Hitolo
Motu · numen · Motu traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Hitolo, hunger or famine, names the season of scarcity that gave the hiri its purpose: the western Motu, whose sandy coast yielded poor gardens, voyaged to the sago-rich Gulf to secure against want, exchanging their pots for the starch that would carry them through the lean months. In the mythic economy of the trade, hitolo is the adversary that the founding voyage of Edai Siabo and the pots-for-sago exchange were established to overcome. Sources treat it variously as a bare condition and as a named force personifying scarcity.
Domains
- famine scarcity
Powers
- brought the season of hunger
Epithets
- Hitolo — hunger; famineLister-Turner, R. & Clark, J.B. (1954 [1931]). A Dictionary of the Motu Language of Papua. Sydney: Government Printer. (primary)
Sources
- Hitolo, hunger, names the season of scarcity that the hiri exchange of pots for sago was undertaken to overcome.: Belshaw, C.S. (1957). The Great Village: The Economic and Social Welfare of Hanuabada. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (secondary); Oram, N.D. (1976). Colonial Town to Melanesian City. Canberra: Australian National University Press. (secondary)