KALATU GEBI NAVALULU, line for young mother

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This Item Same string figure procedure: Item: SILIMRI, a tree

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Citation

Eric Vandendriessche, “KALATU GEBI NAVALULU, line for young mother,” String figures, accessed February 24, 2026, https://stringfigures.huma-num.fr/items/show/349.
  • Overall presentation

  • Name : KALATU GEBI NAVALULU, line for young mother

  • Creator : Eric Vandendriessche

  • Contributor(s) : Morubikina, village of Oluvilei, Trobriand islands, Papua New Guinea
    Bowelogusa, village of Oluvilei, Trobriand islands, Papua New Guinea

  • Date : 2006-2007

  • Information on the string figure

    • General presentation of the string figure

    "Kala tugebi" means "carry on the head", and "navalulu" means "woman in childbirth". This string figure's name refers explicitly to the headdress (or linen) worn by women leaving the house for the first time after giving birth to prevent evil spirits from entering their bodies and spoil the milk. This is also underlined by a particular operational gesture within the string figure-making process: the first step of the procedure "kalatu gebi navalulu" consists in making a small loop which is gripped between the teeth; the rest of the string is then placed over the head as the headdress should be.

    Construction method (ISFA)

    1. Opening M4
    2. Transfer wrist loops to 1.
    3. Proximally, insert 1 into 5 loops, pick up 5n and return.
    4. Caroline extension.

    Opening M4:
    - Make a small loop and hold between the teeth.
    - Insert H away from you into the long hanging loop.
    - Rotate H in passing distal to ulnar H string and proximal to radial H string.
    - Insert 5 away from you into the small loop held by the teeth.
    Release the teeth and extend.

    Construction method (symbolic writing)

    $\underline{O}.M_{4}:TF (w\infty, 1):\underline{i}1(5\infty):p1(5n):\underline{E}.C\mid$

    Heart-sequence

    $\underline{O}.M_{4}: w\infty\rightarrow 1: \overleftarrow{5\infty}\downarrow(1\infty): \underrightarrow{1\infty}\uparrow(5\infty):ext$
  • Item references

  • Key words : String figures, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea

  • Publisher : Laboratory SPHERE (UMR 7219, University of Paris & CNRS)

  • Rights : Creative Commons / Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA

  • Format : jpeg, mp4

  • Language : English, Kilivila

  • Location : Village of Oluvilei, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea

  • Description : Trobriand string figure, method of construction, linguistic data, cultural aspects

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