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Part of
Consensus and Dissent: Negotiating Emotion in the Public Space
Edited by Anne Storch
[Culture and Language Use 19] 2017
► pp. 59–80

Chapter 4
“Control your emotions! If teasing provokes you, you’ve lost your face…”

The Trobriand Islanders’ control of their public display of emotions

Kilivila, the Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea, has a rich inventory of terms – nouns, verbs, adjectives and idiomatic phrases and expressions – to precisely refer to, and to differentiate emotions and inner feelings. This paper describes how the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea deal with the public display of emotions. Forms of emotion control in public encounters are discussed and explained on the basis of ritual communication which pervades the Trobrianders’ verbal and non-verbal behaviour. Especially highlighted is the Trobrianders’ metalinguistic concept of “biga sopa” with its important role for emotion control in encounters that may run the risk of escalating from argument and conflict to aggression and violence.

Keywords: Papua New Guinea, Trobriand Islands, Kilivila, expression of emotions, emotion control, ritual communication, verbal and non-verbal behaviour
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ritual communication and its role for emotion control in the Trobriand Islanders’ public behaviour
    • 2.1The social obligation to weep for a deceased person
    • 2.2Morals and manners prevailing for unmarried adolescents
    • 2.3Morals and manners prevailing for a married couple’s emotion control
    • 2.4Control your emotions! If teasing provokes you, you’ve lost your face…
  • 3.Kuvakulati am lumkola! – A maxim crucial for the Trobriand Islanders’ construction of their social reality
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 10 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.19.04sen
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