Talk:Trobriand people

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While there may in fact be some linkage between yams and the belief in ancestral spirits as the sole means of reproduction, that isn't my understanding. Certainly, it isn't the only possible explanation. Unfortunately I can't cite a published source for the following, but I have no doubt that one exists somewhere out there.

The explanation I heard is that (at least before increased contact with Western lifeways) Trobriand women typically experienced "delayed" menarche (around 16-17), for the usual reasons related to nutrition and everyday physical labor, and so typically had been engaging in frequent coitus (sensu stricto) for a few years before they became fertile. So it might seem quite plausible to them that the ancestral spirit would wait for a potential mother to become an adult, rather than be reincarnated by a teenage girl, an explanation that nicely fits the observed facts.

I'm a bit surprised honestly at the (relative) size and quality of the article, given the amount of outside study (and sometimes academic controversy) that the Trobrianders have been subjected to ever since Bronisław Malinowski.

RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 11:08, 13 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Despite being part of Wikiproject Ethnic groups, this article says nothing at all about ethnic affiliation - whether Trobriand islanders are linked with Melanesian or Polynesian groups, what affinities they may have with other ethnic groups or cultures. One would think this would be an essential part of an introduction. Ptilinopus (talk) 20:44, 31 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]