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

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

The Trobriand Islanders’ control of their public display of emotions

Published online: 10 March 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.19.04sen
Abstract
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.
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
References (44)
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Seel, Laura & Nico Nassenstein
2024. “Show your feelings!”. In Anthropological Linguistics [Culture and Language Use, 23], ► pp. 331 ff. DOI logo
Senft, Gunter
2018. Pragmatics and anthropology. In Pragmatics and its Interfaces [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 294], ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2018. Growing up on the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea [Culture and Language Use, 21], DOI logo

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