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{{Short description|Papua New Guinea, Oceania}}
[[File:Trobriand.png|thumb|right|350px]]
{{Infobox islands
The '''Trobriand Islands''' are a {{convert|450|km2|0|adj=mid|abbr=off}} [[archipelago]] of coral atolls off the east coast of [[New Guinea]]. They are part of the nation of [[Papua New Guinea]] and are in [[Milne Bay Province]]. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of [[Kiriwina]], which is also the location of the government station, [[Losuia]]. Other major islands in the group are [[Kaileuna]], [[Vakuta]], and [[Kitava]]. The group is considered to be an important [[Trobriand Islands rain forests|tropical rainforest]] ecoregion in need of conservation.
| name = Trobriand Islands
| image_name = Trobriand.png
| image_caption = The Trobriand Islands
| image_size =
| map = Papua New Guinea
| map_caption =
| native_name =
| native_name_link =
| nickname =
| location = [[Solomon Sea]]
| coordinates = {{Coord|8|40|S|150|55|E|region:PG_type:isle|display=inline, title}}
| archipelago =
| total_islands =
| major_islands =
| area_km2 = 450
| length_km =
| width_km =
| highest_mount =
| elevation_m =
| country = [[Papua New Guinea]]
| country_admin_divisions_title = Province
| country_admin_divisions = [[Milne Bay]]
| country_largest_city = [[Losuia]]
| country_largest_city_population =
| population = 60,000 (2016)<ref>The fear gasping face as a threat display in a Melanesian society[https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Location-of-the-Trobriand-Islands-Milne-Bay-Province-Papua-New-Guinea-Red-dots-signal_fig3_309269890]</ref>
| population_as_of =
| density_km2 =
| ethnic_groups =
| additional_info =
}}
The '''Trobriand Islands''' are a {{convert|450|km2|0|adj=mid|abbr=off}} [[archipelago]] of coral [[Atoll|atolls]] off the east coast of [[New Guinea]]. They are part of the nation of [[Papua New Guinea]] and are in [[Milne Bay Province]]. Most of the population of 60,000 (2016) indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of [[Kiriwina]], which is also the location of the government station, [[Losuia]].
 
Other major islands in the group are [[Kaileuna]], [[Vakuta]], and [[Kitava]]. The group is considered to be an important [[Trobriand Islands rain forests|tropical rainforest]] ecoregion in need of conservation.
 
==Geography==
The Trobriands consist of four main islands, the largest being Kiriwina Island, and the others being Kaileuna, Vakuta and Kitava. Kiriwina is {{convert|43|km|mi|0|abbr=off}} long, and varies in width from {{convert|1|to|16|km}}. In the 1980s, there were around sixty villages on the island, containing around 12,000 people, while the other islands were restricted to a population of hundreds. Other than some elevation on Kiriwina, the islands are flat coral atolls and "remain hot and humid throughout the year, with frequent rainfall."<ref name="Weiner 1988">{{cite book |title=The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=Orlando, Florida |author-first=Annette B. |author-last=Weiner |author-link=Annette Weiner |year=1988 |pages=10–11 }}</ref>
 
==People==
{{main|Trobriand people}}
The people of the area are mostly [[subsistence farming|subsistence]] [[Horticulture|horticulturalists]] who live in traditional settlements. The social structure is based on [[matrilineal]] clans that control land and resources. People participate in the regional circuit of exchange of shells called ''[[kula ring|kula]]'', sailing to visit trade partners on seagoing canoes. In the late twentieth century, anti-colonial and cultural autonomy movements gained followers from the Trobriand societies. When inter-group warfare was forbidden by colonial rulers, the islanders developed a unique, aggressive form of [[Trobriand cricket|cricket]].
 
