Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 2 - Oceania - R ppsx

Rapa 273 a foreign land. Treatment involved communication through a seer with one or more gods who would indicate the cause and treatment for the malady. Pukapukans had (and still practice) a number of folk remedies and physical therapy tech- niques, most prominent being deep-pressure massage. Death and Afterlife. Today Pukapukans mostly follow Christian doctrine regarding life after death though, as noted, a belief in ghosts also exists. Prior to missionization, the Beagleholes report a belief existed that a person died when the soul permanently left the individual's body. The soul then journeyed to the underworld (po) where it took up residence enjoying various pleasures denied it in the upper world. See also Cook Islands, Manihiki BibNiography Beaglehole, Ernest, and Pearl Beaglehole (1938). Ethnology of Pukapuka. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin no. 150. Honolulu. Borofsky, Robert (1987). Making History: Pukapukan and Anthropological Constructions of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Frisbie, Robert (1930). The Book of Pukapuka. New York: Century. Hecht, Julia (1977). "The Culture of Gender in Pukapuka: Male, Female, and the Mayakitanga 'Sacred Maid.'" Journal of the Polynesian Society 86:183-206. Hecht, Julia (1981). "The Cultural Context of Siblingship in Pukapuka." In Siblingship in Oceania, edited by Mac Marshall, 53-77. Landham, Md.: University Press of America. ROBERT BOROFSKY Rapa ETHNONYMS: Austral Islands, Oparo, Rapa-Iti, Tubuai Archipelago Orientation Identification. Rapa is the southernmost island in the Austral Archipelago. Its name is often given as 'Rapa-Iti" ("Little Rapa") to distinguish it from the distant Easter Is- land, which is commonly known as 'Rapa-Nui" ("Big Rapa"). On Rapa itself, however, 'Rapa-Iti" refers to a small islet off the east coast of the main island. Early European visitors frequently identified the island as 'Oparo," but the source of that name is not clear. Location. The Austral Islands, occasionally known also as the Tubuai Archipelago, straddle the Tropic of Capricorn in the South Pacific. They form part of French Polynesia and lie to the south of the Society Islands and east of the Cook Is- lands. The four islands in the group in addition to Rapa are Rimatara, Rurutu, Tubuai, and Ra'ivavae. With coordinates of 27°37' S, 144°20' W, Rapa is located some 420 kilometers south-southwest of Tahiti and 180 kilometers southeast of Ra'ivavae, its nearest inhabited neighbor. Rapa is a small island of some 39 square kilometers. It is a high island, the cone of a long-extinct volcano. The highest of the peaks ex- ceeds 600 meters. The east side of the cone has been breached by the sea so that the island has the form of a large bay (the volcanic crater) encircled by a ring of mountains. The coast is indented by several bays, each watered by one or more streams. High mountain ridges between the bays, often meeting the sea in precipitous cliffs, make inland travel difficult. Skies are often overcast and rainfall is abundant (slightly over 254 centimeters annually). Rapa becomes noticeably chilly in the winter months and average monthly tempera. tures range from 17' C in August to 240 C in February. Demography. When first sighted by Europeans in 1791, Rapa reportedly had 1,500-2,000 inhabitants, but largely because of introduced diseases the population declined to a low point of only 120 in 1867. In 1964 Rapans numbered only 360, and recent estimates indicate only 400 speakers of the Rapa language. Linguistic Affiliation. Rapa is grouped with numerous others, including Tahitian, Tongareva, and Cook Islands Maori, in the Eastern Polynesian Subcluster of the Nuclear Polynesian Subgroup of Austronesian languages, though it has virtually disappeared as a distinct language. Tahitian is currently spoken on Rapa as it is in most parts of French Polynesia. History and Cultural Relations The first settlement of Rapa has been estimated at about AD. 950 from genealogical evidence, and the earliest radiocarbon date from the island is A.D. 1,337, plus or minus 200 years. The first European to visit the islands was George Vancouver, in 1791. At that time the population lived in fortified mountain villages. Remains of at least fifteen of these still promi- nently mark Rapa's landscape; they are among the largest handmade structures in ancient Polynesia. Apparently popu- 274 Rapa nation pressure forced the construction of these mountain villages to free scarce arable land for cultivation and for security in a time of frequent warfare. The prospect of the Panama Canal stirred the interest of Britain and France in the 1860s and again in the 1880s, for Rapa was ideally located on the route between Panama and Australia and New Zealand. The British established a coaling station on Rapa in late 1867 and it served monthly steamers until it was abandoned in early 1869. Meanwhile Rapa's strategic location moved the French to establish political power over the island. Rapa was made a French protectorate in 1867 and became a French possession twenty years later. The interest in Rapa as a coaling station was sporadic and short-lived and the island slipped into inter- national insignificance. As late as 1964 three months might pass without a visit from the outside. In that year, however, a weather station was established on Rapa and this gave the island some importance in the context of the French nuclear weapons testing program. Settlements Sometime prior to 1830 internal warfare ceased, probably because massive depopulation ended the keen competition for arable land, and the people abandoned the fortified mountain villages in favor of lowland villages on the various bays, which offered easier access to the sea and to cultivation areas. With further depopulation villages in the outer bays were gradually abandoned and the village of Ha'urei became Rapa's major population center. In 1964 Rapa's population resided in two villages located on opposite sides of Ha'urei Bay (the large, central bay, crater of the ancient volcano). Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. For the most part, Rapans support themselves by farming and fishing. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is the staple, and is eaten at every meal. It is grown in irrigated terraces located in level areas adjacent to the village of Ha'urei, at the head of Ha'urei Bay, and on the outer bays. Rapans sometimes reach their taro terraces on the outer bays on foot, but the rugged terrain makes this difficult and they often travel by water in locally made canoes or whaleboats. These vessels are also used for fishing, which is done with spear guns or hooks and lines in the bays and (in whaleboats only) offshore. Oranges and watermelons are grown for local consumption. The main cash crop is coffee, although in 1964 potatoes were introduced for export to Ta- hiti. Some pigs are tethered on the outskirts of the villages, and goats, cattle, and a few sheep roam unattended in the hills. Goats are eaten when inclement weather prevents fish. ing; pork and beef are served at special feasts. Occasionally some goats or cattle are captured and shipped to Tahiti for sale. Goats are owned privately, but cattle belong to the Co- operative Society, an organization of shareholders that also oversees coffee exports and operates a small store on the island. Industrial Arts. Rapan men make wicker baskets in many sizes and often fanciful shapes. Some are used locally, but the more elaborate ones are made for export to Tahiti or for sale to passengers on ocean liners that pass close enough to the island for whaleboats to go out to them. Some of the locally made whaleboats-graceful, narrow, and highly seaworthy- are themselves works of high artisanry. Division of Labor. Men are charged with boat construction, most aspects of house construction, and fishing from boats and canoes. Women gather shellfish from the shore, prepare food, do laundry, and take care of small children. Both sexes pick coffee and engage in taro cultivation, although the men build and maintain the irrigation ditches and turn the soil in a terrace prior to flooding. Labor is divided at least as significantly by age as by sex. The heaviest work (boat rowing, turning soil, carrying heavy bags of harvested taro) is done by youths and young adults. After about the age of 40, people begin to leave these jobs to younger members of the household. Land Tenure. Essential to the Rapan system of land tenure is the proposition that improvements (gardens, groves of trees, and houses) may be and usually are owned separately from the land on which they are located. Both territory and improvements are owned by ramages, known as 'opu. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. The modem ramage or 'opu is a nonexclusive cognatic descent group; that is, it is composed of all legitimate descendants of its founder, counted through both male and female links. So far as territory is concerned, ramage founders were individuals to whom land was awarded in a general land distribution in 1889. Founders of improve- ment-owning ramages are individuals who create the im- provement: who make the taro terraces, build the houses, or plant the coffee groves. Depending on the activity of the founder, then, the ramage composed of his or her descendants may own one or more parcels of territory, taro terraces, coffee groves, houses, or any combination of these. The property of a ramage may be widely dispersed over the island. Be- cause ramage membership passes through both males and females, the various ramages overlap in membership. Mem- bership in some is counted through one's father, and others through one's mother. Most Rapans belong to eight to ten (or more) damages. A ramage has no function beyond the ownership of property. Its limited affairs are handled by a manager, who is usually the senior male of the group. Kinship Terminology. Kin terms are of the Hawaiian or generational type, with terms that mark the relative age of same-sex siblings and cousins. Marriage and Family Marriage. Marriage is monogamous. Rapans express a slight preference for virilocality, but in actuality virilocal and uxorilocal residence occur with equal frequency. Cohabiting couples are often reluctant to marry formally, as this is a sign that they are shifting from the carefree life of youth to the sober responsibilities of adulthood. The decision to marry is frequently made upon the application of pressure by lay officials of the church. Divorce is rare. Should a spouse die, the preferred remarriage is with the brother or sister of the decedent. Domestic Unit. Households range from 2 to 15 members, with an average of 6.7. Rapans express a preference for extended family households because of greater sociability and economic efficiency. Largely because of interpersonal tensions that develop between constituent families in extended family households, however, the majority of households on the island consist of an elementary family. To improve their economic efficiency and enhance sociability, many elementary family households have formed themselves into work groups, each of which is composed of four to five households. One or two individuals from each household participate in the group, and the group as a whole works on a rotating schedule, devoting a day to each of its member households in turn. Some work groups are composed of neighboring households regardless of kin ties between them, while others are based on kinship. Inheritance. Property passes from both parents to all children. Some gardens may be willed to individual children or foster children, but the usual pattern is to leave property jointly to children according to the rules of descent. Socialization. Children are raised by their own or foster parents. In fosterage, a child ideally acquires the obligation to support his or her foster parents in their old age. The strength of this obligation depends on how much of a person's chid-~ hood was actually spent in the foster parents' home. From the age of 4 or 5 children make their own decisions as to where they will live, and often they move between the homes of their biological and foster parents. In any event, a person's legal status and inheritance rights continue to be reckoned through the biological parents. Couples with few or no biological offspring usually foster children of their more prolific close relatives. Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization. Class distinctions are not visible in Rapan society. Some persons are more active in church, political, and other affairs than are others, but such involvement depends upon individual leadership qualities. Voluntary asso- ciations are organized along village lines. Both villages have funeral clubs, which manage the feast and other practical matters connected with the funeral at the death of someone from a member household, and youth clubs, which form soc- cer teams, organize entertainment for the 14 July Bastille Day celebration, and undertake other projects for the benefit of the village. Political Organization. In 1964, the Austral Islands formed one of the five administrative divisions of French Pol- ynesia. Local government on Rapa at that time was vested in a district council, consisting of seven members elected at large for five-year terms. After their election the new council selected from its number a chief and assistant chief. The district council had relatively little power, and the role of chief was largely ceremonial, but it was coveted nonetheless for its salary. In recent years the government has been reorganized in French Polynesia, giving the territory more internal autonomy from France and increasing the power of local councils. Social Control. In 1964 Rapa fell under the jurisdiction of a French gendarme stationed on Ra'iavae, some 180 kilometers to the north. Since then, one Rapan has held the position of local police officer. Social control is provided for the most part, however, by the church. Nearly all Rapans are affiliated with the Protestant church, and one of the primary responsibilities of the elected deacons and their wives is to visit and Rapa 2 75 admonish those whose behavior is not satisfactory. Rapans believe, furthermore, than one should not take communion while harboring ill will toward others, so they often make efforts to resolve their disputes prior to the communion service on the first Sunday of every month. Finally, in this small society there are few secrets and a good measure of social control is achieved by gossip or the fear of it. Conflict. Disputes occasionally erupt over accusations of petty theft, hostilities between stepparents and stepchildren, or the location of boundaries between coffee groves. These seldom go beyond shouting matches, which usually take place around mealtimes when many people are in the village and which invariably and instantly draw large crowds. More per- manent factionalism exists between the two villages and between vaguely defined and shifting groups of families. Issues at stake usually involve the distribution of benefits received from the French government. The head schoolteacher, an of- ficial appointed from Tahiti and the individual with whom visiting officials interact most frequently, is a center of factionalism for she is in a good position to steer government jobs and other benefits toward those Rapans who get along with her and away from those who do not. The pastor, probably the most powerful person on the island, may also become a center of dissension if it is sensed that he does not treat his parishioners equally. Factionalism is fueled by a contradic- tion in the Rapan value system. Those who have nothing special to expect from an individual in a public position trumpet the ideal that such a person is bound to act in the interests of all, while relatives and others with special ties to him or her operate under the expectation that a person's first obligations are to kin and allies. Both of these values are honored in Rapa, and anyone in a position of authority finds it difficult to walk a line between them. Religion and Expressive Culture Religous Beliefs. Rapa was converted to Protestant Christianity soon after the arrival in 1826 of Tahitian teach- ers representing the London Missionary Society. With the ex- ception of a few Roman Catholics, the entire population of Rapa. is Protestant. In addition to Biblical supernaturals, most Rapans believe in the existence of ghosts, normally of persons who have died relatively recently, called tupapa'u. They may cause sickness among the living, either out of anger or from a powerful desire to draw a dearly beloved spouse or child to them. If other means fail, a tupapa'u can be stopped by exhuming and destroying the corpse, a practice probably encouraged by Dracula films, which are very popular in Tahiti. Religiouis Practitioners. One pastor (a Rapan who was elected as a young man by the church members and sent to Tahiti for seminary thinking) divides his Sundays between the two villages. In addition to the pastor, a chief deacon serves both villages, and each village has two deacons and an assistant deacon. To the assistant deacon falls the tasks of ringing the church bell and prowling the aisle during services with a long bamboo pole to prod dozing parishioners. All of these officials are elected by the communicant members, who essentially are the married adults. Ceremonies. Physically, the church in each village consists of a church proper, a meetinghouse, and an eating 1. 276 Rapa house. The church is immensely important in Rapan society, with no fewer than eleven church functions each week. Al- though scarcely anyone attends all of these events, one can easily appreciate the joking remark made by one man that 'in Rapa, we spend more time discussing the Bible than cultivat- ing taro!" Medicine. Some illnesses are thought to be caused by ghosts, but most are attributed to natural causes. Rapans af. firm a hot-cold system of illness, whereby an upset of the bod- y's proper temperature equilibrium brings on disease. Medi- cines are herbal and each one is accompanied by a special massage. Medicines are private property, and nearly every adult woman on the island owns one or more of them. Thus instead of a few practitioners who treat many different sorts of illness, the Rapan system of medicine has a great many practitioners, each of whom specializes in one or a few disor- ders. Although others may know the herbal recipe for a certain medicine, it is ineffective unless applied by, or with the express permission of, its owner. No charge is ever assessed for administering medicines, but patients do reciprocate with gifts. Medicines originate in dreams. Someone is sick, no treatment is effective, and then a woman of the household sees, in a dream, her deceased mother or grandmother prepar- ing and administering a hitherto unknown medical concoc- tion of various leaves, water, etc. Upon awakening, the woman prepares the medicine just as she dreamed it. She gives it to the patient, who rapidly recovers. The woman who dreamed it is the owner of the new medicine, and others with the same symptoms come to her to be cured. When she gets old she gives the medicine, and others she may have dreamed or inherited, to individual heirs-usually her daughters-and thus medicines pass through the generations. Death and Afterlife. The deceased are thought to enter the Christian heaven. A funeral service and burial is followed by a large feast. People congregate at the house of the deceased for several evenings after the funeral for Bible discus- sion and hymn singing, to support the surviving loved ones, and to reintegrate them gently into society. See also Raroia, Tahiti Bibliography Caillot, A C. Eugene (1932). Histoire de Mile Oparo or Rapa. Paris: Leroux. Hanson, F. Allan (1970). Rapan Lifeways: Society and History on a Polynesian Island. Boston: Little, Brown. Reprint. 1983. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press. Hanson, F. Allan, and Patrick O'Reilly (1973). Bibliographie de Rapa. Paris: Socie't des Ocianistes. F. ALLAN HANSON Raroia ETHNONYMS: Dangerous Islands, Paumotu, Poumot, Tuamotu Raroia is an atoll in the Tuamotu-Gambier Archipelago in Polynesia. The archipelago consists of seventy-eight atolls located between 1350 and 149° W and 14° and 23° S. Raroia is located at about 142" W and 16" S. As are all the atolls except Makatea, Raroia is a low atoll with a land area of 21 square kilometers and a lagoon of 240 square kilometers. The land is mostly sand and gravel. There are 30 species of plants and 19 species of birds indigenous to the atoll and numerous fish and shellfish in the lagoon and sea. The western atolls were settled by people migrating east from Tahiti, the other atolls by people from the Marquesas and Mangareva. Since the time of first settlement there has been regular contact with Tahiti. The population of the Tuamotus was 6,588 in 1863 and it subsequently decreased by nearly a third until it began increasing in the 1920s. In 1987, the number of people claiming Tuamotu identity was estimated at 14,400, with about 7,000 in the Tuamotus and a sizable population in Ta- hiti. In 1897, Raroians numbered 260, by 1926 the population had decreased to 60, and then it slowly increased to 120 by 1950. First contact with Europeans was in 1606, which was followed by only occasional contact with explorers and traders from various European nations for the next two hundred years or so. From 1817 to 1945 the Tuamotus were under the control of Tahiti, with Tahitian influence greatest in the western atolls. However, by the end of the period, Tahitian influence had reached the eastern atolls and Raroians were involved in the mother-of-pearl trade network. In 1845 the Tuamotus came under French control and offical French rule began in 1880. Roman Catholic missionaries entered the atolls in the 1860s and the population was quickly converted to Catholicism. Prior to European contact, Raroia was politically linked to the neighboring atoll of Tukume. Atoll land was divided into districts with the land owned by a combination of line- ally and laterally extended kin groups. Descent was bilateral, with Hawaiian-type cousin terms. Leadership rested with extended household heads, with the head of one household serving as the atoll leader and the ruler of Tahiti serving as the head chief of the Tuamotus. The subsistence economy was based on fishing in the lagoon and sea and the gathering of shellfish, supplemented by pandanus nuts and taro. Raro- ians were skilled canoe builders and sailors. The traditional religion focused on various gods, spirits, ghosts, and associated cults. Contact with traders, French officials, and missionaries for more than 100 years effectively destroyed the traditional culture and replaced it with a Western economic and social system. The subsistence economy has been replaced by a cash economy, with the collection of pearls and pearl shells and copra production being the primary economic pursuits atvar- ious times. Both activities have now declined in importance as sources of income. Tourism is now a major source of income on some atolls, though not on Raroia. Leadership now rests with elected representatives, the wealthy, and missionar- Rossel Island 277 ies. Families are now smaller and nuclear in form, with an emphasis on individual ownership of property. About 98 percent of Raroians are now Roman Catholics. See also Mangareva, Rapa, Tahiti Bibliography Danielsson, Bengt (1956). Work and Life on Raroia. London: George Allen & Unwin. Emory, Kenneth P. (1975). Material Culture of the Tuamotu Archipelago. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Rennell Island ETHNONYMS: Mugaba, Munggava, Rennellese Both Rennell and its twin island Bellona (Munggiki) are Polynesian outliers in the central Solomon Islands. Rennell is a raised coral atoll, with a large lake in its southeastern end, located between 11°34' and 11°47' S and 159°54' and 160°37' E. In 1976 there were 1,945 inhabitants of Rennell Island. Rennellese is part of the West Polynesian Group of Austronesian languages. Rennellese settlements tend not to be nucleated into villages but rather are scattered throughout the island. They consist of one or more dwellings and a cook house around an open clearing off the main path. Food is obtained mainly through horticulture and fih- ing, supplemented by hunting and collecting. Yams, taro, and bananas are very important cultigens. The coconut is tremen- dously important as a source of food and raw material. Vari- ous birds, flying foxes, and sharks are also eaten. In general, women cook, garden, collect fruits and herbs, fish inshore, plait, make nets, and take care of the children. Men do the heavy gardening, hunt, fish, make tapa and sennit, and are responsible for wood carving, canoe making, and house building. Elaborate feasts effect the distribution of agricultural, sea, and forest products among the descent groups. Land is held individually by the men of a lineage. The profession of expert carpenter (mataisau) is a highly respected one. Important kin groups include clans, subclans, and patri- lineages. The Rennellese view marriage as a means of creating alliances (hepotu'akinga) and as a way to continue a man's lineage. One's mother's brother's daughter is the preferred mate, and this tradition leads at times to conflict between parents and child in the choice of spouse. Polygyny was tradi tionally approved but was not very common. Residence is nearly always patrilocal, although after a divorce a woman re- turns with her infant children to her father. The core of the domestic unit (manaha) is a nuclear family, often supplemented with various relatives, both natural and adopted. The kakai'anga was the largest politically integrated unit. Primary authority was vested in the landholding males and in the senior men of senior lineages in each generation. In addition to' these leaders Rennell had a paramount chief (angiki) who was descended from the leader of the first immigrants. The angiki could communicate with and influence the gods during trances. He was also the judicial authority and could have criminals beaten or put to death or have their crops destroyed. In spite of the overwhelming patrilineal emphasis of Rennellese society, a person maintains close ties with the members of his or her matriline as well. Rennellese religion had little to say about eschatology or cosmology; its major concern was life and the fertility of hu- mans and of the plants and animals they depended on. Today, nearly all of the people are Christians. All adult males officiated at the various rituals, which were directed by priest- chiefs (tunihenua). The most important rituals were associated with the harvest and distribution of yams. Mediums pos- sessed by supernatural forces could convey the latter's messages and wishes. Each kakai'anga had its own set of ancestors, who were worshiped as gods. In addition, there were two high gods: Tehainga'atna, the fierce god of nature; and Tehu'aigabenga, the god of culture, society, and cultivated plants. Bibliography Birket-Smith, Kaj (1956). An Ethnological Sketch of Rennell Island: A Polynesian Outlier in Melanesia. