ABSTRACT
The cultivation of gardens gives the full rhythm and measure of the seasonal sequence in the year. Again the year is subdivided for them into the season when the gardens are unripe and into that when they begin to mature. Gardening seasons constitute the real measure of time. The chart of native time-reckoning brings out clearly the dependence of the gardening cycle on the seasons, and of the various phases of tribal life on gardening. The native who wishes to define a period or to place an event will always co-ordinate it with the most important, the most rigidly maintained, and the most characteristic index of that period; that is, with the concurrent gardening activity. Gardening activities are correlated with the sequence of moons, for which the natives also have names. Garden magic is in the Trobriands a public and official service. It is performed by the garden magician, also called towosi, for the benefit of the community.