==History==
Although an understanding of reproduction and modern medicine is widespread in Trobriand society, their traditional beliefs have been remarkably resilient. For example, the real cause of pregnancy is believed to be a [[baloma]], or ancestral spirit, that enters the body of a woman, and without whose existence a woman could not become pregnant; all babies are made or come into existence (ibubulisi) in Tuma. These tenets form the main stratum of what can be termed popular or universal belief. In the past, many held this traditional belief because the [[Yam (vegetable)|yam]], a major food of the island, included chemicals ([[phytoestrogen]]s and plant [[sterol]]s) whose effects are contraceptive, so the practical link between sex and pregnancy was not very evident.<ref name=Weiner>Weiner, Annette B. The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. United States of America: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 1988.</ref>
[[File:Soul boat, Trobriand Islands, Paupa New Guinea, Bishop Museum, 1989.400.268.JPG|250px|thumb|Soul boat, [[Kiriwina]], Trobriand Islands (wood and white lime)]]
The first European visitor to the islands was the French ship [[French ship Espérance (1781)|''Espérance'']] in 1793. The ship's navigator, [[Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux]], named them after his first lieutenant, [[Jean François Sylvestre Denis de Trobriand|Denis de Trobriand]].
 
Whaling ships called at the islands for food, water and wood in the 1850s and 1860s.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Langdon |author-first=Robert |author-link=Robert Adrian Langdon |date=1984 |title=Where the whalers went: an index to the Pacific ports and islands visited by American whalers (and some other ships) in the 19th century |location=Canberra |publisher=Pacific Manuscripts Bureau |pages=188–189 |isbn=086784471X}}</ref>
===Language===
The Trobriand peoples speak [[Kilivila–Louisiades languages|Kilivila]], though various different dialects of it are spoken amongst each different tribe. It is an [[Austronesian language]], although has the distinction of having a complex system for classifying [[noun]]s. Foreign languages are less commonly spoken, although by the 1980s at least, Trobrianders occasionally spoke [[Tok Pisin]] and [[English language|English]]. The term "Trobriand" itself is not Kilivilan: the islands take this name from the French explorer [[Jean François Sylvestre Denis de Trobriand]] who visited in 1793.<ref name="Weiner 1988 11">{{cite book |title= The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea |publisher= Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location= Orlando, Florida |first= Annette B. |last= Weiner |year= 1988 |page= 11 }}</ref>
[[File:Wmalinowski trobriand isles 1918.jpg|thumb|300px|Malinowski in the Trobriands]]
Drawing upon earlier work by [[Bronisław Malinowski]], [[Dorothy D. Lee]]'s scholarly writings refer to "non-lineal codifications of reality". In such a linguistic system, the concept of linear progress of time, geometric shapes, and even conventional methods of description, are lost altogether or altered. In her example of a specific indigenous yam, Lee explains that when the yam moves from a state of sprouting through ripeness to over-ripeness, the name for each object in a specific state changes entirely - the description of the object at different states of development relates to wholly different perceptions of the object. Ripeness is considered a "defining ingredient" and thus once it becomes over-ripe, a yam is perceived as a new object altogether. The same perception pertains to time and geometric shapes.<ref name="Lee 1950">
{{cite book
|title= Lineal and nonlineal codifications of reality
|publisher= Psychosomatic Medicine march-april 1950
|first= Dorothy D. B. |last= Lee
|year= 1950 |page= 89
}}
</ref>
 
The first Europeans to settle in the Trobriand islands were a [[Methodism|Methodist]] minister, Samuel Benjamin Fellows, and his wife Sarah Margaret Fellows who moved to the island of Kiriwina in 1894. They were followed a decade later by colonial officers from Australia who set up a governmental station nearby, and soon a small colony began to be set up by foreign traders on the island. Then in the 1930s, the Sacred Heart Catholic Mission set up a settlement containing a primary school nearby. It was following this European colonisation that the name "Trobriand" was legally adopted for this group of islands.<ref name="Weiner 1988"/>
===Food===
In Trobriand society, it is taboo to eat in front of others. As Jennifer Shute noted, "the Trobrianders eat alone, retiring to their own hearths with their portions, turning their backs on one another and eating rapidly for fear of being observed."<ref name="Weiner 1988 21–22">{{cite book |title=The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=Orlando, Florida |first=Annette B. |last=Weiner |year=1988 |pages=21–22 }}</ref> However, it is perfectly acceptable to chew [[betel nuts]], particularly when mixed with some pepper plant and slaked lime to make the nut less bitter. The betel nut acts as a stimulant and is commonly used by Trobrianders, causing their teeth to often appear red.<ref name="Weiner 1988 21–22"/> Because in the past food was often scarce, to boast of having food is one of the Trobriand Islanders' chief glories and ambitions . Though food is most important, and the subject of food is most discussed, at Miamala, the annual time of harvest and feasting, the islanders can face hunger and scarcity due to poor growing conditions at any time of year. In mid-2009 the problem of population pressure, leading to food insecurity, received much national and international media attention.<ref>MacCarthy, M. (2012). Playing Politics with Yams: Food Security in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea. Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment, 34(2), 136-147. doi:10.1111/j.2153-9561.2012.01073.x
</ref>
 
