REVISING THE MIHALIC - LIST DISCUSSION - SAMSAM

So far as I know, samsam (not in Mihalic) is extremely rare outside WNB.
However, I'm pretty sure I heard it recently when a bracket was coming loose
on a car: "Em i samsam i go i kam, na nau lus olgeta". However, the speaker
was cross about the bracket so I couldn't exactly quiz him further.

John Burton 15 Nov 2000

I have collected over 1000 Stori Tumbuna from Wantok newspaper onto my
computer and this assessment of regionalized usage of samsam does not
agree with this data.  There are 14 occurrences of stories with
occurrences of samsam.  The authors are from the following locations:

East Sepik Province: Sawos, Abelam (2), Urat, Iatmul
Morobe: Lae Town, Bundi/Gende, Mapos Buang, Kate
Enga (2)
East New Britain Province: Rabaul Town, Bainings
New Ireland: Kavieng Town

Thomas H. Slone 17 Nov 2000

'Samsam' is used widely in E Sepik. Used specifically to describe the
dancing about of a spearman in a fight employed to avoid being hit by
his opponents . The art of 'samsam' is said to have been more important
that the art of throwing a spear because being hit by one of those huge
bamboo tipped spears was inevitably fatal or crippling. Some of the best
fighters were 'samsam' artists who could dance out in front of the enemy
line, dodge three or four spears and then drive home his own with deadly
effect.

Also used to describe the dance of a  tumbuan (TP) a man disguised as a
spirit. The Torricelli people used to have a figure with a woven cane
mask, painted, with long fibres of sago covering the body . The wearer
danced about, supposedly so quickly that you could not see his feet and
therefore the women (as dumb as ever) did not realise it was a man and
thought it was a spirit (see Don Tuzin 'The Voice of the Tambaran'
pp40-42 for the Ilahita version, bigger and better than everyone else's
of course). At least in Ilahita, these guys were responsible for ritual
murders particularly of people who had breached the secrecy provisions
of the 'tambaran' (also TP) so it was .

Now applied generally to anything that jumps about, doges and weaves
etc

Bryant J Allen 21 Nov 2000

From: BERIT GUSTAFSSON
Sent: Wednesday, 22 November 2000 2:58 AM

I have been working on Manus mainly among the Titan speaking people on M'buke island and I have never heard the expression samsam. Neither do they use the expression singsing too often. More often they simply talk about kastamwok.
Titan customs changed radically with the Paliau Movement and young people are uncertain about their customs. Still the young are getting more and more interested in kastam, maybe because Manus dances are popular in other parts of the nation.

Em i stret, tasol it can also refer to offensive movements in
spear-throwing, as well as to ritualized mock spear-throwing. During an
actual battle, the spear thrower often feigned a throw to get his opponent
to dodge so that he could actually throw when the defender was off balance.
The feigned spear-throwing movements are also called samsam. For ritual
occasions, men with spears often "charge" various groups and locations, and
the mock battle movements, both offensive and defensive, are both referred
to as "samsam".

Richard Scaglion 22 November 2000

Murphy (1985) defines samsam as "dance"

Tuzin (1997: 222) defines samsam as "a stylized battle prance in which the warrior brandishes his spear while executing lunging motions" and Tuzin says that it is also performed empty-handed during oratory.  Is this a localized usage?  Does samsam more often imply belligerency than does singsing?

Thomas H. Slone 20 September 2000