Item details
Item ID
DKH01-068_yay_tokopa
Title Yay tokopa ‘Pig’s anus’
Description This string figure represents a pig’s anus. When a pig is killed and brought to the village, it is tied on a pole. A fire is lit underneath in order to burn off the hair and the upper layer of skin. During this process the skin tightens, the teeth stick out, and the anus bulges in a very conspicuous way, often passing some faeces.
This string figure is sometimes called yay engamba, which is a slightly more offensive synonym of tokopa, but they are both best translated as ‘arsehole’. Anything connected with defecation, including words referring to anus, used to be a strict taboo among the Awiakay, to the extent that grown-ups still deny defecation (for the neighbouring Ambonwari a denial of defecation only applies to men; see Telban 1998: 37, 39). While both tokopa and engamba are words that are considered dangerous and offensive, it largely depends on the context in which they are used, and are perfectly acceptable when speaking of an animal. Their utterance, however, often invokes giggles among string figure-makers.
In making this string figure, the first design that emerges is kiakay kunda ‘the roots of wild pandanus’. Another move turns the figure into ‘pig’s aresehole’.

Images:
02: yay tokopa ‘pig’s anus’ string figure, final design
03: pig’s anus

Telban, Borut. 1998. Dancing through Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Origination date 2018-08-27
Origination date free form
Archive link https://catalog.paradisec.org.au/repository/DKH01/068_yay_tokopa
URL
Collector
Darja Hoenigman
Countries
Language as given Awiakay
Subject language(s)
Content language(s) To view related information on a language, click its name
Dialect Awiakay
Region / village
Originating university
Operator Tina Gregor
Data Categories
Data Types
Discourse type
Roles Bapra Mari : performer
DOI 10.26278/5KWQ-PE74
Cite as Darja Hoenigman (collector), Bapra Mari (performer), 2018. Yay tokopa ‘Pig’s anus’. JPEG/MP4/MXF/TIFF. DKH01-068_yay_tokopa at catalog.paradisec.org.au. https://dx.doi.org/10.26278/5KWQ-PE74
Content Files (6)
Filename Type File size Duration File access
DKH01-068_yay_tokopa-01.jpg image/jpeg 762 KB
DKH01-068_yay_tokopa-01.mp4 video/mp4 59.5 MB 00:00:48.533
DKH01-068_yay_tokopa-01.mxf application/mxf 672 MB
DKH01-068_yay_tokopa-01.tif image/tiff 68.7 MB
DKH01-068_yay_tokopa-02.jpg image/jpeg 91.7 KB
DKH01-068_yay_tokopa-02.tif image/tiff 3.08 MB
6 files -- 804 MB -- --

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Collection Information
Collection ID DKH01
Collection title Awiakay string figures
Description Recordings of Awiakay string figures
Countries To view related information on a country, click its name
Languages To view related information on a language, click its name
Access Information
Edit access Tina Gregor
View/Download access
Data access conditions Open (subject to agreeing to PDSC access conditions)
Data access narrative
Metadata
RO-Crate Metadata
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