The first [[anthropology|anthropologist]] to study the Trobrianders was [[Charles Gabriel Seligman|C. G. Seligman]], who focused on the Massim people of mainland New Guinea. Seligman was followed a number of years later by his student, the Polish [[Bronisław Malinowski]], who visited the islands during the [[First World War]]. Despite being a citizen of the [[Austro-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian empire]], which was at war with [[Australia]] which then controlled the Trobriand Islands, he was allowed to stay (provided he checked in with authorities every now and then).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=Orlando, Florida |author-first=Annette B. |author-last=Weiner |author-link=Annette Weiner |year=1988 |pages=1–4}}</ref> His descriptions of the ''[[Kula ring|kula]]'' exchange system, gardening, magic, and sexual practices—all classics of modern anthropological writing—prompted many foreign researchers to visit the societies of the island group and study other aspects of their cultures. The psychoanalyst [[Wilhelm Reich]] drew on Malinowski's studies of the islands in writing his ''[[The Invasion of Compulsory Sex Morality]]'' and consequently in developing his theory of sex economy in his 1936 work {{lang|de|[[Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf]]}}.
===Marriage customs===
At seven or eight years of age, Trobriand children begin to play erotic games with each other and imitate adult seductive attitudes. About four or five years later, they begin to pursue sexual partners. They change partners often. Women are just as assertive and dominant as men in pursuing or refusing a lover.<ref name=Weiner/> This is not only allowed, but encouraged.
 
In 1943, Allied troops landed on the islands as a part of [[Operation Cartwheel]], the Allied advance to [[Rabaul]].
In the Trobriand Islands, there is no traditional marriage ceremony. A young woman stays in her lover's house instead of leaving it before sunrise. The man and woman sit together in the morning and wait for the bride's mother to bring them cooked yams.<ref name=Weiner/> The married couple eat together for about a year, and then go back to eating separately. Once the man and woman eat together, the marriage is officially recognized.<ref name=Weiner/>
 
In the 1970s, some indigenous peoples formed anti-colonial associations and political movements.
When a Trobriand couple want to marry each other, they show their interest by sleeping together, spending time together, and staying with each other for several weeks. The girl's parents approve of the couple when a girl accepts a gift from a boy. After that, the girl moves to the boy's house, eats her meals there, and accompanies her husband all day. Then word goes out that the boy and girl are married.<ref name=Ember>Ember, Carol R., and Melvin Ember. Cultural Anthropology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2007.</ref>
 
In October 2022 there was an outbreak of tribal fighting on Kiriwina Island between the Kulumata and Kuboma people, which was reported to have been triggered by a death during fighting at a football match. At least 30 people died. While fights between different groups were not uncommon, this was the first time they had resulted in a large number of deaths.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kuku |first1=Rebecca |title=More than 30 dead in tribal fighting on Papua New Guinea's 'island of love' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/25/more-than-30-dead-in-tribal-fighting-on-papua-new-guineas-kiriwina-island |website=The Guardian |access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=PNG official confirms 30 dead in tribal clash |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/477349/png-official-confirms-30-dead-in-tribal-clash#:~:text=More%20than%2030%20people%20have,the%20death%20will%20probably%20increase. |website=Radio New Zealand |access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref>
If after one year, a woman is unhappy with her husband, she may divorce him. A married couple may also get divorced if the husband chooses another woman. The man may try to go back with the woman he left by giving her family yams and other gifts, but it is ultimately up to the woman if she wants to be with that man.
 
