"The bone and the breath." This is the name adopted by the Kanak "chiefdom" of the Paimboa during the ceremonial speeches for funerals and ritual exchanges.

In the gardens, harvesting yams requires the help of ancestors. To this end, it is necessary to convert the recent dead into ancestors. This book aims to understand a society that does not oppose nature to culture, but extends into the universe, especially in the plant world. Funerals synchronize the end of the human life cycle with the yam cycle.