WOMEN'S FACIAL TATTOOING AMONG THE MAISIN OF ORO PROVINCE,PAPUA NEW GUINEA: THE CHANGING SIGNIFICANCE OF AN ANCIENT CUSTOM

The Maisin women of northeastern Papua New Guinea are among the last coastal Papuans to tattoo their faces. This article first describes the techniques and social process of Maisin tattooing. We then examine the resilience of the custom in light of changes in puberty rites and notions of gender. We argue that these contexts have lost their cultural salience as a result of the Maisins' incorporation into the larger Papua New Guinea society. Tattooing has acquired new significance as a marker of cultural identity in a multicultural setting and as a sign of the Maisin people's commercial success as makers of indigenous art.     

John Patrick Sarsfield's Santa Clara: an addendum

It was a pleasure for this writer to see the two articles in IJNA , 21.4 , on John Sarsfield's Santa Clara , after following the field work that led to it, and providing many of the documentary sources from 1983. John had contacted me through the kind offices of Ruth Baker [widow of W. A. (Bill) Baker; she died last year] and I would like to record our indebtedness to that charming and knowledgeable lady, who took such interest in any extension of her husband's work. Sarsfield's work was so important that comments are here offered on the two papers (Carrell, 1992; Nance, 1992).