ANUTA: Polynesian Lifeways for the Twenty-First Century

Endnotes

225 Endnotes Chapter 1 1 Anutans often use abbreviations for names of more than two syllables. For example, Pu Koroatu usually is rendered Pu Vatu, Pu Nukumanaia is Pu Nuku, Pu Teukumarae is Pu Teuku, and Pu Penuakimoana is Pu Moana. In normal conversation, Anutans shorten Pu Tokerau to Pu Toke. 2 Four years later, a friend told me that the sign had been changed to read, “Danger ! Risk of sharks extreme beyond three feet!” By the time of my next visit to Honiara in 1983, the Solomon Islands had become an independent nation, and acquisition of hard currency was a pressing problem. One proposed solution was to promote tourism. The sign at the Mendana Hotel had been dutifully removed, and people were encouraged to swim. The previous warnings had apparently exaggerated the risk of shark attack. 3 This approach may be seen in such works as Malinowski’s Argonauts of the Western Pacific 1984[1922], Sexual Life of Savages (1929), and A Scientific Theory of Culture 1969 [1944] or Firth’s We, the Tikopia (1963[1936]), Primitive Polynesian Economy 1965[1939], and Essays on Social Organization and Values (1964a). 4 “Interpretive” or “symbolic” anthropology is well illustrated in Geertz’s The Interpretation of Cultures (1973) or Schneider’s American Kinship (1968) and A Critique of the Study of Kinship (1984). For my views on the concept of culture and its relationship to the social system, see Feinberg (1979b, 1981a, and 2001a). Chapter 2 1 For these coordinates and the relative positions of various islands, I am indebted to Paul Teferomu of the Solomon Islands’ Hydrography Department and British Admi- 226 Endnotes ralty Chart No. 780 (1960). Other estimates have varied slightly from the figures presented here (cf. Yen, et al. 1973:1), but not by more than a few miles. According to the GPS system of the Solomon Islands’ ship MV Eastern Trader the exact coordinates of Anuta’s anchorage, as recorded in October 2000, are 11o36.280 S and 169o50.550 E. 2 On charts and maps, Patutaka is usually listed as Mitre Island or Fataka. The latter is a misrepresentation of the Tikopian pronunciation, Fatutaka—a mistake that is easy to make since in rapid speech the unstressed /u/ has a tendency to disappear. The name is a compound of the Anutan words patu and taka. Patu means ‘rock’ or ‘stone.’ while taka connotes something that stands alone or wanders about, as an unmarried person. The name, then, might be rendered in English as ‘Lone Stone’ or ‘Wandering Stone’—a rather appropriate designation for a single monolith protruding from the ocean floor thirty miles from the nearest bit of land, that is difficult for even accomplished navigators to locate, and lacks virtually all forms of terrestrial life. 3 A study by Rosendahl and Kirch in late 1971 is the only serious archaeological work ever done on Anuta. The conclusions of this two-month investigation are compiled in Yen and Gordon (1973); for commentaries on this work see Davidson (1975) and Feinberg (1976). Somewhat more attention has been paid to linguistics (Firth 1954; Bayard 1966; Pawley 1967; Elbert n.d.; Green 1971; Yen n.d.; Biggs n.d.a, n.d.b, n.d.c, 1980; Feinberg 1977). In addition, my collection of Anutan oral traditions (Feinberg 1998a) includes 46 Anutan language texts. 4 For a detailed account of Anutan oral traditions, see Feinberg (1998a). Firth (1954:121–22), Yen, et al. (1973:6–8), Kirch and Rosendahl (1973), Davidson (1975), and Feinberg (1976, 1989) also discuss aspects of Anutan history. 5 Motikitiki is related to a character appearing in myths distributed through most of Polynesia. He is known in other communities by such names as Maui (Hawai’i), Maui-a-tikitiki (Maori), Mautikitiki (Rennell and Bellona), and Metikitiki (Tikopia). 6 The story I was given on Anuta coincides in most of its essentials with that related to Firth by Tikopia’s Ariki Taumako in 1952 (Firth 1954:121). Pu Ariki is more commonly known on Tikopia as Pu Lasi; both names refer to the same man. 7 According to Moses Purianga, one of Anuta’s leading authorities on oral traditions, Pu Kaurave was a member of the Tui Tonga line, but his mother was Uvean, and he was born and raised on Uvea. Purianga also indicated that the Uveans and Tongans voyaged in one double-hulled canoe rather than two single-hulled outrigger vessels (see Feinberg 1998a:13). 8 An Anutan adult typically has a marital name...