Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gathering by Anne SalmondReview by: Thomas K. FitzgeraldAmerican Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Dec., 1977), pp. 945-946Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/673340 .

Accessed: 21/06/2014 08:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Wiley and American Anthropological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to American Anthropologist.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.242 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 08:44:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ETHNOLOGY 945

sive in space and time than that of any other anthropologist alive.

The book aims to be "a clear and concise ac- count" (p. 1) for students and general readers. It achieves this goal, so that most of the criticisms below deal with what the author did not, and probably did not want, to do. Their aim is merely to advise prospective readers of what not to ex- pect.

In conception (pp. 1-2) the book falls between the encyclopedia of Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, 1906, and Williams-Hunt's breezy introduction, An Intro- duction to the Malay Aborigines, 1952. The fairest comparison is with Cole's work, The Peoples of Malaysia, 1945, to which it is in all ways superior. The theoretical framework is that of the midcen- tury British social anthropology, which derived from studies, particularly in the then African col- onies, of societies with strict unilineal descent rules. Some of Carey's description of social struc- tures therefore seem a bit formulaic for "bilateral" peoples, a rigidity dictated in part by the synoptic approach.

The book works better as a synopsis than an introduction, primarily because the bibliography is incomplete and sometimes inaccurate. It is also somewhat outdated, the most recent references being for 1971, presumably because the book was in press an inordinate length of time, a flaw for which Carey cannot be blamed. Moreover, the dif- ficulty of getting some of the more arcane refer- ences in Malaysia led to his copying Skeat and Blagden's often sloppy citations.

Textual references are also sometimes haphazard. For instance, a reader interested in slavery will find no entry in the index to Carey's discussion (pp. 286-287). That discussion gives three references, one of which I could not check, one of which cites a page not in the article referred to, and one of which is incomplete (as are two of the three bibliographic entries to which it might refer). I should add that I am cited elsewhere (p. 92) as author of a sentence I did not write.

The book's Babylonian captivity in press leaves the nonspecialist reader unaware of major books still unpublished but completed or nearing com- pletion by, e.g., Baharon, Benjamin, Diffloth, Fix, the Robarcheks, Walker and Wazir, as well as of the continuing work by students in the social an- thropology section of the Universiti Sains under the direction of S. Nagata and A. Walker. The text does make reference to work by Benjamin and Maeda not listed in the bibliography.

What deficiencies this book has stem mainly from its modest aims and scope. It does not strive to be definitive nor to emulate Skeat and Blagden. Orang Asli is a useful, reasonably accurate and reasonably short introduction to the social an- thropology of the indigenous people of West Malaysia. Future work with Orang Asli and other synoptic studies of Southeast Asian hill peoples will have to take this book into account.

Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gathering. Anne Salmond. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1976. xii + 226 pp. $9.95 (paper). [2nd ed.; 1st ed. 1975].

Thomas K. Fitzgerald University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Few academic books on the Maori of New Zea- land have given me so much genuine pleasure and excitement as Dr. Salmond's work. Hui is a com- plex book and multidimensional in scope. Al- though supposedly written primarily for people in New Zealand who are interested in Maori cere- monial gatherings, the book is also good ethnog- raphy (hence of value to professional an- thropologists), as well as being "good reading" for nonprofessionals in or outside New Zealand.

As pure ethnography, Hui is essential reading for Pacific specialists. Albeit of limited focus, con- centrating exclusively on marae ceremonies, it aims to give a full portrait of the hui, not only of its rituals but its background, setting, and staging in hope that "it may somehow help to make the lives and hearts of Maori and Pakeha [European New Zealanders] a little less alien toward one another" (p. 7). This goal is achieved quite admirably. Through what the author calls the "anthropology of occasions" (p. 115), descriptions of the signifi- cant "rituals of encounter" (calling, wailing, chant- ing, and oratory) unfold in rich, personal detail. Making special use of the art of storytelling, Sal- mond beautifully juxtaposes history and myth with contemporary interpretations of the past to give us an intimate glimpse of a modern Maori way of life, at least in these contexts.

The only possible danger I can see in this sort of "event analysis" is the somewhat myopic view of cultural reality that is likely to result. It is not certain either to what degree the author sees these ceremonial activities as cultural "last stands"; but, in a real sense, Hui is a kind of valuable "salvage ethnography." Certainly Sal- mond does not shy away from the fact that, for many urban Maoris at least, the marae has be- come a final outpost of their traditional culture. Nonetheless, such a study could have profound impact on individuals (Maoris included) who want a deeper appreciation for the traditional side of Maori culture.

