Trees, Knots, and Outriggers Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology General Editor: Roy Ellen, FBA Professor of Anthropology, University of Kent at Canterbury Interest in environmental anthropology has grown steadily in recent years, refl ecting na- tional and international concern about the environment and developing research priorities. This major new international series, which continues a series fi rst published by Harwood and Routledge, is a vehicle for publishing up-to-date monographs and edited works on particular issues, themes, places or peoples which focus on the interrelationship between society, culture and environment. Relevant areas include human ecology, the perception and representation of the environment, ethno-ecological knowledge, the human dimension of biodiversity conservation and the ethnography of environmental problems. While the un- derlying ethos of the series will be anthropological, the approach is interdisciplinary. Volume 1 Volume 12 The Logic of Environmentalism: Anthropology, Unveiling the Whale: Discourses on Whales Ecology and Postcoloniality and Whaling Vassos Argyrou Arne Kalland Volume 2 Volume 13 Conversations on the Beach: Fishermen’s Virtualism, Governance and Practice: Vision and Knowledge, Metaphor and Environmental Change Execution in Environmental Conservation in South India Edited by James G. Carrier and Paige West Götz Hoeppe Volume 14 Volume 3 Ethnobotany in the New Europe: People, Health Green Encounters: Shaping and Contesting and Wild Plant Resources Environmentalism in Rural Costa Rica Edited by Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana, Andrea Luis A. Vivanco Pieroni and Rajindra K. Puri Volume 4 Volume 15 Local Science vs. Global Science: Approaches Urban Pollution: Cultural Meanings, Social to Indigenous Knowledge in International Practices Development Edited by Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe Edited by Paul Sillitoe Volume 16 Volume 5 Weathering the World: Recovery in the Wake of the Sustainability and Communities of Place Tsunami in a Tamil Fishing Village Edited by Carl A. Maida Frida Hastrup Volume 6 Volume 17 Modern Crises and Traditional Strategies: Local Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia: Ecological Knowledge in Island Southeast Asia Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillages Edited by Roy Ellen Edited by Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto Volume 7 Volume 18 Traveling Cultures and Plants: The Ethnobiology Things Fall Apart? The Political Ecology of Forest and Ethnopharmacy of Human Migrations Governance in Southern Nigeria Edited by Andrea Pieroni and Ina Vandebroek Pauline von Hellermann Volume 8 Volume 19 Fishers And Scientists In Modern Turkey: The Sustainable Development: An Appraisal Focusing Management of Natural Resources, Knowledge and on the Gulf Region Identity on the Eastern Black Sea Coast Edited by Paul Sillitoe Ståle Knudsen Volume 20 Volume 9 Beyond the Lens of Conservation: Malagasy and Landscape Ethnoecology: Concepts of Biotic Swiss Imaginations of One Another and Physical Space Eva Keller Edited by Leslie Main Johnson and Eugene Hunn Volume 21 Volume 10 Trees, Knots, and Outriggers: Environmental Landscape, Process and Power: Re-Evaluating Knowledge in the Northeast Kula Ring Traditional Environmental Knowledge Frederick H. Damon Edited by Serena Heckler Volume 11 Mobility and Migration In Indigenous Amazonia: Contemporary Ethnoecological Perspectives Edited by Miguel N. Alexiades Trees, Knots, and Outriggers Environmental Knowledge in the Northeast Kula Ring Frederick H. Damon berghahn N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D www.berghahnbooks.com First edition published in 2017 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2017 Frederick H. Damon All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Damon, Frederick H.. author. Title: Trees, knots, and outriggers (Kaynen Muyuw) : environmental knowledge in the northeast Kula Ring / Frederick H. Damon. Other Titles: Kaynen Muyuw Description: First edition. | New York : Berghahn Books, [2016] | Series: Studies in environmental anthropology and ethnobiology ; volume 21 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016022585| ISBN 9781785332326 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781785332333 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Traditional ecological knowledge—Papua New Guinea— Woodlark Island. | Human ecology—Papua New Guinea—Woodlark Island. | Muyuw (Papua New Guinean people) | Ethnology—Papua New Guinea— Woodlark Island. Classification: LCC GN671.N5 D36 2016 | DDC 305.8009953—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016022585 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78533-232-6 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-78533-320-0 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-78533-233-3 (ebook) To