FORGOTTEN RACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 774, 21 September 1929, Page 9

FORGOTTEN RACE

Tikopians Preserve Polynesian Customs

HEART OF MELANESIA A mere speck of land in the -w-jst Pacific, but Tikopia Island is sn outpost of Polynesia in the heart of the islands of Melanesia. •pOR centuries, the Tikopians have - 1 - preserved the purity of their Polynesian stock, and have retained customs and characteristics which are revealed the more plainly because of the fiercer Melanesian traits of neighbouring peoples. Dr. Raymond W. Firth, of Auckland. who recently returned after spending a year among the isolated Tikopians, described some of his observations this wdek to the anthropology and Maori section of the Auckland Institute and Museum. Dr Firth is arranging the results of his research work, and his investigations will be a valuable addition to the knowledge of Polynesian ethnology. Centuries ago, the forefathers of the Tikopians migrated into the centre of the Melanesian groups of the Western Pacific. Detached from their Polynesian cousins of Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, Cook Islands! Tahiti, and further east and northeast to Paumotu, Marquesas and Hawaii, the small colony flourished. Today, after centuries in which Melanesian influences have been successfully countered, the Tikopians have an interesting form of the Polynesian language, absorbing to ini gators because archaic words and word constructions, long obsolete elsewhere in Polynesia, have been retained. Similarly, some of the Tikopian rituals have been preserved without abrupt change. LITTLE INFLUENCED European civilisation has practically passed over the Tikopians; especially has it done so when the influences of civilisation elsewhere in Polynesia are considered. As the Hawaiians revered the great Polynesian god, Maui, by naming an island, as the Maoris believe that Maui fished New Zealand from the sea and likewise perpetuated the name by calling the North Island “the fish of Maui,” so the Tikopians believed that Maui fished their island from beneath the sea. Certain Melanesian words and characteristics have crept into the life of the Tikopians. The islanders are of good stature and the men probably average sft lOin in height. The men wear their hair long and the women have theirs cut short. The law of tapu is still followed closely, and the value of money is unknown to the Tikopians. They trade by bartering. The body tattooing of the men is different from other Polynesian methods and it varies greatly in fashion from the Maori designs. Dr. Firth worked on behalf of the Australian National Research Council.