==Trobriand Islands in the modern day==
===Magic===
=== Growing population ===
Trobriands believe that conception is the result of an ancestral spirit entering the woman's body. Even after a child is born, it is the mother's brother, not the father, who presents a harvest of yams to his sister so that her child will be fed with food from its own matrilineage, not the father's.<ref name=Weiner/>
Since 1975, the government of [[Papua New Guinea]] has had political control of the island. In this time of growth, the population of the island is expanding quickly.<ref name=":0">{{cite AV media |people=Toby Marshall (Narrator); Thomas Euting (author) |title=The Unholy Paradise |orig-date=November 1995 |date=16 May 2012 |medium=video |language=EN |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWE-kpOoBv8 |access-date=9 January 2018 |publisher=[[ZDF]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904170302/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWE-kpOoBv8 |archive-date=4 September 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> Therefore, more land has been cleared to accommodate the increasing population.<ref name=":0" /> However, environmental concerns - such as [[deforestation]] - are affecting the islands.<ref name=":0" /> The government often sends [[social work]]ers to increase the use of [[birth control]] and contraception.<ref name=":0" /> However, the Trobriand culture is not receptive to outside influences dictating their reproductive norms. This means that sex is "the most natural thing in the culture".<ref name=":0" /> Another effect of Trobriand promiscuity is the rapid spread of [[HIV/AIDS]] caused by foreigners on the island.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Culture sketches: case studies in anthropology |author-first=Holly |author-last=Peters-Golden |date=2012 |publisher=The McGraw-Hill |isbn=9780078117022 |edition=6th |location=Dubuque, Iowa |pages=264 |oclc=716069710}}</ref> The first documented case of HIV/AIDS was reported in 2001. Nowadays, HIV has become a major health problem. Since young Trobrianders often have multiple sexual partners before marriage, it is hard to slow the spread of the disease.<ref name=":3" /> "The moralistic tropes of risk and promiscuity that dominate the language of HIV prevention are not easily accommodated by Trobriand ideations of sexuality, which celebrate premarital sexual activity as healthy and life-affirming, and which stress the productive values of reciprocity and relations of difference."<ref name=":3" />
 
The Trobrianders practice many traditional magic spells. Young people learn spells from older kin in exchange for food, tobacco, and money. Spells are often partially or fully lost because the old people give away only a few lines at a time to keep getting gifts. Often, the old person dies before they finish passing on the spells. Trobrianders believe that no one can make up a new magic spell.
 
Sometimes a man gives a woman magic spells because he wants to give her more than betel nuts or tobacco. People also buy and sell spells. Literate villagers write their magic spells in books and hide them. A person may direct magic spells toward heightening the visual and olfactory effects of their body to induce erotic feelings in their lover. Some spells are thought to make a person beautiful, even those who would normally be considered ugly.<ref name=Weiner/> The beauty magic words 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.
 
=== Cricket ===
After tribal conflict was banned, cricket became a replacement for war in the Trobriand culture. The colonial powers were appalled with the violence and sexual displays associated with tribal warfare.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/716069710|title=Culture sketches : case studies in anthropology|last=Holly.|first=Peters-Golden,|date=2012|publisher=The McGraw-Hill|year=|isbn=9780078117022|edition= 6th |location=Dubuque, Iowa|pages=258|oclc=716069710}}</ref> Matches are often played between all male teams and last for several months.<ref name=":1" /> There are often feasts for the winning team.<ref name=":0" /> While regular cricket is played around the world, these islanders add their own elements which reflect their culture. Since this sport resembles war, there is not a limit on team size. For example, every time a team scores there is a special dance ritual involved. These dances are an adaptation of the former war rituals. Therefore, they consist of taunts and jeers often criticizing the other team.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|last=Concord Media|title=Trobriand Cricket|date=2013-07-09|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnrpGMK31Hk|accessdate=2018-01-09}}</ref> "The words are sexual metaphors, used as one team taunts the other and exhibits their physical and sexual prowess to the appraising eyes of the young women on the sidelines" <ref name=":1" /> Often, there is also magic involved in this sporting event.<ref name=":1" /> Teams will use charms and incantations to gain an advantage in the match. For example a spell could be used to make the team less efficient in scoring.<ref name=":1" /> The visiting team is expected to lose when visiting a rival island.<ref name=":1" /> However, when this is not the case, there are often reports of vandalism and arson when matches end unfavorably for the home team.<ref name=":1" /> During such events, yam houses are burned which is considered a major insult.<ref name=":1" /> In essence, this form of cricket has a more aggressive feel and is an important part of Trobriand life.<ref name=":2" />
 
===Currency===
Trobrianders use [[Yam (vegetable)|yam]]s as currency, and consider them a sign of wealth and power.
Western visitors will often buy items from the Trobrianders using money. There is also a [[Kula ring|Kula]] exchange, which is a very important tradition among the Trobriand Islands. The women also use bundles of scored banana leaves.
 
