of his

;1 A. C. Van der Leeden, Hoofdtrekken der socicde structuur in het westelijke bmnenland van Sarmi, Leiden; IJdo N.V., 1956. 168 pages, with 3 appendices, a map and a summary in English. 2 See also Fischer's review of this thesis in Nieuw-Guinea Studivn, year 1, nr. 2, April 1957, p. 172.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 10:25:54PM via free access LOOSELY STRUCTURED SOCIETIES IN NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA. Ill material allows the reader to follow the argument — which at times is very compact — step by step; it also permits the reader to form a reasoned opinion differing from the author's own, on the grounds of the same data. This is the greatest compliment one can make the writer of a scholarly work. Like other workers in the labyrinth of New Guinea cultures and communities, Van der Leeden was also hampered in drawing up the pattern of the community (Linton's "construct pattern") by the tre- mendous variability of behaviour, and also, in particular, by the strong bilateral tendencies. Both factors tended to make the over-all picture confused and hazy. Prominent ethnologists as Van Baal and the late Professor Held in this connection even spoke of loose social structure. The influence of bilateral kinship reckoning comes to the fore on almost every page of Van der Leeden's work. In the first place, there is the with its marked bilateral features, particu- larly in the generations of the grandparents, children, and grand- children, and with respect to distant relatives. The terminological system resembles the Hawaiian type. It is true there are separate terms for fa-younger-si and for mo-br, but these are to be explained by the prevalent marriage type, involving exchange of sisters. The fact that the partners in the exchange are terminologically distinguished, results, in the next generation, in distinctive terms for cross-cousins. In every-day life, however, these terms are only used in situations which demand an exact determination or classification of kinsfolk (p. 42). It is considered quite normal to address cross-cousins by the same terms one employs toward siblings. This also applies to mo-si-children, for whom there is also a distinctive term, remarkably enough. There are few unilineal indications in the terminological system. Furthermore one notes the great structural importance of the rela- tionships between siblings (br-si, br-br, si-si). The sibling group is a closely-knit unit, after as well as before the marriage of its members (p. 72). This is most strikingly shown up by the prohibition of cross- . The informants themselves explain this prohibition in a purely bila- teral manner: cross-cousins are of the same blood, being descended from a man and a woman, who call each other brother and sister. So we need not be surprised at the ease with which siblings and cross- cousins are terminologically identified.

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In this connection the entirely bilateral inheritance of food plants deserves separate mention (for particulars see p. 88). The rules of inheritance illustrate the importance of the parent-child and sibling relationship. With the parent-child and the sibling relationships so heavily stress- ed, a considerable bilateral elaboration of these relationships in the wider contexts of kinship is almost unavoidable, the more so as the superstructure is only slightly developed, and the nuclear has a remarkably independent position, and acts independently. There are no units at a level or higher. To quote Van der Leeden: "One of the greatest problems I faced in my fieldwork was caused by the vagueness of the larger kinship groupings among the Samarokena and Mukrara. Some of these groups proved hardly to be recognized at all, due to bilateral influences, and it seems that among the Samarokena and Mukrara "kin group" means practically the same as "kinship" (p. 88). There is no clearly-defined term meaning "". Of the six "lineages" (geslachten) which appear as corporate units in the two communities, only two are predominantly patrilineal, and the two smal- lest ones are completely bilateral. Van der Leeden himself attributes the vagueness in distinguishing kin group to the fact that one considers oneself a member of father's as well as of mother's kin group (p. 93). Finally, Van der Leeden observes on very good grounds, that the distinction between traceable and traditional relatives, so important for the regulation of marriage, also shows bilateral features. The result is that the exogamous and endogamous groups cannot be sharply defined either. It is obvious that the author met considerable difficulties when he had to interpret these data in order to draw up a structural model. He was very much aware of these difficulties, as is proved for instance, by the following sentence: "I n spite of these bilateral fea- tures (my italics, P.) I believe we must study the lineages from a unilineal point of view" (p. 97). He rightly says that the bilaterality in the western interior is an original phenomenon, and not due to modern influences (p. 157, 158). However, he considers it to be of only secondary importance. Van der Leeden's approach to the fundamental pattern of the social structure is as follows: In the first place, he attaches great structural importance to the fact that marriage is patrilocal in principle. He argues that, due to this

