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Overview
Spanning the social, political, and economic history of the Pacific Islands—which include Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia—this book provides an overview of this complex and changing area. It has been updated to detail the first settlement of the islands by raft and canoe voyagers, presenting a new theory. It then covers the centuries of Western contact, cultural influence, colonialism, and the coming of independence. Including key political changes that have occurred in the first decade of the new millennium, this new edition brings into focus the rich past of this diverse region.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781927145418 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Canterbury University Press |
| Publication date: | 01/11/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 392 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Worlds Apart
A History of the Pacific Islands
By Ian C. Campbell
Canterbury University Press
Copyright © 2011 Ian C. CampbellAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-927145-41-8
CHAPTER 1
The People of Oceania
The pacific ocean occupies almost an entire hemisphere, a world of water, rimmed on the east by the continuous coast of the Americas, and on the west by the coasts of east Asia as far as the equator, with Australia blocking the southwestern corner. The view from space is one of empty blueness. The islands scattered across its tropical zones are so small as to be only faintly visible. Human beings are land creatures, and European explorers were surprised to find these tiny, scattered, remote islands of the Pacific inhabited.
When Europeans first began to explore the oceans in the 15th century, their experience was that remote islands were unoccupied; occupied islands were a sign that an inhabited mainland was not far away. This was no longer so in the Pacific by the time Europeans arrived. People occupied islands that were hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest land, usually another island and not a continental mass. These were the most isolated people on earth. The fact of occupation posed the double question, 'Who were these people, and how did they come to be on these isolated places?'
As the map was filled in by exploration, other puzzles became apparent. The islands seemed to be occupied by three distinct populations, or races. The most isolated peoples on the farthest-flung islands were remarkably similar to each other, whereas the peoples of the islands nearest to Australia and Southeast Asia were a good deal more diverse. It seemed to European explorers that this was the opposite to what might be expected. Because the islands nearest to the great continents could receive new populations throughout their history, it was reasoned that the most distant Pacific island populations represented the oldest settlements, were the most isolated and therefore, because of the greater passage of time, their appearances and cultures should be more various; conversely, islands that were nearest the continents were presumed to have been settled more recently and should therefore exhibit less human and cultural variation.
This puzzled the early European voyagers and scholarly investigators who later became known as anthropologists. Why should the peoples of New Zealand, some of whom lived closer to the South Pole than to the equator, and Hawai'i, straddling the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere, speak languages that were so closely related as to be almost understood by each other? Why should the people of distant Easter Island, several thousand kilometres to the east, also speak a variant of the same language? On the other hand, why did people in the western Pacific islands – New Guinea, for example, or Solomon Islands – have so many languages that people in adjacent bays and valleys, separated by only a few miles, spoke languages unintelligible to each other? Answering these, and related questions, proved to be a major preoccupation of 20th-century anthropology, beginning with attempts to systematically describe and classify the multiplicity of cultures and human physical types.
As early as the 1830s the peoples of the Pacific islands were known to outsiders by the names 'Melanesian', 'Polynesian' and 'Micronesian', terms commonly attributed to the French explorer Dumont d'Urville, who used them in 1832 to describe the obvious but blurred differences between the various archipelagos. The words were simply descriptive: Polynesia meaning 'many islands'; Melanesia meaning 'the black islands' but referring to the darker complexion of its inhabitants; and Micronesia meaning 'the small islands'.
The differences between these populations are by no means as significant as first appeared, but the terms remain useful as a way of describing the patterns of culture that link some of the people and distinguish others. Of the three groups, the Polynesians became well known to Europeans first, and early anthropology concentrated on them.
The Polynesians
The Polynesians occupied the eastern half of the ocean: Hawai'i in the north; Easter Island, the Marquesas Islands, Society Islands, Tuamotu and Austral Islands in the east; New Zealand in the south; the Cook Islands in the centre; Tonga and Samoa in the west; Tokelau and Tuvalu (formerly the Ellice Islands) in the northwest (see Map 1). Farther to the west were scattered small communities of Polynesians, called the Polynesian outliers, including Ontong Java, Tikopia, Rennell and Bellona, Nukumanu, and Kapingamarangi among others.
The languages spoken by the peoples of these islands were closely related. Those of the eastern Polynesian cultural area, from Hawai'i to New Zealand, had sufficient common vocabulary, consistent phonetic characteristics and grammar for native speakers of one language to become conversant in another very rapidly. The early explorer Captain James Cook, for instance, was able to use a Tahitian as an interpreter in New Zealand. The western Polynesian languages presented more difficulties for an eastern Polynesian and diverged between themselves to a greater degree, but even non-linguists were able to see that they all belonged to the same family of languages. Table 1 indicates some of the family likenesses among the Polynesian languages.
All these languages form one group within the vast and complex Austronesian language family, which also includes many of the languages of Melanesia, the Micronesian languages, and several of Southeast Asia, including Malay, Indonesian and, far to the west, Malagasy, the language of Madagascar off the Indian Ocean coast of Africa.
