slit-log drum, garamut

Slit-log drum system of the Baluan Island people of Manus province, Papua New Guinea, described by Lewis (2018). The instrument itself is a hollowed slit-log drum struck with two beaters, one held in each hand. Mainly played in musical settings, the drum is only marginally used for communication, and its primary surrogate mechanism is lexical/symbolic rather than abridging. Lewis reports two principal surrogate functions: the palang khil, which is a group of unique signals that identify or summon the members of a particular men’s house (haus boi in Tok Pisin) on the island; and Teng Sel, used to announce a death in the community. Baluan signals are evidently not used in a wide array of circumstances, nor are they used frequently. Only men play the drum.Lewis does give one anecdotal account of an abridging mechanism on the garamut, employing a rhythmic-syllabic encoding: “The chief of the Parun Mwak clan… said to himself ‘Parun mwak pwali’ (‘the Parun Mwak people are crazy’)… it would have been rude to say it in words, so he said it on the garamut instead” (86). Lewis provides a transcription of the rhythmic figure, which has a one-to-one mapping of syllables to drum strikes, without evidence of other linguistic contrasts encoded. He emphasizes that “this is a unique instance, not the norm” (86).

Lewis, T. (2018). Becoming a garamut player in Baluan, Papua New Guinea: Musical analysis as a pathway to learning. Routledge.