PAYBACK in MELANESIA

Leonard Fong Roka 

Melanesia is the region of the South Pacific that includes the island of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia. It is a region composed of islands with a diversity of cultures and traditions.

Their history is tracked back long before the dawn of westernization and it shows that survival was so dependent on the sharing (socialism) amongst people or the control of a territory by an individual or a group of people such as a tribe. One has to show that right for authority through coercion, compliment or force display in war or wealth accumulation.

 In this light, man developed the rule of sharing for good (benefit sharing) and for negative issues, retaliation or execution of punitive raids. These actions thus, sustained a man’s dignity and order in the society.

This natural response to disrespect or gratitude to one’s life and property came out to be referred to as payback in Melanesia. That is, what another person has given to you must be returned in the same way it came unto you.

Division of Northern Solomons for New Guinean Exploitation & Suppression needs Retribution (Map: wikitravel.org)

Thus, payback in the literal sense is returning back what another has just given earlier without any alteration of any nature. That is, whatever object or action, you had received must be returned in the shame mannerism or state it came.

The Post Courier (2010) highlighted a historical perspective by stating: ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth literally is the notion that for every wrong done there should be a compensating measure of justice.
Its origin is traced back as far as 1792 to 1750 BC in the days of Hammurabi, who was King of Babylon who is said to have imposed this code.
This code survives today in many places in the world and in Papua New Guinea, the notion of vendetta, retaliation, revenge or payback is practiced. The form and magnitude of the act differs from place to place¹’.

Here, Post Courier, runs short of accommodating the positive stories that also applies the concept of payback for good purposes like sharing land or food in communities. But, it solely concentrates on violence or warfare in Melanesia. But, supports the given definition of payback greatly for us and exposes the fact that ‘payback’ as bypassed the peaceful realm and now dwells with violent situations in modern day PNG.

Having forwarded the general overview of what payback is all about; this essay will try to give a balanced analysis of the tradition commonly known as ‘payback’. In every Melanesian society, ‘payback’ is not necessarily centered on negative circumstances but also considers positive social activities related to interactions for mutual benefits.

 Payback, in most Melanesian societies cuddles the five (5) main basic social determinants of harmony (in this paper’s scope) in society; these are: rewards, reciprocity, revenge and punishment.

The saying, ‘you reap what you sow’ then summarizes the five basic social determinants outlined above or, ‘you reap what you sow’ can be said of as being the cover under which the said actions/reactions are experienced. This means, ‘in whatever you do, you are paid back for that particular ‘action’ and nothing else’ (reciprocity).

So when analyzing the give-and-take agenda in Melanesian societies (cross cultural issue), in regard to violence, retributive justice is at play as it is a natural phenomenon. Trompf (1994:1) argues that ‘Retributive logic is endemic to humanity. Childhood experiences in every culture are quickly filled with rewards and punishments for doing ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ with gifts and withdrawals of parental affection, with instructions of right behavior and attitude ( whom not to enrage, for instance, or how to recognize and account for the sign or front happenings in everyday life).

The idea of ‘rewards and punishment’ is a human imprint. We are born into this culture or are nurtured by these traditions. Thus, the Melanesian ways, turn to pour cold water on the Christian virtue of forgiveness. The euro-Christian idea of ‘forgiveness’ lacks substance in Melanesia because it is solely a spiritual ritual whilst, the Melanesian ‘retributive justice’ is both a spiritual and material way of pacification. This means that the man sees it and feels it, thus he is satisfied.

Again Trompf indirectly codifies this notion by suggesting that: ‘Among the socio-economic transactions and rituals that are characteristics of primal cultures, there are concessions, gifts and exchanges between mortals, and fascinatingly analogues interchanges between humans and gods’ (p7).

In Melanesia, one cannot separate the spiritual world and the human person for they are united. Thus, the man requires both the spiritual and material reward in the light of payback culture. This has being referred to as the balanced life.

The man sees the rewards and feels the spiritual relieve of reconciliation. Rewards are what we receive for good things we do unto others. Across Melanesian, for example, one gets a reward from gods through a successful harvest or a hunting trip. This is a payback from the spiritual world for being good to their dictates; for negativity, one is said to be ill and misfortunes.

Bougainvilleans had suffered under Papua New Guineans rule (Picture: pacific.scoop.co.nz)

Reciprocity was mentioned earlier as ‘in whatever you do, you are paid back for that particular ‘action’ and nothing else’ that should now be translated to ‘a situation where persons provide the same help or advantages to each other’ (Pocket Oxford English Dictionary TENTH EDITION). But there are guidelines to this, where Trompf writes that: ‘Yet, it remains that to sacrifice something of one’s self for the sake of others usually requires more conscious effort than to satisfy the impulse, when felt justified, to dispossessed or subvert’ (pg 5-6).

Frankly, Trompf’s study saw that there was no give in or free handout mentally in all societies of Melanesia. Some order of ‘payback’ was attached to every action. One gave or attacked, bearing in mind that there will be a return action for my good or bad acts, accordingly.

Now, departing off from the double segment discourse on ‘payback’, let’s see ‘revenge’. Revenge is a more hostile in all four issues I categorized as ‘acts of payback’ in scope and nature, thus it has to do with violence.

It is the ‘reciprocity of violence’ for whatever levels of bad deeds the culprit has done for the revenge. Thus, for the victim, when innocent, to be satisfied he must return with punitive actions. Trompf wrote: ‘To feel inclined to pay back those who ill-dispersed towards us is to be human…Aggressive urges usually well up in us when faced with condemning, unpleasant, threatening, or over bearing attitudes, when realizing we are being deceived, and especially when we convinced that we have done nothing wrong to merit some act of malevolence’ (pg 2-3).  

As can be noted, when one gets off his foe, there is always calm or prevailing peace of mind. So it is natural that one reacts to any form of unfriendly situations around him or her for they disturb one’s harmonious life with his or her environment; and, eradication of such nasty happenings is freedom or justice in Melanesia.

For us, eradication of any problems or problem doers is the norm of executing punishment on the persons that bothers our life or existence.

 Punishment, as defined by the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary, is ‘an unpleasant experience imposed on someone as a result of a criminal or wrong doing’. This means of payback, is more aligned to merciful people that real long to see justice or harmony therein.

But in Melanesia, punishment mostly is executed by just wounding a trouble-maker with spell or curse from the spiritual world. Victims manipulate with rituals the spirit to help them bring misfortune on their foe.

Often, in certain areas people carryout punitive raids of destroying homes, gardens and other valuables to ease the pain of their victimized relative and the spirits associated with their clan. In Kieta such practice is prevalent and it is called, tekira in the local vernacular.

In the final analysis, payback is a process of healing, dispute settlement or correction of attitudes in the Melanesian societies. It is executed in many different forms like revenge, reciprocity, rewards and punishments. It major purpose is to keep harmony and order for the society and its people.

 Reference

·         Trompf, G. W. (1994). PAY BACK: The Logic of Retribution in Melanesian Religions. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press

·         1. Post Courier (2010). Payback Killing is a Concern in PNG. Retrieved from http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20101012/yutok01.htm