Comp. by: PG0844 Stage : Revises ChapterID: 0001529302 Date:21/8/12 Time:11:20:04 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001529302.3D107 4 Possession and ownership in Manambu, a Ndu language from the Sepik area, Papua New Guinea ALEXANDRA Y. AIKHENVALD 1 The Manambu and their possessions A salient feature of the Manambu of the Middle Sepik River Basin, and of the neighbouring and related Iatmul, is a focus on clan ownership of ancestral names and totems, inherited through one’s father. Within the Manambu tradition, the world is divided into totemic areas belonging to different subclans, indentified through ownership of names. This totemic ownership only partly determines rights to the land. And it is distinct from how one possesses other, more material, objects. My major concern in this chapter is how these concepts are reflected in the linguistic practices of the Manambu, and the Manambu grammar. 1 Manambu is a member of Ndu language family—the largest in the Sepik area in terms of numbers of speakers. The language is spoken by about 2,500 people in several major villages (Avatip, Malu, Yawabak, Apa:n, and Yambon in East Sepik Province, Ambunti district), 2 and by smallish expatriate communities in major cities of Papua New Guinea. 1 Similar principles have been described for a number of other Sepik groups, especially the Iatmul, neighbours, relatives, and major rivals of the Manambu, and also the Murik, the Mountain Arapesh, the Abelam, and the Kwoma. Cf. Gregory Bateson’s(1958: 228) statement about the closely related Iatmul as a people for whom personal names form ‘a theoretical image of the whole culture’. 2 See Aikhenvald (2004) and (2008: ch. 22) on the position of the Ndu family in the Sepik River Basin, and of Manambu within it. I am indebted to my Manambu family, especially Yuamali Jacklyn Benji Ala, Pauline Agnes Yuaneng Luma Laki, Gemaj, Jenni Kudapa:kw, John Sepaywus, and many others, for helping me in my attempts to learn their fascinating language. I am grateful to R. M. W. Dixon for providing feedback. OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – REVISES, 21/8/2012, SPi