Turtlephilia in the Pacific: an Integrated Comparative
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TURTLEPHILIA IN THE PACIFIC: AN INTEGRATED COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF BIOLOGICAL, CULTURAL, AND SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY IN A PARTICULAR CASE OF BIOPHILIA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ANTHROPOLOGY MAY 2013 By Regina Woodrom Luna Dissertation Committee: Leslie Sponsel, Chairperson Charles Birkeland Alice Dewey Sherwood Maynard Heather Young-Leslie Keywords: Sea Turtle, Traditional Laws, Cultural Take, Consumption, Tapu, Tabu, Kapu, Taboo, Oceania, Polynesia, Myth, Legend, Ritual, Creation Story Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my wonderful husband, Jason Rudrud, without whose support -- both physically by picking up sea turtles with all their weight, and mentally by picking me up when it seemed as if my health issues would not allow me to finish – this dissertation would never have been completed. He is my hero and this is his accomplishment as much as it is mine. Next, I would be remiss without acknowledging the tremendous and never-ending support of my mother and chief editor, Mary Anne Woodrom; my dad and step-mother, Harold and Marilyn Woodrom; and my sister and assistant editor, Rebecca Reid and my brother-in-law, Lynn. My brother Roy Woodrom, whose generosity with his frequent flier miles sent me to ECOnference 2000, which set me on my path to study sea turtles as an undergraduate at Texas A&M. The rest of my extended family, especially my aunt Dr. Sandra Luna McCune for her editing assistance, also deserve acknowledgement for always being there for me regardless of the paths I choose to take. Professionally, I would like to begin by thanking George Balazs whose work on the cultural aspects of sea turtle use in the Pacific first inspired my interest in the subject. Throughout my graduate education and professional life, he has mentored and guided me and continues to give me opportunities to be actively involved in sea turtle research and medical care. My work as a sea turtle “paramedic” and assistant to Robert ‘Honu doc’ Morris, DVM with the Stranding and Salvaging Group (SSG) of the Marine Turtle Research Program (MTRP) that George leads is the best job anyone could ever have. It is simply not possible for me to thank George enough for all that he has done to see me become a sea turtle biologist. I gratefully acknowledge my committee members: Leslie Sponsel (my advisor), Chuck Birkeland, Alice Dewey, Sherwood Maynard, and Heather Young-Leslie for encouraging me to be a sea turtle conservation biologist in an anthropologist’s skin. Les’s invaluable advice to focus on the same topic (sea turtles) throughout my writings regardless of subject made me a reputable source in my field. Sherwood’s employing me as a Marine Option Program (MOP) contractor to the SSG, as well as working with me to ii develop and teach the University of Hawaiʻi’s first sea turtle biology course (Biol 397 Marine Reptile Biology), ensured that the scientific community accepted me as a sea turtle biologist. His confidence and foresight in trusting me to additionally offer the biology department’s first two online courses, additional sections of Biol 397 and Biol 123 Hawaiian Environmental Science, led to an online course development contract to produce the first fully online course for the 12 countries served by the University of the South Pacific’s Oceanic Centre. Additionally, Sherwood, Cindy Hunter, Jeff Kuwabara, and the rest of the MOP staff provided me the opportunity to mentor undergraduate and graduate students through the MOP practicum requirement, which led to future opportunities as an educator and teacher trainer. Cindy further deserves a special recognition for stepping in at the final hour to participate in the defense of this dissertation in place of Sherwood Maynard. I also acknowledge MOP students: Miya Akiba, Lisa Baldwin, Kyle Bosworth, Yadera J. Guerroro, Kristen Humphrey, Molly Jean Martin, Carly Quisenberry-Dubay, Migiwa Kawachi Shimashita, Yuko Stender, and Caroline Mae Wells. They provided invaluable assistance in documenting ‘Sea Turtle Love’ in the form of sea turtle tourism and sea turtle images on humans, homes, businesses, vehicles, and other public places that tell others, “I Love Sea Turtles, and I want you to know it because I believe when you know it, my status/wealth increases.” David Adams, who hired me to teach for his Institute of Cultural Ecology, provided through my field school students and interns additional assistance gathering these data. Melissa Accolla deserves a special thank you in that regard. I also thank the interminable Jack Frazier who was always available to share his intelligence and his wit, and to guide me in directions I had not thought to go. Last, but certainly not least, I acknowledge Wallace ‘J.’ Nichols who first inspired in me a love for all things sea turtle at the School for Field Studies Center for Coastal Studies in Puerto San Carlos, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Above all else, I thank God for His abundant love, amazing grace, and supernatural favor. May I always find ways to honor God’s blessings by showing my love for all of God’s creation. iii Abstract Throughout the Pacific regions of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, sea turtles are recognized as culturally significant species. The specifics of human-sea turtle interactions in these regions, however, are not well known, in part because ethnographic and historic reports documenting these interactions are scattered, often consisting of diaries, ships logs, letters and other personal documents, thus requiring extensive archival research. Ethnographic and environmental data collected over a twelve-year period are analyzed to assess patterns of human–sea turtle interactions prior to (and sometimes beyond) Western contact. From the ethnographic data for Polynesia, a region-wide pattern emerges where sea turtle consumption was restricted to special ceremonies where the elites such as chiefs and priests but no one else ate turtle. Only in Tokelau did this pattern differ. Environmental data do little to elucidate explanations for this region-wide treatment of sea turtles as restricted food sources as there is no correlation between environmental variability and the presence or absence of these restrictions. Instead, the results of this research suggest that such practices may have been part of an ancestral Polynesian society, developing well before human settlement into the Polynesian region of the Pacific. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Preface ................................................................................................................................. x The Cultural Value of Sea Turtles: A Story from Hawaiʻi. .......................................... x Presenting the Dissertation ......................................................................................... xx CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: METHODS .................................................................................................. 8 Ethnographic Data and Historical Accounts ................................................................. 8 Sea turtle population data .............................................................................................. 9 Environmental Data .................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS .................................................................................................. 15 Polynesia ................................................................................................................................15 Cook Islands .......................................................................................................... 17 Environmental Data ........................................................................................ 17 Sea Turtle Population Data ............................................................................. 18 Ethnographic Data .......................................................................................... 19 French Polynesia ................................................................................................... 20 Environmental Data ........................................................................................ 20 Sea Turtle Population Data ............................................................................. 21 Ethnographic Data .......................................................................................... 22 Hawaiian Islands ................................................................................................... 27 Environmental Data ........................................................................................ 27 Sea Turtle Population Data ............................................................................. 28 Ethnographic Data .......................................................................................... 29 Niue