Past is present - Present is past: Time and the harvest rituals on the Trobriand Islands

Abstract

This paper discusses concepts of time on the Trobriand Islands. It illustrates how the Trobrianders refer to time in everyday verbal interaction as well as during the harvest festivals when the society is regulated by a concept of time « where the present and the past are so fused that the present is a mere manifestation of the past » (Bloch 1989 : 16). This concept finds its verbal expression in special songs which represent a marked language variety and can be regarded as a form of « ritual communication ». Thus, Trobriand Islanders differentiate between the more mundane notion of time and notions of time expressed in ritual contexts