Some scholars will object to the heavy reliance on so few key informants, and most of these from the East Coast area. Certainly the question of generality can be raised. Despite this narrow data-base, one must admit that Salmond was ap- prenticed to several undisputed experts in marae kawa (marae protocol), enough to give us a sensi- tive and realistic glimpse of these cultural events, made beautifully alive and real through the per- sonal, intimate stories recounted to her by these elderly people.

For the lay New Zealander, this is a valuable book. Although mildly technical, its crowning

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.242 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 08:44:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

946 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [79, 1977]

achievement is in its being such "good reading." In anthropological circles, it is also significant, both as descriptive ethnography and as theory. Unfortunately the word "theory" has come to mean, for some people, all that is negative and "dull" in academic writing, and hence even au- thors will deny the use of it. Yet clearly Hui is a theoretical work, being in the tradition of "emic anthropology," sociolinguistics, and the situa- tional analysis of Erving Goffman. Although not dwelling on descriptions of theory per se, it relies on these theoretical guidelines to achieve its seemingly simple, free-flowing, novel-like qual- ity. Couched in simple but strong language, Sal- mond's book gives us a feeling and appreciation for the meanings attached to these "rituals of en- counter" in a way that makes for satisfying and enjoyable reading.

The Sorrow of the Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers. Edward L. Schieffelin. New York: St. Martin's, 1976. viii + 243 pp. $12.95 (cloth), $4.95 (paper).

Donald F. Tuzin University of California, San Diego

This monograph is a cultural ethnography sensu stricto. The Kaluli live on the Papuan Plateau of New Guinea, a forest-dwelling people who subsist on a mixed economy of hunting, gar- dening, and sago foraging. Although the author delves into the usual range of institutional forms, including subsistence patterning, kinship, poli- tics, and magico-religious life, his main analytic intent is to interpret these and other conventions in light of their cultural significance. What ide- ational principles are embodied in the welter of everyday life, and how does the harmonious con- junction of these domains-cultural ideas and behavioural exigencies-provide occasion and di- rection for the resolution of existential dilemmas characteristic of the Kaluli? With a nod to Levi- Strauss, Schieffelin proposes that reciprocity is the "basic theme" underlying Kaluli society. This he derives, first, by noting that the Kaluli tend to bracket their experiences into one or another "cultural scenario," this being defined as a "series of events embodying a typical sequence of phases or episodes, which between its com- mencement and resolution effects a certain

amount of social progress or change in the situa- tion to which it pertains" (p.3). Then, as a corol- lary, he observes that scenarios are often ar- ranged so as to posit an opposition--e.g., between men, between groups, between the visible and the invisible-and that the resolution comes about through a reaffirmation of reciprocity. In the meaningful interaction of experience and ex- pressive form, we thus conceive the dynamic of culture process.

The example par excellence of this interaction is Gisaro, a ceremony held on the occasion of im- portant social transactions and which, in its cul- turally focusing effects, is a "lens through which to view some of the fundamental issues of Kaluli life and society" (p. 1). Indeed, the arresting title of this volume juxtaposes one of these issues ("the sorrow of the lonely") with its most striking mode of cultural expression ("the burning of the dan- cers"). The resplendent dancers are typically strangers from another longhouse community. Their songs are poetic recitals of scenes rich in the melancholy sentiments of loneliness, abandon- ment, and death. They move the audience to tears, arousing them to expunge the painful emotion by turning on the dancers with flaming torches. Be- cause, however, this retaliation affords only momentary relief, those who have wept are further compensated with food gifts. Social rela- tions are thus renewed, while on the symbolic plane of the "invisible" death is averted and the already dead are reinvigorated.

One could, of course, quibble: the book's photo- graphic coverage leaves something to be desired; it is never made completely clear how recogniza- ble the "cultural scenarios" are to the Kaluli themselves; and the psychodynamic implications of so striking a custom as the "burning of the dancers" are totally ignored. But these deficien- cies do not detract from Schieffelin's special con- tribution to our understanding of the culturally expressive dimension of social process. The "burning of the dancers" is surely a gruesome catharsis; but, as Schieffelin's careful analysis shows, the event transcends individual moment to articulate and symbolically to resolve deep concerns related to violence, reciprocity, and the awful specter of loneliness. The climax of the book-the climax of Gisaro-is the climax of Kaluli culture. And this concordance is, after all, what one looks for in an ethnography of theoreti- cal merit.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.242 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 08:44:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions