[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

702 MALEKULA
We have thus isolated two cultures—a matrilineal and a
patril.ineal-and as a result of the analysis of the transformations
of the six-section system in Ambrym we have been able to assign
a time-order to them. I shall therefore speak of the “ patrilineal "
area" and "the matrilineal area", with the proviso that the
whole of Ambrym and also South Raga are included under the
patrilineal area ; the reason for this proviso being, that although
the dual organization persists in North Amrbyrn, it is far on
the way to being transfonned into the patrilineal six»sections
system of South Ambrym. It is now our task to correlate other
cultural elements with the divisions based on this analysis.
In the ï¬Årst place we may notice that the wearing by the
men of a penis~shcath or wrapper and by the women of a fringed
pettieoat are found nowhere in the matrilineal area of the New
Hebrides, but are restricted to the patrilineal islands. The
malmal, the mat which the men wear passing between the legs
and looped over the belt before and behind, is found i.n Omba,
North-West, West, and South Santo, while in the Sakau Peninsula
of North-East Santo, in North Raga and Maewo, it is sometimes,
though not universally, worn. It may further be hazarded that
the male-sam, the woven mat worn cercmonially in connection
with the Sukwe in the Banks Islands, is akin to the ordinary
type of mabmal. We ï¬Ånd, then, that in the matrilineal area,
the men either go nude, as they do in parts of Maewo and Santo,
and as was customary i.u the Banks Isles, or else they wear the
mal/mal; whereas in the patrilineal arca this garment is quite
unknown.‘ The distribution of the women's mat-skirt is, so
far as we know, very similar to that of the men's mat ; it is
found in Omba, North-West Santo, probably in North Raga, and
perhaps in Maewo—a.nd it is also very possibly related to the
pan‘ of the Banks. Elsewhere the women go naked save for a
few leaves hung from a girdle or thrust into the labia.’ It seems
probable, therefore, that the rnen’s mat and the women's mat
belonged originally to the same culture, and go organically
together. Only in one place is the mat-skirt found where the
malmal is not—na.me1y in the coastal districts of Malekula, with
the exception of Mewun. This is particularly remarkable since
Malekula belongs to the patrilineal area of the New Hebrides,
but it is signiï¬Åcant that in olden days, before the disorganizing
I See F. Speiser, 192:4, pp. res-9. I ma, pp. 199 ff.