Trobriand Yam House (Bwaima)
Ornate storehouse of the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea, raised on posts with a steeply pitched roof and a decorative triangular gable, first described in the anthropological studies of Bronisław Malinowski. The facade is built of wooden slabs tied with coconut-husk fasteners, and yams — the central wealth and prestige crop — are displayed in tight rows through the slits so that the house announces its owner's abundance. Yams are still the symbolic currency of the islands: men cultivate them for their sisters' families under the urigubu obligation, and a man's status is read in the size