Final Notes, P 295-320Mem 009-20.Pdf

295 FINAL NOTES. T h e present survey of the culture-forms of Vaitupu has • provided an illustration of a principle clearly enunciated by Dixon,* that it is on material culture alone that environ ment exerts a direct and perceptible influence, while on the social and religious aspects its influence is “ both less obvious and less inherent,” and further that these latter, “ being amenable to such a variety of other influences, the weak pressure of enviornment may be entirely neutralized and overcome.” The illustration provided is in the retention of culture-forms of the immediate past under the disturbing influence of foreign domination. We find the easy conquest of religious forms by proselytizing mission-workers closely followed by the submergence of the whole former social structure— a submergence so complete that even the most tedious and painstaking enquiries fail to reveal more than a few of the most salient features. Ceremonies involved in ancient rites and customs, games, courtship, marriage, birth, adult initiation, and death, have disappeared com pletely, leaving nothing more than a half-understood word here and there amid their still less-understood substitutes. Only such practices as were intimately incorporated in the methods of providing for physical needs— food, sexual rela tions, and self-preservationf— that is, broadly speaking, the main elements of the material culture, have been retained. It may be held against this argument that it was in opposition to the social and religious culture-forms only that the proselytism mentioned above was directed, and that this explains the fact that most of the forms of material culture still exist. It should be remembered, however, that these also have been subjected to a kind of proselytism—that represented by European trade; and, in many places, they * Dixon, Roland B., The Building of Cultures. f Self-preservation from death by sickness and disease in this instance. Cf. Dixon, op. cit. p. 41. 296 Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands. are now yielding.* The contention outlined above depends on the fact that they have resisted the diffusion of foreign substitutes for a longer period than any of the social or religious elements have done. The point will be made sufficiently clear by reference to the comparative amount of space devoted to the three aspects of culture in these notes. This is not to suggest that the notes cover the whole of the available field, but that they fairly represent, in proportion, the existing evidence of the pre-European culture. It is true that most of the space under the actual heading of Material Culture deals with obsolete elements, but so also does that devoted, not only to notes on Religion, but also to all the Songs and most of the Folklore, which would be included under social elements. Furthermore, it has been found impossible to include in these notes a vast amount of information dealing with textile manufactures— mats, baskets, kilts, etc.— impor tant forms of material culture which still flourish in competition with trade substitutes. In the remainder of this concluding section an attempt will be made to piece together the scraps of information which have been gleaned from time to time with reference to birth, adult initiation, relationship, courtship, marriage, old-time customs, social organization, and death in pre- European days. Birth. A point in the life-cycle which seems to present a clear beginning is the first indication of pregnancy. From the time of the marriage of a couple until the definite pregnancy of the bride, presents of food were exchanged between the families of the bride and the bridgroom. The bridegroom’s father, his sisters, and his father’s brothers contributed on the one side, and the bride’s mother, brothers, and mother’s sisters on the other. This was called te fakautautanga o te kauae. The word kauae (jaw-bone) survives to the present day as a term for the exchange of food-presents * E.g. the use of metal tools, the substitution, at Funafuti Island, of the steel hook for the lou, or wooden hook for taking Ruvettus, and the trolling-method with European equipment for the hereditary snaring-method in taking the pāla fish; and, in Fiji, the recent wide spread use of corrugated-iron roofing to replace thatch, Final N otes. 297 after a marriage, but its signification is unknown. Other practices between this and the birth of the child have already been dealt with in the chapter on Obstetrics. Mention was also made there of the birth-feasts, for two of which all the same individuals mentioned above provided. There seems to be here a definite indication of dual organization and matrilineal descent.* If this was due to traces of dual organization among the earliest Polynesian migrants it is precisely in a marginal culture like that of Vaitupu that one would expect to find the evidence surviving, even though absent in nuclear areas like the neighbouring Samoa. It might be said that the Vaitupu social structure in this respect was at a stage of transition from matrilineal to patrilineal descent, wherein the point of equilibrium had not long been passed in favour of patrilineal descent. The name of the final birth-feast, recorded in the chapter on Obstetrics, is te fakatekanga o te ala. This may be trans lated “ the casting off of the way ” ; and the fact that this is the last of the three birth-feasts, that to it the bridegroom’s family alone contributes, and that it takes place immediately before the child is taken over by the bridegroom’s sisters in turn, may indicate that it alludes to the casting off of the influence and rights of the mother’s family. Then began te fakasaelenga o te faele (the causing-to- walk-about of the mother-of-the-new-born) which means that the mother had to follow her child for feeding purposes to the houses of its father’s sisters. These took the child in turn, each keeping it in her own house for as long a time as the others would permit. In former times the period of fakasaelenga would sometimes last for more than a month, according to the number of the husband’s sisters. Nowadays the period lasts only for a few days, usually one day with each aunt. Here occurs an interesting point which I do not remember having seen recorded from elsewhere; the sisters (tuangane) of the young father, in the classificatory sense (i.e. including adopted sisters, and many whom Euro peans would call cousins, even to the second and third degree) all have a large say in the preparation of the feast of the * Cf. Rivers, The History of Melanesian Society, vol. 1. See also below, the term ilamutu and tuatina for nephew—mother’s brother relationship. 298 Cu ltu re of V a it u p u , E llice I sl a n d s . fakatekanga and in the making of mats and other requisites for the new-born infant, but only those representing the various degrees of cousinship are actually concerned in the fakasaelenga ceremony. That is to say, the husband’s uterine sisters do not keep the child in their houses on this occasion. The mother, in former times, in going to feed the infant in the house of that husband’s sister in which it was domiciled, temporarily would exchange skirts (titi) with the husband’s sister concerned. This exchange would be repeated at every visit. The whole ceremony of the fakasaelenga seems to have been developed to emphasize the ascendancy of the father’s family; and the point to be noted is that, such emphasis being necessary, patrilineal descent could not have been very firmly established over a long period. A child whose father had no sisters and who, therefore, could not undergo the fakasaelenga ceremony was referred to scornfully as tama- po (child of the night). This epithet was much more opprobrious than the term fua-taka (bastard) ; for a child born out of wedlock was not necessarily a tama-po, since, if its father acknowledged his responsibility, his sisters would act in the same manner as if the parents were man and wife. The next ceremony was a feast held on the cutting of the infant’s first tooth (e fau te nifo o somo).* From the time of weaning till the age of adolesence, the child appears to have lived a life of almost unrestricted freedom. Boys and girls played together indiscriminately, imitated their elders, and accumulated a vast stock of empirical knowledge. The description given by Margaret Mead of the life of children in the islands of Eastern Samoa, insofar as it regards their mental development, might well have been written of Vaitupu.f There is little direct evidence of sexual experimentation among children at this period, but the indications of sexual precocity are so obvious that one is led to infer that it undoubtedly occurs. Such indirect evidence as is obtainable, however, would indicate that the * For further details of the nursing of the child see chapter on Obstetrics. f Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa. F in a l N otes. 299 experimentation begins in the early stages of adolescence of both sexes, with members of the opposite sex of the gene ration above. Homosexual practices appear to be more prevalent among adolescent girls than among boys of the same generation. There seems to be no reason to believe that this aspect of child development was different in ancient times except in that the shame now demanded by Christian ethics, and the consequent secrecy, were probably absent.

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