Baloma is the spirit of the dead in
Trobriand society, as studied by
Bronislaw Malinowski in the early 20th century, who published an article on it in 1916 (''Baloma; the Spirits of the Dead in the Trobriand Islands'' in ''
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'').
It plays a key role in
conception ideologies and explains and maintains the
matrilineal descent system by substituting the role of male
sperm
Sperm is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, whi ...
("fathers") with that of a spirit. The baloma is that spirit of a deceased lineage member which impregnates the women while bathing in the sea, perpetuating the matrilineage intragenerationally. The role of
sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse (or coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina for sexual pleasure or reproduction.Sexual intercourse most commonly means penile–vaginal penetrat ...
is only indirectly related to conception within Trobriand mentality and seen as a way of opening the path for the baloma to enter the woman's
womb.
References
Baloma; the Spirits of the Dead in the Trobriand Islands by Bronislaw Malinowski (online version)
Death customs
Papua New Guinean mythology
Trobriand Islands
Bronisław Malinowski
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