Mountain Arapesh

by Margaret Mead

For approximately eight months during 1931-1932, anthropologist Margaret Mead lived with and studied the Mountain Arapesh-a segment of the population of the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. She found a culture based on simplicity, sensitivity, and cooperation. In contrast to the aggressive Arapesh who lived on the plains, both the men and the women of the mountain settlements were found to be, in Mead's word, maternal. The Mountain Arapesh exhibited qualities that many might consider feminine: they were, in general, passive, affectionate, and peaceloving. Though Mead partially explains the male's "femininity" as being due to the type of nourishment available to the Arapesh, she maintains social conditioning to be a factor in the type of lifestyle led by both sexes. Mead's study encapsulates all aspects of the Arapesh culture. She discusses betrothal and marriage customs, sexuality, gender roles, diet, religion, arts, agriculture, and rites of passage. In possibly a portent for the breakdown of traditional roles and beliefs in the latter part of the twentieth century, Mead discusses the purpose of rites of passage in maintaining societal values and social control. Mead also discovered that both male and female parents took an active role in raising their children. Furthermore, it was found that there were few conflicts over property: the Arapesh, having no concept of land ownership, maintained a peaceful existence with each other. In his new introduction to The Mountain Arapesh, Paul B. Roscoe assesses the importance of Mead's work in light of modern anthropological and ethnographic research, as well as how it fits into her own canon of writings. Roscoe discusses findings he culled from a trip to Papua New Guinea in 1991 to clarify some ambiguities in Mead's work. His travels also served to help reconstruct what had happened to the Arapesh since Mead's historic visit in the early 1930s.

697 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2002

About the author

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the '60s and '70s as a popularizer of the insights of anthropology into modern American and western life but also a respected, if controversial, academic anthropologist.

Her reports as to the purportedly healthy attitude towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures amply informed the '60s "sexual revolution" and it was only at the end of her life and career that her propositions were – albeit controversially – challenged by a maverick fellow anthropologist and literate members of societies she had long before studied and reported on. Mead was a champion of broadened sexual mores within a context of traditional western religious life.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Zedaiah Kanau · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the rare books that revisits the traditional (primitive in Western context) way of life of the native Arapesh people of Alitoa,East Sepik by famed American Anthropologist Magaret Mead.

The event(s) in this book dates to 1931 when Mead spent 7-months in the Mountains of Alitoa with her (second) Anthropologist Husband Prof Reo Fortune where she immersed herself to the people's way of life.
This was her second case study from her anthropological field work in New Guinea after her first visit to the Pere village of Manus in the 1920s.

As titled, the Arapesh lived up the mountains of Alitoa and due to infertile soil, they usually trade with the people from the mainland for food and other necessities.

There where communication setbacks so to enforce some sense of civility between them and the natives, the (colonial) administration assigned to them the local tultuls from the area.

Mead coined the Arapesh name to these people from Alitoa because they had no name for themselves.

During her time, she studied their way of life extensively and barring some interpretation barriers (she encountered some difficulty with the Arapesh language), helped write up their genealogy, provided medical treatment for the injured/sick and most importantly brought the outside world closer to the people because this was the first time white people had come to live with them.

The book is sequenced into two parts, the first being Mead's description of the social structure of the Arapesh and the latter, a diary of events in Alitoa, where she recorded daily happenings in the village.

In brief, the first part of the book speaks of taboos such as a men's role in the village, what is expected of a first born child, the role of women, what men and women should do/not do before marriage etc.

The leadership style of the Arapesh varies from the other societies noted by Mead. Unlike other societies, the Arapesh had an unorganized leadership structure. There were no rankings in the villages. Their concept of a "big men" is based on whoever that has had experience being leader in small events.

In her diary, which is the second part of this book, Mead speaks on various socio- economic issues in the village. There were confrontations about betrothal payments (most/all marriages were arranged) which almost takes up a quarter of her diary because most hostilities stemmed from that issue.

But unlike today, these marriages were a symbolic form of unity among the Arapesh in getting the people together. Relationships among in-laws were a big part of village life then.

There were few cases of incest recorded by Mead and marriages which were forced through by sorcery (magic to make woman fall in love) as the story goes.

Nonetheless, marriage and the process of was a big uniting factor among the native Arapesh.

Mead was also told of early prospectors who had being killed by the Arapesh when venturing the area.

The dominant force in Mead's tale is about the supernatural and the belief of sorcery by the Arapesh. Almost, if not all suspicions of sickness is attributed to sorcery.

Mead states that upon arrival, many were ill of curable diseases like Malaria and (skin) ulcers but most people then attributed these to a sorcerers magic being the cause.

Mead also talks about the Tamberan, its taboos(so that people dont offend the dead), the initiation of young men in the Haus Tamberan and what not. The flute, an instrument commonly played close to the Haus Tamberan by the initiated, was a song to call for the dead ancestors.

The Arapesh also believed in Divination in which Mead met several young men who were gifted in this practice (seeing the future through preternatural ways).

She traded with the Arapesh western materials like matches,dolls/toys,knife etc for their service in maintaining their huts and providing them information about village life/history.

There are many other issues dealt with in this book but the above is a run up of the main themes i picked up on.

[Alienne Laval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mana/egestion and Taboos.