THE MEASURING SYSTEM OF ENGA SOCIETY

Paeo Kare and Nimba Waringi

INTRODUCTION

In the traditional Enga society there was no abstract mathematics as we now have. However, there was some mathematics used in their day to day lives which was more concrete than the mathematics we use today. Their mathematics was mainly based on trade, ceremonies and other activities concerning their lives.

Measurement was a very important topic in the society especially in the field of trade and barter. The measurement system was used to measure things that were available around them. It must be noted that no standard units or devices were used in the measurement of things. There were some quite basic and simple objects used as devices and standard units which were not every reliable.

There are many areas that can be covered under the topic of measurement; however, in this presentation we will be basically looking at the unit system used in measuring TIME, LENGTH and MASS in the Enga society.

As stated earlier there are no standard unit systems; instead, concrete objects and verbal descriptions/comparisons were used as standard systems. In other words there were no direct units for the measurement of a thing but things were measured in terms of other things.

For example, time was measured in terms of ‘smoking periods’. One smoking period is the amount of time taken to smoke one traditional ‘cigarette’. (The time taken to cook a kaukau in the earth oven is equal to three smoking periods or “muri yaki tepo”.

COMPARISON OF THE TRADITIONAL ENGA UNIT SYSTEM WITH
THE MODERN SI UNIT SYSTEM

MODERN SI SYSTEM………………………… TRADITIONAL SYSTEM

TIME
Seconds Smoking periods

LENGTH
Metres pace, ropes, arm/handspan and
verbal descriptions.
MASS
Kilogram verbal comparisons in terms of
pandanus nuts.

*The above table shows only the most commonly used units. However, there are many others.

TIME (smoking periods)

The basic unit system used to measure time that we are going to focus on in this presentation is the smoking period or “muri yaki”. This unit is used to measure lengths of time within a day; e.g. the time it takes to roast a pig, break a firewood, make appointments etc. is measured in terms of “smoking periods”. Our people were very clever in measuring time using the smoking period method. They could tell exactly how much time was taken to do a certain thing. One day was described as 24 smoking periods or “muti yaki akalita tokage kisa tukulapo”. This meant that one hour was approximately equal to 2 smoking periods and each half hour was marked by approximately one smoking period.

This idea was very important in activities such as going hunting in thick bush, i.e. they could tell exactly what part of the day they were in, whether noon morning or evening by the number of smokers they had. Non-smokers depended on smokers for time or they used other methods.

LENGTH

The basic unit system used to measure length varied from location to location and the nature of activity (i.e. the object measured). Several methods/units were used; however, we will be basically looking at the use of walking paces, ropes, sticks, armspans, handspans and other verbal descriptions. Specific methods were used for the specific jobs. Things that were very long were measured using paces while shorter items were measured using stivcks, ropes and arm and handspans. The methods of using sticks, ropes and handspans were very useful in designing houses. Handspans played a very handy part in the field of trade and barter. It was used to measure long bamboo containers of oil, strings of shells, etc.

Such objects like standing trees were so hard to measure that verbal descriptions were used. For example a standing tree would be described as so many armspans depending on how high the tree would be. There was no fixed rope, stick or any of the above methods kept as a standard unit but whatever method was available was used.

MASS

No method was directly used in measuring the mass of items, such as using a balance or anything like that. A method of verbal description was used to make comparison with the item in terms of the weight of 1 pandanus nut. To work out or determine the mass of a certain item, it was only described or compared in terms of the weight a pandanus nut. A kaukau bag was also used to make comparisons with its weight but it was not used as commonly as the pandanus method.

Object that weighed only slightly more than a pandanus nut were described as more than 1 pandanus nut but less than 2 pandanus nuts. Likewise objects weighing less than 1 pandanus nut were described as equal to a half or a quarter of a pandanus nut.

CONCLUSION

The measuring system of the Enga society was based on assumptions and estimations. There were no fixed methods in the field of measurement. However, people were very smart in making estimations and it always worked well for them. Also making comparisons was very common.