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 10:25:54PM via free access LOOSELY STRUCTURED SOCIETIES IN NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA. 113 patrilocality, the descent grouping is, in principle, patrilineal; he even calls the patrilineal system of the western interior an aspect of patri- locality (p. 97). This probably means that in this area the patrilineal structure comes to life in the patrilocal marriage, and only manifests itself within the local group. In the second place, structural importance is attributed to the exchange mechanism which regulates the marriage relationships between the so-called lineages (geslachten), unorthodoxly defined as corporate kin groups comprising traceable relatives. The symmetrical exchange of women in one generation has men as subjects and the women as objects of the exchange. This means that the women (i.e. sister or daughter) are written off as a loss,' and this, again, has a patrilineal effect. This situation enhances the patrilineal structure of the groups participating in the exchange, that is to say, the "geslachten". According to the author, this contrasts with a much less manifest asymmetrical exchange comprising a number of geslachten, which leads to a matrilineal descent reckoning. During his work in the field Van der Leeden was struck by the opinion that the matrilineal relatives of a married woman may "marry back" after an unspecified number of generations. The prohibition of marriage with close bilateral relatives prevents the "marrying back" of i.a. the daughter of a married woman, or of her da-da; they marry into other local descent groups; but the above-mentioned opinion implies a "return" of their descendants, in other words a circulation of women through an unspecified number of groups participating in the exchange (A -+B -*C ~*X -+A). This view is hardly supported by the facts. None of the definite cases which the author managed to track down (p. 132) show truly matri- lineal descent. Nevertheless, he attributes functional significance to the matrilineal descent reckoning, because of the distinctive terminological classification of mo-si-children, and because of three myths. On the strength of the patrilineal and the matrilineal aspects of the symmetrical and the asymmetrical exchange respectively, Van der Leeden puts forward the hypothesis that the marriage and descent rules of the western interior are based on a double-descent system of the Aranda type. However, in his opinion this double-descent system only fulfils the role of an "integrative idea". It is obvious that Needham's criticism, that Leiden anthropologists in general and Van der Leeden in particular, are addicted to "pseudo-historical theoretical excesses" is quite off the mark. Van der Leeden is not interested in historical or Dl. 116 8

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 10:25:54PM via free access 114 DRJ. POUWER. pseudo-historical but in structural explanations, in the underlying, integrative idea or model. This model has only achieved rudimentary realization, in Van der Leeden's opinion, because of the "marginal situation" (my term, P.) in which the population of the western interior has to live. In his opinion, the tiny, highly vulnerable communities arm themselves against the danger of becoming extinct by deviating from the unilineal princi- ples (p. 158). The marked bilateral features, the strong unity of the sibling group, the importance of family life, the force and the erratic nature of the individual genealogical ties, all these are seen by Van der Leeden as secondary adaptations to a very harsh natural milieu. By means of them, a fair degree of integration is achieved. This is the positive side of the bilateral system, which contrasts with the negative side: the looseness of the social structure. At this point, Van der Leeden and I come to the parting of our ways. Even when one takes into account that an "integrative idea" is never and nowhere completely realized, Van der Leeden's hypothesis, ingeniously conceived though it may be, is too much at variance with the reality so well described by Van der Leeden himself to be credible. When the deviations from an idea or rule are so frequent and so basic that the conception itself becomes almost unrecognizable, one cannot help wondering whether the conception itself is correct. In my opinion it is not. To my mind the fundamental mistake — which is not made by Van der Leeden alone — lies in the idea that the bilateral principle of kinship cannot produce a permanent, stable structure of a distinct type. The author's views seem to be that only unilineal principles can give form and continuity to a community based on kinship. He calls bilate- rality in its manifestations a concomitant of a loose social structure, i.e. great individual variation in behaviour (p. 157), which at best plays the role of a secondary integrating factor (namely, adaptation to diffi- cult circumstances in which the community lives). However, bilaterality can very well be interpreted as an integrative idea.3 A consistently bilateral kinship reckoning may well be combined with a restrictive territorial criterion: only those descendants are considered as members of the corporate kin group, who, via father,