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historiskfilologiske Medde- lelser Bind 35, no.3. Copenhagen: Danish Natural Museum. Birket-Smith, Kaj (1966). Language and Culture of Rennell and Bellona Islands. Copenhagen: Danish Natural Museum. Rossel Island ETHNONYMS: Duba, Rova, Yela Orientation Identification. The Rossel Islanders live on the eastern- most island of the Louisiade Archipelago in the Massim culture region (Milne Bay Province) at the east end of New Guinea. They speak "Yelatnye," meaning "language of Yela," and their name for themselves is 'Yelatpi," meaning "Rossel people." Locaon. Rossel Island is located at about 1° S and 154° E. The island is 34 kilometers long and 14 kilometers across, being approximately 290 square kilometers in area. It is very mountainous, with the highest peak, Mount Rossel (also known locally as "Mbgo7, reaching 800 meters. The coast is highly indented and mainly fringed by mangrove swamp. The island is covered in tropical rain forest. It is surrounded by a coral reef extending 12 kilometers east and 40 kilometers west of the island forming two lagoons. The distance from Rossel to the nearest westward island of Sudest (Vanatinai) is 33 kilometers. The trade wind blows from the southeast from 278 Rossel Island May to October, the more irregular northwest monsoon from January to March, both bringing rain. Demography. In 1979 the population of Rossel Island was about 3,000 persons, with 800 being away from the island working or studying. The population density averages 8 persons per square kilometer and the population is growing at the rate of 3 percent per year. Before 1950 it was declining. Linguistic Affiliation. Yelatnye is a Non-Austronesian language whose affiliation to other 'Papuan" languages of New Guinea and Melanesian islands has not yet been established. Rossel Islanders are the only people in the region who speak a Non-Austronesian language. The number of cog- nates with the language of the nearest island, Sudest, is only 6 percent. Yelatnye has a very complex phonology and grammar and is regarded as extremely difficult by outsiders. History and Cultural Relations The Rossel Islanders probably represent the last remnants of an original population of the region, which on the other islands has been superseded by, probably, several waves of Aus- tronesian-speaking immigrants. In one of these pottery, derived from the Lapita culture, spread through the Massim about 2,000 B.P. It is probable that a stratified social system was introduced at the same time, linking island populations to political centers. Although Rossel preserved its Non- Austronesian language, the culture is much affected by its Austronesian neighbors. The first historical contact gave Rossel an ill repute: 316 Chinese coolies, bound for Aus- tralia, were reported massacred and eaten after a shipwreck in 1858. Rossel became a part of the British (later Australian) protectorate of Papua in 1884. During the next decades the island was 'pacified" by government patrols. In 1903 an en- terprising family of traders established a plantation that became the economic center of the island for the next fifty years and deeply transformed the socioeconomic relations of the people. Rossel is now more involved in the cash economy than its nearest neighbors to the west. The plantation is now worked by local people. Missions were established starting in 1930; the first was the Methodist (now United Church) mission, followed in 1947 by the Catholic. Now, roughly the western half of the island is United Church, while the eastern half is Catholic. Settlements Earlier the settlement pattern was one of hamlets scattered along the coast and in the interior. A census in 1919 showed 145 villages with an average of ten inhabitants. During World War 11 the population was concentrated in about 10 villages on the coast. Most of these settlements broke up into hamlets or hamlet clusters after the war, but people did not return to the interior. Although there is no standard site plan, hamlets often feature a carefully weeded square or street surrounded by living houses and with one or two stone sitting circles, common in the southern Massim. In 'traditional' hamlets, a seclusion house for menstruating and postpartum women is built behind the house line. Hamlets are surrounded by banana trees, coconut palms, and other fruit trees. Early house types included a barrel-roofed ground house and a pile house entered through a trapdoor in the floor. Today, living houses are regularly built on posts with a roof of sago-palm leaves and walls of sago-leaf sheaths. Cooking takes place under the house or on a clay hearth on the kitchen floor. Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Basic subsistence is by swidden horticulture, gardens being used for two or more plantings and left fallow or, near the coast, being often used for small coconut plantations. Crops are tubers such as taro, yams, sweet potatoes, and cassava, as well as bananas and sugarcane. Sago flour is prepared from the pith of the sago palm. Tree crops are coconuts and breadfruit. Wild nuts and fruits are collected, as well as shellfish. Feral pigs and opossums are hunted and fish are caught by line, spear, or net or by means of dams. A plant poison is also sometimes used for fishing. Cooking methods include boiling with cream of coconut, roasting in embers, and baking in hot stones. Commercial crops are mainly coconut (for copra) and some coffee. Other important sources of cash income are the manufacture of shell necklaces and labor migration. Industrial Arts. Rossel is well known for its high-quality red-shell necklaces made from the mollusk Chama, which is common in the lagoon along the western half of the island. This traditional craft was expanded and managed by the trad ers in the early decades of this century. Imported grinding blocks are now used. The necklaces are of the type that move in the kula ring. The islanders build their own houses, canoes, and dinghies. A few larger boats have been built during recent years. Basketwork, made by women, is of high quality. Trade. The dominant trade store is run by the Catholic mission but small stores are found in many hamlets. Other- wise there is no market on Rossel. Through a traditional visiting trade with Sudest Rossel exported shell necklaces and imported clay pots, pigs, and stone axes. This trade connection is now much weakened. Internal noncommercial exchanges by means of a complex system of shell valuables-the famous 'Rossel Island money"-are important and include payments for pigs, houses, canoes, garden crops, and some forms of labor service. There are two kinds of shell money. Ndap are flat pieces of Spondylus, ki are sets of 10 disks of Chama on a string. Both are ranked into many classes. Higher-ranking ndap are rare treasures believed to have been made by deities and, like kula shells, individually named. They are now out of open circulation and change ownership through inheritance. K1 and low-ranking ndap still circulate and are still made. Women own shell money and participate in exchange but they rarely sponsor payments. Exchange rules are very complex. Wallace Armstrong, who first described this monetary system, explained it by supposing lending at compound interest. This interpretation was based on misunderstandings of the operation of the system. Other valuables are ceremonial stone axes and shell necklaces. Cash now enters into some payments. Division of Labor. The main division of labor is by sex. Men fell large trees for gardens, build houses and canoes, hunt, and fish; women collect most shellfish and dominate in domestic tasks, such as cooking and child care. Both sexes plant, weed, and harvest crops. They combine work in sago preparation. Land Tenure. With a fairly small population land pressure is slight. The tenure practices are flexible and disputes over Rossel Island 279 land infrequent. Areas of land are associated with matrilineal subclans, but stewards of land often belong to different clans. Use rights are frequently based on descent from bilateral grandparents. Mortuary payments of traditional valuables from the deceased's spouse's relatives to the deceased's relatives confirm such land rights. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. There are some fifteen totemic, matrilineal, and dispersed clans (pit). Subclans (piighi) share exogamy with one or more linked subclans of different clans. The members of subclans do not all reside in the same area but there are local subclan sections. A more loose cognatic category (yo) denotes the bilateral descendants of an ancestor or the bilateral kindred of a person. Kinship Terminology. The terminology system is classificatory and of the Crow type, with alternate-generation terminology in one's own (male speaking) and one's father's line (both sexes speaking). Marriage and Family Marriage. Marriage within most clans, between one's own and linked subclans, between children of men of the above categories, and between first cousins is proscribed. Marriage with a classificatory mother's brother's daughter is discouraged while marriage with a classificatory father's sister or father's sister's daughter is preferred. Actually, only 46 percent of a small sample had actually married according to this preference. There is a tendency toward local endogamy. Many marriages are still arranged by elderly relatives. A considerable bride-wealth is paid in shell money, no cash being allowed. Due to mission pressure polygynous marriages are now infrequent. Residence is predominantly patrivirilocal. Di- vorce is rare. Domestic Unit. The nuclear family is the primary domestic unit (the people who pool food resources and eat together), with the addition of occasional unmarried young or old enfeebled relatives. This unit conducts daily food production but is assisted by bilateral kin and affines for larger tasks such as forest clearing or house building. Inheritance. The main significant property is fruit trees and ceremonial stone and shell valuables. Sons tend to in- herit from their fathers and daughters from their mothers. The person who takes main responsibility for taking care of a close relative in old age receives the major share. Socialization. Infants and children are raised by members of the domestic unit and by grandparents and other elderly relatives. Socialization practice varies between families. Gen- erally sharing and cooperation is emphasized and, although self-assertion is discouraged, autonomy of the individual is valued. Sociopolitical Organization Rossel Island is part of Papua New Guinea, a sovereign state in the British Commonwealth. Rossel elects one member to the Provincial Assembly of the Milne Bay Province. With the East Calvados chain and Sudest Rossel forms the Yelayamba Local Government Council and elects seven of the sixteen councillors. Social Organization. There is no descent group rank on Rossel. Inequality is manifested in the greater influence and prestige of elders in relation to the young and men in relation to women. A "financial aristocracy" of exchange experts and owners of high-rank shell money form the dominating stra- tum of the population. Political Organization. The island is divided into ten census "villages" that, in combinations, elect the seven local government councillors. A lower-lever functionary is the komiti. Precolonial leaders were warriors, ritual experts, and powerful big-men. The last category had attached henchmen and con- trolled high-rank shell money used in payments for cannibal victims. Pacification and mission influence weakened the power of indigenous leaders but elderly males with financial expertise still command some local influence. Councillors are younger men with outside experience and language ability. The government provides primary-school education, a hospi- tal, medical aid posts, and other services, such as an airstrip, a minor wharf, and water-supply facilities. Social Control and Conflict. Pacification and mission influence have produced a very peaceful society on Rossel Is- land. Conflicts and disputes are remarkably rare. A major deterrent from offending others is fear of sorcery retaliation. Dominance over the young is supported by the control of the elders of supernatural knowledge and of the intricate system of exchange of indigenous valuables. While villagers attempt to settle minor offenses informally, major delicts are prose- cuted by the government, represented on the island by a pa- trol post. Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. The religious system is a combination of Christianity and traditional beliefs. Although two Christian denominations (United Church and Catholic) divide the island, the relations between them are harmonious. The islanders have adopted Christianity as a means of acquiring a link to forces of the greater world, spiritually as well as in terms of health-care, education, and cash opportunities. The government has taken over hospitals and schools, but these services are still located at the missions. Apart from Christian beliefs the islanders still hold beliefs in local supernatural beings and ways of communicating with them by means of incantation and sacrifice. Deities (woyili) are believed to have lived on the island before, when they brought or created natural and cultural features such as landscape forms, food plants, sorcery, etc. Some are regarded as ancestors of subclans. Later they disappeared into the underworld (teme) at the sacred places. They may appear as snakes, crocodiles, or dugongs. Arm- strong's report of a hierarchy of gods cannot be supported. The power of the deities can cause blessings, such as crop fertility, or misfortune, such as sickness. Each sacred place is associated with only one or two effects. Formerly, they were avoided, except by the knowledgeable custodians. Now some have fallen into disuse and are not respected any more. Other supernaturals were ogres (podyem), with white slin and long hair, and gnomes (k5mba) living in hollow trees. They are rarely, if ever, reported now. Religious Practitioners. Christian practitioners are United Church pastors-largely from neighboring islands- and Catholic catechists. Some men, who have inherited 280 Rossel Island spells and ritual knowledge associated with sacred places (yopo), still perform rites there. Because of mission aversion such practices tend to be secret. Ceremonies. The guardians of sacred places are supposed to keep them clean and at certain times of the year, or when needed, perform rites such as libations and reciting of spells in the presence of other men. Other ceremonies connected to the deities are nocturnal singing of sacred songs (ndam5). This worship is a male cult. Women have won a legitimate place in religious worship only with Christianity. Arts. Traditional Rossel carving style, for example on canoes and lime spatulas, is plain, usually nonfigurative, and symmetric. It has largely been supplanted by the Massim style characterized by the use of spirals and scrolls. A number of types of baskets are woven, from large food containers to fine baskets for shell money. There are no traditional mu- sical instruments but drumming on canoe hulls may take place in connection with the singing of ndam5. There are several types of traditional dance and song performances. The most common is the tpilove, in which men appear in dancing skirts. Medicine. Illness is traditionally mainly attributed to sorcery and infringement of sacred places. Curing practices include countermagic, sacrifices at sacred places, traditional medicines, and healing. Death and Afterlife. Burial takes place in an L-shaped grave, usually in a common cemetery for a number of hamlets. Formerly, the body was placed in a shallow grave in the house and later exhumed. The skull was exposed in the hamlet and later deposited in a shelter in the bush. At the death of an important person in-laws were usually accused of sorcery and had to atone by supplying a cannibal victim for a special feast (kann3). Now, a week after the death the mortuary feast (kpakpa) is held. Here, the burial services are rewarded and donations of traditional valuables are presented to various categories of relatives of the deceased. When the spirit (gh&tmi) leaves the body at death it travels to Yeme, the mountain of the dead, at the western end of Rossel. Accord- ing to another belief the dead go to the underworld. Formerly, the spirits of victims of cannibalism were believed to go to Tpi, a mountain on the south side of Rossel. Ordinary ghosts (mbwe) are not greatly feared, unlike the ghosts of cannibal victims. In contrast to beliefs in Sudest, in Rossel culture the dead are not supposed to interfere much in the life of the living. Bibliography Armstrong, Wallace E. (1928). Rossel Island: An Ethnological Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Liep, John (1983). 'Ranked Exchange in Yela (Rossel Is- land)." In The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange, edited by J. W. Leach and E. Leach, 503-525. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Liep, John (1983). "This Civilising Influence': The Colonial Transformation of Rossel Island Society." The Journal of Pa- cific History 18:113-131. Liep, John (1989). 'The Day of Reckoning on Rossel Island." In Death and Life Rituals in the Societies of the Kula Ring, edited by F. Damon and R. Wagner, 230-253. DeKalb: North- ern Illinois University Press. JOHN LIEP Rotuma ETHNONYMS: none Orientation Identificatio. Rotuma lies approximately 480 kilometers north of Fiji, on the western fringe of Polynesia. The island is very near the intersection of the conventional boundaries of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, and traces of influence from each of these areas can be found in the physical compo- sition, language, and culture of the island's inhabitants. Al- though Rotuma has been politically associated with Fiji since 1881, when the chiefs ceded the island to Great Britain, the Rotuman people are unique, forming a distinctive enclave within the Republic. Location. Rotuma is located at 12°30' S and 177°40' E. The island is of volcanic origin, with the highest craters rising to heights of 260 meters. It is divided into two main parts joined by an isthmus of sand, forming a total configuration about 13 kilometers long and, at its widest, nearly 5 kilometers wide. The land area is approximately 44 square kilometers. April through November the prevailing winds are from east to south, December through March from north to west. Rainfall averages about 350 centimeters per year. Demography. The first census of Rotuma was taken in 1881, the year of its cession to Great Britain. The population was reported as 2,452. Following a devastating measles epi- demic in 1911, it declined to under 2,000, then began to in- crease gradually. As the total approached 3,000 in the late 1930s, out-migration to Fiji became an important means of alleviating population pressure. According to Fiji census rec- ords, in 1936 91.3 percent of Rotumans were living on their home island. By 1956 the percentage had decreased to 67.7 percent, and by 1976 it had declined to 37.1 percent. In recent years out-migration has accelerated, not only to Fiji but to New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. As a re- sult, the population of the island has declined to around 2,500, representing less than 25 percent of the total number of Rotumans. linguistic Affiliation. Linguistic evidence suggests that Rotuman belongs in a subgrouping (Central Pacific) that in- cludes Fijian and the Polynesian languages; within this group there appears to be a special relationship between Rotuman and the languages of western Fiji. The vocabulary shows a considerable degree of borrowing from Tongan and Samoan. Rotuma 281 History and Cultural Relations Until the archaeology of Rotuma is done, the origins of its population will remain clouded. There is, however, solid evidence that migrations from Samoa and Tonga occurred after initial settlement, and other data suggest Rotumans were in contact with Tuvalu (Ellice Islands) to the north, Kiribati (Gilbert Islands) to the northwest, Futuna and Uvea to the east, and Fiji to the south. The first recorded European contact was in 1791 with Captain Edwards in H.M.S. Pandora, while he was searching for the mutineers of the Bounty. The first half of the nineteenth century was a time of increasing contact, as Rotuma became a favorite place for whalers to re- plenish their provisions. A substantial number of sailors jumped ship there, and the beachcomber population was estimated at times to be more than 100. In addition to whalers were labor recruiters, who found Rotumans quite willing to sign on. By the mid-nineteenth century many Rotuman men had been abroad, and some had visited the centers of Euro- pean civilization before returning home. In the 1860s Euro- pean missionaries from the Wesleyan and Roman Catholic churches established themselves on Rotuma, and the island was divided between them. Antagonisms between converts to each faith mounted until 1878, when they culminated in a war won by the numerically superior Wesleyans. The unrest that followed led the chiefs of Rotuma's seven districts to pe- tition Queen Victoria for annexation, and in 1881 the island was officially ceded to Great Britain. Rotuma was governed as part of the Colony of Fiji until 1970, when Fiji gained its independence. Since then it has been an integral part of that island nation. Settlements A packed-sand road encircles the perimeter of the eastern part of the island and extends to the northern and southern sides ofthe western part. Since colonial times, at least, almost all settlement has been on the coastal areas along this road. Although the island is divided into districts and the districts into villages, settlement along the road is nearly continuous, and it is often difficult to determine boundaries. In recent years bush paths have been widened, and though still quite rough, they make it possible to traverse the interior of the island by motor vehicle. Traditional Rotuman houses were made of thatch, but over time limestone, cut lumber, and cor- rugated iron replaced much of the thatching. In 1972 Hurri- cane Bebe destroyed most of the remaining native-style houses. A relief team from New Zealand organized the construction of over 300 cement and iron structures. Most households also maintain a thatched cooking house, and some have separate toilets and wash houses. There are no freshwater streams on Rotuma, and until recently rainwater stored in cement or iron tanks was the main source of water for drinking and bathing. During the 1970s, however, a freshwater underground lens was tapped and now most households have access to piped water. Income from salaries and remittances are often used to improve houses, and a number of two-story structures have been built over the past few years. Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. The vast majority of households in Rotuma maintain gardens that supply their staples (taro, yams, tapioca, breadfruit, and bananas). Pineapples, papayas, mangoes, watermelons, and oranges are also grown in abundance to supplement the diet. Soil type varies from sandy to loam, and the soil is quite deep. While the entire island is exceptionally fertile, the eastern side is covered with stones and boulders, making it more difficult to work. The main implements in gardening are the bush knife, for clearing land, and the dibble stick, which is used to make holes in the earth for planting root crops. Rotation of crops is the common pattern; typically yams are planted the first sea- son, followed by taro and then by tapioca and banana trees. Although only a few men engage in deep-sea fishing, the fringing reef that surrounds the island is widely exploited for a variety of fish, octopuses, crustaceans, and edible seaweed. Chicken, canned corned beef, and canned mackerel supplement the daily diet, while cattle, goats, and pigs are consumed on special occasions such as weddings, funerals, and welcoming ceremonies. The main export product is copra. It is mar- keted by the Rotuma Cooperative Association, which domi- nates the commercial life of the island. Industrial Arts. The main Rotuman handicrafts are pandanus mats and baskets. Mats, particularly fine white ones, are central to Rotuman ceremonies, and they were traditionally considered to be the main form of wealth. Canoe making still occurs on a small scale, but aside from foods made in two bakeries, Rotumans do not produce any goods for commercial markets. Trade. An airstrip was opened on Rotuma in 1981, but few goods are transported by air. Shipping by sea is irregular, aggravating the problem of Rotuma's isolation from potential markets. This isolation has especially inhibited the develop- ment of agricultural exports. Rotuman oranges, for example, are famous for their quality and are extremely abundant, but as yet they have not been commercially exploited because of difficulties with storage and transportation. Division of Labor. In general, Rotumans follow the general Polynesian pattern of women's work being close to home while men's labor takes them farther afield. Women are ex- clusively responsible for mat making, and they take major responsibility for child care, washing clothes, cleaning the household compound, and the preparation and serving of family meals. They also harvest marine resources on the reef. Men take primary responsibility for gardening, animal hus- bandry, cooking in earthen ovens, and house construction. The division of labor is not rigid, however, and couples generally help each other when required. land Tenure. Land is important to Rotumans for its sym- bolic significance as well as for its subsistence value. The main landholding unit is the kainaga, a bilateral group based upon common descent from ancestors who resided at, and held rights in, a named house site (fuaq ri). Each person is considered to have rights in the fuaq ri of his eight great- grandparents, although typically rights are exercised selec- tively. Associated with each fuaq ri are sections of bush land, and membership in a given kainaga entitles one to rights in this land. The person who lives on the fuaq ri acts as steward of the land and controls access. He, or she, is obligated to grant usufructuary rights to kainaga members for any reason- able request. At times land has been sold or given for services to specific individuals, but over generations it becomes 282 Rotuma kainaga land again. When the population of the island approached its highest levels, during the 1950s and 1960s, land disputes intensified and access was generally restricted to dose relatives. In recent years, however, out-migration has re- lieved tensions and the main problem now is often to determine which of a set of siblings will remain behind to steward the land and care for aging parents. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. Descent is bilateral. The term kainaga, in its most general sense, denotes common membership in a class. It is used to describe animal and plant species as well as human kinship, and it applies to personal kin who function during life-crisis ceremonies (e.g., the bride's relatives), as well as to descent-based landholding units (see sec- tion on land tenure). Kinship Terminology. Kin terms are essentially of the Hawaiian type. Within ego's generation, cross-sex siblings are distinguished from those of the same sex. Marriage and Family Marriage. Traditionally, Rotuman marriages were arranged by parents, although generally with the prior consent of the partners. Public courtship displays were frowned upon, so liaisons had to be formed surreptitiously. Courtship rules have been relaxed in recent years, but a strong concern remains for the decorum of unmarried youths. Marriages with second cousins are allowed. Postmarital residence with the wife's family is preferred, although movement between husband's and wife's natal homes is common over the span of a lifetime. Marriages are quite stable; the great majority are terminated only by the death of a spouse. Divorce is under the jurisdiction of Fijian courts, which are modeled on British law. Property is rarely involved, and young children are dis- tributed by mutual agreement. Domestic Unit. Households are defined in terms of sharing a common hearth and eating together. Household size has declined in response to out-migration, from an average of about 7.5 in 1960 to about 4.5 in 1988. Most consist of a nuclear family, extended by relatives of either the husband or wife. Children are often left with grandparents when married couples emigrate, so three- and four-generation households are common. Since maintaining a household requires the labor of both men and women, single persons are often in- vited to become de facto members of a neighbor's household. Inheritance. Each surviving child inherits an equal share in rights over family landholdings, although traditionally the senior male is favored in succession to stewardship. Today, however, it is often one of the younger siblings who remains behind to look after the family estate while elder siblings emigrate. Socialiation. Infants and children are cared for by both parents, by grandparents, and by elder siblings. Physical pun- ishment is rare, and children's autonomy is respected. Chil- dren circulate freely between households in the vicinity of their household, and they are never excluded from adult- centered events. Value emphases are placed on sharing, cooperation, and respecting the autonomy of others. Sociopolitical Organization Rotuma was governed as an integral part of the Colony of Fiji after cession to Great Britain in 1881. Following Fiji's independence in 1970 and the military coups of 1987, Rotuma re- mained with Fiji. Social Organization. Rotuma is divided into seven auton- omous districts, each with its own headman (gagaj 'es itu'u). The districts are divided into subgroupings of households (ho'aga) that function as work groups under the leadership of a subchief (gagaj 'es ho'aga). All district headmen and the majority of ho'aga headmen are titled. In addition, some men hold titles without headship, although they are expected to exercise leadership roles in support of the district headman. Titles, which are held for life, belong to specified house sites (fuaq ri). All the descendents of previous occupants of a fuaq ri have a right to participate in the selection of successors to titles. On formal occasions titled men and dignitaries such as ministers and priests, government officials, and distinguished visitors occupy a place of honor. They are ceremonially served food from special baskets and kava. In the daily routine of village life, however, they are not especially privileged. As yet no significant class distinctions based on wealth or control of resources have emerged, but investments in elaborate housing and motor vehicles by a few families have led to visible differ- ences in standard of living. Political Organization. At the time of discovery by Euro- peans there were three pan-Rotuman political positions: the fakpure, the sau, and the mua. The fakpure acted as convener and presiding officer over the council of district headmen and was responsible for appointing the sau and ensuring that he was cared for properly. The fakpure was headman of the district that headed the alliance that had won the last war. The sau's role was to take part in the ritual cycle, oriented toward ensuring prosperity, as an object of veneration. Early Euro- pean visitors referred to the sau as 'king," but he actually had no secular power. The position of sau was supposed to rotate between districts, and a breach of this custom was considered to be incitement to war. The role of mua is more obscure, but like the sau, he was an active participant in the ritual cycle. According to some accounts the mua acted as a kind of high priest. Following Christianization in the 1860s, the offices of sau and mua were terminated. Colonial administration involved the appointment by the governor of Fiji of a Resident Commissioner (after 1935, a District Officer) to Rotuma. He was advised by a council composed of the district headmen. In 1940 the council was expanded to include an elected rep- resentative from each district and the Assistant Medical Prac- titioner. Following Fiji's independence in 1970, the council assumed responsibility for the internal governance of Rotuma, with the District Officer assigned to an advisory role. Up until the first coup, Rotuma was represented in the Fiji legislature by a single senator. Social ControL The basis for social control is a strong socialization emphasis on social responsibility and a sensitivity to shaming. Gossip serves as a mechanism for sanctioning deviation, but the most powerful deterrent to antisocial behavior is an abiding belief in immanent justice, that supernatural forces will punish wrongdoing. Rotumans are a gentle people; violence is extremely rare and serious crimes nearly nonexistent. [...]... Culture Religious Beliefs The precontact religion involved a combination of animism, ancestor worship, and pantheism The pre-Christian religion of Rotuma included several types ofsupernatural beings, including high gods, ancestral ghosts, and local spirits The high gods, of whom Tagaroa was the most noteworthy, were the source of sustenance They were prayed to for rain, for fruitful land, and for success...Rotuma Prior to cession, warfare, though conducted on a modest scale, was endemic in Rotuma During the colonial era political rivalries were muted, since power was concentrated in the offices of Resident Commissioner and District Officer Following Fiji's independence, however, interdistrict rivalries were again given expression, now in the form of political contention Following... number of free-roaming, largely malevolent spirits, who sometimes appeared in the form of anomalous creatures, were believed to inhabit the land Rotuma was converted to Christianity in the 1860s by English Wesleyans and French Catholics The Catholics, who compose approximately one-third of the population, are concentrated on the south side of the island In recent years a Seventh-Day Adventist church... and serves a number of families, and a small group of Jehovah's Witnesses meet together regularly The churches play a vital role in the lives of most people and are centers for many communal activities Religious Practitioners The sau and mua were traditionally responsible for attending to ritual activities propitiating the high gods to ensure the prosperity of the island At the local level, certain... death; welcoming ceremonies for Rotumans who have been away or for first visits of 28 3 outside dignitaries; the anniversaries of historic occasions such as cession and the coming of the missionaries; and various church events Arts At the time of contact the main forms of artistic expression included tattooing, personal ornaments such as breastplates and necklaces, and the manufacture of fine mats and... Western medicine has largely replaced these folk practices, although massage remains popular as an alternative form of treatment Death and Afterlife A person's soul was believed to wander during sleep, and if it did not return to the body before wakening or if it was carried off by a spirit, the person would sicken and die When a person was seriously ill and apparently dying, it was presumed that his or... water, and purgatives were important items in purification rituals Poultices were made with various leaves, mixed with turmeric, and applied to sores and inflammations Healers derived their curative efficacy from ancestral spirits who guided their actions during possession episodes The ability to heal was thought to be transmitted within families or directly from a practitioner to a chosen apprentice... social life of the island Key elements in every ceremony are formal presentations of kava and food to the chiefs by men, the giving of mats by women, a feast, and formal speeches Group dances are also often performed as entertainment Ceremonial occasions include: life-crisis events, such as weddings, firstborn children's first birthdays, funerals, and the unveiling of headstones a year after death; welcoming... sets The ancient Rotumans buried their dignitaries under large basaltic stones, which sometimes weighed several tons and were transported over considerable distances Following contact, cannons obtained from European vessels were sometimes used as grave markers Cemeteries are usually on hills or promontories, and they are well cared for by the communities that use them See also Futuna, Kiribati, Samoa,... his or her soul was wandering, and efforts were made to coax it to return The ghost of a recently deceased relative was often implored to assist in such circumstances At death the soul migrated to 'the unseen world, " said to be under the sea This realm was divided into regions corresponding to places on the island The final resting place of souls was off the western end of the island, where the sun . a low point of only 120 in 1867. In 1964 Rapans numbered only 360, and recent estimates indicate only 400 speakers of the Rapa language. Linguistic Affiliation. Rapa is grouped with numerous others, including Tahitian, Tongareva, and Cook Islands Maori, in the Eastern Polynesian Subcluster of the Nuclear Polynesian Subgroup of Austronesian languages, though it has virtually disappeared as a distinct language. Tahitian is currently spoken on Rapa as it is in most parts of French Polynesia. History and Cultural Relations The first settlement of Rapa has been estimated at about AD. 950 from genealogical evidence, and the earliest radiocarbon date from the island is A.D. 1,337, plus or minus 20 0 years. The first European to visit the islands was George Vancouver, in 1791. At that time the population lived in fortified mountain villages. Remains of at least fifteen of these still promi- nently mark Rapa's landscape; they are among the largest handmade structures in ancient Polynesia. Apparently popu- 27 4 Rapa nation pressure forced the construction of these mountain villages to free scarce arable land for cultivation and for security in a time of frequent warfare. The prospect of the Panama Canal stirred the interest of Britain and France in the 1860s and again in the 1880s, for Rapa was ideally located on the route between Panama and Australia and New Zealand. The British established a coaling station on Rapa in late 1867 and it served monthly steamers until it was abandoned in early 1869. Meanwhile Rapa's strategic location moved the French to establish political power over the island. Rapa was made a French protectorate in 1867 and became a French possession twenty years later. The interest in Rapa as a coaling station was sporadic and short-lived and the island slipped into inter- national insignificance. As late as 1964 three months might pass without a visit from the outside. In that year, however, a weather station was established on Rapa and this gave the island some importance in the context of the French nuclear weapons testing program. Settlements Sometime prior to 1830 internal warfare ceased, probably because massive depopulation ended the keen competition for arable land, and the people abandoned the fortified mountain villages in favor of lowland villages on the various bays, which offered easier access to the sea and to cultivation areas. With further depopulation villages in the outer bays were gradually abandoned and the village of Ha'urei became Rapa's major population center. In 1964 Rapa's population resided in two villages located on opposite sides of Ha'urei Bay (the large, central bay, crater of the ancient volcano). Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. For the most part, Rapans support themselves by farming and fishing. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is the staple, and is eaten at every meal. It is grown in irrigated terraces located in level areas adjacent to the village of Ha'urei, at the head of Ha'urei Bay, and on the outer bays. Rapans sometimes reach their taro terraces on the outer bays on foot, but the rugged terrain makes this difficult and they often travel by water in locally made canoes or whaleboats. These vessels are also used for fishing, which is done with spear guns or hooks and lines in the bays and (in whaleboats only) offshore. Oranges and watermelons are grown for local consumption. The main cash crop is coffee, although in 1964 potatoes were introduced for export to Ta- hiti. Some pigs are tethered on the outskirts of the villages, and goats, cattle, and a few sheep roam unattended in the hills. Goats are eaten when inclement weather prevents fish. ing; pork and beef are served at special feasts. Occasionally some goats or cattle are captured and shipped to Tahiti for sale. Goats are owned privately, but cattle belong to the Co- operative Society, an organization of shareholders that also oversees coffee exports and operates a small store on the island. Industrial Arts. Rapan men make wicker baskets in many sizes and often fanciful shapes. Some are used locally, but the more elaborate ones are made for export to Tahiti or for sale to passengers on ocean liners that pass close enough to the island for whaleboats to go out to them. Some of the locally made whaleboats-graceful, narrow, and highly seaworthy- are themselves works of high artisanry. Division of Labor. Men are charged with boat construction, most aspects of house construction, and fishing from boats and canoes. Women gather shellfish from the shore, prepare food, do laundry, and take care of small children. Both sexes pick coffee and engage in taro cultivation, although the men build and maintain the irrigation ditches and turn the soil in a terrace prior to flooding. Labor is divided at least as significantly by age as by sex. The heaviest work (boat rowing, turning soil, carrying heavy bags of harvested taro) is done by youths and young adults. After about the age of 40, people begin to leave these jobs to younger members of the household. Land Tenure. Essential to the Rapan system of land tenure is the proposition that improvements (gardens, groves of trees, and houses) may be and usually are owned separately from the land on which they are located. Both territory and improvements are owned by ramages, known as 'opu. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. The modem ramage or 'opu is a nonexclusive cognatic descent group; that is, it is composed of all legitimate descendants of its founder, counted through both male and female links. So far as territory is concerned, ramage founders were individuals to whom land was awarded in a general land distribution in 1889. Founders of improve- ment-owning ramages are individuals who create the im- provement: who make the taro terraces, build the houses, or plant the coffee groves. Depending on the activity of the founder, then, the ramage composed of his or her descendants may own one or more parcels of territory, taro terraces, coffee groves, houses, or any combination of these. The property of a ramage may be widely dispersed over the island. Be- cause ramage membership passes through both males and females, the various ramages overlap in membership. Mem- bership in some is counted through one's father, and others through one's mother. Most Rapans belong to eight to ten (or more) damages. A ramage has no function beyond the ownership of property. Its limited affairs are handled by a manager, who is usually the senior male of the group. Kinship Terminology. Kin terms are of the Hawaiian or generational type, with terms that mark the relative age of same-sex siblings and cousins. Marriage and Family Marriage. Marriage is monogamous. Rapans express a slight preference for virilocality, but in actuality virilocal and uxorilocal residence occur with equal frequency. Cohabiting couples are often reluctant to marry formally, as this is a sign that they are shifting from the carefree life of youth to the sober responsibilities of adulthood. The decision to marry is frequently made upon the application of pressure by lay officials of the church. Divorce is rare. Should a spouse die, the preferred remarriage is with the brother or sister of the decedent. Domestic Unit. Households range from 2 to 15 members, with an average of 6.7. Rapans express a preference for extended family households because of greater sociability and economic efficiency. Largely because of interpersonal tensions that develop between constituent families in extended family households, however, the majority of households on the island consist of an elementary family. To improve their economic efficiency and enhance sociability, many elementary family households have formed themselves into work groups, each of which is composed of four to five households. One or two individuals from each household participate in the group, and the group as a whole works on a rotating schedule, devoting a day to each of its member households in turn. Some work groups are composed of neighboring households regardless of kin ties between them, while others are based on kinship. Inheritance. Property passes from both parents to all children. Some gardens may be willed to individual children or foster children, but the usual pattern is to leave property jointly to children according to the rules of descent. Socialization. Children are raised by their own or foster parents. In fosterage, a child ideally acquires the obligation to support his or her foster parents in their old age. The strength of this obligation depends on how much of a person's chid-~ hood was actually spent in the foster parents' home. From the age of 4 or 5 children make their own decisions as to where they will live, and often they move between the homes of their biological and foster parents. In any event, a person's legal status and inheritance rights continue to be reckoned through the biological parents. Couples with few or no biological offspring usually foster children of their more prolific close relatives. Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization. Class distinctions are not visible in Rapan society. Some persons are more active in church, political, and other affairs than are others, but such involvement depends upon individual leadership qualities. Voluntary asso- ciations are organized along village lines. Both villages have funeral clubs, which manage the feast and other practical matters connected with the funeral at the death of someone from a member household, and youth clubs, which form soc- cer teams, organize entertainment for the 14 July Bastille Day celebration, and undertake other projects for the benefit of the village. Political Organization. In 1964, the Austral Islands formed one of the five administrative divisions of French Pol- ynesia. Local government on Rapa at that time was vested in a district council, consisting of seven members elected at large for five-year terms. After their election the new council selected from its number a chief and assistant chief. The district council had relatively little power, and the role of chief was largely ceremonial, but it was coveted nonetheless for its salary. In recent years the government has been reorganized in French Polynesia, giving the territory more internal autonomy from France and increasing the power of local councils. Social Control. In 1964 Rapa fell under the jurisdiction of a French gendarme stationed on Ra'iavae, some 180 kilometers to the north. Since then, one Rapan has held the position of local police officer. Social control is provided for the most part, however, by the church. Nearly all Rapans are affiliated with the Protestant church, and one of the primary responsibilities of the elected deacons and their wives is to visit and Rapa 2 75 admonish those whose behavior is not satisfactory. Rapans believe, furthermore, than one should not take communion while harboring ill will toward others, so they often make efforts to resolve their disputes prior to the communion service on the first Sunday of every month. Finally, in this small society there are few secrets and a good measure of social control is achieved by gossip or the fear of it. Conflict. Disputes occasionally erupt over accusations of petty theft, hostilities between stepparents and stepchildren, or the location of boundaries between coffee groves. These seldom go beyond shouting matches, which usually take place around mealtimes when many people are in the village and which invariably and instantly draw large crowds. More per- manent factionalism exists between the two villages and between vaguely defined and shifting groups of families. Issues at stake usually involve the distribution of benefits received from the French government. The head schoolteacher, an of- ficial appointed from Tahiti and the individual with whom visiting officials interact most frequently, is a center of factionalism for she is in a good position to steer government jobs and other benefits toward those Rapans who get along with her and away from those who do not. The pastor, probably the most powerful person on the island, may also become a center of dissension if it is sensed that he does not treat his parishioners equally. Factionalism is fueled by a contradic- tion in the Rapan value system. Those who have nothing special to expect from an individual in a public position trumpet the ideal that such a person is bound to act in the interests of all, while relatives and others with special ties to him or her operate under the expectation that a person's first obligations are to kin and allies. Both of these values are honored in Rapa, and anyone in a position of authority finds it difficult to walk a line between them. Religion and Expressive Culture Religous Beliefs. Rapa was converted to Protestant Christianity soon after the arrival in 1 826 of Tahitian teach- ers representing the London Missionary Society. With the ex- ception of a few Roman Catholics, the entire population of Rapa. is Protestant. In addition to Biblical supernaturals, most Rapans believe in the existence of ghosts, normally of persons who have died relatively recently, called tupapa'u. They may cause sickness among the living, either out of anger or from a powerful desire to draw a dearly beloved spouse or child to them. If other means fail, a tupapa'u can be stopped by exhuming and destroying the corpse, a practice probably encouraged by Dracula films, which are very popular in Tahiti. Religiouis Practitioners. One pastor (a Rapan who was elected as a young man by the church members and sent to Tahiti for seminary thinking) divides his Sundays between the two villages. In addition to the pastor, a chief deacon serves both villages, and each village has two deacons and an assistant deacon. To the assistant deacon falls the tasks of ringing the church bell and prowling the aisle during services with a long bamboo pole to prod dozing parishioners. All of these officials are elected by the communicant members, who essentially are the married adults. Ceremonies. Physically, the church in each village consists of a church proper, a meetinghouse, and an eating 1. 