ABSTRACT
The Lusi-Kaliai people of coastal West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, tell a story about an aggressive woman named Silimala who harasses and forces herself on a young man—Akono—until he marries her. When a woman considers herself to have been beaten unjustly or excessively, a number of strategies are available. This option is sometimes chosen by women in other Papua New Guinea societies. A woman may expose her husband to mali, "menstrual blood contamination," in order to cause respiratory illness and/or death, or she may collect his hair, cigarette butts, or other "dirty" to use in sorcery. She may take the dispute to the public arena and charge her husband before village or provincial court authorities. She may leave her husband and take a lover or second husband. An abused woman may commit suicide. A principal one is that if the woman's action is successful, her husband will be fined and/or jailed, and she faces his angry retribution.
