SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang
SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang
SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang
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izo I Comparative Perspectives on Complex Semiotic Processes<br />
Tropical Semiotics<br />
I IZI<br />
woman calls to future husband:<br />
"come rescue me"<br />
woman and child ascend to treetop<br />
by hair<br />
co-wife transformed into casso-<br />
wary<br />
husband has no wives<br />
ogress calls to woman: "I am<br />
going to marry your husband"<br />
woman and child descend by rope<br />
to sago palm<br />
woman living as hornbill returns<br />
to be human spouse<br />
husband has two wives<br />
This pattern of inverted parallelisms can be found in many of the tuni presented<br />
in The Heart of the Pearl Shell, and it is unfortunate that Weiner's emphasis on<br />
the alternation of facilitating and motivating modalities hides this structure.<br />
The moral lessons of the story seem clear: if in myth ogresses turn out to be<br />
co-wives, in real life co-wives tend to be ogresses; if in myth cassowaries nurture<br />
a woman and her child up in the trees, in real life husbands better be out hunting<br />
cassowaries to feed their families; if in myth a man can try to be married to<br />
creatures as symbolically opposed as a hornbill and a cassowary, in real life a<br />
man married to such contraries is likely to end up with no wives at all—just like<br />
in the myth!<br />
Foi Cultural Semiotics<br />
By standing back from these criticisms of the details of Wagner's obviational<br />
method it is still possible to appreciate at a more general level Weiner's interpretation<br />
of the genius of tuni in relation to other semiotic constructions of Foi culture,<br />
including magical spells (kusa) and exchange rituals. Magical spells are<br />
fixed metaphorical formulae the utterance of which transfers power from language<br />
itself to some object or activity. Williams's (1977:246) characterization is<br />
remarkable given the fact that it was written in the early 1940s, prior to the<br />
spread of semiotic techniques into anthropology:<br />
It is plain, then, that the spell in essence consists in a statement, a setting forth,<br />
of the hoped-for result as if it were sure to happen; but in so far as this is a<br />
plain statement it seems very doubtful if anyone would be prepared to call it<br />
magic. It is in a certain round-aboutness that the spell finds its characteristic<br />
magical value. The component factors in the situation are represented by symbols—in<br />
the manual rite by natural symbols or symbolic actions; in the spell<br />
by verbal symbols, substitutive words. It would be a thesis worth propounding<br />
that magic in this verbal guise was simply metaphor with a purpose. The symbol<br />
used is something which the magic-maker desires to emulate, to copy, to<br />
reproduce in action or being; it is a substitute on a large scale, or in some more<br />
potent sense, for the actuality of the moment. He wishes things to turn out<br />
that way, so he imagines, makes believe that they do.<br />
For example, prior to leaving his house to hunt marsupials, a hunter pronounces<br />
a spell over red leaves used in this activity (Weiner 1988:130):<br />
I am chewing the leg, the tail of the dark marsupial<br />
I am chewing the leg, the tail of the igini cassowary<br />
I am chewing the leg, the tail of tree kangaroo<br />
I am chewing the leg, [long list of desired species]<br />
Perhaps because the closing line is omitted, this spell does not illustrate the asymmetry<br />
found in other Foi spells (Silverstein 1981b). Williams (1977:325, n. 21)<br />
provides an excellent example, the spell associated with the important myth of<br />
the origin of pearl shell valuables. In order to magically acquire pearl shells, the<br />
chanter recites:<br />
furubu tree I desire (in my liver)<br />
konjuguri tree I desire<br />
fogabu bird I desire<br />
ware bird I desire<br />
aba bird I desire<br />
fifi tree I desire<br />
tugu tree I desire<br />
Kobira Piwi I desire<br />
The repetition of conjoined classes of objects (trees and birds) sharing the red<br />
quality thought to resemble the highly prized color of pearl shells culminates in<br />
the utterance of the unique, secret name of the mythic character responsible for<br />
the introduction of these valuables.<br />
Spells are privately owned, purchased as commodities, and retain a fixed linguistic<br />
form; though clearly tropic, they are instances of collectivizing symbolization.<br />
Weiner (1988:13) points out a systematic opposition between magical<br />
spells and mythic tales (though the force of the comparison is dulled by awkward<br />
wording):<br />
The relation between myths [read magical spells] and their associated magic<br />
spells [read myths] is a good example of the relative distinction between collectivizing<br />
and differentiating modes of symbolization, and hence between semantic<br />
(structural) and tropic (obviational) analysis While both rest on the<br />
force of tropic construction for their effectiveness, myth and magic occupy opposed<br />
discursive contexts. Myths are above all else public narration; the longhouse<br />
is the most common and perhaps only socially approved setting for their<br />
telling. A magic spell, on the other hand, is individual property, and spoken to<br />
no other person, except in the act of its transfer for payment, like any other<br />
valuable. . . . The magic spell focuses on the deliberate articulation of a similarity;<br />
it is a collectivizing trope, stressing the resemblances between the two<br />
elements that form the point of transfer of a specific capacity or power. One<br />
might say that magic is the Foi's own form of structural analysis, drawing similarities<br />
between putatively distinct domains, articulating metaphor in its collectivizing<br />
mode and, in addition, having the function of transferring or<br />
focusing power between those domains. The myth, by contrast, achieves its