Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Fjg. 111.—Wooden shield from the Trobriand Islands,British New Guinea. Of far greater importance than the chiefs are the secret societiesand clubs. The first are such institutions as the Qatu of the NewHebrides, tlie Tamate of the Banks Islands, the Matambala ofFlorida^ the Dukduk of New Britain, &c. The Nanga of Fiji is alsoanalogous, though it exhibits characteristics which differentiateit from the others. These societies, which are characteristic PLATE Tir.
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)\ra>k> IVmih New Guinea, a, h. Bark-ilutli : Ilcni.-i <listrict.c. Carved wood ; Hiiou (iulf. \_Face p. 132 THE PAPUASIANS 133 features of Melanesia, are accessible to men only, and the candi-dates on initiation have to submit to treatment which is oftenrough in the extreme. The members of the societies are believedto be in close association with ghosts and spirits, and exhibitthemselves in masks and elaborate dresses (PI. VII and figs. 33,120, &c.), in which disguise they are believed by the uninitiatedto be supernatural beings. These societies do not practise any secretcult, in fact all the initiate learns is that the ghosts are merelyhis fellows in disguise, and that the mysterious noises which heraldtheir approach are produced by the bull-roarer (fig. 117) and otherappliances. Such organizations are most powerful agents for themaintenance of social order, and inflict punishment for breaches ofcustomary law. Women are rigorously excluded, except in thecase of the Nan

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