Revisioning the past, remembering the future: Duna accounts of the World's end.

Revisioning the past, remembering the future: Duna accounts of the World's end. Duna culture is one of revelation. People frequently comment onthings about which they were previously unaware. Indeed the men andwomen I work with at Lake Kopiago are constantly engaging with theirpast, whilst reassessing what they know of the world and ancestralknowledge. The latter are reinterpreted and given new meaning in thecontext of new experience and in light of more recent events. In theprocess, the past events that Duna speakers recount are often reworkedand made to fit a pattern which predicts current happenings. Constantlyproduced, I will argue, are new, more historically relevant, memoriesabout the past.REMEMBERINGDuna narratives create and structure a shared collective memory.Indeed, memories of past events and of originary narratives becomeenmeshed en��mesh? also im��meshtr.v. en��meshed, en��mesh��ing, en��mesh��esTo entangle, involve, or catch in or as if in a mesh. See Synonyms at catch. in the reconstructions of past reality (cf. Bozon and Thiesse1990:48). When speaking about their past and articulating theirmemories, Duna speakers utilise a variety of narrative genres - namelyhapiapo ('before-story'), hapiapo tse ('originbefore-story') and dindi malu ('ground genealogy'). Thesepurport to represent reality - to describe actual events as opposed tothe fictional. The veracity of these accounts is dually establishedthrough demonstrable de��mon��stra��ble?adj.1. Capable of being demonstrated or proved: demonstrable truths.2. Obvious or apparent: demonstrable lies. links to the present. Firstly by thenarrator's relation to the story's protagonists (cf. Jorgensen1990:49 regarding Telefol sogaamiyok sang); and secondly, and I wouldargue more importantly, by the landscape, that is the named locations inwhich the narrative events are grounded.Duna structure and conceive of Verb 1. conceive of - form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case; "Can you conceive of him as the president?"envisage, ideate, imagine history both spatially and temporally.In fact, the validation of hapiapo and dindi malu, and the events theyrecount, are effected by spatial anchoring and temporal location (cf.Kahn 1990). If properly depicted, hapiapo and dindi malu are anchoredboth in specific time and localised localised - localisation space, so as to display theirveracity. Not surprisingly then, Duna situate sit��u��ate?tr.v. sit��u��at��ed, sit��u��at��ing, sit��u��ates1. To place in a certain spot or position; locate.2. To place under particular circumstances or in a given condition.adj. narratives and eventswithin the landscape. They appropriate familiar landscape features assymbols and use space 'to relate culturally constitutedevents' (Cruikshank 1990:57) and 'order thoughts andnarratives about the past' (Thornton 1980:183; Cruikshank 1990:64).For them, 'the landscape is indeed the subject matter of socialmemory' (Kuchler 1993:97). Space is known and historicised, and thelandscape viewed as the concrete embodiment of the layered andinterfluent pasts it records. Everywhere the traces of past events areevident. Narratives, and the events they describe, are groundedthroughout the landscape, as are Duna people's memories, and thishelps preserve them outside the vagaries of individual memory.By looking upon the landscape, Duna men and women can recollect rec��ol��lect?v. rec��ol��lect��ed, rec��ol��lect��ing, rec��ol��lectsv.tr.To recall to mind. See Synonyms at remember.v.intr.To remember something; have a recollection. orsee the stories, that is have their memories of past events returned tothem. Often when Sane Noma, one of the elderly Duna men I am workingwith, forgets an episode in the story he is relating, he will take awalk outside. There, he claims, he can 'see' the stories,which unfold before his eyes. His mind and vision of the past are nolonger blocked by the walls of my house. Through his field of vision,Sane, like other Duna men and women, is constantly reminded of, andengages with, the past.Each Duna parish has its own sites of importance and places where thepast is embodied and fully present. Frequently the names of these placesreflect the mythical and historical events which took place there.Indeed, as Weiner (1991:41) observed, 'nowhere is human interestmore effectively inscribed in��scribe?tr.v. in��scribed, in��scrib��ing, in��scribes1. a. To write, print, carve, or engrave (words or letters) on or in a surface.b. To mark or engrave (a surface) with words or letters. upon the environment than in the names wegive to places'. For the Duna, place-names are 'symbolicresources ... used to encode (1) To assign a code to represent data, such as a parts code. Contrast with decode.(2) To convert from one format or signal to another. See codec and D/A converter.