The Kaluli of Papua New Guinea

Figure 1: The Kaluli

Today’s blog post will cover a group from the country of Papua New Guinea, the Kaluli (Figure 1). They are one of many indigenous populations living in Papua New Guinea (Figure 2).  As Papua New Guinea is a region of the world that has been and remains widely studied by cultural anthropologists there is actually quite a bit known about the traditional ways of this specific cultural group, which will be addressed further here in this post.

Kaluli translates to “real people” and the Kaluli claim their descendants came from the Mt. Bosavi region of the country.  Today they occupy the lowlands around this mountain, residing in very large long houses that accommodate 1200-2000 people at any given time (Figure 3).  These communal dwellings serve as residence for men, women, and children, although they are divided accordingly to allow families and single individuals their necessary privacy.  While each long house can accommodate this large number of people they are very rarely at full occupancy.  Because the Kaluli are horticulturalists individual families often live in smaller huts that are closer to their fields.  This also lends itself to providing privacy and freedom within the long houses.    

Figure 2: Papua New Guinea and Kaluli homeland

Food is very important to the Kaluli and a central part of their cultural traditions.  Much like in many cultures food is used as a means of securing friendly relations among individuals, but it is also used as a means of helping children relate to adults and as a means of calming children when they are uncomfortable.  The sharing of food is central to the Kaluli way of life.  It is improper to refuse any offers of food, and it is also just as taboo not to share food if and when someone requests it.  Food is plentiful in the region, so there is no need to horde it, making food sharing an easy part of the Kaluli lifestyle.  If someone does not have enough food to share it is acceptable that they only eat it, but they must do so in private.  To do so publicly would be a demonstration of greed or pride, which is highly abhorred among the Kaluli.

There is also a distinct division of labor among the Kaluli.  Men are responsible for organizing labor as a group activity, clearing the land, building large structures such as dams and fences, and planting fields.  Women are responsible for tending to the gardens, looking after the pigs that are raised within each village unit, hunting and fishing, processing sago (one of the primary stables of their diet), and raising and socializing the children.  This division of labor does not lend itself to typical power dynamics seen in many Western societies.  Men and women divide labor among themselves without any power or preference given to specific roles or genders.

Figure 3: Model of Kaluli long house

Another unique cultural tradition of the Kaluli is their Gisaro ceremonies.  Gisaro ceremonies accompany larger ceremonies, such as pig feasts, marriages, and other festivities, and act as an additional means of celebrating and sharing resources (specifically food).  A village will elect to host a Gisaro ceremony and call for men (and only men) to participate in it.  The male volunteers will secretly create special dances that will be performed all night and are meant to elicit severe emotional reactions, such as sadness and/or despair, among the audience members.  This is to satisfy one of the other purposes of the Gisaro ceremony: allow for emotional releases of pent up anger or frustration felt throughout the year.  During the Gisaro ceremony the host(s) will prepare large feasts for onlookers, and the Gisaro volunteers will all don the same clothing and paint and dance all night in order to elicit the expected reactions.  In response to releasing their grief and pain the audience members will often lash out against the Gisaro dancers, burning them with torches made available to them.  This is part of the ceremony as it allows for the physical manifestation of the grief to be released (and the Gisaro dancers are aware of this when they volunteer to participate).  Typically, Gisaro volunteers are identified after the ceremony as it takes several weeks to heal from the second and third degree burns that they suffer.

The Kaluli are a cultural group that represent the diversity of human cultures that exist around the world.  While some of their cultural traditions, such as the Gisaro ceremony, may seem strange the purpose behind it is one that many outsiders can relate to, specifically related to the dominant value forming within American culture about self-care.  Granted, how Americans and Kaluli define self-care is very different, but the motivations are the same.  Additionally, the Kaluli values concerning food are similar to those seen in various cultures, including your own if you think about it.  Taken together the Kaluli embody the cultural diversity but also similarities present among all human groups world wide.

References Cited

Peters-Golden, H.  (2011).  Culture Sketches: Case Studies in Anthropology. 6th Edition.  Mc-Graw Hill Education.

Beyond the Binary: Reexamining the Idea of Two Sexes

For centuries around the globe cultural groups recognized and continue to recognize the existence of more than one gender.  Conversations on gender have been framed on the notion that while multiple gender identities can and do exist, meeting the social needs of the cultural groups that define them, these gender identities are based on the existence of two distinct biological sexes.  This makes sense when you consider how the biological sexes are defined: as male versus female.  Males are defined by primary sexual characteristics, which include the presence of a penis, and secondary sexual characteristics, such as facial hair, an “Adam’s Apple”, and deep voices; females are defined by primary sexual characteristics, including the presence of breasts and a uterus, and secondary sexual characteristics, including higher voices and the ability to birth offspring.  However, these are idealized characterizations, and not everyone meets these ideal types.  Some men have high pitched voices and some women have facial hair.  More recent medical evidence further demonstrates that this sex binary may be false.  Today’s blog post will take a closer look at this evidence and explain how the sex binary is not actually the case but instead a spectrum.

In the 1990s scientists first began to realize that the dichotomy of two biological sexes may not be completely true.  Genetic and medical studies began to shed light on this issue as published reports demonstrated two distinct cases: a woman pregnant with her third child went in for an amniocentesis and her doctor (as well as she) was shocked to discover that she carried XY DNA; an adult male who fathered four children went in for surgery and his doctor discovered he had a uterus, in addition to testes.  Further study into these and other cases revealed that genetically sex was not simply XX for female and XY for male.  It was discovered that an individual’s sex is actually based on 25 different genetic markers, which accounts for the variation we see in the sexes (e.g. different sized breasts and penises; men who can grow facial hair and me who cannot; women who can birth children and those who cannot). 

Other studies demonstrated that greater comprehension of fetal development.  It was discovered that in utero sex development begins during week 5 and continues on for several more weeks.  During development a fetus could gain or lose various elements that would define it as a “him” or a “her”, retaining some of those characteristics genetically or morphologically.  Oftentimes individuals do not realize this until later in life when a medical or genetic intervention occurs.

Physical anthropological studies also demonstrate issues with this sex binary.  When it comes to identifying the sex of a deceased individual based on their skeletal remains there is a scoring system that ranges from 1 to 5.  The ends of the range are the most diagnostic of either sex, whereas three is indeterminate.  Scores of 2 and 4 are “likely” male or female.  As someone who has assessed sex on multiple skeletons (over 100) it is clear that very few individuals consistently score 1s or 5s in all anatomical areas.  When I explain the methods used for sexing to my students they will often seek out the morphological areas that they can touch (such as the back of the skull for the nuchal crest) and many panic because they do not meet the ideal of male or female (or even male or female at all).  This demonstrates that these skeletal differences exist in life just as they do in death, and further call into question the notion of the sex binary.

Taken together the science is continuing to demonstrate that there is no sex binary.  Instead sex exists on a spectrum.  And that is okay.  This spectrum has existed for centuries, just as multiple gender identities, and humans continue to exist, procreate, and do what they do.  Therefore this information, although not new to nature but new to us, should not raise alarm.  Instead, we should acknowledge it for what it is and realize that we should perhaps abandon archaic notions that no longer apply and accept those that do: sex is a spectrum.

References

Addison, C., & Taylor-Alexander, S. (2016, May 12). Human sex is not simply male or female. So what? Retrieved from Aeon: https://aeon.co/ideas/human-sex-is-not-male-or-female-so-what?fbclid=IwAR3IJPM8qlhOy2TmS8oElhnULy-SF6HFyEOE6HeamH7HyWrh-6wwvr9EzZc

Ainsworth, C. (2015). Sex redefined. Nature.

Fausto-Sterling, A. (2018, October 25). Why Sex Is Not Binary . The New York Times.

Ford, A. (2015, February 24). Sex biology redefined: Article suggests that genes don’t indicate binary sexes. Retrieved from Scope: Standford Medcine: https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2015/02/24/sex-biology-redefined-genes-dont-indicate-binary-sexes/

Kralick, A. (2018, December 25). How Human Bones Reveal the Fallacy of a Biological Sex Binary. Pacific Standard Magazine.

