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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Sound Symbolism, Onomatopoeia, And New Guinea Frog Names, Terence Hays Nov 2012

Sound Symbolism, Onomatopoeia, And New Guinea Frog Names, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Brent Berlin has recently proposed the use of r sounds as a substantive universal in the names given to frogs and toads, a tendency that he attributes to onomatopoeia. A data set from over 200 New Guinea languages is analyzed. Berlin's proposal regarding r sounds recieves strong support, but an even more significant pattern is found with respect to g sounds. Onomatopoeia is a possible motivation for both of these patterns.


Oceania - From Tobacco In Culture And History: An Encyclopedia, Vol 2, Terence Hays Nov 2012

Oceania - From Tobacco In Culture And History: An Encyclopedia, Vol 2, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

The earliest historical record of tobacco use in Oceania dates back from 1616 on islands off the northwest coast of New Guinea. Tobacco cultivation may have been introduced to the philippines by the Spanish as early as 1575, but it was after large-scale cultivation began to flourish in Europe in the 1590's that the use of tobacco, if not always its cultivation, rapidly spread, with introductions by the Dutch in Java in 1601 and almost immediate diffusion throughout what is now Indonesia, with Halmahera becoming a center of cultivation and export (as was Java) by 1616.


Tairora - From The Greenwood Encyclopedia Of World Folklore And Folklife, Terence Hays Nov 2012

Tairora - From The Greenwood Encyclopedia Of World Folklore And Folklife, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Encyclopedia entry regarding the geography, history, and culture of Tairora located in the Kainantu District of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papau New Guinea.


Folktales From Habi'ina, Katnantu District, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence Hays Nov 2012

Folktales From Habi'ina, Katnantu District, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

The people of Habi'ina village live on the northern slopes of Mount Piora in the Dogara Census Division of the Kainantu District, Eastern Highlands Province. Like other Papua New Guineans, they possess a rich oral literature and tell each other stories for a wide variety of reasons. All stories are called huri, but several different types can be distinguished.


A Pacific Island Collection In Rhode Island, Terence Hays, Mary Conaway, Susan Yeaw Nov 2012

A Pacific Island Collection In Rhode Island, Terence Hays, Mary Conaway, Susan Yeaw

Terence Hays

Collections of artifacts and specimens from Pacific Island cultures are found throughout Rhode Island. The largest and most systematically collected is in the Museum of Natural History in Roger Williams Park, Providence. The items were acquired by Rhode Island citizens over about a 150 year period from the early 1800's to the 1950's. They are from the 3 culture areas of the Pacific: Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. All form of matter including wood, shell, fiber, bone and skin, ivory, pottery, stone, and human hair are part of the artifact assemblage. The specimens (not studied for this project) include birds, lava, …


Missionaries - From Tobacco In Culture And History: An Encyclopeida, Vol. 1, Terence Hays Nov 2012

Missionaries - From Tobacco In Culture And History: An Encyclopeida, Vol. 1, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

For centuries, many missionaries have reflected the ambivalent and sometimes shifting views held by their peers back home, with their actions shaped by local circumstances as well as moral debates. In other cases, missionaries-most notably Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and members of various evangelical sects of Protestantism-have long been opposed to smoking. Today, most missionaries around the world at least publicly speak out against tobacco use because of associated health risks. Whether only by example or as direct interoducers or suppliers, missionaries joined other colonial agents in the spread and support of tobacco use historically, regardless of what their common …


"Myths Of Matriarchy" And The Sacred Flute Complex Of The Papua New Guinea Highlands, Terence Hays Nov 2012

"Myths Of Matriarchy" And The Sacred Flute Complex Of The Papua New Guinea Highlands, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

In Hays study of the "Myths of Matriarchy" in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, he draws upon Joan Bamberger's "Myths of Matriarchy" from 1974. He seeks to address whether Bamberger's analysis of South American objects can illuminate those from the area he is studying, that of the Highlands of New Guinea. Hays notes that there is a long argued idea that the "sacred flute complex" was manifested from and contributed to the mutually antagonistic gender relations of the societies in which that area is known for and that once upon a time women brandished the flute and bullroarer instruments and …


Uses Of Wild Plants In Ndumba, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence Hays Nov 2012

Uses Of Wild Plants In Ndumba, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

For Papua New Guineans,l as well as for those who wish to understand them better, traiditional knowledge of the local natural environment is a priceless resource. In the face of increasing commitments to a cash economy, however, many communities are rapidly losing their awareness and appreciation of the rich animal and plant worlds which are immediately available to them. As Powell has recently observed (1976), the recorded information regarding traditional plant knowledge and uses has tended to be widely-scattered in the literature and relatively difficult to access, especially for those who stand to benefit the most from it. A recent …


Utilitarian/Adaptationist Explanations Of Folk Bioglogical Classification, Terence E. Hays Nov 2012

Utilitarian/Adaptationist Explanations Of Folk Bioglogical Classification, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

Attempts to explain the complexity of folk biological classification systems may benefit from utilitarian or adaptationist arguments, focusing on the utilitarian or adaptive value of the behavioral consequences of folk distinctions among organisms. To adequately assess such perspectives it is necessary to resolve a number of theoretical, methodological empirical problems, which are identified and outlined in this paper as a first step toward the construction of such theories of ethnobiological classification.


"No Tobacco, No Hallelujah" , Terence Hays Jul 2012

"No Tobacco, No Hallelujah" , Terence Hays

Terence Hays

According to myths and legends told by some peoples of New Guinea, tobacco is an ancient and indigenous plant, having appeared sponotaneously in a variety of ways. In other instances, the plant and the custom of smoking it are said to have been established by local culture heroes, while still other traditions prosaically cite adoptions from neighboring groups. On the basis of oral history alone, then, one might conclude that New Guinea tobacco appeared in widely scattered locations in the mythic past, and its distribution at the time of European contact is explainable as simple diffusion within the region.


Kuku-"God Of The Motuites", Terence Hays Jul 2012

Kuku-"God Of The Motuites", Terence Hays

Terence Hays

When European colonists arrived in Papua New Guinea, tobacco and the custom of smoking already were widespread but not universal. The newcomers quickly filled this void by introducing trade tobacco, which nearly everywhere was rapidly adopted. A "passion" for smoking was especially evident among those to whom tobacco was previously unknown or very new. The chemical properties of nicotine combined with an absence of cultural rules regarding its use to create a new "god."


Sacred Texts And Introductory Texts, Terence Hays Jul 2012

Sacred Texts And Introductory Texts, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

A survey of 118 introductory anthropology textbooks published in the period 1929-1990 examines the ways in which Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa has been presented to college undergraduates. In contrast to Derek Freeman's claim that her conclusions about Samoan sexuality and adolescence have been reiterated (approvingly) in an "unbroken succesion of anthropological textbooks," it appears that this work has been ignored almost as often as it has been cited. Criticesms of Mead, although relatively few and almost entirely methodological, have also been incorporated into texstbooks, both before and following Freeeman's 1983 book, Margaret Mead and Samoa. Whether or …