Reviewed by Lars Kjærholm
(Department of Ethnography and Social Anthropology, Moesgård, Denmark)

 
Kulele 3 contains six papers and a review, ranging widely both in time and space. The first paper is an edited English version of Father Anton Krähenheides unpublished manuscript in German from 1938. This is a continuation of the very commendable efforts by the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies to make available in English the various studies by German missionaries, who came to New Guinea around 1900 and onwards, and often were the "first contact" for the local people.

Krähenheides paper has been edited by several people, but although they have worked hard to improve the text and make it publishable, reading it today is a rather up-hill task, because it contains many details, which can only be appreciated by specialists, and specialists in Gunantuna music at that. However, seen in conjunction with other similar material published by IPNGS, such as Heinrich Zahns interesting and extensive material on Jabêm music, this paper throws further light on the process of missions approaching the local people through music. Fairly early the missionaries of the Mission of the Sacred Heart realized that German hymns and songs were "mostly sleepy and slow", and were not really able to "awaken the otherwise great lethargy and indolence of the natives." Thus finding suitable local tunes was necessary in order for the local congregation to take an interest in the service.

Krähenheide explains the process that preceded this choice. It was not an easy choice to make since the same problem which Zahn has described in Jabėm society arose, namely that some of the most beautiful local melodies were unfortunately associated with topics which the missionaries found very objectionable: killing, war, erotic escapades etc.. So if these local melodies were used, people would get wrong associations. It seems that Father Stephan Dargas solved the problem. He gave members of his congregation the task to make new songs in the local style, after he presented the prose version of central Christian texts. He then asked them to compose songs in the local idiom. This worked well, the people were very happy to hear new songs in their own style, and the songs attracted their attention to Christianity and the service.
The paper is thoroughly revised, and the transcription of the Gunantuna language has been revised in accordance with contemporary usage. Lengthy footnotes have been added, and although they no doubt contain much background information, which makes this study a more valuable source, it also does make it rather heavy reading.

It is somewhat dismaying to read in one note where Krähenheides life is summed up, that "he was interred at the concentration camp at Dachau and died in Hiltrup". Must be a printing mistake.

I must refrain from commenting on Philip Gibbs' paper on Enga songs, as it is written in Tok Pisin, a language I do not master.

Elizabeth Mckinlay has written a tantalizingly short paper about music and gender in Yanyuwa society in Northern Australia. This is a paper which is situated in the contemporary production of scholarship on gender and society, and it presents interesting material on Yanyuwa society, where there is one language or dialect for women and another for men. This linguistic differentiation is also found in performative practice, since songs owned by women are in their dialect, and men's songs are in the male dialect, so the performative practice not only mirrors, but actually creates and reproduces a particular form of configuration of gender and society. The reader could easily stand more about this topic than the fourteen pages, to which the author has limited it. Note 2 is repeated under note 3, making you wonder what happened to note 3. Kulele should reprint page 71 with the right notes in its next issue.

Esther Lakia's paper on Malala songs is far too short. There are interesting beginnings here and there, but we do not get nearly enough material in order to appreciate what is involved in the topic presented. She says about singsin binabin, that "the composers may compose it around anybody's actions or anything at all", where the reader is then waiting in vain for all the examples which should illustrate this point. The paper is hardly more than a synopsis.

David Crowdy and Philip Hayward present some very interesting material on the "marketing" of a PNG singer, George Mamua Telek in the global "world music" market. This is of general interest to all who study globalisation and the absorption of localized cultures into the global stream of synthetic culture. Telek has cooperated with an Australian band, Not Drowning, Waving, over a long period, and this cooperation has been his venue to the "world music" scene. The paper is rich in detail and analysis, and makes the whole issue of Kulele worth getting. This paper shows globalisation and localisation in action in a very well-documented case study.

Justin Tonti-Filippini's paper on Music in Bougainville's War gives a first-hand account from the Bougainville crisis but it should have been accompanied by some editorial notes for the benefit of those not so familiar with these events. I for one would also have appreciated more information on the writer and his background than is supplied under "contributors" in order to be able to appreciate this text.

Finally there is a review of a publication of songs from the Trobriand Islands. It is not usual to review a review, but this one by Gunter Senft does add scholarly weight to this issue of Kulele, and it is fortunate that there was such a competent reviewer at hand to discuss this publication of Trobriand songs. As a linguistic anthropologist Senft is able to provide valuable background information to the publication by Christopher Roberts, and also to correct some errors in the transcription and translation of these songs. Gunter Senft ought to write a long paper on Trobriand songs for Kulele.