Cuerpos trans, cuerpos límite

A man tru is expected to possess other qualities. These qualities are part of the cultural obligations and responsibilities a man is expected to fulfill towards his family, clan and society. A man fends for himself and also for his family and community, which prescribe that he is hospitable and contribute to community obligations like mortuary feasts and other feasts. He must care for other people

and be ‘man blong lo’.52 A man’s contribution to his community is one way of gaining status. This brings out the communal aspect of life in PNG which requires a man to negotiate his masculinity in relation to different groups of people he associates with in the community. A man who does not contribute is considered

rabis man.53. When a man amasses wealth, he is expected to share it with his family and community. He is expected to be kind and caring to others in the community. Vincent, an academic in his forties, argues that sharing is what the

man blong lo does best:

A man gains respect with his ability to generate wealth and distribute it. A man who hoards things without sharing is not regarded well in my society. A man gains respect in a number of ways. One is his ability to generate wealth and distribute… One is his ability to generate wealth and distribute… a big part of that is to share and care for others in the community.

In the matrilineal societies, men esteemed their women. Western anthropologists (whose work is used here as data because they are all we have) such as

Lepowsky’s (1990) work among the Vanatinai in Milne Bay province, a matrilineal society, shows how women had great freedom to participate amassing wealth with they distributed in gift exchanges. They did that independent from their husband’s activities. She calls the women big women (Lepowsky 1990). Wiener

52 _{‘Man blong lo’ is a Pidgin term that is used mostly in the Madang area that best describes this}

man of quality. This is a man who is kind, considerate and hospitable. He shares food from his gardens, fish from his catch or meat from his hunting. He distributes well at feasts that he does not miss members of his family and clan is his distribution of food and other things. He is giving, caring and kind.

53 _{‘Rabis man’ is a Pidgin word derived from the English ‘rubbish’ man. This is a man who is}

worthless, one who amounts to nothing because he contributes nothing. The rabis man is the opposite of a man tru and a big man. In literature by Salisbury (1964); A. Strathern (1966), the big man, finance manager is the opposite of the ‘rubbish man’ (Newton 1988: 203).

(1988) makes note of the Trobriand women’s great power at gift exchange in mortuary feasts.

Data from this research show that participants from matrilineal societies esteem women and a man tru in society is one who values women. A man becomes a

man tru when he considers the importance of women and their role in society. For example, Joel is an academic in his late thirties. He is from East New Britain - a matrilineal society and says:

A man tru is one who recognizes the status of women in society and allows the involvement of women in one way or another as it is in the Tolai society.

Alex is a community development worker in his forties and also from a matrilineal society. He attests that women in his society are important and valued. He

commends women from Bougainville whose role in the peace process

contributed to the achievement of peace in Bougainville. This he attributes, to women regaining their status that they had lost during colonization and after independence:

If you look at Bougainville ah women were valued before and that has a big impact, you know we just had the crisis and you the women were the, they formed, the crisis was very, I think the crisis was really important. One thing good, ah good about the crisis was; the women got together and they were the kind of forefront of the issues that came up in Bougainville. Before the crisis I think that the society was slowly, you know men were slowly looking down at women. Before the crisis and when the crisis came you know our men were involved in the fight and it was very hard for them to

come together with the other men from the neighbouring villages and the only the neutral person that could negotiate were the women.

While the participants from matrilineal societies noted the esteem men give to women, none of the participants from patrilineal societies explicitly made a point that men esteemed women except in their implication that they had great value for their mother and sisters, but not women as a category. This could mean that modern PNG men still cannot see women beyond their traditional roles and their place in society. Harry is a lawyer in his fifties. He comments that women in his patrilineal society are treated as equal partners to men because of their

contribution to the survival of the family. He notes that labour is divided into men’s and women’s roles and they each do their part. In Harry’s words:

We, in my area, we regard women as equal partners because there is division of labour; work that men do and work that women do. So we have to play our part for the survival of the family, and looking after the family and all that. But there are areas where women are not required to participate, because they are regarded as men’s domain. Sometimes husbands do consult their wives, but when it comes to the final decision, it is the men who make the decision, not the women. That does not mean the women are not consulted. Women are allowed to express their views, but at the end of the day, it is the men who make the decision.

