Growing Artefacts, Displaying Relationships: Yams, Art and Technology amongst the Nyamikum Abelam of Papua New Guinea(2 Material Mediations: People and Things in a World of Movement)

What gives artefacts their power and beauty? This ethnographic study of the decorated long yams made by the Nyamikum Abelam in Papua New Guinea examines how these artefacts acquire their specific properties through processes that mobilise and recruit diverse entities, substances and domains. All come together to form the ‘finished product’ that is displayed, representing what could be an indigenous form of non-verbal ‘sociology’. Engaging with several contemporary anthropological topics (material culture, techniques, arts, aesthetics, rituals, botany, cosmology, Melanesian ethnography), the text also discusses in depth the complex position of the study of ‘technology’ within anthropology.

Table of Contents:
Prolegomenon Chapter 1. Getting there, Meeting the Things Encounters Towards the First Encounter Encounters in Display The General Setting The Structure of the Book Chapter 2 – Of Yams and Ethnography Yams as Artefacts General Description of the Plant: A Bi-polar Artefact General Description of the Tuber Shapes, sizes, and colour as criteria The skin: sëpë The root system: mëgi General Description of the Vine The stem and its end: paatë and kutë Leaves (gaaga) and flowers (maawë) Local Classifications Ka classification Waapi classification Yam Behaviour and Reproduction General description of reproduction and behaviour Sett selection and the value given to the different parts Ka and waapi behaviours The aliveness of yams Yams in Books The Historical and Cultural Depth of a Botanical Artefact Yams and Gardening in island Melanesia Yams in the Sepik From Divides to “Semi-Objects”, from Sociality to Technology Chapter 3. Objects, Technology and Art “How do we make powerful things?” or the Question of Technical Origins of Objects Technology as an Anthropological Problem The Problem of Definition The Problem of Anthropological Discomfort The Problem of Materialistic Determinism The (Incomplete?) Return of Things: Globalisation and Consumption “Black Boxes”, “Blind Spots” and Other “Elephants in the Corner”: The Haunting Presence of Technology Technology as an Anthropological Approach to Techniques: Francophone vs. Anglophone angles? Art and Technology Gell’s Premises and the Halo of Technical Difficulty of Artworks Power, Beauty and the Question of Technical Origin The Humility of Things and the Humility of Techniques (again) Chapter 4. Jëbaa (“work”): Processes of materialisation Technology and Operational Sequences The Basic Operational Sequence Risky formalisation? Operational Sequences and “Scientists” Anxieties On Description of Technology: Temporality, Scales, and Components of Operational Sequences Components, descriptors, criteria, elements The Selective Heterogeneity of Sequences as Biographies The Long Yam Technical System: An overview Sequences as a biography of long yams Growing Long Yams: A Note on Reasons and Causes Some principles of yam cultivation Three Accounts of the Gardening Year Alex Jalëmba’s account The succession of gardens Operations and duration Kulang’s account Two Nëmadus’ accounts New Elements in the Technical System Adjusting Phases Phases of waapi gardening Planting the waapi Selecting the position of the kutapmë Digging the waagu Placing the tawurëm sëwaa Filling up the waagu Preparing the tëkët Building up the tëkët and the kutapmë Planting the waapi sett Building the horizontal trellis jaabë Staking the vines on the jaabë.106 Checking the sett and removing any secondary tubers Planting the “second line” of waapi Weeding: gwaalë waara Building the taawu ‘Sleeping with the yams’ (waapi rasëgë kwasëgë) Maintaining a fire in the waapi yaawi Eating inside the waapi yaawi Talking to, and about the yams: the mouth power of spells, blowing and discourses The song-spells manëgup The blowing: jaabu, yamabi, or yapëjurë Specific operations and behaviours. Prepare ‘fertilizer’ Phases of Ka gardening Preparing the planting session Building the shelter Gathering supplies