(3) The term is sometimes erroneously used for "encrypt. , enrich and even structure accounts of thepast' (cf. Cruikshank 1990:52 regarding elderly Athapaskanspeakers). Each name relates or relates to a physical feature, anactivity or an event; it tells a story (cf Cruikshank 1990:56; Basso1988:112-13; cf. Schiefflin 1976). Time does not permit me to considerfully Duna place names in this paper. But suffice to say, Duna placenames reveal descriptive precision, and summon TO SUMMON, practice. The act by which a defendant is notified by a competent officer, that an action has been instituted against him, and that he is required to answer to it at a time and place named. forth a plenitude plen��i��tude?n.1. An ample amount or quantity; an abundance: a region blessed with a plenitude of natural resources.2. The condition of being full, ample, or complete. of pastand present meanings. Referenced are topographical features, typical ornotable vegetation, the people who have previously associated with theplace, and past events - both mythical and historical. For the Duna,place names and named places are mnemonic Pronounced "ni-mon-ic." A memory aid. In programming, it is a name assigned to a machine function. For example, COM1 is the mnemonic assigned to serial port #1 on a PC. Programming languages are almost entirely mnemonics. , they remind people of pastevents and of narratives they have heard.For the Duna, then, narratives and the landscape are mutuallydependent and reinforcing. Together they mediate memories, therebyenabling people to remember past events. As I have said, hapiapo,hapiapo tse and dindi malu and the events they describe, are situatedthroughout the landscape. So, physically viewing or knowing the land isessential to understanding the story. Indeed, complete comprehension isnot attainable apart from the land (cf Morris 1991:85 concerningAustralian Aboriginal stories), because it is the landscape, whichreveals, authenticates and gives the story meaning. It is through space- known space - that hapiapo and dindi malu achieve verisimilitude(LeRoy 1985:25; Jorgensen 1990:50), thereby revealing what Ricoeur(1983:16) terms, 'the potentialities of the present'. Ofcourse, the ability to recognise the grounding of hapiapo and dindi maluthroughout the landscape is conditioned by one's knowledge of, andability to read, signs, and this knowledge is differentiallydistributed. However, for those with knowledge of past events and themythical journeys detailed in these accounts and referenced in placenames, the landscape, as Jorgensen (1990:50) observed, bristles withcorporeal Possessing a physical nature; having an objective, tangible existence; being capable of perception by touch and sight.Under Common Law, corporeal hereditaments are physical objects encompassed in land, including the land itself and any tangible object on it, that can be and emotional reminders. Clearly space provides, as Ricoeur(1979:145) noted, the means by which 'things or ideas which wereonce remote appear now as close' - the means by which Dunaremember.THE HELA INGINI STORY REMEMBEREDI will now shift my attention to what Duna remember. Of particularsignificance is how new memories are formulated and authorised. Whetheror not events are narrativised, and I suggest remembered, is dependenton the interpretations made, and meanings attached to those events.After all, the lived experience of an event does not remain private andnon-communicable, but is formed out of intersubjectively formednarratives (Ricoeur 1976:16). Events are cognisable Adj. 1. cognisable - capable of being knowncognizable, cognoscible, knowable and are ascribedmeaning (Sharp 1991:173), and thus in human context may be described as'a happening interpreted' (Sahlins 1985:153). It is this, theinterpretation made, or more particularly the meaning attached to anevent, that renders it culturally salient and is 'communalisedthrough narrative' (Ricoeur 1983:13; 1976:16; see also Becker1955). Indeed, representations of events derive from the meaningsattached to them, as Ricoeur (1976:16) has observed.But meanings change; they are creative, contextual, negotiated,culturally specific and historical. Events can be interpreted andascribed meaning in multiplicitous ways (cf. Sharp 1991; McNetting 1987;Cruikshank 1989). According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Sharp (1991:151) 'events are afunction of their meaning'. As meanings change, memories arenegotiated, and representations of events shift, so as to'strengthen and preserve' a created memory - one which isreflected and refracted re��fract?tr.v. re��fract��ed, re��fract��ing, re��fracts1. To deflect (light, for example) from a straight path by refraction.2. each time those events are represented(ibid:162-166). Memory is thus, as Passerini (cited in Debouzy 1990:60)observed, 'an active production of meanings and interpretations,strategic in character and capable of influencing the present'.Memories are constantly reshaped and 'fitted into a retrospectivelogic that organises the events recounted' (Wachtel 1990:3).Central to this is the production of 'more historically relevantnarratives' (Lattas 1992b:28), which engender en��gen��der?v. en��gen��dered, en��gen��der��ing, en��gen��dersv.tr.1. To bring into existence; give rise to: "Every cloud engenders not a storm" new collectivememories