====Yam exchanges====
Each year, a man grows yams for his sister, and his daughter if she is married. The husband does not provide yams to his wife. The more yams a woman receives, the more powerful and rich she is. The husband is expected to give his wife's father or brother a gift in turn for the yams they give his wife. When the woman is first married, she receives yams from her father until the woman's brother thinks his sister and her husband are old enough for him to give the yams.
 
At the beginning of the yam harvest, the yams stay on display in gardens for about a month before the gardener takes them to the owner. The owner is always a woman. There is a great ceremony for this every year. The yams are loaded into the woman's husband's empty yam house. Young people come to the gardens dressed in their most festive traditional clothes early on the day the yams are delivered to the yam house. The young people are all related to the gardener, and carry the yam baskets to the owner's [[Hamlet (place)|hamlet]]. When they get to the owner's hamlet, they sing out to announce the arrival of the yams while [[hip thrusting|thrusting out their hips]] in a sexually provocative motion. This emphasizes the relation between yams and sexuality. A few days later, the gardener comes and loads the yam house, and the man is now responsible for the yam.
 
The yam house owner provides the gardener and young people with cooked yams, [[taro]], and pork. Sometimes, no pig is killed, perhaps because the yam house owner did not have a pig to spare. The yam house owner also may decide not kill a pig for the gardener because he is unsatisfied with the number of yams, or is angry with the gardener for another reason. Once the yam houses are full, a man performs a special magic spell for the hamlet that wards off hunger by making people feel full. The women also use bundles of scored banana leaves as a type of currency between themselves. As many days of work are required to make bundles each one has an assigned value and can be used to buy canned foods as well as given away in exchange for other goods.<ref name=Weiner/>
 
===Death===
When a person dies, mourning continues for months. The spouse is joined in mourning by female kin and the dead person's father's sisters. These villagers stay in the house and cry four times a day. If someone who did not attend the funeral comes to the village, he or she must immediately join in on the mourning that is taking place. Other workers observe many of the mourning taboos. Most of them shave their heads. People closely related to the deceased avoid eating "good food." Those more distantly related may wear black clothes. Before this, however, everyone receives a payment from the owners for the part they had in the burial process.
 
The first set of exchanges takes place the day after burial and involves yams, taro, and small amounts of money. The spouse, the spouse's matrilineage, and the dead person's father or father's representative, and members of his matrilineage get the largest distribution.<ref name=Weiner/>
 
===Catholic missionisation===
Catholic missionisation has had a mixed effect on daily Triobriand life.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Toby Marshall|title=The Unholy Paradise.mp4|date=2012-05-16|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWE-kpOoBv8|accessdate=2018-01-09}}</ref> Most of the islanders adhere to native tribal traditions. To counter this, they are known to send missionaries with experience with animist tribes.<ref name=":0" /> One example is trying to insert christian blessings during Trobriand funeral ceremonies.<ref name=":0" />
 
==History==
[[File:Soul boat, Trobriand Islands, Paupa New Guinea, Bishop Museum, 1989.400.268.JPG|250px|thumb|Soul boat, [[Kiriwina]], Trobriand Islands (wood and white lime)]]
The first European visitor to the islands was the French ship ''Espérance'' in 1793. The ship's navigator, [[Bruni d'Entrecasteaux]], named them after his first lieutenant, Denis de Trobriand. The first European to settle in the Trobriand islands was a [[Methodism|Methodist]] minister who moved to the island of Kiriwina in 1894. He was followed a decade later by colonial officers from Australia who set up a governmental station nearby, and soon a small colony began to be set up by foreign traders on the island. Then in the 1930s, the Sacred Heart Catholic Mission set up a settlement containing a primary school nearby. It was following this European colonisation that the name "Trobriand" was legally adopted for this group of islands.<ref name="Weiner 1988 11"/>
 
The first [[anthropology|anthropologist]] to study the Trobrianders was C. G. Seligman, who focused on the Massim people of mainland New Guinea. Seligman was followed a number of years later by his student, the Polish [[Bronisław Malinowski]], who visited the islands during the [[First World War]]. Despite being a citizen of the [[Austro-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian empire]], which was at war with [[Australia]] which then controlled the Trobriand Islands, he was allowed to stay (provided he checked in with authorities every now and then).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=Orlando, Florida |first=Annette B. |last=Weiner |year=1988 |pages=1–4 }}</ref> His descriptions of the ''[[Kula ring|kula]]'' exchange system, gardening, magic, and sexual practices—all classics of modern anthropological writing—prompted many foreign researchers to visit the societies of the island group and study other aspects of their cultures. The psychoanalyst [[Wilhelm Reich]] drew on Malinowski's studies of the islands in writing his ''[[The Invasion of Compulsory Sex Morality]]'' and consequently in developing his theory of sex economy in his 1936 work ''[[Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf]]''.
 
