Contenu du sommaire

Following up their description of twelve contemporary Uvean dirges published in the previous issue, the authors present here an inventory of observable literary constants. They attempt to demonstrate how these recurrences are undergirded by social codes. Taking an historic bent in comparing the Wallis Island texts to Futunan dirges of the 19th century, the authors discover thematic, symbolic and structural consistencies evidenced in the composition of these contemporary dirges.

The author describes a funeral ceremony — netemestamp — in which she had been able to participate during a brief stay in 1974 at Lendombwey, centre-south Malekula, in the Mbotgote group (small Nambas). The ceremony, dedicated to seven dead people, was organized around the presentation of funerary objects of high quality, of which there were seven rambaramb and many temes nevimbür. It was the occasion for an important exchange of possessions (tubers and pigs) between the relatives of the deceased. The two days of the ceremony and its key moments (dance of the "marionettes" and departure of the mortuary effigies) are first retraced chronologically. The reconstitution of the genealogies of the village makes it possible to evoke the identity and rôle of the organisers of the ceremony. This tentative explanation is the subject of the second part of the article, which ends with information gathered on the ways of participation in the ceremony, and the exchange and redistribution of possessions.