Details

Latitude

-4.71979

Longitude

143.6055

Start Date

2018-08-16

End Date

2018-08-16

Munmeri is Tok Pisin for ‘moon woman’ or ‘moon girl’. Only occasionally is it called tepa nambay, which would be an Awiakay translation. This string figure continues into sisis ‘scissors’. When the second figure emerges, the maker makes an action of cutting someone’s hair with it. The Awiakay say that this is an Imanmeri string figure. Given that it is one of rare figures that represent an introduced object, and that the names of both stages of the figure have Tok Pisin rather than local names, it is clearly a post-contact borrowing. This string figure requires (at least) two makers. There are two times in the process when the second maker comes in to take off the figure from the first maker’s hands. Skilled string figure-makers manage to do it on their own. Image: 02: Darja Munbaŋgoapik showing the final design of munmeri ‘moon woman’

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