Dialogics of material culture: male and female in Murik outrigger canoes

Abstract

We interpret material culture using a Bakhtinian model of dialogicality. Metaphoric differences in male and female perspectives of the building rites and iconography of premodern Murik outrigger canoes are adduced. Men view the vehicle in terms of initiation and their war cult while women view it in physiological images of pregnancy, birth, and nurture, as well as in terms of the seductive powers conferred upon female‐cult initiates. We take these two points of view to constitute a contrapuntal dialogue about gender and agency in the reproduction of Murik society.