Syncretism

Although Christianity has been established for the better part of a century on almost all the Polynesian outliers, belief in the truth and efficacy of pre-Christian religion remains widespread. Not only are islanders convinced that the old spiritual beings once existed and acted in the manner commonly attributed to them; most continue to believe in those spirits’ existence as well as the efficacy of mana and tapu. These are still thought to be distributed through the universe according to long-standing principles associated with genealogical seniority, gender, and connection to powerful spirits (or, most often now, the Christian God).

By 1980, the oldest of Tikopia’s four chiefs, the Ariki Taumako, was the only one who had taken part in the old rituals. While his fellow chiefs at the time of their conversion had destroyed or buried their ritual paraphernalia, the Ariki Taumako reported to Macdonald that he still kept his in a small hut behind his house, which he referred to (in English) as a “museum.” Firth had told him that sacred objects from many times and places were kept in houses thus named in England. Each day he made a small food offering to the objects in the museum.

Today, non-Christian gods are rarely if ever worshipped on any of the outliers, with the exception of Takū. Anuta’s kava ceremonies, Tikopia’s Work of the Gods, Ontong Java’s sanga, and similar rites are no longer held. However, seizures, while no longer associated with mediumship, are often thought to indicate spirit possession. People are reluctant to walk alone at night, particularly in areas known for spirit activity. Anutans generally attribute serious illness and misfortune to the victim’s flauting tapu restrictions or failure to respect persons with greater mana than themselves. And Taumako people attribute debilitating illnesses to the activities of kau, kovea, or, most often, sua lele. In 2008, Taumako’s priest warned Feinberg never to walk about alone on Ndeni or other the large islands of Temotu Province, owing to the danger magical attack by a “wild man” (tangata tuvao). And even on the thoroughly Christianized Sikaiana of the 1980s, Donner (personal communication) says most islanders continued:

… to believe that the powers of both spirit mediums and island-wide [religious] activities were once effective and, in some sense, real or true. Christianity was deemed more effective and, therefore, preferable. Nonetheless, some people still believed in ghosts or spirits who might occupy particular areas, and I saw people teased for fearing to go past certain places. Many Sikaiana remained concerned about arguably-supernatural events, such as ausia ‘premonitions’ or ‘forewarnings’. Many people still attributed misfortune or good fortune to supernatural causes. Such causes might involve the Christian God or older spiritual forces, but virtually all Sikaiana were convinced that God was the ultimate power.

On some of the Polynesian outliers, certain of the aboriginal rituals continue to be practiced. In 1972, Feinberg observed a nuanga ceremony on Anuta, and Macdonald observed the same ceremony on Tikopia in 1980. This is done to process turmeric, called the “perfume of the gods.” The nuanga had been part of the old ceremonial system and consisted of two to three weeks of withdrawal from everyday life, with elaborate taboos and restrictions surrounding the process. On both Tikopia and Anuta in the 1970s and 1980s, the ceremony had been somewhat shortened; but chiefs and ritual elders assumed their traditional ceremonial roles.

While these beliefs and practices persist, they commonly are integrated into an avowedly Christian worldview. Islanders on most of the outliers depend on the church for protection from evil spirits. In 2000, Anutans, confident that God was guarding them, occasionally took nighttime strolls through isolated portions of their island. God (Te Tupua Tapu) is said to be the source of all mana (te tapito o te manū katoa). Should one contract an illness attributed to taboo violation, the usual response is Christian prayer. One Vaeakau man told Feinberg in 2008 that he did not fear “wild men” when traveling at night near Lata on Ndeni Island because the church now kept them all in check. Brothers of the Church of Melanesia place Taumako gardens and areca orchards under tapu, calling on the church’s mana to enforce their restrictions. They use Christian prayers and rituals to detect magical paraphernalia that would-be sorcerers keep hidden in their homes. And magical spells on Taumako typically involve the sign of the cross as well as words invoking the help of the Christian God. On West Futuna many islanders believe that Christian ideals are local and preceded the coming of the European missionaries. Individuals take care to point out the themes in traditional narratives that they see replicated in Christian doctrine.

In one sense, the survival of aboriginal religious beliefs and practices in the new context of imported Christian cosmology is just the latest, and a particularly powerful case, of religious mixing and recombination that has been occurring in these islands since they were first inhabited. When people do recognize that syncretism has occurred, it can breed anti-syncretism, or identifying and promoting an idea or practice thought to represent a pure or more “authentic” tradition (Stewart and Shaw 1994). Under some conditions, this takes the guise of fundamentalism. In the Polynesian outliers, syncretism has usually occurred without such notions of purity; indeed, much of the syncretism is neither visible nor salient to believers, who often find important aspects the aboriginal religion fully compatible with Christianity.