27 6 Rapa house. The church is immensely important in Rapan society, with no fewer than eleven church functions each week. Al- though scarcely anyone attends all of these events, one can easily appreciate the joking remark made by one man that 'in Rapa, we spend more time discussing the Bible than cultivat- ing taro!" Medicine. Some illnesses are thought to be caused by ghosts, but most are attributed to natural causes. Rapans af. firm a hot-cold system of illness, whereby an upset of the bod- y's proper temperature equilibrium brings on disease. Medi- cines are herbal and each one is accompanied by a special massage. Medicines are private property, and nearly every adult woman on the island owns one or more of them. Thus instead of a few practitioners who treat many different sorts of illness, the Rapan system of medicine has a great many practitioners, each of whom specializes in one or a few disor- ders. Although others may know the herbal recipe for a certain medicine, it is ineffective unless applied by, or with the express permission of, its owner. No charge is ever assessed for administering medicines, but patients do reciprocate with gifts. Medicines originate in dreams. Someone is sick, no treatment is effective, and then a woman of the household sees, in a dream, her deceased mother or grandmother prepar- ing and administering a hitherto unknown medical concoc- tion of various leaves, water, etc. Upon awakening, the woman prepares the medicine just as she dreamed it. She gives it to the patient, who rapidly recovers. The woman who dreamed it is the owner of the new medicine, and others with the same symptoms come to her to be cured. When she gets old she gives the medicine, and others she may have dreamed or inherited, to individual heirs-usually her daughters-and thus medicines pass through the generations. Death and Afterlife. The deceased are thought to enter the Christian heaven. A funeral service and burial is followed by a large feast. People congregate at the house of the deceased for several evenings after the funeral for Bible discus- sion and hymn singing, to support the surviving loved ones, and to reintegrate them gently into society. See also Raroia, Tahiti Bibliography Caillot, A. a low point of only 120 in 1867. In 1964 Rapans numbered only 360, and recent estimates indicate only 400 speakers of the Rapa language. Linguistic Affiliation. Rapa is grouped with numerous others, including Tahitian, Tongareva, and Cook Islands Maori, in the Eastern Polynesian Subcluster of the Nuclear Polynesian Subgroup of Austronesian languages, though it has virtually disappeared as a distinct language. Tahitian is currently spoken on Rapa as it is in most parts of French Polynesia. History and Cultural Relations The first settlement of Rapa has been estimated at about AD. 950 from genealogical evidence, and the earliest radiocarbon date from the island is A.D. 1,337, plus or minus 20 0 years. The first European to visit the islands was George Vancouver, in 1791. At that time the population lived in fortified mountain villages. Remains of at least fifteen of these still promi- nently mark Rapa's landscape; they are among the largest handmade structures in ancient Polynesia. Apparently popu- 27 4 Rapa nation pressure forced the construction of these mountain villages to free scarce arable land for cultivation and for security in a time of frequent warfare. The prospect of the Panama Canal stirred the interest of Britain and France in the 1860s and again in the 1880s, for Rapa was ideally located on the route between Panama and Australia and New Zealand. The British established a coaling station on Rapa in late 1867 and it served monthly steamers until it was abandoned in early 1869. Meanwhile Rapa's strategic location moved the French to establish political power over the island. Rapa was made a French protectorate in 1867 and became a French possession twenty years later. The interest in Rapa as a coaling station was sporadic and short-lived and the island slipped into inter- national insignificance. As late as 1964 three months might pass without a visit from the outside. In that year, however, a weather station was established on Rapa and this gave the island some importance in the context of the French nuclear weapons testing program. Settlements Sometime prior to 1830 internal warfare ceased, probably because massive depopulation ended the keen competition for arable land, and the people abandoned the fortified mountain villages in favor of lowland villages on the various bays, which offered easier access to the sea and to cultivation areas. With further depopulation villages in the outer bays were gradually abandoned and the village of Ha'urei became Rapa's major population center. In 1964 Rapa's population resided in two villages located on opposite sides of Ha'urei Bay (the large, central bay, crater of the ancient volcano). Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. For the most part, Rapans support themselves by farming and fishing. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is the staple, and is eaten at every meal. It is grown in irrigated terraces located in level areas adjacent to the village of Ha'urei, at the head of Ha'urei Bay, and on the outer bays. Rapans sometimes reach their taro terraces on the outer bays on foot, but the rugged terrain makes this difficult and they often travel by water in locally made canoes or whaleboats. These vessels are also used for fishing, which is done with spear guns or hooks and lines in the bays and (in whaleboats only) offshore. Oranges and watermelons are grown for local consumption. The main cash crop is coffee, although in 1964 potatoes were introduced for export to Ta- hiti. Some pigs are tethered on the outskirts of the villages, and goats, cattle, and a few sheep roam unattended in the hills. Goats are eaten when inclement weather prevents fish. ing; pork and beef are served at special feasts. Occasionally some goats or cattle are captured and shipped to Tahiti for sale. Goats are owned privately, but cattle belong to the Co- operative Society, an organization of shareholders that also oversees coffee exports and operates a small store on the island. Industrial Arts. Rapan men make wicker baskets in many sizes and often fanciful shapes. Some are used locally, but the more elaborate ones are made for export to Tahiti or for sale to passengers on ocean liners that pass close enough to the island for whaleboats to go out to them. Some of the locally made whaleboats-graceful, narrow, and highly seaworthy- are themselves works of high artisanry. Division of Labor. Men are charged with boat construction, most aspects of house construction, and fishing from boats and canoes. Women gather shellfish from the shore, prepare food, do laundry, and take care of small children. Both sexes pick coffee and engage in taro cultivation, although the men build and maintain the irrigation ditches and turn the soil in a terrace prior to flooding. Labor is divided at least as significantly by age as by sex. The heaviest work (boat rowing, turning soil, carrying heavy bags of harvested taro) is done by youths and young adults. After about the age of 40, people begin to leave these jobs to younger members of the household. Land Tenure. Essential to the Rapan system of land tenure is the proposition that improvements (gardens, groves of trees, and houses) may be and usually are owned separately from the land on which they are located. Both territory and improvements are owned by ramages, known as 'opu. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. The modem ramage or 'opu is a nonexclusive cognatic descent group; that is, it is composed of all legitimate descendants of its founder, counted through both male and female links. So far as territory is concerned, ramage founders were individuals to whom land was awarded in a general land distribution in 1889. Founders of improve- ment-owning ramages are individuals who create the im- provement: who make the taro terraces, build the houses, or plant the coffee groves. Depending on the activity of the founder, then, the ramage composed of his or her descendants may own one or more parcels of territory, taro terraces, coffee groves, houses, or any combination of these. The property of a ramage may be widely dispersed over the island. Be- cause ramage membership passes through both males and females, the various ramages overlap in membership. Mem- bership in some is counted through one's father, and others through one's mother. Most Rapans belong to eight to ten (or more) damages. A ramage has no function beyond the ownership of property. Its limited affairs are handled by a manager, who is usually the senior male of the group. Kinship Terminology. Kin terms are of the Hawaiian or generational type, with terms that mark the relative age of same-sex siblings and cousins. Marriage and Family Marriage. Marriage is monogamous. Rapans express a slight preference for virilocality, but in actuality virilocal and uxorilocal residence occur with equal frequency. Cohabiting couples are often reluctant to marry formally, as this is a sign that they are shifting from the carefree life of youth to the sober responsibilities of adulthood. The decision to marry is frequently made upon the application of pressure by lay officials of the church. Divorce is rare. Should a spouse die, the preferred remarriage is with the brother or sister of the decedent. Domestic Unit. Households range from 2 to 15 members, with an average of 6.7. Rapans express a preference for extended family households because of greater sociability and economic efficiency. Largely because of interpersonal tensions that develop between constituent families in extended family households, however, the majority of households on the island consist of an elementary family. To improve their economic efficiency and enhance sociability, many elementary family households have formed themselves into work groups, each of which is composed of four to five households. One or two individuals from each household participate in the group, and the group as a whole works on a rotating schedule, devoting a day to each of its member households in turn. Some work groups are composed of neighboring households regardless of kin ties between them, while others are based on kinship. Inheritance. Property passes from both parents to all children. Some gardens may be willed to individual children or foster children, but the usual pattern is to leave property jointly to children according to the rules of descent. Socialization. Children are raised by their own or foster parents. In fosterage, a child ideally acquires the obligation to support his or her foster parents in their old age. The strength of this obligation depends on how much of a person's chid-~ hood was actually spent in the foster parents' home. From the age of 4 or 5 children make their own decisions as to where they will live, and often they move between the homes of their biological and foster parents. In any event, a person's legal status and inheritance rights continue to be reckoned through the biological parents. Couples with few or no biological offspring usually foster children of their more prolific close relatives. Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization. Class distinctions are not visible in Rapan society. Some persons are more active in church, political, and other affairs than are others, but such involvement depends upon individual leadership qualities. Voluntary asso- ciations are organized along village lines. Both villages have funeral clubs, which manage the feast and other practical matters connected with the funeral at the death of someone from a member household, and youth clubs, which form soc- cer teams, organize entertainment for the 14 July Bastille Day celebration, and undertake other projects for the benefit of the village. Political Organization. In 1964, the Austral Islands formed one of the five administrative divisions of French Pol- ynesia. Local government on Rapa at that time was vested in a district council, consisting of seven members elected at large for five-year terms. After their election the new council selected from its number a chief and assistant chief. The district council had relatively little power, and the role of chief was largely ceremonial, but it was coveted nonetheless for its salary. In recent years the government has been reorganized in French Polynesia, giving the territory more internal autonomy from France and increasing the power of local councils. Social Control. In 1964 Rapa fell under the jurisdiction of a French gendarme stationed on Ra'iavae, some 180 kilometers to the north. Since then, one Rapan has held the position of local police officer. Social control is provided for the most part, however, by the church. Nearly all Rapans are affiliated with the Protestant church, and one of the primary responsibilities of the elected deacons and their wives is to visit and Rapa 2 75 admonish those whose behavior is not satisfactory. Rapans believe, furthermore, than one should not take communion while harboring ill will toward others, so they often make efforts to resolve their disputes prior to the communion service on the first Sunday of every month. Finally, in this small society there are few secrets and a good measure of social control is achieved by gossip or the fear of it. Conflict. Disputes occasionally erupt over accusations of petty theft, hostilities between stepparents and stepchildren, or the location of boundaries between coffee groves. These seldom go beyond shouting matches, which usually take place around mealtimes when many people are in the village and which invariably and instantly draw large crowds. More per- manent factionalism exists between the two villages and between vaguely defined and shifting groups of families. Issues at stake usually involve the distribution of benefits received from the French government. The head schoolteacher, an of- ficial appointed from Tahiti and the individual with whom visiting officials interact most frequently, is a center of factionalism for she is in a good position to steer government jobs and other benefits toward those Rapans who get along with her and away from those who do not. The pastor, probably the most powerful person on the island, may also become a center of dissension if it is sensed that he does not treat his parishioners equally. Factionalism is fueled by a contradic- tion in the Rapan value system. Those who have nothing special to expect from an individual in a public position trumpet the ideal that such a person is bound to act in the interests of all, while relatives and others with special ties to him or her operate under the expectation that a person's first obligations are to kin and allies. Both of these values are honored in Rapa, and anyone in a position of authority finds it difficult to walk a line between them. Religion and Expressive Culture Religous Beliefs. Rapa was converted to Protestant Christianity soon after the arrival in 1 826 of Tahitian teach- ers representing the London Missionary Society. With the ex- ception of a few Roman Catholics, the entire population of Rapa. is Protestant. In addition to Biblical supernaturals, most Rapans believe in the existence of ghosts, normally of persons who have died relatively recently, called tupapa'u. They may cause sickness among the living, either out of anger or from a powerful desire to draw a dearly beloved spouse or child to them. If other means fail, a tupapa'u can be stopped by exhuming and destroying the corpse, a practice probably encouraged by Dracula films, which are very popular in Tahiti. Religiouis Practitioners. One pastor (a Rapan who was elected as a young man by the church members and sent to Tahiti for seminary thinking) divides his Sundays between the two villages. In addition to the pastor, a chief deacon serves both villages, and each village has two deacons and an assistant deacon. To the assistant deacon falls the tasks of ringing the church bell and prowling the aisle during services with a long bamboo pole to prod dozing parishioners. All of these officials are elected by the communicant members, who essentially are the married adults. Ceremonies. Physically, the church in each village consists of a church proper, a meetinghouse, and an eating 1. 27 6 Rapa house. The church is immensely important in Rapan society, with no fewer than eleven church functions each week. Al- though scarcely anyone attends all of these events, one can easily appreciate the joking remark made by one man that 'in Rapa, we spend more time discussing the Bible than cultivat- ing taro!" Medicine. Some illnesses are thought to be caused by ghosts, but most are attributed to natural causes. Rapans af. firm a hot-cold system of illness, whereby an upset of the bod- y's proper temperature equilibrium brings on disease. Medi- cines are herbal and each one is accompanied by a special massage. Medicines are private property, and nearly every adult woman on the island owns one or more of them. Thus instead of a few practitioners who treat many different sorts of illness, the Rapan system of medicine has a great many practitioners, each of whom specializes in one or a few disor- ders. Although others may know the herbal recipe for a certain medicine, it is ineffective unless applied by, or with the express permission of, its owner. No charge is ever assessed for administering medicines, but patients do reciprocate with gifts. Medicines originate in dreams. Someone is sick, no treatment is effective, and then a woman of the household sees, in a dream, her deceased mother or grandmother prepar- ing and administering a hitherto unknown medical concoc- tion of various leaves, water, etc. Upon awakening, the woman prepares the medicine just as she dreamed it. She gives it to the patient, who rapidly recovers. The woman who dreamed it is the owner of the new medicine, and others with the same symptoms come to her to be cured. When she gets old she gives the medicine, and others she may have dreamed or inherited, to individual heirs-usually her daughters-and thus medicines pass through the generations. Death and Afterlife. The deceased are thought to enter the Christian heaven. A funeral service and burial is followed by a large feast. People congregate at the house of the deceased for several evenings after the funeral for Bible discus- sion and hymn singing, to support the surviving loved ones, and to reintegrate them gently into society. See also Raroia, Tahiti Bibliography Caillot, A. kula ring. The islanders build their own houses, canoes, and dinghies. A few larger boats have been built during recent years. Basketwork, made by women, is of high quality. Trade. The dominant trade store is run by the Catholic mission but small stores are found in many hamlets. Other- wise there is no market on Rossel. Through a traditional visiting trade with Sudest Rossel exported shell necklaces and imported clay pots, pigs, and stone axes. This trade connection is now much weakened. Internal noncommercial exchanges by means of a complex system of shell valuables-the famous 'Rossel Island money"-are important and include payments for pigs, houses, canoes, garden crops, and some forms of labor service. There are two kinds of shell money. Ndap are flat pieces of Spondylus, ki are sets of 10 disks of Chama on a string. Both are ranked into many classes. Higher-ranking ndap are rare treasures believed to have been made by deities and, like kula shells, individually named. They are now out of open circulation and change ownership through inheritance. K1 and low-ranking ndap still circulate and are still made. Women own shell money and participate in exchange but they rarely sponsor payments. Exchange rules are very complex. Wallace Armstrong, who first described this monetary system, explained it by supposing lending at compound interest. This interpretation was based on misunderstandings of the operation of the system. Other valuables are ceremonial stone axes and shell necklaces. Cash now enters into some payments. Division of Labor. The main division of labor is by sex. Men fell large trees for gardens, build houses and canoes, hunt, and fish; women collect most shellfish and dominate in domestic tasks, such as cooking and child care. Both sexes plant, weed, and harvest crops. They combine work in sago preparation. Land Tenure. With a fairly small population land pressure is slight. The tenure practices are flexible and disputes over Rossel Island 27 9 land infrequent. Areas of land are associated with matrilineal subclans, but stewards of land often belong to different clans. Use rights are frequently based on descent from bilateral grandparents. Mortuary payments of traditional valuables from the deceased's spouse's relatives to the deceased's relatives confirm such land rights. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. There are some fifteen totemic, matrilineal, and dispersed clans (pit). Subclans (piighi) share exogamy with one or more linked subclans of different clans. The members of subclans do not all reside in the same area but there are local subclan sections. A more loose cognatic category (yo) denotes the bilateral descendants of an ancestor or the bilateral kindred of a person. Kinship Terminology. The terminology system is classificatory and of the Crow type, with alternate-generation terminology in one's own (male speaking) and one's father's line (both sexes speaking). Marriage and Family Marriage. Marriage within most clans, between one's own and linked subclans, between children of men of the above categories, and between first cousins is proscribed. Marriage with a classificatory mother's brother's daughter is discouraged while marriage with a classificatory father's sister or father's sister's daughter is preferred. Actually, only 46 percent of a small sample had actually married according to this preference. There is a tendency toward local endogamy. Many marriages are still arranged by elderly relatives. A considerable bride-wealth is paid in shell money, no cash being allowed. Due to mission pressure polygynous marriages are now infrequent. Residence is predominantly patrivirilocal. Di- vorce is rare. Domestic Unit. The nuclear family is the primary domestic unit (the people who pool food resources and eat together), with the addition of occasional unmarried young or old enfeebled relatives. This unit conducts daily food production but is assisted by bilateral kin and affines for larger tasks such as forest clearing or house building. Inheritance. The main significant property is fruit trees and ceremonial stone and shell valuables. Sons tend to in- herit from their fathers and daughters from their mothers. The person who takes main responsibility for taking care of a close relative in old age receives the major share. Socialization. Infants and children are raised by members of the domestic unit and by grandparents and other elderly relatives. Socialization practice varies between families. Gen- erally sharing and cooperation is emphasized and, although self-assertion is discouraged, autonomy of the individual is valued. Sociopolitical Organization Rossel Island is part of Papua New Guinea, a sovereign state in the British Commonwealth. Rossel elects one member to the Provincial Assembly of the Milne Bay Province. With the East Calvados chain and Sudest Rossel forms the Yelayamba Local Government Council and elects seven of the sixteen councillors. Social Organization. There is no descent group rank on Rossel. Inequality is manifested in the greater influence and prestige of elders in relation to the young and men in relation to women. A "financial aristocracy" of exchange experts and owners of high-rank shell money form the dominating stra- tum of the population. Political Organization. The island is divided into ten census "villages" that, in combinations, elect the seven local government councillors. A lower-lever functionary is the komiti. Precolonial leaders were warriors, ritual experts, and powerful big-men. The last category had attached henchmen and con- trolled high-rank shell money used in payments for cannibal victims. Pacification and mission influence weakened the power of indigenous leaders but elderly males with financial expertise still command some local influence. Councillors are younger men with outside experience and language ability. The government provides primary-school education, a hospi- tal, medical aid posts, and other services, such as an airstrip, a minor wharf, and water-supply facilities. Social Control and Conflict. Pacification and mission influence have produced a very peaceful society on Rossel Is- land. Conflicts and disputes are remarkably rare. A major deterrent from offending others is fear of sorcery retaliation. Dominance over the young is supported by the control of the elders of supernatural knowledge and of the intricate system of exchange of indigenous valuables. While villagers attempt to settle minor offenses informally, major delicts are prose- cuted by the government, represented on the island by a pa- trol post. Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. The religious system is a combination of Christianity and traditional beliefs. Although two Christian denominations (United Church and Catholic) divide the island, the relations between them are harmonious. The islanders have adopted Christianity as a means of acquiring a link to forces of the greater world, spiritually as well as

Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 2 - Oceania - R ppsx

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