In the same way as their languages were similar but with systematic variations, so were other aspects of their cultures. In political organisation, all Polynesian peoples had the idea of inherited rank. Generally speaking, the more populous and resource-rich a community was, the more elaborate and complicated were its notions of social and political gradation. All societies had chiefs who ruled communities that had a fairly stable territory.
In some communities people believed that all their members traced descent from a common ancestor, so that there was a sense of kinship between ruler and ruled to reinforce the idea of mutual obligations. Among other societies, especially the larger ones and those of western Polynesia, the different classes were looked on as having different origins: chiefs were descended from gods, but ordinary people merely came from the earth. In these societies, the gulf between ranks was profound.
Rank and status depended first and foremost on inheritance. The standing of both parents was important (generally one inherited political power from the father but rank and social status from the mother), but to inherit a particular position such as a title or position of leadership, the hereditary principle was modified by an assessment of suitability. At the time of inheritance the possible candidates and their peers (these might include the sons, brothers, nephews, cousins and uncles of the previous title-holder) would confer and choose a successor. The eldest brother and eldest son might have an advantage but not an automatic right to inherit. Succession might be, and frequently was, decided ultimately by war between contending factions. The authority exercised by such a chief was generally absolute: he commanded unquestioning obedience, was the source of law and justice, and decided matters of life and death; but if he ignored the advice of his peers and the interests of his subjects, he ran the risk of assassination or civil war. In short, Polynesian political systems may be described as warrior aristocracies.
In this scheme the role of women could be very important. In many Polynesian societies women were considered to have higher personal rank than their brothers, so that a woman would be a person of great influence or even authority in her brother's family. If the brother happened to be a high chief, then a sister could exert enormous influence. Women had much less influence with their husbands than with their brothers, and were not holders of titles or positions in their own right. Nevertheless, the fact that women could influence affairs was conspicuous in Tonga, Tahiti and Hawai'i around the time of European discovery.
The political units over which these aristocrats ruled varied enormously in size and power. On a small atoll like Tongareva in the northern Cook Islands, a chief might be little distinguished from his people, command a few dozen warriors, a few hundred people and perhaps a square kilometre of sandy soil. At the other extreme were the complex kingdoms of Hawai'i and Tonga, their paramount chiefs commanding thousands of warriors, their own accessibility and freedom limited by an elaborate system of sacred prohibitions and rituals that gave them a god-like status and remoteness from their people. These kingdoms were too complex and stable to be considered mere tribal chiefdoms: they had a strength and solidity that came from a highly disciplined hierarchy of chiefs exercising delegated authority over peoples with defined territorial boundaries. The resemblance to European feudalism was striking. Within these large kingdoms the right to exercise power was no longer open to question. Between the extremes of these simple chiefdoms and elaborate kingdoms, fell a third political type, where tribes of intermediate size regularly engaged in bloody contests with their neighbours for access to resources or the assertion of hegemony. These included the large islands of New Zealand, the relatively large ones of Tahiti, Marquesas and Samoa, as well as smaller islands like those of the southern Cook group. In these cases clearly defined tribes dwelt in territories that might change with their military fortunes, but no tribe was ever able to establish and maintain a lasting authority over its neighbours.
In all these Polynesian societies the fortunes of the common people usually compared well with the general lot of humanity at that time. Warfare, overpopulation, or famine caused by hurricane, tidal wave or drought might bring starvation and social breakdown, but in normal conditions on most islands the people's physical needs of food and shelter were well provided for. In other respects the environment was benign, with few insect pests, no infectious diseases and no dangerous animals. However, far from being a careless idyll of relaxation and indulgence, Polynesian life was in most places closely regulated by both chiefs and priests. Their exactions were commonly arduous, so that life involved hard labour, experienced perhaps as building, maintaining and utilising the irrigated agricultural systems of Hawai'i, or working the intensively cultivated gardens of Tonga. It might have seemed leisured to the outsider, but life was rarely idle, and it was arduous to the extent that both men and women aged prematurely, old at 40 according to studies of prehistoric skeletons. The industrious lower classes of Polynesia were kept occupied with food production, canoe-building, house-building and maintenance, tool-making and ceremonies. At times warfare made heavy demands on the time and labour of the people.
Religion was the instrument and partner of political authority in maintaining order. Priests were drawn from the chiefly classes, were usually hereditary and are best thought of as one of a variety of specialists. They were highly trained in sacred lore and ceremony, and provided the link between human society and the supernatural. As a group of specialists they had to be supported materially by the efforts of the people, just as other chiefs were. Moreover, the ceremonial life over which they presided required substantial quantities of material goods and food. The purpose of religion was not so much to provide personal comfort and reassurance as to validate the political structure, support the chiefs and reinforce the subordination of the ordinary people. A good relationship with the gods was the prerequisite for a prosperous and well-ordered society.
The eastern Polynesians had a multiplicity of gods who dwelt in the sky and sometimes came to Earth, performed deeds among men and procreated with mortal women. Some of these gods were 'departmental', each having his or her own 'portfolio' or special association with some aspect of human affairs or nature. Of these gods there were some that were common to most of eastern Polynesia: Tangaroa was the god of the sea; Lono, or Rongo, was the god of peace and agriculture; Ku, or Tu, the god of war; Tane, or Kane, the god of the forest. Western Polynesians did not have this formal pantheon, although they knew Tangaroa. The Tongans and Samoans had fewer great gods and more spirits, many of them unnamed, who were attached to persons or families rather than to roles as in eastern Polynesia. In both areas stories were told of demi-gods, the great culture heroes, of whom Maui was pre-eminent: he was the doer of great deeds, fisher from the ocean depths of the islands the people inhabited.
