Trobriand Island Culture- Cricket Essays - Short Form Cricket

Trobriand Island Culture- Cricket T r o b r i a n d I s l a n d C r i c k e t Moiz Bhinderwala Westford, MA A. In one paragraph, describe the subjects of the documentary. Tell who they are, where they live and why the film was made. The subjects of this documentary ?Trobriand Cricket- An Ingenious Response to Colonialism', are these interesting people, natives of the Trobriand islands, which is located off the coast of Papua-New Guinea. The trobrianders are a tribe who are driven by a culture where magic holds a significant role. Before the arrival of the European missionaries magic was widely used in inter-tribal warfare. The British missionaries who arrived in the Trobriands around the late 19th century found the ritualized warfare of the Trobrianders ?barbarous? and immediately forbade it. Coincidentally, they introduced the game of cricket to the Islanders as a substitute for the conflict between two local groups, and to encourage morality. This game, which was introduced in its original form in the early 20th century, has changed quite a lot to fit into the culture of the Trobriand people. This film was made to highlight the Trobriand Cricket as a great example of Acculturation - how one part of a culture is transmitted through contact between groups with different cultures, in this case the contact of the British missionaries with the people of the Trobriand Islands. It depicts how the game of cricket has undergone a remarkable cultural transformation, among the people of Trobriand islands. Mixture of Good and Evil: The values important to this culture show that the Trobrianders believe in both the goodness and evilness of human nature. As an example for their belief in goodness, we can use the fact that the elder people are revered in this society. They may not play the game, but they are in charge of jobs like keeping in pace with the score-keeper of the game, counting off the number of batsmen left, and so on. Another example is the gifts of prestige food that these people exchange in the ceremony after the game. One more amazing aspect that their game has developed is the fact that the victory of the hosting team is understood in advance, it is predecided. So according to our definitions, the game of cricket that these people play is not a sport. This is done in order to pay respect to the organizers of the game, especially the center man. This points out their belief in the goodness of human nature. Similarly, their belief that Man also has evil in him, is evident when the game is abandoned and the narrator tells us that there is a certain air of suspicion among the players, that the opponents from the sponsoring political movement may have brought on rain with counter-magic to purposely stop the game. Man in harmony with Nature: The Trobrianders live in harmony with the nature that surrounds them, and this is evident in their sense of dressing, decoration, their tools. They use palm fronds to count the score of a game, or to count the number of baskets of yam, when they are farming. The bats, balls and stumps they use are carved out of light and hard wood. The clothes they wear, especially the traditional pubic covering that is expected of cricket players, which is made from the skin of a beetlenut tree. They use natural products as part of their everyday lives. The fact that man should in every way live in complete harmony with nature, is synthesized in their set of values. Present Oriented: Although we can witness all the 3 different kinds of time-orientations, the present is valued a lot more than the past or the future. The Trobriand people do yam farming, but at the same time, during the harvest period they invest their time for the game of cricket. They prefer living in the present. They do not worry too much about future, nor do they base their values upon what has happened in the past. As the narrator says, the game of cricket is still evolving in Trobriand, it shows that the people are open to changes in the game, and not