Funny Thing About the Yam Festival of the Trobriand Islands

As you sit d own this Thanksgiving to enjoy what you call a sweet potato but what is actually a yam (that is, if you're eating those de ep orange ones, likely with butter, salt and brown sugar, mmmm….), you might want to consider how on the small island of Kitava in the Trobriand Islands (or, officially the Kiriwan Islands) of Papua New Guinea, they build tiny temples for their yams.   These yams are more than simple root vegetables, they are currency.  They are messages from the Gods.  They are mirrors of the (ahem) length and breadth of individual and collective sense of manhood and feminine power.  Conversely and somewhat ironically they are natural contraceptives for the women of the island, and a key shaper in the crafting of smaller and more sustainable populations and empowering a liberated attitude towards sex, marriage and divorce.  Pre-adolescent children in Trobriand Island villages engage openly in what Westerners might call 'erotic' play (aka natural childhood exploration of their bodies and their sexuality) and once they are adolescents they are permitted to enter into romantic and sexual relationships or encounters with each other- and to change partners freely and frequently.  This is codified and ritualized in elaborate semi-erotic mating dances performed by children and adolescents during celebrations and festivals, which I was able to witness during my brief few days in these remote and wildly beautiful islands.   Other adult practices including a continuation of the the freedom to choose and change partners, and a marriage is made official simply by remaining together after sex through sunrise and eating a breakfast of yam's cooked by the bride's mother.  Apparently tricks are sometimes used to detain partners, but no worries- unions are renewed yearly and divorces are fairly easy to come by with alimony and settlements paid out in- you guess it- yams.  There is even a less common practice in modern times where during the annual yam festival the women are 'allowed' to ambush and rape the male partner of their choice as long as he is from another tribe and village .  Supposedly, if he cannot perform she is encouraged to urinate on him, in addition to chewing off his eyebrows and eyelashes!  Somehow, I cannot see this catching on in many other parts of the world…. Such open sexual mores and flexible practices seem almost post-modern– but according to the anthropological observation and analysis as reported in Jean Liedloff's The Continuum Concept and in historical accounts of other Pacific Island cultures as well as modern day reports of the recently assimilated Jaminawa tribe, it seems that a decent proportion of indigenous tribes still in cultural existence hold these ideas as sexual norms, not taboo or verboten.

But back to our main course, the humble yam.  In the oceanic sub-region of the South Pacific known as Melanesia (encompassing in part Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea) you now can see how yams are such an essential part of life and culture.  Wandering among the yam houses, I was reminded of all the ways in which humans create meanin g from the available world round them and ho w they st ru cture that meaning into their world with architecture, art, song dance and ritual.  We find this with  tea in China, bananas in Ecuador, maple syrup in Canada (seriously, look it up!) and tobacco in the American colonies.  And in the Trobriands, entirevillages rely upon these nutrient dense and also culturally significant root vegetables to sustain them on several levels.  I felt honored to walk among them as the villagers of Kitava prepared for the upcoming yam festival and welcomed me into their homes and schools to share in their refreshingly unguarded, humorous and warm society.

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Source: https://bewelltravelled.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/interesting-bit-1-trobriand-islander-as-free-love-originators-thanks-to-yams-just-in-time-for-thanksgiving/

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