The chants and spectacle incorporate ancient tribal totems and current advertising slogans. The dancing is precise, vigorous, aggressive, and fierce. The game is usually played for two days, involving as many innings as there are players, and no one is killed. A verbal description does not do credit to this marvelous pageant. The movie Trobriand Cricket, a documentary by University of California anthropologists, contains the film footage necessary to witness what happened in these islands.
Much credit is due to the film producers.
But the producers do not speculate on what this movie says about war and peace, so I will here. Let me begin with what some may think is a sexist assumption. Now let's not call that violent. Let us also not assume that this means that women cannot be bank presidents or construction managers, or have no need to achieve in the world. Simply allow the belief for a moment that there is something in the nature of the yang that likes to fight, compete, conquer, but that this is not necessarily an evil drive.