Doing away with Doba?: Women’s Wealth and Shifting Values in Trobriand Mortuary Distributions

The activity on thebukubaku, or centre of the hamlet, is frenzied. Throngs of women bend over giant baskets calledpweia, which may stand more than a metre tall. Inside these baskets, and piled high on shallow trays made of coconut fronds calledsekunona, are hundreds and hundreds of bundles of small, dry strips of banana leaves. One after another, women go to the centre of thebukubakuand call out a name, and more women, generally members of the deceased person’s matrilineage, rush to throw their bundles—five here, 10 there, but always in increments of five—on the