THE BANYAN TREE: PERCEPTION OF PLACE, KINSHIP AND CHURCH IN TASIRIKI ESPIRITU SANTO, VANUATU A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland Candice Roze MRes in Social Anthropology (University of Aberdeen) Bsc in Forestry and Resource Conservation (National Taiwan University) 2014 1 Table of contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 8 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 11 Lists of Abbreviations and notes on transliteration ........................................................... 14 Lists of figures ................................................................................................................... 15 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 16 PART I................................................................................................................................ 24 CHAPTER 1 - PRESENTATION OF PLACE AND METHODOLOGY 1.1 Brief geographical and historical context of Vanuatu with a focus on the Island of Espiritu Santo .......................................................................................... 24 1.1.1 Geography ................................................................................................................. 24 1.1.2 History ...................................................................................................................... 29 1.2 Human geography ........................................................................................................ 34 1.3 General description of Tasiriki and South West Santo villages, historical perspective and social organisation ............................................................................ 38 1.3.1 Presbyterian villages in South West Santo ............................................................... 43 1.3.2 Tasiriki ...................................................................................................................... 44 1.4 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 52 1.4.1 Pre-fieldwork research interest ................................................................................. 52 1.4.2 VCC and Entry .......................................................................................................... 55 1.4.3 My location and connections: who is who and how related ..................................... 57 1.4.4 Relatives as main interlocutors during the research ................................................. 59 2 1.4.5 What I did and how I gathered data .......................................................................... 61 1.4.6 Work Sessions and participant observation .............................................................. 62 1.4.7 Limitation and quality of the data ............................................................................. 64 1.5 Overview: what emerges as important through fieldwork ........................................... 66 CHAPTER 2 - PROBLEMS ADDRESSED IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CHRISTIANITY, ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO MELANESIA ANDTHE WIDER PACIFIC 2.1 Issues in the anthropology of Christianity and theoretical propositions ...................... 68 2.1.1 Introduction: Stumbling into Christianity ................................................................. 68 2.1.2 Invisible Christians – Methodological choices and obstacles to an Anthropology of Christianity ......................................................................................................................... 72 2.1.3 Robbins and “Continuity thinking” (2007, 2011) ..................................................... 77 2.1.4 Some methodological suggestions: opposite directions ........................................... 80 2.1.5 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 82 2.2 Working with metaphors of society: some conceptions of kastom and church in Vanuatu ....................................................................................................................... 84 2.2.1 Kastom and church .................................................................................................... 84 2.2.2 Metaphors of sociality: Rio (2007) and Eriksen (2008) ........................................... 90 3 CHAPTER 3 - IMPLANTING THE VANUA: THE WORLD AS A FOUNDATIONAL COMMUNITY OF BEINGS, MATRILINEAGES, PATERNAL TRAJECTORIES AND CHURCH 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 97 3.2 The world as a community and trajectories of beings ................................................. 99 3.2.1 Contextualising the concept of vanua ...................................................................... 99 3.2.2 Vanua in context ...................................................................................................... 105 3.2.3 Matrilineages and nasara: respective expression of maternal and paternal connections and paths ............................................................................................. 112 3.2.3.1 Matrilines ............................................................................................................. 112 3.2.3.2 The origin of matrilines ....................................................................................... 115 3.2.3.3 Principles ............................................................................................................. 117 3.2.3.4 Nasara: paternal trajectories of emplacement ..................................................... 122 3.3 The church in South West Santo ................................................................................ 126 3.3.1 Accounts from the missionaries .............................................................................. 126 3.3.2 The story of Lulu Varkiki: local perspective on the arrival of the church .............. 128 3.3.3 Sketch of the institutional organisation of the Presbyterian Church ....................... 130 3.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 131 PART II – GROWING THE VANUA: GROWING GARDENS, KIN and CHURCH ..................................................................................... 134 4 CHAPTER 4 - GROWING THE VANUA THROUGH WORK: THE TWO-SIDED HOUSE, GARDENS, AND PLANTATIONS 4.1 Ground and God & Grounded and connected persons .............................................. 139 4.1.1 Ground (one) and God’s gift ................................................................................... 139 4.1.2 Two-sided house: grounded and connected persons ............................................... 141 4.2 Work ........................................................................................................................... 148 4.2.1 Matavun: growing gardens and plantations ............................................................ 148 4.2.1.1 Horticultural gardens ........................................................................................... 154 4.2.1.2 Plantations: the production of copra and kava ..................................................... 166 4.2.1.3 Other forms of work and sources of monetary income ....................................... 170 4.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 171 CHAPTER 5 - GROWING AND MAKING KINSHIP 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 174 5.2 “Yam hemi man” ........................................................................................................ 178 5.3 A person’s life cycle ................................................................................................... 182 5.3.1 Roads of nurture and exchange: growing the house and place ............................... 184 5.3.1.1 Nurture ................................................................................................................. 185 5.3.1.2 Nurturing knowledge: growing with kin, school and the church ........................ 194 5 5.3.1.3 “Ol woman oli konekt ol man”: emplacement and connections through marriage .................................................................................................. 198 5.3.1.4 Thanksgiving ceremonies: staging kinship in the church .................................... 208 5.3.1.5 Death: between remembering and forgetting and the possibility of renewal ...... 212 CHAPTER 6 – GROWING AND MAKING THE CHURCH 6-1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 216 6.2 “Wok blong God”: feeding and nurturing the church with money ............................. 220 6.2.1 PWMU and women’s work ...................................................................................... 220 6.2.2 Fundraising: food exchange or transaction towards the church? ............................. 226 6.2.3 Thanksgiving ceremonies: gardens in the church and the sacralisation of work .... 229