The Editors. (2017, September 1). The New Science of Sex and Gender. Retrieved from Scientific America: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-science-of-sex-and-gender/

The Racist History of Three Common Phrases

Today’s blog post builds off the theme of a previous blog post (Words Can Hurt: An Examination of Ethnic Slurs), which covered the topic of language and phrases that were derived from hate and prejudice and continue to be used today largely because those origins are forgotten and/or unknown.  I have elected to continue writing on this theme because the phrases noted in that post are just a few of many that exist and continue to be used today.  I have elected to use three phrases as they are ones that I hear commonly today (as well as have used myself, due to ignorance).  With knowledge comes power, as the saying goes, and with the knowledge of the origins of these three popular phrases you can make the conscious decision to discontinue their use based on where, how, and why they came into existence. 

 

No Can Do: Today this common phrase refers to one’s inability or lack of desire to complete a specific task.  It is typically given in response to a request.  Unfortunately, as innocent as this phrase sounds its origins are anything but.  The term was first used in the 18^th and 19^th centuries as a means of mocking Chinese immigrants who were learning English.  Their pidgin language, which incorporated their native language with American English, led to broken phrases that were not grammatically correct.  Anti-Chinese whites created the phrase “no can do” as a means of mocking and making fun of the Chinese.  The phrase was quickly adopted into the American lexicon because of the widespread anti-Chinese sentiments of the period.

Long Time No See: Another familiar phrase that is widely used today is “long time no see”.  It is meant as an endearing greeting upon seeing someone you had not seen in some time, but its origins are alienating.  The first reference to the term comes from W.F. Drannan’s book Thirty-one Years on Plains, published in 1901.  In the book he quotes an American Indian as first saying this phrase, which is either a gross or accidental misrepresentation of traditional American Indian greetings.  Much like with the Chinese “long time no see” originated as a means of mocking a group that was (and still is in many ways) disliked.

Uppity: You may already be familiar with the origins of uppity as its use by national-level politicians a few years ago led to a barrage of articles and media discussion on the topic.  The term denotes someone who is arrogant or stuck up, and that was the original meaning of the phrase.  What has changed is the reference within the term.  Today “uppity” can be used for anyone, but in its original use it meant blacks who acted outside of their expected and accepted behaviors in mixed race interactions.  The phrase was typically coupled with the word, “n----r”, which further reaffirms its racist and prejudicial origins.

For more information on other phrases with problematic origins please review the resources provided in the Bibliography.  Ultimately, it is up to you on what you do with this information and how you opt to change your language.  Many have taken the stance that we, as a society and culture, are becoming too sensitive and therefore cannot possibly alter every statement we make, and other recognize that language does change over time and the meaning change and therefore origins are meaningless.  I argue that we still should become more aware as awareness allows us to recognize our past mistakes and do better in the present and future.  To use the statement that we cannot change is an afront to the generations of progress that exist throughout human history.  Instead we should realize that we can change; it is simply a matter of whether or not we want to change. 

Bibliography

Coe, T. (2015, June 18). 9 Words with Offensive Origins. Retrieved from Oxford Dictionaries: https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/06/18/9-words-with-offensive-origins/

Pennington, M. (n.d.). 12 Surprisingly Offensive Words You Need to Stop Saying. Retrieved from Reader's Digest: https://www.rd.com/culture/words-with-offensive-origins/

Perry, T. (2019, February 4). 10 common phrases that are actually racist AF. Retrieved from Upworthy: https://www.upworthy.com/10-common-phrases-that-are-actually-racist-af

Reeve, E. (2011, November 22). Yep, 'Uppity' Is Racist. Atlantic Monthly.

Ridley, J. (2008, September 16). How Bad is 'Uppity'? Retrieved from NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/visibleman/2008/09/how_bad_is_uppity.html

Steinmetz, K. (2018, April 26). Avoiding Phrases With Unseemly Origins Is More Complicated Than You Might Think. Time Magazine.