Case file · Folklore / legend
Baloma: spirits of the dead on Tuma
In 1916 Bronisław Malinowski published 'Baloma', describing the Trobriand belief that spirits of the dead live on nearby Tuma Island and return at the annual milamala harvest festival.
1916 CE · -8.27, 151.02 · status: legend
The account
Trobrianders told him that the baloma could be seen by some on Tuma and that they caused pregnancy by entering women, a belief that sparked a long anthropological debate about conception.
The sceptical view
Malinowski's interpretation of Trobriand ideas of conception has been contested by later anthropologists.