In 1943, Allied troops landed on the islands as a part of [[Operation Cartwheel]], the Allied advance to [[Rabaul]]. In the 1970s, some indigenous peoples formed anti-colonial associations and political movements.
 
==Trobriand Islands in the modern day ==
 
=== Growing population ===
Since 1975, the government of [[Papua New Guinea]] has had political control of the island. In this time of growth, the population of the island is expanding quickly.<ref name=":0" /> Therefore, more land is needed to be cleared to accommodate the increasing population.<ref name=":0" /> In other words, there are environmental concerns like [[deforestation]] which affect the islands.<ref name=":0" /> To counteract this, the government often sends [[social work]]ers to increase the use of [[birth control]] and contraception.<ref name=":0" /> However, the Trobriand culture is not accepting the outside influences dictating their reproductive norms. This means that sex is "the most natural thing in the culture".<ref name=":0" /> Another effect of Trobriand promiscuity is the rapid spread of [[HIV/AIDS]] on the island.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/716069710|title=Culture sketches : case studies in anthropology|last=Holly.|first=Peters-Golden,|date=2012|publisher=The McGraw-Hill|year=|isbn=9780078117022|edition= 6th ed|location=Dubuque, Iowa|pages=264|oclc=716069710}}</ref> The first documented case of HIV/AIDS was reported in 2001. Nowadays, HIV has become a major health problem. Since young Trobrianders often have multiple sexual partners before marriage, it is hard to slow the spread of the disease.<ref name=":3" /> “The moralistic tropes of risk and promiscuity that dominate the language of HIV prevention are not easily accommodated by Trobriand ideations of sexuality, which celebrate premarital sexual activity as healthy and life-affirming, and which stress the productive values of reciprocity and relations of difference.”<ref name=":3" />
 
=== Income inequality ===
After statehood in 1975, the Trobriand Islands’Islands' economy has been restructured to fit a tourist and export market. Most Trobrianders live on less than one dollar a day.<ref name=":0" /> Since food has been traditionally distributed among the people based on their need, there has been little need for a currency -based economy outside of the Kula rings.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/716069710|title=Culture sketches : case studies in anthropology |lastauthor-first=Holly. |firstauthor-last=Peters-Golden, |date=2012 |publisher=The McGraw-Hill|year= |isbn=9780078117022 |edition= 6th |location=Dubuque, Iowa |pages=168 |oclc=716069710}}</ref> To counteract this lack of hard currency, several western goods stores have opened on the islands and created most of the foreign goods market. These stores are multimillion -dollar enterprises.<ref name=":0" /> However, most Trobrianders struggle to pay for goods from these stores because they only take cash.<ref name=":0" /> Due to this practice, there are often reports of unrest because of a lack of funds. One remedy that many islanders seek is to sell cultural artifacts and relics to tourists in exchange for their currency.<ref name=":3" /> For example, a worker can spend 10 days working on a ceremonial [[turtle bowl]] and only get paid $10. "However this [[commercialization]] is often done sanctimoniously. "<ref name=":4" /> “They"They protect their cultural identity and use it as a tourist commodity”commodity". However, one of the items imported that causescause economic and social problems is [[Areca nut|betel nuts]].<ref name=":0" /> They are a major narcotic on the island.<ref name=":0" /> Due to this new currency -based economy there is more reported crime on the islands. There is a great economic disparity due to the income inequality between the modern world and the Trobriands.
[[File:Bronisław Malinowski among Trobriand tribe 2 (cropped).jpg|frame|Early eample education on the islands featuring Malinowski|frame]]
 
===Education ===
In addition to missionary schools, there are public schools on the Trobriands which were introduced by the government of Papua New Guinea “All"All children are required to go to school” school".<ref name=":0" /> The required subjects are English, MathMaths, Science and culture. Schools also educate students about current international events .<ref name=":0" /> MathMaths is the favorite subject among the students of the island.<ref name=":0" /> On Wednesdays, the children are required to dress in traditional garb as part of the government -mandated culture day.<ref name=":0" /> During this time, children are encouraged to explore Trobriand culture, history and values.
 