The religious ideas that accompanied these beliefs emphasised power rather than ethics, effectiveness rather than goodness, success rather than rectitude. A religion of pragmatism, its observances were intended to influence the gods to affect events among the people, or to placate the gods to avert misfortune or punishment. The two key concepts in Polynesian religious life were mana and tapu. Mana in essence meant efficacy – it was the sacred power a god possessed and by which he was able to act: some gods had greater mana than others. Mana was something men could have as well: a powerful and effective chief had great mana; a chief who did not command authority, or successfully wage war, or keep his people prosperous, healthy and numerous obviously had little mana, and was apt to be superseded by one who had more. It was thus a concept that not only helped to explain the way the world was, but that also channelled divine power. The ordinary secular qualities of dignity, respect, authority, even strength, health and vigour, were manifestations of mana and therefore easily confused with it. Tapu (tabu or kapu in some languages) has passed into English as taboo but means more than just 'forbidden'. It was a sacred force, an attribute of gods and, to a slightly lesser extent, of chiefs, which is another way of saying that chiefs were sacred, or even semi-divine. Something that was tapu could be sacred or accursed, or both together, and would be out of bounds to all who did not have a dispensation. Tapu could thus function as a means of social control: a person might be made tapu to keep him isolated; a place or thing might be declared tapu to protect it or preserve it. People or things frequently became tapu after certain specified events. For example, someone who prepared a corpse for burial was tapu for several months, during which time he could not feed himself or handle food. In the more hierarchical societies of Tonga, Tahiti and Hawai'i, high chiefs had so many tapu associated with them that they became burdensome. For example, the highest chiefs in those places were so tapu (sacred) that to enter a house or a canoe made it so tapu (holy and thus forbidden) that no ordinary person could ever again enter or use it. A paramount chief, therefore, if he had any consideration for his people, had to be very careful where he went and what he touched.
The authorities on matters of tapu and mana were the tohunga (kahuna), or priests (although the word also means wise men, experts, possessors of arcane skills of all kinds and not exclusively divine matters, but including horticulture, navigation, medicine, tool-making and so on). They officiated at ceremonies, interpreted the will of the gods, channelled a god's mana into various earthly projects and sometimes possessed considerable temporal power either in their own right or through their influence over the chiefs. They were not shepherds of their flocks but a medium of power and authority.
In material culture the Polynesian achievement was distinguished by the care and quest for perfection, yielding objects that combined beauty and utility, reflecting both environmental constraints and individual ingenuity. Stone, shell, wood and plant fibre were all utilised to supply human needs, often at the cost of considerable labour and the exercise of great skill. Tools for gardening were made of wood; tools for woodworking were made of stone; housing of timber and thatch, for which both coconut or pandanus leaves were used; clothing was either matting hand-woven from the soft fibres of plants or tapa (kapa), cloth made by pulping, beating, drying and gluing bark fibres. No Polynesian society had knowledge of metals, or of the loom for weaving, or the wheel. Pottery was known to their ancestors and continued to be supplied by Fijians to Tongans and Samoans until recent times, so the absence of Polynesian pottery is an unexplained mystery. Domesticated animals were not used as labour, and included pigs, dogs and fowl, though not all of these existed on all islands at the time of European discovery. They were used merely for food, and then usually only on festive occasions.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Worlds Apart by Ian C. Campbell. Copyright © 2011 Ian C. Campbell. Excerpted by permission of Canterbury University Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Dedication,
Orthography and Pronunciation,
Preface,
Chapter 1 The People of Oceania,
Chapter 2 Papuan and Austronesian Colonisation,
Chapter 3 The Age of European Discovery,
Chapter 4 Polynesia: Trade and Social Change,
Chapter 5 Polynesia: Missionaries and Kingdoms,
Chapter 6 Polynesia: European Settlement and the Later Kingdoms,
Chapter 7 Melanesia: Sandalwood and 'Blackbirding',
Chapter 8 Melanesia: Missionaries and Colonists,
Chapter 9 Micronesia: Colonisation, Commerce and Christianity,
Chapter 10 Imperialist Intervention,
Chapter 11 After a Century of Contact,
Chapter 11 After a Century of Contact,
Chapter 12 Early Experiments in Colonial Government: 1 The British Empire,
Chapter 13 Early Experiments in Colonial Government: France, Germany and the United States,
Chapter 14 Civilising Colonialism: The League of Nations Experiment,
Chapter 15 Certainty and Insecurity 1914–45,
Chapter 16 Planning a New World,
Chapter 17 Independence Bestowed,
Chapter 18 Independence Retarded,
Chapter 19 Post-colonial Trends,
Chapter 20 Democratic Variations,
Appendix: Basic Facts,
Further Reading,
Index,
Copyright,