about the past.To illustrate these points, I shall now examine a particular Dunanarrative which details mythic and future events. Considered is the wayin which new knowledge and experience have resulted in the revisioningof memories surrounding these events. Given that knowledge of hapiapoand dindi malu are differentially distributed, I have deliberatelychosen one of the most widely known hapiapo - one which is said tobelong to the Duna and all their immediate neighbours. BothModjeska's informants and my own claim that 'everybody, oralmost everybody' knows this story. Unlike other originarynarratives, this account is cognitively and emotionally salient to all.The story has been detailed by both Modjeska (1977) and myself (1993)previously. It concerns the Hela ingini, which literally meansHela's sons. By Duna reckoning, the Hela ingini are the Duna, Huli,Hewa, Tsinali, Bogaia and Ok speaking peoples.The story has a number of distinct episodes, however I will deal withonly two. The first details the advent of the world as it is known, andthe second its end. In the account related by Akipa to Nick Modjeska, weare told that prior to settling the Duna area, everyone was gathered inthe Strickland Gorge. At this time the ground was continually quaking.As Modjeska (1977:28-32) explained, this quaking was stopped by 'a"man" on a mountain in Ok country', who then proceeds tothrow down a series of gifts to these primordial primordial/pri��mor��di��al/ (pri-mor��de-al) primitive. pri��mor��di��aladj.1. Being or happening first in sequence of time; primary; original.2. men - the Hela ingini -Hela's sons. The first gift - the secret of eternal life - wasswallowed by a python Python, in Greek mythologyPython,in Greek mythology, a huge serpent. In some myths the infant Apollo slew Python at the oracle of Gaea in Delphi; in others Apollo killed the serpent in order to claim the oracle for himself. as it fell to earth. Consequently, the mythexplains, men and women are mortal, but snakes live forever. Unlikehumans they merely shed their 'old and dirty skin' (ibid:30).Having failed to intercept this first gift, these primal pri��maladj.1. Being first in time; original.2. Of first or central importance; primary.pri��mali��ty n. men and theirdescendants DESCENDANTS. Those who have issued from an individual, and include his children, grandchildren, and their children to the remotest degree. Ambl. 327 2 Bro. C. C. 30; Id. 230 3 Bro. C. C. 367; 1 Rop. Leg. 115; 2 Bouv. n. 1956. 2. are destined des��tine?tr.v. des��tined, des��tin��ing, des��tines1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic.2. to age and die; to lose their'grease' as does their precious ground. The way of the worldis thus established as counter to men's (and women's) aims.Fortunately, however, the next three gifts - different varieties ofpalena ('ginger') - enable men to institute order, if onlytemporarily, in their world. The first palena plant provides the basisof the bachelor cult, whilst the second and third were issued tounmarried and married men respectively, in order to preserve their'skins' and protect them from the vaginal secretions of women.After giving the palena and associated magical spells, the'man' threw down the different varieties of nut pandanus.These were followed by hinia awa, the original variety of sweet potato sweet potato,trailing perennial plant (Ipomoea batatas) of the family Convolvulaceae (morning glory family), native to the New World tropics. Cultivated from ancient times by the Aztecs for its edible tubers, it was introduced into Europe in the 16th cent. .The man on Mt Mima then told them all to 'put their fingers intheir ears', and to each in turn he gave a language and form ofdress. Whilst this was in progress, the bright light of the first fireappeared. One of the men who had gathered went into this fire and wascompletely burned. Emerging from the fire with a bright new skin, thisman then put on a bark laplap and disappeared up a nearby tree. Whenmorning came for the first time, the Hela ingini, who now spoke separatelanguages, left and went to their own places.The final episode of this story takes the form of a prophesy proph��e��sy?v. proph��e��sied , proph��e��sy��ing , proph��e��siesv.tr.1. To reveal by divine inspiration.2. To predict with certainty as if by divine inspiration. See Synonyms at foretell. whichdescribes the eschaton. It details the events of the last days. Versionstold to Modjeska variously described how a man from Tsinali, in thesouth, would go in search of, and meet, his brother from Hewa, in thenorth, causing the world to stop draining, water to back up, andeveryone to drown. According to the prophesy, this catastrophic meeting,the final event, would be foreshadowed by a number of portents; thedrying up of pools and springs, the drying out of the ground, the sunand the moon turning red and the birth of very small, aged children.These would be invoked by the cutting of the upper bush. According tothe prophesy the world would end in the eighth generation after the Helaingini settled in their respective places.I will now examine some of