Baloma is the spirit of the dead in

Trobriand The Trobriand Islands are a archipelago of coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. They are part of the nation of Papua New Guinea and are in Milne Bay Province. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main isla ...

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 The ''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute'' (JRAI) is the principal journal of the oldest anthropological organization in the world, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Articles, at the forefront of the dis ...

''). It plays a key role in conception ideologies and explains and maintains the

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

descent system by substituting the role of male sperm ("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 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 The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', plural ''uteri'') or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more embryos until birth. The ut ...

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 {{Oceania-myth-stub