Introduction

The culture of the Trobriand Island was well articulated by Brawsnlaw Malininowiski and Fransis Boas. The islanders speak the same language as they are cut from other by the sea; the practice of the Kula Ring is seen as one of the more important traditions within Trobriand life. The ring is the series of islands that men from different villages visit to trade small trinkets and goods with those of distant islands. Arm shells and shell necklaces are seen as small worthless trinkets to many early Europeans, but they help maintain contact and friendships in distant places. During times of Kula trade, any animosity or war with other villages or sub-clans are suspended in respect for this tradition.

The Trobriands observe several taboos such as eating certain foods be they animals and plants for both man and woman or either of the sexes. There is also prohibition in the use of water that is not from boreholes in the coral ridge and illness follows the person who breaks the taboos. If a woman of high ranking marries a man of lower ranking which is a taboo in itself, then all her cooking utensils, dishes, and drinking vessels must be separate from those of her husband or the husband must not eat her food as it is a taboo to her. This rank entitles possessions to certain ornaments which serve both as festive decorations and symbol. These can be shell discs which are worn by people of high ranking.

The natives of the islanders are totemic being divided into four clans with birds, animals, and plants. They are matrilineal and the maternal uncle has great influence over his nephew. Both genders have great influence over each other as women have the same right to marry or divorce.
The husband if they are not pleased with him. They are also allowed to pursue or reject partners at their will just like men. So they have wide freedom before marriage and this allows for more sexual relations among partners but once married the women are supposed to remain faithful to their husbands and infidelity/adultery attracts punishment. They live in villages forming clusters of several villages, some of these villages engage in fishing others go on with wood carving stone polishing shell-ornament making basketry.

There is also a form of exchange that involves inter-tribes which form the communities which inhabit the ring of islands. This form of exchange or trade sees one object move from one person to the other like a clock hand and also an object moving from this hand to the other in the opposite direction. Thus this form of trade sees that no one person keeps an article like ornament for long and so it keeps revolving. Every detail of the transaction is regulated and fixed by a set of traditional rules and convections. There are also some acts of magic and ceremonies accompanying this kind of exchange (Malinowski and Young, 1979). Therefore the Trobriands societies practice magic as a form of their religion. Every village sees only a few men take part in the exchange, this makes sure that every man occasionally receives the exchange commodities and passes it on to others. The exchange involves complex activities which have traditions and other cultural practices tied to it, it welds together a considerable number of times and embraces a vast number of complex activities, interconnected and playing into one another to make one organic whole (Bronislaw Malinoswki, MichaelW. Young 1979).

The community practice farming as a tradition for food and also fishing which comes after agriculture. Dering drought the community can hunt for food or even gather though it is not widely practiced (Malinowski and Young, 1979). Living within islands covered by sea, they often engage in barter trade with their neighboring communities. Thus they have a long tradition of seafaring voyages for trade with the neighboring communities, before these voyages are done there are ceremonies conducted at the sea shore to appease the spirits so as to avoid calamities in the journeys like storms and sea ranges.

Seasons have great influence in the life and activities of the islanders who in dry season when they have their harvest engage in festivals and dances and do not do much work in the gardens and other places. During this time there are several visits made to enhance relationships, men apply paint to their faces. The women also decorate themselves for the occasion. This festive season is followed by intense garden making season where bush is cleared, burned off, cleaned and fenced round, and yams are planted which form their main dish. During this season people gather for communal work, and are paid by food. As the garden work ceases trading season sets in and the community is filled with people from overseas who are the tribesmen of this society, the main trade items are the armlets made of conus shells and long neck lets of red discs.
The Trobriand belief in the power of magic and is widely practiced. All their practices like gardening, fishing, trading, house making, sailing and yam storing are closely connected with complex magic systems. The traditional magicians are honored and important in the community and they are treated just like the village chiefs. Magic spell can be breathed into a leaf or a substance that is brought into contact with the person intended or can just be utterance of words. Sorcery is a major form of magic practiced. The cause of disease or illness is believed to be caused by evil spirits; the evil female witches who are known to fly without being seen are believed to cause diseases and death to people by removing or causing injury to internal body organs. The spirits of the dead are not feared and they are believed to appear to people at some times.

Marriage and Kinship

Although descent is matrilineal, the wife goes and lives with the husband after marriage, and this makes wives strangers among the husbands village. When a male reaches maturity he goes to live in the village of his mother’s brother (uncle) so as to get a mate form there and this way the matrileage is kept intact. The fact that the affiliation ideas of the islanders are established on the matrilineal theory that everything descends through the mother. She is entrusted with the real guardianship of her family which remains not with herself, but with her brother. This can be generalized into the rule that, in each generation, woman continues the line and man represents it; or, in other words, that the power and functions which belong to a family are entrusted to the men of each generation, though they have to be transmitted by the women.

