NETBAGS REVISITED: CULTURAL NARRATIVES FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Authors

Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh
Andrew J. Strathern, University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

In this article we reconsider materials on netbags from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya, as well as other parts of Melanesia, arguing that understanding of them is best set into a framework of ideas regarding embodiment and processes of trope expansion. Starting from the equation of netbag and womb, we trace the ramifications of this object of material culture and its contemporary significance in a commodifying context. Main emphasis is placed on materials from the Melpa or Mount Hagen area of the Western Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, with comparisons to the cultures of the Ok region. Although netbags have predominantly female associations, modem Highlands netbag styles are a hybrid of elements from the netbags used by men and women in the past. We argue that the netbag’s chief significance is as a container of life and death, deeply bound up with the human life cycle, and that it gains its significance from its use in both everyday utilitarian contexts and highly charged ritual events.

Recommended Citation

Stewart, Pamela J. and Strathern, Andrew J. (1997) "NETBAGS REVISITED: CULTURAL NARRATIVES FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 20: No. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol20/iss2/4