SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang

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