Namau - Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Namau Subsistence depends on taro, sweet potatoes, sago, coconuts, and bananas, as well as fish and great quantities of crabs from the rivers and streams. Game hunted for food includes wild pigs and wallabies. Gathered foods, such as grubs, also contribute to the diet, as do birds, though to a rather limited extent. Rattan, important in the construction of ritual masks and effigies as well as for house building, is obtained during large expeditions upriver. After Western contact the men of Namau were recruited to work for wages on European-owned plantations.

Industrial Arts. Namau build houses and canoes, make weapons and utilitarian items such as fishing nets and bows, and fashion ritual and ornamental objects from feathers, pearl shells, and rattan. Much of Namau manufacture is ornately carved with totemic motifs. Canoes are made primarily for local use, although sometimes they are sold. These vessels are not equipped with outrigging and the bows are carved with totemic designs.

Trade. Apart from exchanges occurring in ceremonial contexts, the only significant trade occurred with visits of Motu canoes taking part in the vast hiri trading system.

Division of Labor. Men build houses in cooperative groups recruited from patrilineally related kin. Canoe building is done only by men, as is the making of masks and effigies. Hunting is men's work as is most gardening and the tending of coconuts. Men also fish with bows and arrows or spears, but primarily for sport rather than as a subsistence activity. Women, on the other hand, engage in more serious fishing, using hand traps, hand nets, or long nets spread across streams. Women also process sago once the trees have been felled and floated downriver by the men. Gathering crabs and other food items may be done by either sex, but it tends to be done primarily by women. While all adult men are expected to be capable of building or making whatever they might need to secure a livelihood, an individual may develop a reputation as a particularly fine carver or boat builder and achieve a sort of specialist status among his fellows.

Land Tenure. Land for settlements and gardening, as well as associated waterways, is associated with local patrilineal groups rather than being vested in individuals. Rights to land are inherited patrilineally, with all sons having rights to the land of their fathers' groups.