=== Malinowski's plaque in Kiriwina ===
[[File:Malinowskis plaque.jpg|thumb|A plaque dedicated to Bronisław Malinowski in Omarakana, decorated by village children]]
There is a commemorative plaque dedicated to [[Bronisław Malinowski]] in Omarakana village, the residence village of the [[Paramount Chief]] of Trobriand Islands.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Gumowska, |author-first=Aleksandra, (|date=2014). |title=Seks, betel i czary. Życie seksualne dzikich sto lat później. Krakow:|language=pl Znak|trans-title=Sex, Literabetel Novaand witchcraft. pThe Sexual Life of Savages One Hundred Years Later. |location=Kraków |publisher=Znak Litera Nova |page=29. {{ISBN|isbn=9788324025701}} 8324025707.</ref> The current chief Pulayasi Daniel is positive that it is placed in the very same place where Malinowski's tent used to stand at the beginning of the XXth20th century.<ref name=":5">{{cite book|author-last=Gumowska, |author-first=Aleksandra, (|date=2014). |title=Seks, betel i czary. Życie seksualne dzikich sto lat później. Krakow:|language=pl Znak|trans-title=Sex, Literabetel Novaand witchcraft. pThe Sexual Life of Savages One Hundred Years Later. |location=Kraków |publisher=Znak Litera Nova |page=35. {{ISBN|isbn=9788324025701}} 8324025707.</ref> There are two inscriptions on it – one in Polish and one in English – which say: "Toboma Miskabati Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-19421884–1942) Notable scientist The son of the Polish nation Father of the modern social anthropology Friend of Trobriand Islands peoples and the populizer of their culture" (see: picture). The plaque was brought to Kiriwina by sailors [[Monika Bronicka]] and Mariusz Delgas <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://plus.dziennikbaltycki.pl/magazyn/a/przygoda-rafa-koralowa-i-zycie-bez-butow-zdjecia,12397095 |title=Przygoda, Rafa Koralowa i życie bez butów [ZDJĘCIA] |language=pl |trans-title=Adventure, Coral Reef and life without shoes [PHOTOS] |date=18 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904172305/https://plus.dziennikbaltycki.pl/przygoda-rafa-koralowa-i-zycie-bez-butow-zdjecia/ar/12397095 |archive-date=4 September 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> who took it from [[New Zealand]] where it was left by two other yachts: "''Maria"'' and "''Victoria"''.<ref name=":5" /> The plaque was foundedsponsored by [[Jagiellonian University]] in [[CracowKraków]] and the National Museum in [[StettinSzczecin]], [[Poland]].<ref name=":5" />
 
=== Tourism and artist visits===
==Anthropological studies and pop culture references==
The Trobriand Islands are South Sea islands that have so far been little developed for tourism. In 2012 the German painter [[Ingo Kühl]] made studies on the kula culture in Kiriwina and [[Port Moresby]].<ref>Ingo Kühl Sketchbook Trobriand Islands ([http://ingokuehl.com/files/skizzenbuch-trobriand-islands_v2.pdf ingokuehl.com] PDF)</ref>
 
=== Calendar ===
The Trobriand Islands have a unique lunar calendar system. There are twelve or thirteen lunar cycles, but only ten are fixed: the others constitute free time. The calendar year begins with the sighting of a worm that appears to spawn, which initiates the Milamak festival. The concept of time in these islands is not linear, and so they only have one tense in their language.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Introducing Cultural Studies |author-last=Longhurst |author-first=Brian |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317426011 |edition=3rd |location=Oxford |pages=42}}</ref>
 
==Anthropological studies and pop culture references==
===Books by Malinowski about the Trobriands===
* ''[[Argonauts of the Western Pacific]]'' (1922)
* ''[[The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia]]'' (1929).
* ''[[Coral Gardens and their Magic]]'' (1935).
 
