Papua New Guinea · Shell Carving / Exchange Object
Soulava (necklace) / Mwali (armband)
The Kula ring is the vast ceremonial exchange system of the Milne Bay islands (Trobriand Islands, Woodlark, Louisiade Archipelago) described by Bronisław Malinowski in his foundational anthropological study — a system where specific shell ornaments circulate perpetually around the Kula ring of islands, creating social bonds between exchange partners. The soulava (red spondylus shell necklace) travels clockwise; the mwali (white conus shell armband) travels counterclockwise. The defining technical knowledge is the mwali grinding sequence: a cone shell (Conus millepunctatus) is ground on a flat coral stone until only the thick whorl section remains — the grinding proceeds from the apex inward in a specific rotational sequence that keeps the whorl circular. 'Grind in circles, or the armband becomes an oval — and no one will accept an oval.'
Risk level: Critically Endangered · PNG national ICH list; Kula exchange recognized as world heritage
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