Patterns of Culture by Ruth Benedict

Author:Ruth Benedict
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Kapali, kapali,

twisting around,

he laughs with joy.

I with my garden darkened with foliage,

I with my leaves.

Kapali, kapali,

twisting around,

he laughs with joy.

During all this time no magical watch has been set upon the yams, no magical thieving has been undertaken. But now that they are somewhat grown it is necessary to root them solidly in one’s own place. For yams are conceived as persons and are believed to wander nightly from garden to garden. The vines remain behind but the tubers are gone. Toward the middle of the morning they normally return. For this reason yams are not dug early in the morning when garden work is usually done; it would be in vain. Their return must be compliantly awaited. Also when the yams are growing they resent too early curtailment of their freedom; therefore the husbanding incantations are not begun until the plants have reached a certain stage of growth. These incantations lure the roaming yams to remain in one’s own garden at the expense of the garden in which they were planted. Gardening in Dobu is as competitive as the struggle for an inheritance. A man has no notion that another gardener can plant more yams than he can or make more yams grow from his seed tubers. Whatever harvest his neighbour has in excess of his own is thought to have been magically thieved from his own or someone else’s garden. Therefore physical guard is mounted by the man over his own garden from this time until harvesting, he uses whatever charms he knows to attract his neighbour’s yams, and he opposes the charms of his neighbours by counter-charms. These counter-charms root the yam tuber firmly in the earth where it was planted and safeguard it for the owner’s harvesting:

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