ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the bau a, a bachelor men's ceremonial hunting lodge that was held periodically before European contact by the Kaluli, Onabasulu, and Etoro peoples of the Papuan Plateau in Papua New Guinea. The bau a itself was an oval building constructed on the ground, in which the membership performed hunting magic and slept for part of the period of their ritual seclusion. Men used an elaborate vocabulary of esoteric code words when talking about bau a activities among themselves in the longhouse, so that while women might suspect them of talking about the bau a, they did not know what was being said. After the tiane divination is completed, the bau a membership disperses once more to the small bau a lodges to hunt as before. The constant hunting, rituals, and seclusion make the bau a very much a world unto itself, a world rooted in its privileged relationship with the invisible memul spirits.
