Taro root is another important foodstuff in Polynesia. Early Hawaiians relied on taro as a staple starch in their diet. In some parts of Polynesia—Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Marquesas in particular—men and women used to eat separately. In general, this pattern is no longer followed except in the most traditional communities and in certain ceremonial contexts. Western-style education has become the standard in Polynesia.
Many Polynesians attend colleges and universities both inside and outside the region. Polynesia has a rich tradition of vocal and instrumental music. Some types of musical expression have been lost and some new ones have been created as a result of missionary activity in the region. Christian hymns have had considerable influence in the style of vocal music in Polynesia.
The Tahitian vocal music known as himene from the English word "hymn" blends European counterpoint two or more lines of music sung at the same time with Tahitian drone-style singing. One of the most well-known Polynesian musical instruments is the Hawaiian ukulele.
It is the Hawaiian version of the Portuguese mandolin, which came to the islands with Portuguese immigrants in the s. The primary use of Hawaiian flutes and drums was to accompany the graceful and erotic dance known as the hula. Throughout the Polynesian world there is a traditional division of labor along the lines of gender.
Men are responsible for fishing, construction, and protection of the family units. Women are responsible for collecting and processing horticultural products and for manufacturing basketry items and bark cloth. Both sexes participate in gardening activities. Throughout Polynesia, modern types of employment are to be found in the cities and towns. Arm wrestling was a traditional Polynesian form of male entertainment as a competition of strength.
Other forms of competition between males were common throughout the islands as ways to prepare for battle. Because native warfare is no longer practiced in Polynesia, these forms of competition have either disappeared or have been modified. Surfing was also popular in many parts of Polynesia, although it was only in Hawaii that surfers stood on their surf-boards. The worldwide sport of surfing originated through European observation of this traditional Polynesian pastime.
Most parts of Polynesia have running water and electricity. Television has made its way into most Polynesian communities. In some parts of the region, Polynesian peoples are taking control of the images of themselves presented in the popular media, producing popular films as well as documentaries.
Decoration of everyday objects of utilitarian nature is common in most Polynesian societies. Woodcarving has been particularly well developed among the Maori of New Zealand. In most Polynesian societies, the designs and patterns that appeared on bark cloth or woodcarvings also appeared on the human body in the form of tattoos.
In some societies, tattooing was the primary art form. Many traditional art forms, including tattooing, are being revived in many Polynesian societies. The right to self-determination the right to make their own decisions is important for many Polynesian peoples. Increased nuclear testing in French Polynesia is a central concern for the region and the world.
Groups like the Maori continue to deal with the social problems of alcoholism and domestic violence. The recent film Once Were Warriors is a moving, insightful portrayal of the modern life of the Maori. Gell, A. Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia. New York: Oxford University Press, Goldman, I. Ancient Polynesian Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Hooper, Anthony, and Judith Huntsman.
Transformations of Polynesian Culture. Melville, Herman. New York: Wiley and Putnam, Embassy of New Zealand, Washington, D. World Travel Guide.
New Zealand. Toggle navigation. Also read article about Polynesians from Wikipedia. User Contributions: 1. Visited Samoa ie. Western a year ago for business. If you go you will see a paradise. You will be greeted by fresh salt air and fragrant perfume of flowers. People are friendly. Policemen wear lava lava and don't need guns. Everyone seems to know your business in a nice way. In Samoa one can be rained on without being cold, then be surprised to be dry shortly later.
A magical place to be sure CS. Mark in Scotland. Thank you for this insight into the Polynesians. I love their culture and it has always had a mystery to me seeing as I'm on the other side of the world! Now if only I can find enough money to travel there Would like to add We don't really have 'classes' as you mention about Tahiti, but rather status within families, as anyone can work their way up to earn a family chief title, and also becoming a chief does not make them a class of their own as they are answerable to their village and community and most of all to their family.
If there is class distinctions on some islands, then that has come with European and missionaries, ie, Tonga Kingdom with their adoption of the European feudal system which classes their people as 'nobles' and 'commoners'. Also in the past, with the admixture of Polynesian and European, a distinct class of half-castes tended to be the more 'privileged' class.
In Samoa, the women are tattooed as well as the men, also women have as much right to chief titles. The most famous goddess warrior in legends is a woman called Nafanua. Samoa is the only Polynesian nation to have retained the master art of 'Tatau' tattoo and survived colonization. Samoan master tatooists tufuga helped to revive the traditional tattooing practice from Hawaii, Tahiti, to New Zealand.
Samoa is also one of the few islands to retain and hold onto the Polynesian chief system that is still practiced to this day by all Samoan families, and in every single village. Fijians have many interesting customs, one of which is not wearing hats. The head is sacred in Fijian culture.
Visitors to the country may struggle with all the sunshine but will find Fijians appreciative if they follow along and keep their head unadorned. Hawaiian culture goes back a long time and is full of interesting traditions.
This allowed them to raise far more fish than they could gather from the nearby ocean. Hawaiian buildings did not have rooms with separate purposes, but rather each building had one purpose. One would be for eating, another sleeping, and another for housing the sick, for example. Playing was done outside, and women and men ate separately, the boys eating with their mothers until the age of around 7 or 8. Food was cooked in an underground oven and served as one large meal, midday.
These are just some of the distinct Hawaiian traditions. Tahiti is now home to people that are of mixed Polynesian and French descent.
French is the official language of Tahiti, but people there also speak Tahitian and often English, or another island language. Weaving, woodcarving, storytelling, and tattooing are all a vibrant part of traditional Tahitian culture, which is strongly tied to nature. Tahitian people, like many Polynesians, are very religious and traditionally, each community had a small stone temple for meeting and worship.
