Medusas of the Western Pacific
Medusas of the Western Pacific
The Cultural Techniques of Seafaring
According to Sophocles, seafaring is the very first cultural technique which makes possible all other cultural techniques. The chapter analyzes shipbuilding and navigational practices among the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands as a complex actor network comprising many highly heterogeneous actors, including creepers, myths, several kinds of magic, taboos, flying women, and the threat of shipwreck. For the Trobriands the canoo is a technology which proves seaworthy inasmuch as it incorporates elements which are attributed to the evil eye of flying witches which personify the horrors of the sea. The canoo uses magic related to these medusas in an apotropaic way. The ship therefore articulates the difference between land and sea as a system of differences between eye and gaze, shape and shapelessness, unity and disunity, good and evil woman, the imaginary and the real, the salvation and disintegration of reality.
Keywords: Shipbuilding, Seafaring, Trobriand Islands, Magic, Witches, Evil Eye, Apotropaion, Gaze
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