the ways this narrative, this memory ofpast and future events, has been reinterpreted and ascribed new meaningover the last 25 years. In doing so, I will provide the recent historyof this memory (cf. Wachtel 1990:5). At the time of Modjeska'sfieldwork (1969-1973), there was fervent concern about the world'send, because the coming of Europeans was read as the partial fulfilmentof the apocalyptic prophesy just described. Many Duna reconciled theappearance of the Fox brothers, the first Europeans to enter their area,by way of this myth. To some, the Foxes were clearly the Tsinali man whofeatures in the apocalyptic prophesy - the one who would go in search ofhis brother in Hewa on the last days. Indeed, according to Paliawi(Modjeska pers. comm.), 'after hearing reports of the woodchipsbrought by the Huli, and seeing the patrol, everyone thought: "Isthis the man, who has come around and approached from the otherdirection or what?" Others, though, thought the Foxes descendedfrom one of Hela's sons; indeed the lost brother, the one who issaid to have emerged from the primal fire with a new and brightlycoloured skin. Later, when the colonial administration arrived itbrought policemen from Chimbu, Wabag, Mendi and Rabaul - all of whomwere perceived to be larger than Duna men. According to Akipa (Modjeskapers. comm.), this caused everyone further concern, as it was read asproof that they and their children were actually becoming smaller.Additionally it was claimed that Duna children were smaller, and grewless quickly, than European children. Thus they were assumed to be thewhite-haired infants prophesied. The penultimate pe��nul��ti��mate?adj.1. Next to last.2. Linguistics Of or relating to the penult of a word: penultimate stress.n.The next to the last. apocalyptic event hadbeen fulfilled.What these examples illustrate is that Duna immediately reinterpretedand reshaped their memories of the past in light of more recent events.With regard to the coming of Europeans, they creatively re-made eventsas they experienced them, to fit a pattern which predicted Europeanarrival. They produced new memories about the past, through there-appraisal and re-presentation of a pre-existing narrative. In otherwords Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , they remembered the past and this well known account in new anddifferent ways.For the Duna, identifying the whitemen as brothers, or as the manfeatured in the apocalyptic vision, was an act of self-possession. Itwas about (re)possessing one's self in a new and changingsituation, by rendering the Other known. It is an act through which thenew and the strange were assimilated with the old and familiar - an actby which the Duna came to possess new knowledge in its assimilated form.Certainly, what these constructions have in common is the rendering andincorporation of Europeans on indigenous terms (cf. Sahlins 1981; 1985).What is now evident is that Duna view their narratives as offering areflexive (theory) reflexive - A relation R is reflexive if, for all x, x R x.Equivalence relations, pre-orders, partial orders and total orders are all reflexive. commentary on contemporary experience. Their narrativesmediate the construction of memory. Indeed, it is by assimilatingknowledge of narratives and events that new knowledge is revealed. Thatthe world has not ended reveals to Duna commentators that the Foxes werenot the man of the apocalyptic vision, and that the Hewa and Tsinali arestill yet to meet. However, subsequent events have reified the beliefthat the end of the world is imminent. Repeatedly, men born prior to, oraround the time of, the Foxes' appearance in 1934 inform me thatthey or their children are the white-haired infants of the apocalypticprophesy. Irari Hipuya, Modjeska's field assistant, regularlyinsists that at his age, approximately 60 years, men in hisfather's and grandfather's generation did not have white hairlike his. Other men reiterate this belief. As well, they frequently makethe observation that men and women are now marrying much younger, insome cases 15-20 years younger than their parents. This is read asfurther proof.Like their fathers before them, elderly Duna men are expectantly andfearfully awaiting the day the man from Tsinali will meet his brotherfrom Hewa. In the context of mining development, this meeting takes on afrightful new meaning. Indeed, the consensus at Lake Kopiago, it seems,is that this meeting will be brought about by the establishment of alarge scale mining project within the Duna area. Such a project, theysay, will bring about the return of all Hela ingini to their ancestraldancing place in the Strickland - Mburulu Pango. Although a few men havetold me the prophesy as it had been told to Nick Modjeska, most nowassert that the world will end when all the Hela ingini return again.Evidently experiences of mining and mining exploration have provideda context in which this narrative, this memory, has been transformed. Inversions of the Hela ingini story currently being told, the Hela ingininot only leave Mburulu Pango with their respective languages, forms ofdress and material