It is believed that spirits are the ones that cause women to get pregnant and so while the father enjoys a good relationship with the children the mother’s brother is legally responsible for them and their mother. Love spell are believed to work to cause one to fall in love with a lady or a male and they are believed to make a person beautiful even though they are considered ugly.

Religion

Trobrianders believe in spirits who live in in the bush who cause ill health and death, but their greatest fear is sorcery. Only some people are believed to have the knowledge of spells that will "poison" a person and such experts can be petitioned to exercise their power for others. Counter spells are also known; chemical poisons obtained from elsewhere are thought to be prevalent. In addition, magic spells are chanted for many other desires, such as control over the weather, love, beauty, carving expertise, yam gardening, and sailing. Mission teachers have not disrupted the strong beliefs in and practice of magic. Recently, villagers from two hamlets have introduced a new fundamentalist religion whose tenets negate the practice of magic. Most villagers own some magic spells, but only certain women and men are known to have the most sought after and powerful spells for gardening, weather, and sorcery. The most powerful spells are owned by the Omarakana chief. However there are some villages have inhabitant catholic missioners who have introduced new religion.

Language

The language of Trobriand community is Kilivila but it has wide dialects along the tribes, it is composed of complex similar to those spoken in South west Asia and the Pacific. The islanders’ language is unique in that the same plant like yam is given different names in different seasons of growth. For example when a yam is at the sprouting sate, it has a different name to that which it receives when it ripens.

How the Islanders are presented on the Internet

The trobriand islanders have attracted much attention in the different forms of media owing to their unique and noticeable culture. Thus they may have attracted unnecessary attention leading to unwanted criticism and hence misrepresentation of their culture. Culture is unique in and to every society and language forms a basic element in culture as it shapes it.

The Trobriand Islands are famous for being the ‘Island of love’ and this has led to population boom, combined with other factors. The population increase has caused huge food shortages and serious health problem (Ilya 2009). However, food shortages are not unique to the Islanders alone as it a global problem facing man y parts of the continents in Africa, Asia and other places. The carrying capacity of many ecosystems have been exceeded in many places due to population increase and other environmental factors that lead to global climate change and land degradation.

The sexual practice among the Trobriands is another feature that has been in the focus of man y internet blogs especially the tourist companies that seek to make the Islands a tour destination. However, this has not taken into account the anthropological strategies and methods of study and ends up not bringing out the true picture of the Islanders but create a promiscuous society.
Magic has been another theme in the Trobriand Islanders where it has been perceived as the main religious practice, however, most of the societies turn to magic to seek answers that science religion may not provide.

There has been massive misrepresentation and misinterpretation of the Trobriand islanders in the media. This is especially so in films and other electronic media. This has been especially in the film industry where ethnographic films have not adhered to the philosophical and methodology with which to presented the islanders reality. The acting in itself appears to aggravate the problem of misrepresenting these societies. The fact that the film makers want to capture the attention of the audience makes them reduce reality to something like getting the correct ethnographic facts and focusing the camera on the right place. When this is done the film imposes some authority of truth in their interpretation but which in fact is may be the filmmakers’ perception of truth. For example in the film ‘survival’ theme in the hunters (John Marshal 1956) and ‘death’ theme in dead birds by Robert Gardner 1961 where in both films, the filmmakers created their own themes and used it as the central focus if the film.

In their sex life, the Trobrianders have been presented as one of the most promiscuous by the electronic media thus painting such culture as barbaric and violation of human rights to an extent, this has been as a result of the film makers to present their own isolated parts that make up the whole system of culture. At the same time all communities express some form of religion and mostly turn to magic when in dire need as a complex solution to problems and answers that science or religion may not explain depending on the knowledge base of the given society. In some areas the islanders have been shown as involving great practices of magic with no form of religion at all.

They have also been presented as trying to survive where they are victims of environment and are obsessed with survival in all their activities; however, communities are able to adopt to their environment through culture

References

Bronislaw Malinoswki, MichaelW. Young. The ethnography of Malinowski:The trobriand island. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul ltd, 1979.

Malone, Martin J. "Society-TROBRIANDS." http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/ethnoatlas/hmar/cult_dir/culture.7877 (accessed 2010).

Ressture, Jane. "The Trobriand Islands:The Status Of Women, based on The myths, magic and mysteries that determine the status of." 2008. http://www.janeresture.com/trobriand_women/index.htm (accessed 2010).

Resture, Jane. "THE TROBRIAND ISLANDS:(Papua New Guinea)." Oceania Mythology Home Page. 2009. http://www.janeresture.com/trobriand_myths/index.htm (accessed 2010).

"Trobriand Islands - Religion and Expressive Culture ." Countires and their Cultures:. http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Trobriand-Islands-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html (accessed 2010).

Weiner, Annette B. "Epistemology and Ethnographic Reality: A Trobriand Island Case Study." (Blackwell Publishing ) 80, no. 3 (1978): 752-757.

Ilya Gridneff. Population Problems for Trobriands,  http://www.missionandjustice.org/population-problem-for-trobriands/, 14/7/2009.