As in many other aspects of life, Polynesian peoples generally took a very direct, realistic, and physical approach to gratification of the senses. Notably, while traditional culture placed clear restrictions on sexual behavior, the fact that the range of acceptable behavior was wider among Polynesians than among the Christian explorers and missionaries who reported it has fostered a stereotype of extreme sexual promiscuity.
In reality, there was no abnormal focus or concentration on any aspect of sensual gratification, a situation in contrast to that seen in many other cultures where, for example, eating, drinking, or sex has become the focus of great cultural elaboration.
Of the many cultural traditions in the Pacific, Polynesian tattooing is considered one of the most intricate and skillful tattooing of the ancient world. Each Polynesian group had their own designs and motifs. Elaborate geometrical designs which were often added to, renewed, and embellished throughout the life of the individual until they covered the entire body.
The Samoan islands probably had one of the more distinctive tattooing traditions, called tatau , applying the designs defined by rank and title and lines of descent, in particular on the thighs and buttocks. The Hawaiians called their tattooing art kakau , and was used to protect their health and spirituality.
Designs resembling woven patterns would be painted on arms, legs, tori and faces on men, while women were tattooed on their hands, fingers and wrists and sometimes tongues.
Body modification was taken to another extreme in New Zealand in a style known as ta-moko whereby designs were carved into the skin with chisels, leaving permanent scars.
The full-face moko was a sign of distinction of status and tribal affiliations. Women often received moko patterns on their chins and lips. Dance and traditional music are also important parts of Polynesian culture. Music was generally religious in nature and in the form of chants accompanied by dance motions. The hula in Hawaiian culture is probably one of the most well known dance forms in the world, but has many variations. Movements of hands, feet, hips and arms provide gestures that illustrate the music or chants.
Music and rhythms were often provided by gourds, nose flutes or shell rattles. In other cultures, drums and wooden sticks were integral to musical experiences. As happened throughout the Pacific, the arrival of western missionaries forced many unique art forms of the Polynesians into decline by discouraging or forbidding them outright, such as tattooing and even hula, and anything seen as sexually provocative.
Recent decades, however, have seen a great resurgence in most traditional art forms and new elaborations that utilize modern innovations and technologies. Within a mere three or four centuries between about and BC, the Lapita archeological culture spread 6, km further to the east from the Bismarck Archipelago, until it reached as far as Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa which were first populated around 3, years ago.
European explorers navigated much of the area in the latter quarter of the 18th century, and the first missionaries arrived in the late s and early s. The sandalwood trade, whaling and the beche-de-mer trade brought more people into the islands, new ideas and new kinds of materials and goods that they traded with the Pacific Islanders. Polynesians also participated in these exchanges, some leaving on whaling or trade ships and traveling to far off lands.
Introduced diseases, alcohol, weapons and violence, however, decimated populations in the islands. Great Britain annexed New Zealand through the Treaty of Waitangi , but interethnic tension arose between the indigenous Maori and the British settlers. In many areas Christianity was also influenced by local traditions and customs.
Many Polynesians were recruited to proselytize other parts of the Pacific, particularly Melanesia. The Hawaiian islands became a changed place, ruled by martial law for the duration of the war and hosting hundreds of thousands of servicemen as they moved through on their way to and from battle. Many younger Japanese men fought for the United States, earning great distinction with the nd Regiment.
The modern era in the Pacific indigenous rights movement may be considered to have begun after World War II in with two major events. The first was the recognition of the right to self-determination for colonized peoples in the newly drafted United Nations Charter under Chapter XI, Article A list of 72 Non-self-governing Territories eligible for decolonization and a process for decolonization were created.
The second major event in was the onset of a year era of Pacific nuclear testing led by the US in the Marshall Islands, followed by the United Kingdom UK in and France in , heightening Cold War tension. The cost of the testing to Pacific islanders was long term human suffering and radiation injury, and other extensive environmental degradation and the lasting bitterness of Pacific islanders.
Moreover, in , France conducted the first of Pacific nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls southeast of Tahiti which ended only after another clamor of world-wide protests 30 years later.
Persistent nuclear detonations by the US and France in spurred the first Nuclear-Free Pacific Conference held in Suva, Fiji, sponsored by a Pacific-wide network of anti-nuclear groups. This alliance of indigenous activists and Western liberals was a major factor in shaping awareness and compelling Pacific governments to take stronger anti-nuclear and anti-colonial stands.
NFIP concluded that a nuclear-free Pacific could be attained only by independence from colonial imperialism. In the same year in Geneva, the UN Cobo Report concluded that discrimination against indigenous peoples was due to their lack of self-determination, that imposed assimilation was a form of discrimination, and that the right of indigenous peoples to cultural distinctiveness, political self-determination and secure land resources should be formally declared by the UN.
Easter Island Rapa Nui is the anomaly of the region. The aboriginal population was so decimated by European-introduced diseases and by slavers in the s that it almost became extinct.
In the island was annexed by Chile; its people are now the only Pacific islanders controlled by a Latin American power. The indigenous Polynesian language also called Rapa Nui survives, but most people also speak Spanish.
With the exception of New Zealand, the majority of independent Polynesian islands derive much of their income from foreign aid and remittances from those who live in other countries.
Some encourage their young people to go where they can earn good money to remit to their stay-at-home relatives. Others advocate a simple life, as has been traditional in the Pacific for centuries. Many Polynesian locations supplement this with tourism income. Others grow cash crops for sale in larger markets. The island groups of Polynesia have the whole spectrum of political statuses with relationships to many larger countries. Other Polynesian islands are British and French overseas territories.
A few of the islands are independent nations, some with free associations with larger countries such as New Zealand, Australia, France, Chile and Great Britain. Campbell, I. A History of the Pacific Islands.
Goldman, I. Ancient Polynesian Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hooper, Anthony, and Judith Huntsman.
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