culture, but settle in places set aside anddesignated by the waliwali (a goanna goannaa large carrion-eating monitor (3) lizard. ), who is variously described asHela's father or grandfather. Consider the following quote fromSane Noma:While the seven brothers were still down there in the StricklandGorge, the waliwali marsalai went first, so as to find places for eachof the seven brothers. The waliwali marsalai was looking for the sevenbrothers' places. When he found their places, the waliwali put goldand gas and coppers and some other things everywhere. In each of theirplaces, he also put a magic lake (ipa ane) too. The waliwali marsalaichose the seven places for the seven brothers, and hid some preciousthings in each place.New knowledge and memories of the past may be revealed in a varietyof ways. At Lake Kopiago, they are often revealed by Sane Noma, a ritualspecialist from Huguni parish. Sane is involved in revisioning the Dunapast more than anyone else I have met. He is constantly reading andinterpreting events and is pivotal in determining the meanings now beingattached to them. On numerous occasions, I was told by other men andwomen at Lake Kopiago that Sane has the ability to read signs andpredict the future. Apparently, in the past his predictions have provedtrue. Due to his ability to read and prophesy events, Sane commandsconsiderable respect and authority. In fact at Lake Kopiago, Sane'smemories are constantly given voice by other men.Unlike other Duna men these days, Sane has a spirit familiar, that ofan iba tiri Tiri is a not for profit NGO founded in London in 2003 by Fredrik Galtung and Jeremy Pope both of whom were original founders members of Transparency International. Tiri was established as an anti corruption organisation out of the recognition that the time for talking about the . This spirit, tsiri Harola, speaks to Sane through hisdreams, as he did to Sane's father and grandfather before him. InSane's own words:The iba tiri speaks to me. He gives me dreams .... Those dreams arereal, so I know something real is going to come up .... Those ones,those dreams, are very real. So every time I dream in that manner, Iknow that something inside the water, something real, will be revealedto me.To Sane, the iba tiri reveals future events and their meaning, aswell as the meaning of past and current events. Additionally he'reminds' Sane of things he and other people have'forgotten' - often things that were not previously known.Through Sane old knowledge is revealed, and new memories manufactured.In recent years, the iba tiri has revealed to Sane that there isgold, copper, oil and gas hidden beneath the waters of Lake Kopiago - abelief reinforced, or perhaps provoked, by mining exploration in thearea. Accordingly, traditional stories are now reworked to reflect this.Indeed, six men from five different parishes each told me a version ofthe Hela ingini story in which Hela's father, the waliwali, hidgold and various other riches under Lake Kopiago. It is claimed in factthat the waliwali hid riches of some form at each of the Helaingini's places. The proof of course is that the Engans havePorgera, the Huli - Mt Kare and Hides Gas, the Ok peoples - Ok Tedi andFrieda River and the Duguba - Chevron Oil. Two men even claimed thatthis was in fact the Hela ingini story as they had originally heard it.One of those men, Kenny Kewi, stated;The Obenas [Engans] have already mined the gold. The Hulis now havethe gas. The Tsinali and Duguba took away the oil and bows. So herethere is something too. Our fathers believed that this land would bemined somehow. They believed that then all the other sons would comeback here. And the [Ok peoples] too, they got Ok Tedi .... The others,they are having their gifts now .... But lastly they will come back totheir father's land and get a bigger share. That is what peoplehere believe .... It could be the biggest mine or petroleum gold. Idon't know what will happen. But that's what our ancestors Our Ancestors (Italian: I Nostri Antenati) is the name of Italo Calvino's "heraldic trilogy" that comprises The Cloven Viscount (1952), The Baron in the Trees (1957), and The Nonexistent Knight (1959). believed, and we still believe all of it. Now people here are sayingthose people, who are now having their small shares around the corner,they will finish and they will come up here for the last. The end of theworld will come up at that time (my emphasis).Others, however, were more reticent; they recognised that the storywas different. They insisted however that this was the real version, asit had been revealed to Sane. It was their belief that their ancestorshad not heard, or must have forgotten this part of the story. Evidentlythe re-membering of lost fragments of knowledge enables the reclamationof the spatial terrain in which the memories are grounded and opens theway for a future other than the present. For in the present, the placesthat anchor these memories have been invaded and colonised Adj. 1. colonised - inhabited by colonistscolonized, settledinhabited - having inhabitants; lived in; "the inhabited regions of the earth" byexploration