topoho

Wauja

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɨˈpɨ.hɨ/

Noun

topoho

1. hole, hollow place, pit, ditch (in the ground)

   Punupa topoho!

   Watch [out for the] hole [don't step in it]! (Lit., see the hole!)

2. grave (place of burial)

   Awapotene yiu, aunukawi, umakonapai ipitsi. Awapoteneu. Hoona! Piya patoka topoho. Natu napotebeni! ipiSUN wi.

   "Well, let's bury her, let's kill her," they all said about her. "We'll bury her. Yes, we will!" "[You, there,] go dig her grave," [one of them said]. "I will bury her!" [answered one man]. [But this man was, in fact, secretly] her lover. [He was just pretending to go along with the others.]

   KeJOKuwi. Itsakanapai topoho katiuhan. Atokawi, keJOKuwi maatawani.

   [It] was DEEP. [The] breadth of [the] hole was like this [gestures]. [He] dug [some more], [he] made [it] very deep.

   Iye topoho onaku wi, au ha wi. Ojonain hata pitsu wi, uma ipitsi, papisulu ipitsi, aminya papwitene natu, umawi. Hoona! Hejoka openuutsa atiu. Tapo! Ja itsa openua katiwhun, mujupa! Openuutsa heje, pako!

   [She] stepped into the [open] grave. It was done. "You [have to] just stay in here [for now]," [he] said to her, to his beloved. "Don't bury me," [she] said. Well, now. He plunged [a long piece of] wood [into the bottom of the grave, with the top end extending] above her [head]. Thump! On the top of the stick – like this — [he placed] a woven palm mat! Above that, a ceramic griddle, with a thud!

3. vagina (vulgar; slang used by men only)

   ...tineju ipitsi, topoho, uma, enojanaun umapai ipitsi.

   ...[referring] to [the vagina of a] woman, "hole," [the] men call it [that].

Usage notes

• In this story, a young women commits a grave sacrilege by disguising herself as a man and, under cover of darkness, playing the sacred flutes, which are forbidden even to the sight of women. Her cruel husband publicly exposes her transgression, and she is buried alive as punishment, only to be secretly rescued by her lover.
• The use of vagina symbolism as a literary device is striking in this story. At the beginning, the brash young woman commits a grave sacrilege, which her husband heartlessly reveals to the community, causing her to be buried alive in a grave. A Wauja teacher pointed out that the grave in this story is described in terms that can also refer to the vagina: topoho (slang for "vagina") and kejokupai ("deep"). She is rescued by her lover, and at the end of the story, she exacts revenge on her husband, causing him to be trapped in a huge hollow log filled with honey. The Wauja say honey is like sexual pleasure, and the storyteller actually paused during narration to make sure the anthropologist understood that the word used to describe the husband piercing the hollow log (pulekepe) to get the honey is the same word used for penetrating a woman who is a virgin. Wauja traditional stories are enjoyed by even small children, but they have many levels of meaning, and speak to the varied concerns and experiences of multiple audiences simultaneously.

Related terms

• apota (“buries”)

References

• "Awapotene yiu" (transcript p. 6), "KeJOKuwi" (p. 6), and "Iye topoho" (p. 9), uttered by Itsautaku, shaman and elder, recounting traditional Wauja tale, the "Man who Drowned in Honey" (Paisityawalu). Recorded in Piyulaga village in the presence of his adult daughter, Mukura, adolescent son, Mayuri, and others, December 1989.
• "...tineju ipitsi" uttered by eldest son of Kaomo [Karatsipa], upon listening to a recording of Itsautaku's performance. He commented that the sexual associations of the words used to describe the grave in this story, referring to the passage (transcript, p.6) beginning "KeJOKuwi. Itsakanapai."