Man, Past and Present

by A. H. Keane

The Polynesians are cheerful, dignified, polite, imaginative and intelligent, varying in temperament between the wild and energetic and politically capable Maori to his indolent and politically sterile kinsmen to the north, who have been unnerved by the unvarying uniformity of temperature. Wherever possible, they are agriculturalists, growing yams, sweet potatoes and taro. Coconuts, bread-fruit and bananas form the staple food in many islands. Scantily endowed with fertile soil and edible plants the Polynesians have gained command over the sea which everywhere surrounds them, and have developed into the best seamen among primitive races. Large sailing double canoes were formerly in use, and single canoes with an outrigger are still made. Native costume for men is made of bark cloth, and for women ample petticoats of split and plaited leaves. Ornaments, with the exception of flowers, are sparingly worn. The bow and arrow are unknown, short spears, clubs and slings are used, but no shields. The arts of writing, pottery making, loom-weaving and the use of metals were, with few exceptions, unknown, but mat-making, basketry and the making of tapa were carried to a high pitch, and Polynesian bark-cloth is the finest in the world.

Throughout Polynesia the community is divided into nobles or chiefs, freemen and slaves, which divisions are, by reason of tabu, as sharp as those of caste. They fall into those which participate in the divine, and those which are wholly excluded from it. Women have a high position, and men do their fair share of work. Polygyny is universal, being limited only by the wealth of the husband, or the numerical preponderance of the men. Priests have considerable influence, there are numerous gods, sometimes worshipped in the outward form of idols, and ancestors are deified.

Polynesian culture has been analysed by W. H. R. Rivers[1349], and the following briefly summarises his results. At first sight the culture appears very simple, especially as regards language and social structure, while there is a considerable degree of uniformity in religious belief. Everywhere we find the same kind of higher being or god and the resemblance extends even to the name, usually some form of the word atua. In material culture also there are striking similarities, though here the variations are more definite and obvious, and the apparent uniformity is probably due to the attention given to the customs of chiefs, overlooking the culture of the ordinary people where more diversity is discoverable.

There is much that points to the twofold nature of Polynesian culture. The evidence from the study of the ritual indicates the presence of two peoples, an earlier who interred their dead in a sitting posture like the dual people of Melanesia[1350], and a later, who became chiefs and believed in the need for the preservation of the dead among the living. All the evidence available, physical and cultural, points to the conjecture that the early stratum of the population of Polynesia was formed by an immigrant people who also found their way to Melanesia.

The later stream of settlers can be identified with the kava-people[1350]. Kava was drunk especially by the chiefs, and the accompanying ceremonial shows its connection with the higher ranks of the people. The close association of the Areoi (secret society) of eastern Polynesia with the chiefs is further proof. Thus both in Melanesia and in Polynesia the chiefs who preserved their dead are identified with the founders of secret societies—organisations which came into being through the desire of an immigrant people to practise their religious rites in secret. Burial in the extended position occurs in Tikopia, Tonga and Samoa—perhaps it may have been the custom of some special group of the kava-people. Chiefs were placed in vaults constructed of large stones—a feature unknown elsewhere in Oceania. It is safe also to ascribe the human design which has undergone conventionalisation in Polynesia to the kava-people. The geometric art through which the conventionalisation was produced belonged to the earlier inhabitants who interred their dead in the sitting position.

Polynesian Communism.

Money, if it exists at all, occupies a very unimportant place in the culture of the people. There is no evidence of the use of any object in Polynesia with the definite scale of values which is possessed by several kinds of money in Melanesia. The Polynesians are largely communistic, probably more so than the Melanesians, and afford one of the best examples of communism in property with which we are acquainted. This feature may be ascribed to the earlier settlers. The suggestion that the kava-people never formed independent communities in Polynesia, but were accepted at once as chiefs of those among whom they settled would account for the absence of money (for which there was no need), and the failure to disturb in any great measure the communism of the earlier inhabitants. Communism in property was associated with sexual communism. There is evidence that Polynesian chiefs rarely had more than one wife, while the licentiousness which probably stood in a definite relation to the communism of the people is said to have been more pronounced among the lower strata of the community. Both communism and licentiousness appear to have been much less marked in the Samoan and Tongan islands, and here there is no evidence of interment in the sitting position. These and other facts support the view that the influence of the kava-people was greater here than in the more eastern islands: probably it was greatest in Tikopia, which in many respects differs from other parts of Polynesia.

Magic and Religion.

Magic is altogether absent from the culture of Tikopia and it probably took a relatively unimportant place throughout Polynesia. In Tikopia the ghosts of dead ancestors and relatives as well as animals are atua and this connotation of the word appears to be general in other parts of Polynesia. These may be regarded as the representatives of the ghosts and spirits of Melanesia. The vui of Melanesia may be represented by the tii of Tahiti, beings not greatly respected, who had to some extent a local character. This comparison suggests that the ancestral ghosts belong to the culture of the kava-people, and that the local spirits are derived from the culture of the people who interred their dead in the sitting position, from which people the dual people of Melanesia derived their beliefs and practices.

To sum up. Polynesian culture is made up of at least two elements, an earlier, associated with the practice of interring the dead in a sitting position, communism, geometric art, local spirits and magical rites, and a later, which practised preservation of the dead. These latter may be identified with the kava-people while the earlier Polynesian stratum is that which entered into the composition of the dual-people of Melanesia at a still earlier date, and introduced the Austronesian language into Oceania[1351].