1. This productivity is roughly in line with the results of a study of angling productivity by the Manus Provincial Government (1980, Appendix 7): 0.87 kg/man-hour of actual fishing time. If we assume that each hour of angling requires one-third to one-half an hour spent preparing for fishing, cleaning up afterwards, and getting to and from the fishing grounds, the range of angling productivity is about 0.6 to 0.65 kg/man-hour, broadly comparable to Ponam figures. [BACK]

2. One other marine activity of importance was turtle fishing, the techniques of which are described in J. Carrier (1982). It was of some economic importance prior to World War II and even more in the precolonial period. Ponams did not, apparently, trade very much in sea turtle in this early period. However, they did hire themselves out as turtle catchers, using a technique called haliki . Turtle had an important place in prestation and feasting in early Manus, and Ponams said that they were recognized as specialist turtle fishers. Someone needing turtle would request that a haliki be carried out, providing a quantity of valuables and foodstuffs as advance payment. Total payment was increased fairly often by the fact that the operation of the haliki was thought to be harmed if the person requesting it failed to maintain correct social relations with his own kin. If the haliki ran into trouble and if it were decided that the cause lay in the actions of the person requesting it, he was obliged to make a further large payment. [BACK]

3. Around 1980 the leader of Kamal Kahu, a migrant normally living in Port Moresby, tried to reclaim the south and north Tonuf rights to this technique, claiming that the gift to south Ponam kamal was revokable. Members of these kamal successfully resisted this attempt, saying the rights were given in compensation and could be reacquired only if Kamal Kahu made a generous payment to the current right holders. This payment was conceived of as a new transaction, unrelated to the original compensation except by the Kamal Kahu leader's desire to regain old kamal property. [BACK]

4. In fact, three generations ago there was no spear fishing, only what islanders defined as its antecedent. This is described in J. Carrier (1981, 213). [BACK]

5. While the repetition of names across generations was a common feature of Ponam genealogies, it is exaggerated in figure 2 by our decision to use birth order names wherever appropriate. For first-born to eighth-born sons, these are: Tol, Ngih, Selef, Sepat, Soon, Kupe, Kuem, and Kalai. Ponams had birth order names for daughters, but as women figure so little in figure 2, we have not used them, except where they are the way a woman is commonly remembered: Aluf Kuem and Pindriniu Kalo. [BACK]

6. Associate status occurred in the case of five resident men who had immigrated to Ponam and had no formal kamal membership. [BACK]

7. Spear gun fishers typically provided their own small canoes for those techniques in which they participated, and it was considered very rude for a share of the catch to be offered to the owner of a borrowed canoe. Likewise, owners of reef and sea did not request compensation for allowing people to fish in their waters either normally or when permission was needed. [BACK]