Harry’s implies that women are regarded as equal to men, but only in the nurturing roles they play. He does not speak about the esteem men give to women, they are valued if they do their part for the survival of the lineage. He claims that women are equal to men, but he ends up contradicting himself by saying that women do not make decisions, men do.

Gerard, an academic in is late thirties, is also from a patrilineal society and speaks in the same vein as Harry, but Gerard seems to be influenced by

Christian beliefs where men and women are equal and should work side-by-side. This view is idealistic, as he implies that women are not equal to men and

therefore men do not have regard for women:

A woman’s place is next to the man. This is a saying from the Bible. Jesus said, ‘Do not walk in front of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk at the back of me, for I may not lead. Just walk at my side so together we go wherever we are going.’54 For me personally, both men and women have the same worth not because you’re a woman or a man. I think both are capable intellectually and can be productive and struggling to do something to achieve something.

Jeffery in his forties and an academic, states that women from the traditional perspective, are not esteemed regardless of their work and contribution to their family and society. There is not system of giving gifts to women as a sign of appreciation and show of value, except where societies practice brideprice payment for a girl when she is married. But according to Jeffery, this is a more economic valuation of a woman rather than for her self-esteem as a woman:

Traditionally, I think women are not valued at all regardless of the effort and time they give to their family. There is no such thing as presenting (giving awards) to women for the things that they do. I guess one of the reasons would be because some societies have brideprice payment. It is like a woman is bought by her husband or the man she marries and that is where she already receives all her presents, but these are distributed to all her relatives. So the woman who comes to be with her husband usually does not receive some kind of value, she is more like a slave. She just

54 _{This is not a biblical text and not found in the Bible. It is not spoken by Jesus. It is a proverb}

that is used in line with Jesus’ teachings on equality and men and women; rich and poor, big men and small men, all people having equal worth, therefore, one is not more equal than the other.

works, even if she gives birth to children, the husband doesn’t do anything very special to recognise that she is a valuable partner.

Another quality of a man is that of a leader. Although this is not the first role that was mentioned when participants were asked about what defined a man tru, the role as a leader came after a man’s role as a provider and defender. A man as a leader came in the context of him being the head of the family, a decision-maker and one who leads other members of the community. A man tru as a leader is not as prominent as this type of man is articulated as a big-man in a later description. Chris, a politician who we saw earlier, is from a matrilineal society and he highlights that a man is at a disposition to be a leader and at the smallest unit of the family, he is the head and as such, a leader - a position shared with men in patrilineal societies. Chris affirms:

In my society, man is the head of the family; it’s not the women. So man is always the head of the family and he has to do all those things with the other men in other families. If you don’t do those things then your family will suffer. You have to make your own gardens. Those are the things that make people see you as a man.

Besides being the head of the family, a man tru is seen as one who can lead and make decisions as well both in his family and in the wider community. Jim, an academic in his early forties, argues that a man tru has the ability to lead the community, be involved in making decisions for the community; he is a leader who protects the family and community, a male role discussed earlier. Jim comments:

Basically, ‘man tru’ goes to men who are able to provide leadership in the villages, in communities; and in the traditional days, there were able to fend for the society, provide protection in times to tribal war, in times of disaster, famine and so fore. These are men who can stand and be counted among other men in society.

The type of man tru seen above is what every man strives to be, by doing

activities that he is skilled at doing. In the broad sense, his skills are learned and developed to help him provide for his family and help his extended family and community. If he hoards resources for himself then he is not a man tru in the broad scheme of things, but if he shares with others, then he gains renown. As he shares with others, he builds community and the survival of his clan and tribe. The participants’ understanding of man tru is derived from the traditional context. The contemporary application of this man tru concept will be discussed later.