3 Cf. in particular the lucid, stimulating article by W. A. Goodenough, A problem in Malayan and Polynesian social organization; in American Anthro- pologist, Vol. LVII, 1955, pp. 71-83.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 10:25:54PM via free access LOOSELY STRUCTURED SOCIETIES IN NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA. 115 mother, or both, are domiciled in the group's territory. Descendants who settle elsewhere, men as well as women, are still individually con- nected with their original group, but their descendants belong to the group where they live (unless they return to the original territory). This system has the same effect as , viz. to limit the number of members of the kin group; but the descent lines do not comprise men only or women only, but both. Like unilineal groups, such groups can have corporative functions. For example, they have their own territorial rights, and they are units which participate in marriage relationships. In contrast with the unilineal groups, however, they are — by definition — localized. A kin group of this type coincides with a local group, if we leave out of consideration the individuals who married into it. The sibling relationship is the structural nucleus of such a group, which Goodenough calls a "restricted non-unilineal descent group", and Firth an ambilineal or ambilateral ramage. Not infrequently one can trace the members of the group back to a number of brothers and sisters. The bilateral ties between individual members of a kin group and members of other kin groups may acquire corpo- rative significance by fusion of the groups. The bilateral basis of the ambilineal system also appears from the fact that it is usually associated with a bilateral kinship terminology (Hawaiian type). There is a striking similarity between this brief outline of a "non- unilineal descent group", a ramage, and Van der Leeden's description of what he calls a geslacht. In his genealogies one continually comes across descent lines containing men as well as women. We also observe that more than once he traces back membership of the geslachten to a number of siblings, i.e. either to brothers and sisters, or to sisters alone (Appendix III, genealogies 2 and 3). If one also takes into consideration the bilateral features mentioned earlier in this review, one may well doubt whether Van der Leeden is justified in claiming a primary role for the unilineal principle. In my opinion the significance of the sibling relationship and of the sibling group, which he himself brings to the fore strikingly, should not be considered as secondary phenomena, but as essential to the social structure of the western interior. In addition, the other structural determinants mentioned by Van der Leeden, such as patrilocal marriage (that is to say, within the frame- work of an ambilocal marriage type) and symmetrical exchange of wives, can still receive their full due. Both factors produce a patrilineal

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 10:25:54PM via free access 116 DR J. POUWER. tendency within the framework of an ambilineal kinship system; but this does not mean that we may speak of a patrilineal structure. As to the matrilineal descent reckoning, assumed by Van der Leeden in connection with the notion of an asymmetrical exchange after a number of generations, we can say that an ambilineal framework leaves room for recognition of matrilineal descent, although the latter cannot predominate in the western interior because of the strong tendency toward patrilocal . Marriage with a matrilineal descendant of an "out-married" female member of one's own descent group need not be explained by means of a double descent system. During field work in the eastern Vogelkop area, where I encountered an ambilineal system,4 I also came across such cases of women who had married out and their matrilineal or ambilineal descendants "mar- rying back". My informants did not explain this by the demand of asymmetrical exchange of wives, but they characterized the situation as follows: "The woman who married out belonged, and continued to belong to our group. She did wrong by going away. In the person of one of her descendants she has now returned". This motivation shows the influence of the bilateral principle. The eastern Vogelkop also has the prohibition of marriage with close bilateral relatives. The borderline between permitted and prohibited marriages lies in the third ascending and descending generation. In this connection I again draw attention to the fact that Van der Leeden was unable to quote one single purely matrilineal case of "marrying back". The circumstance of a myth calling all mankind the descendants of the children of two sisters who intermarry, need not indicate a wide- spread matrilineal dualism. It can equally be explained by the signifi- cance of the sibling relationship (in this case si-si), combined with the prevalent view that woman generates life. The number two (two sisters) may well be connected with the symmetrical exchange of wives, which is performed by the children of the two sisters in the myth. This kind of exchange naturally implies two parties, in this case the two sisters and their daughters. Finally, one need not turn to the rules of the Aranda system with its 8 marriage classes (of which no trace is to be found

* A summary of the results of this research has been presented as a draft article to the New Guinea editors of Nieww Guinea Studien.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 10:25:54PM via free access LOOSELY STRUCTURED SOCIETIES IN NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA. 117 in the western interior, according to Van der Leeden himself!) in order to explain why" marriages between traceable relatives are prohibited, in spite of the positive contribution such marriages could make to the integration of the little communities of the western interior" (p. 165). Van der Leeden is obviously referring to marriage between traceable relatives not belonging to the same "geslacht". As soon as one assumes that descent in that region is not governed by unilineal, but by bilateral and ambilineal principles, one need no longer be so surprised at the prohibition of marriage with bilateral, traceable relatives. In addition, we may state that marriage with bilaterally traceable relatives who do not belong to one's ramage could threaten the existence of that ramage, for the following reason: one's own ramage, living in a marginal situation, must remain able to acquire new members, or to merge with another ramage. The first possibility can best be realized by incorporating traceable, or rather: close, relatives ("close" and "traceable" need not be synony- mous) ; the second possibility, by joining another ramage with which one entertains close, bilateral relations. My own studies in the eastern Vogelkop area showed that, there, the ramage makes use of both possibilities open to it. Van der Leeden's study indeed commands respect, but this discussion has brought to the fore an alternative: the ambilineal kinship system. During fieldwork in the eastern Vogelkop I reached the conclusion that this system represents a structural type in its own right and cannot be considered as a secondary phenomenon of adaptation. Even if the reader does not accept this point of view — as is his good right — he will have to consider that at present descriptions are coming in from various parts of Netherlands New Guinea which have no or hardly any historical connections with each other; these descriptions contain detailed information on social structure and provide data which are practically incompatible with a unilineal system. I need only mention the data on the Argoeni-Bay district (by Van Logchem), the Upper- Tor (by Oosterwal) and the entire eastern Vogelkop (by Pouwer). These studies compel us to reconsider the question whether a bilateral kinship reckoning can give rise to a kinship system which guarantees continuity, clarity, and viability, and is suited to life in harsh circum- stances, or even in a marginal situation.5

5 One has to distinguish between "being suited to something" and "adapting oneself to it".

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To my mind, the ambilineal system does meet these demands. It has an elasticity which is admirably suited to the unfavourable circum- stances in which many Papua communities are living. There are indica- tions that this system can develop under more favourable circumstances into one based on unilineality. Goodenough, for instance, has also tentatively reached this conclusion. It is clear that a further study of this problem, for which New Guinea offers splendid opportunities, could be an important contribution to the theory of cultural anthro- pology. It is high time for a thorough revaluation. I am the first to admit that I shall then have to revise my own theoretical implication of the social structure of Mimika.6 There are reasons for saying the same of Held's study on the Waropen, and Boelaars's on the Jachai. The present review, therefore, is not in the first place a criticism of the author's theoretical ingenuity, but a contribution to a common theoretical re-orientation. To attain this end, the anthropological "home front" and the front line in New Guinea must help each other. At present there is a real danger that these two are talking, and working, at crosspurposes without sufficient mutual understanding. So vague a concept as "loose social structure" will not bring us much further. I hope this review will elicit a reply.

Hollandia, 3d April 1959 J. POUWER

6 Cf. my doctor's thesis, Enkele aspecten van de Mimika-cultuur, (Some aspects of the Mimika Culture) Den Haag, 19SS.

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