geologists whose movements, like those of the ancestors,have marked and fashioned the landscape. Inserting new truths into thepast serves to mitigate the loss of control people sense concerningtheir future and allows them to claim as their own a future grounded inthe terrain of their memories. Here the loss of control they sense isfigured as an act of forgetting that has to be overcome by uncovering innarrative the spatial conditions underpinning the present.Of all the Hela ingini, only the Hewa and Duna are left without amining project. But according to Sane and others, they will share in theriches which at present lie hidden beneath Lake Kopiago. When told this,I was perplexed per��plexed?adj.1. Filled with confusion or bewilderment; puzzled.2. Full of complications or difficulty; involved.[Middle English, from perplex, confused . Why were the land owning clans within Kopiago Basingoing to share their wealth with the Hewa? Or more particularly, whatpossible basis did the Hewa have for asserting claim to a share in theseriches? I posed the question to Sane, 'why do you include the Hewaamongst your list of landowners?' His response was as follows:Before, that iba tiri's head told me that the golds and coppersand gas are in that lake. Not just in the lake, but beside this mountaintoo. If the companies come and drill something in that lake, then thatwill go up to this mountain too, up to the Hewa side too. The Hewapeople own half of this mountain.Here it is space which is transformative - a space shared by the Dunaand Hewa - Mt Aiyaku. For the Duna, sharing space can, and does, resultin the production of new memories about the past, because space providesa way of remembering and objectifying one's knowledge, asdemonstrated earlier.This can be illustrated by way of a further example. That spaceprovides a means of linking unrelated men and men related through women,is made apparent to Duna by way of both narratives and experience.Indeed named space allows them to share the past as well as the present.This is evident in the Porini origin story, as told by Paliawi toModjeska (NB11A:37-42), where Awakolari's mother's brotherinvites Uku, an unrelated man, to join with him in performing the ritualassociated with his ancestral auwi (cult stone). Having taught Uku thegao (associated magical spells), he says:As long as you stay here [at Horumamu, Porini parish] you are mybrother, but if you move elsewhere I will not call you brother. Sometimein the future, after I have died, gardens here will not do well. At thistime you should rub the auwi as I have done. Remember to bake taro taro:see arum. taroHerbaceous plant (Colocasia esculenta) of the arum family, probably native to Southeast Asia and taken to the Pacific islands. withthe pig. If you do as I have said, sweet potato, taro and pandanus willgrow well and pigs will thrive (Modjeska pers. comm.).Here space or more particularly place - namely Horomamu - engenders abrotherly relationship between unrelated men. Often these relationshipsare reified through consuming the common body of an ancestor ANCESTOR, descents. One who has preceded another in a direct line of descent; an ascendant. In the common law, the word is understood as well of the immediate parents, as, of these that are higher; as may appear by the statute 25 Ed. III. De natis ultra mare, and so in the statute of 6 R. , or atleast scrapings taken from his/her bones. Through sharing food thesemen, in effect, become brothers. They internalise v. 1. (Psychology) Same as internalize.Verb 1. internalise - incorporate within oneself; make subjective or personal; "internalize a belief"interiorise, interiorize, internalize a common past intotheir bodies. Similar pacts of fictive kinship Fictive kinship is the process of giving someone a kinship title and treating them in many ways as if they had the actual kinship relationship implied by the title. People with this relationship are known as fictive kin. Fictive kinship is also known as relatedness. are recorded in the dindimalu of other parishes. Indeed according to Pururu (ModjeskaNB22:94-95), the men of Ndolowaiya clan at Hagini assisted with the auwirituals of the unrelated Wangia clan, which they reckoned to be brothersby virtue of residence. In most cases they retain their salience sa��li��ence? also sa��li��en��cyn. pl. sa��li��en��ces also sa��li��en��cies1. The quality or condition of being salient.2. A pronounced feature or part; a highlight.Noun 1. today.Ndolowaiya men aren't just other men .... they are our brothers.They all help put in pigs, and when they marry give a hewa itia too. Wehave lived close together since before and won't loose each othernow. We call them "brother" (Pururu. Modjeska pers. comm.).As these accounts demonstrate, co-enjoyed land enables unrelated mento share a history, and perhaps produce new memories about the past, byoffering them a common spatial field in which to ground their memories.This is significant, especially in the Duna case where men so oftenreside on land of their mothers, grandmothers or wives. Associating witha place allows people to engage with its past - the past of that place -and to evoke shared memories of the events that fashioned the landscape.By helping with auwi rituals and observing the ritually imposed taboosof a particular place, newcomers and unrelated residents could, in thepast, help ensure the grounds' continued fertility. Here'helping' is viewed as a negotiated investment in the future,whereby a shared memory (1) Using part of main memory to support a low-cost display circuit that does not have its own memory. See shared video memory.