===Other books about the Trobriands===
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* ''[[The Happy Isles Of Oceania]]'' (1992) by [[Paul Theroux]]
* ''[[Women of value, men of renown]]'' (1994) by Annette B. Weiner
* ''[[The Trobiand Islanders' Way of Speaking]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.reference-global.com/doi/book/10.1515/9783110227994|title=de Gruyter Reference Global - The Trobiand Islanders' Way of Speaking|accessdatedoi=10.1515/9783110227994|isbn=9783110227994|year=2010|last1=Senft|first1=Gunter|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0013-093B2F-13C}}</ref> (2010) by Gunter Senft
* ''Islands of Love, Islands of Risk: Culture and HIV in the Trobriands'' (2012) by Katherine Lepani
* MacCarthy, Michelle (2012). ''Playing Politics with Yams: Food Security in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea.'' Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment, 34(2), 136-147. {{doi|10.1111/j.2153-9561.2012.01073.x}}
* ''[[Making the Modern Primitive: Cultural Tourism in the Trobriand Islands]]'' (2016) by Michelle MacCarthy
* Connelly, Andrew James, (2007). ''[httphttps://www.worldcat.org/title/counting-coconuts-patrol-reports-from-the-trobriand-islands-territory-of-papua-1907-1934/oclc/317867984 Counting coconuts : patrol reports from the Trobriand Islands Territory of Papua]'', 1907-1934. Sacramento, Calif.: California State University. OCLC Number: 317867984.
*''Trees, Knots, and Outriggers: Environmental Knowledge in the Northeast Kula Ring'' (2017) by Frederick Damon
*''Ways of Baloma: Rethinking Magic and Kinship from the Trobriands'' (2017) by Mark Mosko
 
===Trobriand Islands in popular culture===
* The Trobriand Islands were featured in ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles|]]''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'']] in the episode ''"''Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" when Indy and his friend Remy were marooned there and met [[Bronisław Malinowski]].
* The Trobriand Islands were mentioned in an episode of ''[[Married... with Children|Married... With Children]]'' when [[Bud Bundy]] was studying them for an anthropology final.
* The Trobriand Islands were featured in an episode of ''[[Worlds Apart (documentary)|Worlds Apart]]'' on [[National Geographic Channel]]
* The Trobriand Islands, and the system of sexual mores unique to its inhabitants, are mentioned in the book ''[[Brave New World]]'' by [[Aldous Huxley]] as the basis for the sexual morality that exists in the book's dystopian society.
*The Trobriand Islands are mentioned in the [[paranormal romance]] booknovel ''The Werewolf'' in Thethe North Woods'' by [[Vicki Lewis Thompson]].
*The Trobriand Islands are mentioned in the [[human sexuality]] book ''[[Sex at Dawn|]]''Sex at Dawn'']] by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá.
*The Trobriand Islands are mentioned in [[Ian McEwan]]'s 2019 novel ''[[Machines Like Me]]''.
*The Trobriand Islands are mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell's 2019 narrative nonfiction book, ''[[Talking to Strangers]]''.
*In [[Gore Vidal]]'s book [[Myra Breckinridge]], Myra introduces herself by stating she destroyed the elite of the Tobriand island. The implication is that she is so sexually provocative and liberated that she can destroy an already sexually free nation.
*The Trobriand Islands are the setting for the novel ''The Visitants'' by [[Randolph Stow]]. Stow had spent time in the Trobriands as a cadet patrol officer in the late 1950s.
 
==See also==
*[[Trobriand cricket]]
 
==References==
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==External links==
{{Commons category|position=left}}
{{wikivoyage|Trobriand Islands}}
* [http://www.janesoceania.com/trobriands_online/index.htm Trobriand Islands Online]
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* {{WWF ecoregion|name=Trobriand Islands rain forests|id=aa0125}}
*[http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=MALINOWSKI Malinowski fieldwork photographs of the Trobriand Islands (1915–18)] held at [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/Home.aspx London School of Economics Archives]
* [http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/tpc/txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566_n-15a.jpg Map including the Trobriand Islands]
 
{{Coord|8|40|S|150|55|E|region:PG_type:isle|display=title}}
 
{{Islands of Papua New Guinea|state=collapsed}}
 
{{Authority control}}
 
[[Category:Trobriand Islands| 01]]
[[Category:Archipelagoes of Papua New Guinea]]
[[Category:Islands of Milne Bay Province]]