Man, Past and Present Part 60

Polynesian culture has been a.n.a.lysed 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sociation 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.

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 a.s.sociated with s.e.xual 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 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, a.s.sociated 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].

FOOTNOTES:

[1194] Cf. J. Dechelette, _Manuel d'archeologie prehistorique_, Vol. II.

1910, p. 2, and for neolithic trade routes, _ib._ Vol. I. p. 626.

[1195] The Tell-el-Amarna correspondence contains names of chieftains in Syria and Palestine about 1400 B.C., including the name of Tushratta, king of Mitanni; the Boghaz Keui doc.u.ment with Iranian divine names, and Babylonian records of Iranian names from the Persian highlands, are a little later in date.

[1196] J. L. Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, p. 200.

[1197] Cf. P. Giles, Art. "Indo-European Languages" in _Ency. Brit._ 1911.

[1198] S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_, 1913, pp. 40 and 486-528.

[1199] O. Schrader, _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_, 3rd ed.

1906-7.

[1200] G. Kossinna, _Die Herkunft der Germanen_, 1911.

[1201] H. Hirt, _Die Indogermanen, ihre Verbreitung, ihre Urheimat und ihre Kultur_, 1905-7.

[1202] S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_, 1913, pp. 40 and 486-528.

[1203] _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, I. 1913, p. 49.

[1204] See Note 3, p. 441 above.

[1205] Art. "Indo-European Languages," _Ency. Brit._ 1911, p. 500.

[1206] Centum (hard guttural) group is the name applied to the Western and entirely European branches of the Indo-European family, as opposed to the satem (sibilant) group, situated mainly in Asia.

[1207] _The Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 17 and chap. XVII. European origins: Race and Language: The Aryan Question.

[1208] S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_, 1913, pp. 497, 501 ff.

[1209] Cf. T. Rice Holmes, _Caesar's Conquest of Gaul_, 1911, p. 273.

[1210] E. de Michelis, _L'origine degli Indo-Europei_, 1905.

[1211] Even Sweden, regarded as the home of the purest Nordic type, already had a brachycephalic mixture in the Stone Age. See G. Retzius, "The So-called North European Race of Mankind," _Journ. Roy. Anthrop.

Inst._ x.x.xIX. 1909, p. 304.

[1212] Cf. E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, 1909, l. 2, -- 551.

[1213] For the working out of this hypothesis see T. Peisker, "The Expansion of the Slavs," _Cambridge Medieval History_, Vol. II. 1913.

[1214] H. M. Chadwick, Art. "Teutonic Peoples" in _Ency. Brit._ 1911.

Cf. S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_, 1913, p. 480.

[1215] See R. Much, Art. "Germanen," J. Hoops' _Reallexikon d. Germ.

Altertumskunde_, 1914.

[1216] H. M. Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_, 1907, pp.

210-215. For a full account of the affinities of the _Cimbri_ and _Teutoni_ see T. Rice Holmes, _Caesar's Conquest of Gaul_, 1911, pp.

546-553.

[1217] Paper read at the Meeting of the Ger. Anthrop. Soc., Spiers, 1896. Figures of Bastarnae from the Adamklissi monument and elsewhere are reproduced in H. Hahne's _Das Vorgeschichtliche Europa: Kulturen und Volker_, 1910, figs. 144, 149. Cf. T. Peisker, "The Expansion of the Slavs," _Camb. Med. Hist._ Vol. II. 1913, p. 430.

[1218] Cf. H. M. Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_, 1907, pp.

174 and 219.

[1219] _Monuments runiques_ in _Mem. Soc. R. Ant. du Nord_, 1893.

[1220] "Lactea cutis" (Sidonius Apollinaris).

[1221] W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 205 ff. See also O.

Montelius, _Kulturgeschichte Schwedens_, 1906; G. Retzius and C. M.

Furst, _Anthropologica Suecica_, 1902.

[1222] Commonly called the Borreby type from skulls found at Borreby in the island of Falster, which resemble Round Barrow skulls in Britain.

[1223] For Denmark consult _Meddelelser om Danmarks Antropologi_ udgivne af den Antropologiske Komite, with English summaries, Bd. I. 1907-1911, Bd. II. 1913.

[1224] The results were tabulated by Virchow and may be seen, without going to German sources, in W. Z. Ripley's map, p. 222, of _The Races of Europe_, 1900, where the whole question is fully dealt with.

[1225] See Ripley's Craniological chart in "Une carte de l'Indice Cephalique en Europe," _L'Anthropologie_, VII. 1896, p. 513.

[1226] The case is stated in uncompromising language by Alfred Fouillee: "Une autre loi, plus generalement admise, c'est que depuis les temps prehistoriques, les brachycephales tendent a eliminer les dolichocephales par l'invasion progressive des couches inferieures et l'absorption des aristocraties dans les democraties, ou elles viennent se noyer" (_Rev. des Deux Mondes_, March 15, 1895).

[1227] _Recherches Anthrop. sur le Probleme de la Depopulation_, in _Rev. d'economie politique_, IX. p. 1002; X. p. 132 (1895-6).

[1228] _Nature_, 1897, p. 487. Cf. also A. Thomson, "Consideration of ... factors concerned in production of Man's Cranial Form," _Journ.

Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xIII. 1903, and A. Keith, "The Bronze Age Invaders of Britain," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLV. 1915.