13.5

//Source(s): Margaret Mead, Growing Up in New Guinea, William Morrow; New York, 1930. p. 43 ff.// Bruce, Here's one to think about. Talking drums. This describes the talking drum in the village of Peri on the south coast of the Great Admiralty Island in Papua New Guinea. "The drum language the children understand but make no attempt to execute. This language consists of formal phrase beginnings which mean 'Come home =' or "I am now going to announce how many days it will be before I do something,' etc. The first one will be followed by the individual combination of beats which is the call of a particular household for any of its members. "The second is followed by slow beats, interspersed with a formal spacing beat. Every one in the village stops work or play to count these beats, but only a knowledge of who is beating the drum and what he is planning to do in the near future make it possible to interpret the announcement. "The children stop their play to hear which house call follows the formal introduction, and go back to their games if it is not their own. They seldom bother to further identify the call. If a date is announced they mechanically count the days and may stop to guess who is beating the drum. There their interest ceases. One ceremony is too like another to matter. "But there are three drum calls which do interest them, the beats announcing that some one is about to die, that some one is dead, and the drum beat which means 'Trouble,' = theft, or adultery. For these they will pause in their play and possibly send a small boy to inquire into the cause. The drum beat for death is so simple that children can make it and are sometimes permitted to do so in the event of the death of an unimportant person." I guess that the people of Peri don't use talking drums anymore. Or do they? Perhaps it's not a dead medium after all. Just medium dead. Bill Crawford (krunchy@bga.com)
 * Dead medium: New Guinea Talking Drum**
 * From: krunchy@bga.com (Bill Crawford)**