The London School of Economics and Political Science The Ancestors Remain: Dynamics of Matrilineal Continuity in West Gao, Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands Johanna Louise Whiteley A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, March 2015 (Lent term). 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of approximately 99,750 words. Statement of use of third party for editorial help I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Mr. Nigel R. Whiteley and Mrs. Wendy C. Whiteley. 2 Abstract Drawing upon 21 months of ethnographic research in West Gao District of Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands, this thesis argues that relationships of absolute difference or ‘alterity,’ existing internally to one society, are central to processes of social reproduction. At the deepest level of ontology the West Gao lived world is based on a priori difference between three discrete categories of being. Each category - a matriclan, or kokolo - consists of a relational amalgam of genres of knowledge, human persons, and ancestral beings. These relationships are unified, bounded, and rendered distinct by virtue of a shared, inherent connection to a discrete territory. From a cosmogonic perspective, in isolation the three kokolo cannot reproduce their distinctiveness. To do so they must enter into relationships with each other. Consequently, two different forms of socio-cosmic relationships become crucial for understanding land-person connectivity in West Gao: those flowing internally to each exogamous matriclan; and those forged between different matriclans. I explore how these two forms of relationships are continually balanced against one another in both quotidian practices and ritualised exchanges. Whilst this balance is dictated by the poly-ontological structure of West Gao cosmology, I illustrate how the balance shifts in response to historical and politico-economic processes, in particular, conversion to Christianity and the increasing value of land as a monetary resource. Participant observation, extended interviews in Solomon Islands Pijin and the local vernacular - Gao, and two weeks of archival research in the National Library of Australia comprised the main methodologies used. I draw upon this data in seven analytical chapters that address: the role of ancestral agency in the shaping of historical processes; the ‘ancestral’ dynamics of Christian communities; place, personhood, and movement; origin narratives; the trans-generational reproduction of matrilineal identity; ritualised exchanges focused on the ‘father-child’ relationship; and practices surrounding mortality and burial. 3 Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... 6 Gao Language: Pronunciation and Orthography ..................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 9 Prologue: on Arrivals and Foreign Origins ............................................................................. 13 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 22 I. Internal or external alterity? .......................................................... 22 II. The Melanesian Mission ................................................................ 27 III. British administration and land tenure ........................................... 33 IV. Kastom and cosmogony ................................................................. 40 V. Ontology, alterity and cosmogony ................................................. 45 VI. Chapter breakdown ........................................................................ 51 Chapter 1 The Ancestral Shape of History .............................................................................. 56 1.1 Ancestral responses to foreign interlopers ............................................. 58 1.2 Violence, chiefdoms and the onset of peace .......................................... 64 1.3 Meeting the ancestors on their own terms ............................................. 69 1.4 A government - mission ancestor .......................................................... 76 Chapter 2 At the Ancestral End (or Beginning) of Christian Community ........................... 82 2.1: Houses: constructing relationships, or relational construction ............. 83 2.2: Loku faudu - working from house to village ........................................ 91 2.3: A city .................................................................................................... 94 2.4: Matrilineal or Christian unity? ............................................................. 97 2.5: From synthesis to analysis .................................................................. 104 Chapter 3 On the Limits of Movement: (Un)familiar Places and Distributed Persons..... 114 3.1: On localised separations ..................................................................... 116 3.2: Sorcery and the ‘distribution’ of personhood ..................................... 125 3.3: Shutting persons ................................................................................. 130 3.4: The particularity of person-localities.................................................. 136 Chapter 4 The Origins of Difference: Utopic and Topogonic Primordiality ...................... 142 4.1: Utopic primordiality - from isolation to encounter ........................... 145 4.2: The environmental consequences of exogamy .................................. 154 4.3: Getting the details right ..................................................................... 162 4.4: The power of three – colonial interest in the clan system ................. 165 4 Chapter 5 Matrilineal Continuity: Re-containing Blood and Land .................................... 172 5.1: Exogamous marriage and residence patterns ..................................... 173 5.2: Continuity through ‘growth’ and the mixing of bloods ..................... 176 5.3: On the dispersal and re-containment of blood ................................... 185 5.4: Incest and the denial of exchange ...................................................... 195 Chapter 6 Fangamu Taego – ‘to Feed the Caregiver’ .......................................................... 204 6.1: Historical transformations of feasting ............................................... 206 6.2: The performance of opposed forms of relationality .......................... 211 6.3: Relational rights, essential unities ..................................................... 222 6.4: A property-less father ........................................................................ 229 Chapter 7 Mortality, Memorial and Cementing: Inter and Intra-kokolo Relationships in the Balance ................................................................................................................................ 234 7.1: Confronting mortality ........................................................................ 237 7.2: The multiplicity of post-mortem existence ........................................ 242 7.3: Untimely deaths and the transformative work of the mortuary sequence ................................................................................................... 249 7.4: Cementing the grave .......................................................................... 255 Conclusion: Fractured Futures?............................................................................................. 265 Appendices ................................................................................................................................ 277 Glossary .................................................................................................................................... 286 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 290 5 List of Figures Figure 1 map of the Solomon Islands. ....................................................................................... 13 Figure 2 map of Santa Isabel. ..................................................................................................... 14 Figure 3 map of West Gao District. ........................................................................................... 15 Figure 4 two types of ontologically-structured relationships. .................................................... 51 Figure 5 chuchuru nato. November 2010. ................................................................................. 85 Figure 6 lifting