Grace, Nancy, and Kate Contents List of Figures, Graphs, Maps, and Tables viii Acknowledgments x PART I. Among the Scientists: New Perspectives on the Massim Introduction. Changes and Last Chapters 3 Chapter 1. Return to the Garden: Gwed, Locating Intentions, and Interpretive Puzzles 36 PART II. Toward an Ethnography of Trees Chapter 2. The Trees: Classifi catory Forms, Landscape Beacons, and Basic Categories 81 Chapter 3. The Forests and Fire: Tasim, Inverted Landscapes, and Tree Meanings 121 Chapter 4. A Story of Calophyllum: From Ecological to Social Facts 180 PART III. Synthesizing Models Chapter 5. Vatul: A Life Form and a Form for Life 247 Chapter 6. Geometries of Motion: Trees and the Boats of the Eastern Kula Ring 296 References 353 Index 364 Figures, Graphs, Maps, and Tables Figures 2.1. Tree Parts and Terms 114 3.1. Multivariate ENSO Index 148 4.1. Keel Design and Its Consequences 233 4.2. Wag/Bab Shape 234 5.1. Muyuw Fishing Net Structure 280 6.1. Kaynikw Structure 309 Graphs 1.1. pH vs. Fallow and Forest Type 70 1.2. P vs. Fallow and Forest Type 71 1.3. K vs. Fallow and Forest Type 72 Maps 0.1. The Voyage of 2002 9 1.1. Okaibom takulamwala 48 1.2. Extensive versus Intensive Resources Bases 50 2.1. Fractal Representation Of Base/Tip Contrasts 116 Tables 0.1. GPS Readings from Ole to Panamut; Panamut to Nasikwabw; and Nasikwabw to Waviay 10 1.1. 1995–96: Gwed [Rhus taitensis] Samples Sorted by Ascending ΔN 65 1.2. 1998 Gwed [Rhus] Harvest Experiment 65 1.3. Tabnayiyuw (“Tab.,” D. Papuanum ) Comparisons 67 1.4. Surface/Subsurface C&N Readings 68 Figures, Graphs, Maps, and Tables | ix 1.5. Code Key for Soil Types 69 1.6. pH and Fallow Forest Types 69 2.1. Muyuw Life Forms 89 2.2. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 95 2.3. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 96 2.4. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 98 2.5. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 99 2.6. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 99 2.7. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 101 2.8. Analysis of Variation of Tree Features 102 2.9. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 105 2.10. Grouped Trees and Their Western Determinations 106 3.1. Wabunun Yam House 159 3.2. Kaulay, Central Muyuw, Yam House 160 3.3. Mwadau, Western Muyuw, Yam House 162 3.4. Iwa Yam House, Bweyma 163 3.5. Ritual Firewood Trees by Place 169 4.1. Muyuw/Western Identifi cations 190 4.2. Ayniyan/Aynikoy Comparison 211 4.3. Lavanay Anageg/Kemurua (2002) Measurements 230 5.1. Vines 251 5.2. Vine Names 257 5.3. Finger Names for String Figure Teaching 286 5.4. String Figure Moves 287 6.1. Lavanay Eyalyal Measurements 310 6.2. Talapal Measurements 310 6.3. Kaynik Measurements 311 6.4. Lavanay Nedin Measurements 313 6.5. Sail (Alit’)/Rudder (Kavavis) Dynamics 318 6.6. Lavanay Kavavis Dimensions 319 6.7. Star Courses (Kut) 348 Acknowledgments As an analytical ethnography, this book combines anthropological tradi- tions with several of the earth sciences, botanical systematics, geochemis- try, ecology, and recent work in climatology concerning El Niño Southern Oscillation, ENSO. The work testifi es to the willingness of the University of Virginia to sponsor serious interdisciplinary research when its outcome is far in doubt. Support through an initial Dean’s Grant, a sequence of Summer Grants, and a fi nal grant from Arts, Humanities, and Social Sci- ences Research is greatly appreciated, as is a critical 2009 American Philo- sophical Society Franklin Research Grant that enabled a late exploration of the outrigger canoe form that, in the last analysis, carries this work. In the fi rst analysis, however, are a set of scientists who gave me the time and attention to learn from their endeavors. Many of these people are named in the text as my arguments unfurl. I note two to represent many others. One is H. Hank Shugart, a forest ecologist and ecological modeler, who, long before I sought him out, realized there needed to be more interaction among natural scientists and social and historical scien- tists/scholars if we are to make sense of and be engaged with our com- plex world. Shugart often talked with me about ecological models as I picked them up from his work and the historical ecologists who also play an enormous role in this book. We attended each other’s seminars and taught one course together. Everything I have published since 1998 shows his infl uence; this has also been a two-way street (see Shugart, 2014). The second scientist is Stephen A. Macko, the geochemist who tutored me in stable isotopes and helped me think through some of my data; our joint labors continue. My engagement with these two people, and what they represent, has been as taxing and as stimulating as any engagement with another culture can be. And as hoped, we have managed to send graduate and undergraduate students between our departments.