Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/109

Rh sociological rules and regularities. As we have seen, there is a vague association between the central place and the male life of the community; between the street and feminine activities. Again, all the houses of the inner row, which consists principally of storehouses (pls. 10 and 82), are subject to certain taboos, especially to the taboo of cooking, which is believed to be inimical to the stored yam. The outer ring, on the other hand, consists of household dwellings, and there cooking is allowed (pls. 4 and 5). With this distinction is associated the fact that all the establishments of married people have to stand in the outer ring, whereas a bachelor's house may be allowed among the storehouses in the middle. The inner row thus consists of yam-houses (bwayma), personal huts of a chief and his kinsmen (lisiga) (pl. I), and bachelors' houses {bukumatula). The outer ring is made up of matrimonial homes {bulaviyaka), closed yam-houses {sokwaypa), and widows' or widowers' houses {bwala nakaka'u). The main distinction between the two rings is the taboo on cooking. A young chief's lisiga (personal hut) is as a rule used also to accommodate other youths and thus becomes a bukumatula with all that this implies (pl. 20).

At present there are five bachelors' establishments in Omarakana, and four in the adjoining village of Kasana'i. Their number has greatly diminished owing to missionary influence. Indeed, for fear of being singled out, admonished and preached at, the owners of some bukumatula now erect them in the outer ring, where they are less conspicuous. Some ten years ago my informants could Rh