Preparing the setts The work session: planting the ka General organisation and time Digging the hole Bringing the setts Planting the sett Aftermath Conclusion: Transecting Nyamikum’s life Chapter 5. Collectives as Components Sëpëkwapa: The Body On Gestures On Bodies and Substances Jëwaai: Blood, Power and Scent Kamëk: the land as domain Yaabu: “Roads” that Connect Këm (“clans” and “villages/hamlets”) and gay (place) Këm as hamlets Këpma and the role of land Subterranean Agents Waalë, Water-Hole Entities Gu, water Vëmëk, the One-Who Looks Nyaa, the Sun Baapmu, the Moon Maasë, the Rain Non-Human “Agents”: Gwaal and Gwaldu Kudi and Bulu (“Speeches”) Maatu: the Stone and its Warden(s) Elements for the Description of a Shrine The Kajatudu Stone Warden and his Role Transect of Collectives Chapter 6. Waapi Saaki: Aligning Relationships A Waapi Saaki (Kaagu) at Kumim ame (June 16th, 2003) Preparing for the Ceremony The materials of decoration (cf. fig. 5.02) Hiding the waapi Last days of preparation The Waapi Saaki day The arrival of the waapi Evaluation of the tubers Food and nyëgwës-maasa (Tobacco and betel-nut) Public speeches The night dance: Kaagu Distribution of Pig Meat The Course of the Night Aftermath A Cut in the Meshwork The series of long yam ceremonies Short yam ceremonies Moving eastward: a mythical geography? The web of the spider, the network of stones The Making of Efficacy Efficacy as a Point of Contention: Two Debates Efficacy or Innovation? Lemonnier and Latour against determinisms Warnier’s efficacy: targets and subjects Efficacy for what and according to whom: Some Preliminary Ideas Efficacy for artefact: How to encapsulate Efficacy for agents: Encapsulating efficacy and determinisms Chapter 7. Of Properties of Artefact: (Food, Valuables and Images) Yams as food: nourishing substances Yams as valuables: appropriate connections Yams as images: Visual and material connections “Abelam Art”: Iconicity and Forge’s Questions on Style and Meaning Indexes of Agency: Pragmatics and Enchantment of Technology Involution and “technologies” The Aesthetics of Yams. Creating the Aesthetical Conduct: Contrasts and Metaphors Contrasts as necessary contradictions Metaphors that open Displaying-While-Concealing Relationhips “Style” as the Meaning of Life Conclusion Chapter 8. Conclusions: Displays and Sprouts A sort of Waapi Saaki: A Lining up of Arguments Ethnography of Things, Ethnography through Things A Technology of Yams Yams a Social Forms, Waapi Saaki as Sociology Sproutings Of Masses, Volumes and Dimensions: Density and Fractality of Things Agency, Involution and Bundling Properties, Processes and Technology “La Technologie, Science Humaine” bibliography

About the Author :
Ludovic Coupaye is a Lecturer in Material Culture Studies at the Department of Anthropology of University College London, a member of the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l’Oceanie (CREDO, Marseille), and teaches anthropology of Pacific Arts at the École du Louvre in Paris. He has been a teaching fellow at the Sainsbury Research Unit (UEA) and assistant curator at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.

Review :
“As a descriptive study of Abelam long yams and yam growing, the book succeeds at many levels. The ethnographic reports are rich and detailed, adding much to what we know of Abelam culture specifically, and by extension, to Melanesian studies more generally… Abelam yam displays and rituals intentionally ‘give to see’ (donner à voir) various forms of sociality and other aspects of their lives. This volume delivers valuable ethnographic information about Abelam yam growing and, in engaging with a wide assortment of topics linked with it, provides the readers with much food for thought.” · The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology "…a valuable attempt to bring the influences by which the author was trained—important French writers from the 1930s to the present not already well-recognized in English-written anthropology—into several productive debates in contemporary English-written anthropology."  ·  Fred Damon, University of Virginia