Sunday, March 11, 2012
Murik Women Clowning
What a intricate system the Murik women uphold and take part in. Clowning serves many roles in the Murk society. It seems that it would be difficult to understand unless you grew up surrounded and integrated into this tradition. The author attempts to explain the intricacies of the relationships, but it grows complicated. Some are based on kinship and others on honorary bonds. I'm sure much of this is lost in translation. The Murik women use clowning as a means to control and teach behavior within their society. It can be used to both attack and reify social norms. However, the woman performing the clowning has to be of high enough social status to be allowed this behavior. It can be considered indecent or inappropriate if done in the incorrect context. I'm confused as to exactly how this works. Barlow explains that this should not take place by a woman in front of a group of men; however, a woman of high status draws attention to the maternal by mocking a group of men while they dance. Again, acceptance depends on the status of the women and the context of the mocking.
It is also used as a tool to teach girls proper behavior and etiquette. Mention of "clams" and "bush," as well as, sexually overt goosing and grabbing, teach young girls to be aware of their growing sexual status. I also found it interesting that needy or whiny people were mocked by attempts at thrusting breasts in their mouths, squirting lactation milk in their direction, and other insinuations to their infancy. What makes this even more fascinating, is the person being made fun of is expected to pay for the performance of others. Mocking seems to be used to ply an individual into conforming with the rules of the society.
This reminds me of the role of the clown in Shakespearean plays. Double entendres, sexual innuendoes, puns, and bodily thrusting were all used by this character to mock both the elite and the lower class. Specifically, I think of Twelfth Night were there are multiple mentions of a ship being "boarded" or a man's "sword" being "thrusted" about. These references were also made in regard to a whiny comment, inappropriate behavior, or a social faux pas.
While I would love to witness the Murik society, I definitely did not have tough enough skin to grow up as an adolescent girl in this community. I was far too sensitive. Instead, I would like to watch this place out safely from afar... especially considering how klutzy I am. I would be falling off those ladders constantly.
- Hailey Drescher
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Q 1 Murik Women -Submitted by Jenna Quinn (Post is submitted as a comment due to inability to post a blog).
ReplyDeleteThe culture is fascinating to me because the training involves contradictory viewpoints of woman and the technique is a social process. The training plays off of two contrasting views of women. On the one hand you have the domestic and maternal woman. In the other hand you have the woman who is sexually mature and in control of her resources. Thus, the fathers sisters goal is to instruct naive individuals in the form of social competence. The demonstration of the proper contexts is a key factor in the Murik woman's training.
The social reinforcement of the training is fascinating to me. I believe that in this case it really "takes a village" to train the Murik woman. When the younger partners are subjected to mockery, onlookers encourage them to respond to their partners taunts. A girls father, along with the older female joking partner in her group of older Mwara partners offer her witty responses to parrot back.
The training is socially reinforced by individuals that are not in the family of the Murik woman. The senior partners prolong the interaction so that the child's skill is built in joking. Successful joking replies are applauded by women bystanders with a "Heii" of approval, even if the joke is a repeated joke.
I find this culture fascinating because of the Murik paradigm. The comment, "If there is no joke in the social structure, no other joking can occur." The joking is contextually trained into the young women, despite the contradictory views of women that exist. In the secret society the women value social prestige over actual faithfulness. The social perception is valued along with risk taking and initiative. This makes the life of a Murik woman exciting and mysterious.
SUBMITTED BY JENNA QUINN
Hailey, I, too, found the culture among the Murik women to be facinating in a "train wreck" kind of way- you don't want to be a part of it but you can't look away! I was especially interested in the secret society that basically sets up young initiates with lovers who can supply them with extra neccessities. The other women cover for the lovers because they have multiple lovers as well. All this is kept from the husbands but surely the husbands also have lovers from other villages too! The two sides of these women- the good wife and mother who is relatively demure versus the woman with multiple lovers giving the one thing she has- her body- in order to get something that she wants- was facinating!
ReplyDeleteAngela
I think that the joking is a way of teaching women to appreciate "double-voiced" messages. They live in a fairly oppressively patriarchal culture. To cope with this, older women could just simply police younger women in a straightforward way. When a young woman steps out of the bounds of her gender role, older women could correct her. Instead, the Murik choose to correct in a joking manner, as if to say to the younger women -- "You must learn to maintain the proper outward role... but if you're clever and learn to play the game properly, you can have more freedom than the official rules of gender behavior allow."
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