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{{Short description|Papua New Guinea, Oceania}}
{{Infobox islands
| 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
==People==
{{main|Trobriand people}}
==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 [[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>
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"/>
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]]}}.
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.
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>
==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">{{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" />
=== Income inequality ===
After statehood in 1975, the Trobriand
[[File:Bronisław Malinowski among Trobriand tribe 2 (cropped).jpg|frame|Early
===Education
In addition to missionary schools, there are public schools on the Trobriands which were introduced by the government of Papua New Guinea
=== 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
=== Tourism and artist visits===
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
* ''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). ''[
*''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 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]]
*The Trobriand Islands are mentioned in the [[human sexuality]] book ''[[Sex at Dawn
*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
{{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]
{{Islands of Papua New Guinea|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Trobriand Islands|
[[Category:Archipelagoes of Papua New Guinea]]
[[Category:Islands of Milne Bay Province]]
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