Fieldwork in Manus, Papua New Guinea: on change, exchange and anthropological knowledge

Abstract

[Extract] When I was about to leave the island of Baluan in 1988, after two years of fieldwork, the old woman Alup Nakeau gave me a special gift. It was large polished shell knife, called yanul, that according to traditional rules could be used only by lapans - that are traditional leaders - to cut and distribute a bunch of betelnut on ceremonial occasions (Ohnemus 1996). Alup Nakeau was then the oldest living member of the Sauka clan into which I had been adopted. She was the eldest child of Ninou Solok, who had been the last acknowledged lapan of the Sauka. The yanul not only connects me to Ninou Solok but through him also to an important event in the cultural history of the island.