THE TROBRIAND ISLANDERS

57 minutes B/W Colour 1982
Film-maker: Harry Powell.

When Harry Powell went to the Trobriand Islands in 1950, he took with him a 1930s `Paragon' 16mm home movie camera borrowed from the Royal Anthropological Institute. The result began as a series of cine `snapshots' of life on Omarakara Island but grew and was later edited into a film intended for classroom use and research.

The film presents in five sections material on nearly all the major annual activities of the Islanders. The first section shows the general topography and activities such as copra buying and fishing, and those of the Methodist mission and the government. The second section follows the annual cycle of garden magic; the third, the sequence of major mortuary exchanges; the fourth, preparations for a major Kula expedition; and the fifth, the activities of the harvest season which ends and begins the Kiriwinan year.

The original commentary, which is retained for period authenticity, was intended to link the visual images to the existing ethnography of the area. A transcript of it and extensive notes relating the content of the film more fully to Malinowski's and subsequent publications are available from the RAI Film Officer for £1. Catalogue number (VHS): RA/VHS558 £8.-

R. Brunton, 1975. `Why Do the Trobrianders Have Chiefs?' Man N.S., Vol. 10, pp. 544-58.

J.W. Leach and E.R. Leach (eds.), 1983. The Kula. Cambridge University Press.

B. Malinowski, 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

B. Malinowski, 1932. The Sexual Life of Savages. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

B. Malinowski, 1935. Coral Gardens and Their Magic. Vol. 1. Allen & Unwin, London.

B. Malinowski, 1967. A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

H.A. Powell, 1952. `Cricket in Kiriwina'. The Listener, No. 48, pp. 384-5.

H.A. Powell, 1960. `Competitive Leadership in Trobriand Political Organisation'. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 90, pp. 118-45.

H.A. Powell, 1969a. `Genealogy, Residence and Kinship in Kiriwina'. Man N.S., Vol. 4, pp. 178-202.

H.A. Powell, 1969b. `Territory Hierarchy and Kinship in Kiriwina'. Man N.S., Vol. 4, pp. 580-604.

G. Saville and J. Austin, 1974. `King' of Kiriwina. Leo Cooper, London.

J.P.S. Uberoi, 1962. Politics of the Kula Ring. Manchester University Press.

A.B. Weiner, 1976. Women of Value, Men of Renown. University of Texas Press, Austin.