(2) The common memory in a symmetric multiprocessing system that is available to all CPUs. See SMP. 1. is generated through mapping out the mythic pastin the present. Certainly for the Duna, named places imbued with historyserve as markers for the future as well as the past, because they are,as Jorgensen (1990:47) so aptly observed (with reference to theTelefolmin), 'not only places where things happened: ... [but]places where things continue to happen'. With each new happeningspaces are further individualised Adj. 1. individualised - made for or directed or adjusted to a particular individual; "personalized luggage"; "personalized advice"individualized, personalised, personalized and identities forged.Although these places, these signs, do not carry the samesignificances as they did in the pre-colonial past, they continue to beinvested with significance and to communicate something, even to theChristian convert. Indeed the places where mythic events took place orwhere auwi rituals were performed are invested with new significances,as people reformulate Verb 1. reformulate - formulate or develop again, of an improved theory or hypothesisredevelopformulate, explicate, develop - elaborate, as of theories and hypotheses; "Could you develop the ideas in your thesis" and even falsify falsify,v to forge; to give a false appearance to anything, as to falsify a record. their memories of the past andexperiences of the world. For many Duna people, the sites where theirancestors performed auwi rituals are remembered and talked about asplaces where people killed pigs and followed 'Satan'sways' or as places where the early missionaries smashed, burnt andpoured holy water over ancestral auwi. As signs and mnemonic marks theseplaces encode historical events, but 'can also come to play',as Parmentier (1987:13) notes, 'a vital role in socialaction', because not only are they 'constantly modified,manipulated, contested and concealed' (ibid:13), but they arealways emotionally charged. Spatial reference is thus a powerful meansof transforming experience (Jorgensen 1990:48) and memory.CONCLUSIONFor the Duna, named places provide a window on the past, but it isthe interpretations made and the meanings attached to events that resultin the memories produced and the narratives recounted. Versions of theHela ingini story currently being told at Lake Kopiago reflectcontemporary experience and Duna interpretations of recent events -especially mining and mining exploration. Indeed the apocalyptic vision,in its current form, problematises the space development inhabits,through its claim that mining will bring about the end of the world.Remembering the past and the future as they do, allows Duna men andwomen to comment and reflect upon the loss of control they senseconcerning the future and the collapsing of difference within, and themoral decline of their world. Difference is what identity, socialinteraction and morality are based upon - something the first episode ofthe Hela ingini explores. For the Duna then, the coming together of theHela ingini will mark the end of the world, because the collapsing ofdifference that will necessarily result will lead to a loss of theiridentity. It is this understanding that retrospectively constructscurrent memories of the events described in the Hela ingini story.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSAn earlier version of this paper was presented at the AustralianAnthropological Society conference at Sydney in September 1994. Itbenefited from comments by Richard Eves, Simon Harrison Simon Harrison (born December 24 1988) is an English footballer, currently playing for Rotherham United in League Two. He is yet to make an appearance.Rotherham United F.C. and AndrewLattas. The fieldwork on which this paper is based is still in progress,and is being funded by the Division of Society and Environment, ResearchSchool of Pacific and Asian Studies Asian studies is a field in cultural studies that is concerned with the Asian peoples, their cultures and languages. Within the Asian sphere, Asian studies combines aspects of sociology, and cultural anthropology to study cultural phenomena in Asian traditional and industrial , Australian National University.During the course of my stay at Lake Kopiago I have been looked afterand assisted by Richard Alo, James Kangapu and Sane Noma, to whom I owespecial thanks. I am particularly grateful for the comments and insightsoffered by Andrew Lattas, Nick Modjeska and Rebecca Robinson whilstrewriting in the field, and would like to thank Nick Modjeska forgranting me permission to cite unpublished material.