Malagan ritual art on Tabar, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Malagan ritual art traditions of New Ireland have long been of interest to Western anthropologists, but have not before been considered in terms relevant to the New Irelanders themselves. This thesis documents the malagan ritual art traditions of Tabar, a group of three islands off the coast of New Ireland which is acknowledged as the traditional source of malagan, and analyses malagan through the terms of reference which were specified by the Tabar Islanders as part of condition for undertaking fieldwork. Two series of ritual ceremonies are described, a mortuary series and a commemorative series. Over 450 malagan descriptions within twenty two subtraditions have been recorded and are documented in an accompanying appendix. The social and cultural connections of malagan are described and analysed, then the indigenous taxonomic structure malagan is described and analysed. A new understanding of the nature of these subtraditions has resulted from this study.