ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 considers a range of sociological and contextual issues around the garamut and its place in contemporary Baluan society, and situates the findings within Papua New Guinea and Oceania, and the literature concerned with these areas. The chapter considers the organology and origins of the log idiophone (including local mythological accounts), and the nomenclature associated with it throughout Oceania and elsewhere. The chapter further considers the distribution of the garamut around Papua New Guinea and the Manus Province, and the construction and design of the Baluan garamut. The chapter addresses gender issues around the playing of the garamut in Baluan and Port Moresby, and how attitudes are changing with time and context. It considers magic, esotericism, and the supernatural in relation to the power invested in the instrument, the significance of dance to the music of the garamut and the relationships between them, and the learning and teaching of the garamut within Baluan.
