Publication: Oceania
Publication Date: 01-DEC-04
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Van Heekeren, Deborah
Article Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
This paper began as an attempt to understand a ceremony enacted by a group of women during my PhD fieldwork (undertaken in 2001) in a village near Hula on the south east coast of Papua New Guinea. (1) The group was the United Church Women's Fellowship (UCWF) and the ceremony was my own incorporation into the village through the formal presentation of garden food. This was only one of a number of Christian celebrations that I attended which centred on feasting and food distribution. The Hula have also creatively appropriated the secular events of the Western calendar. Mother's Day, Father's Day and New Year, for instance, are all celebrated under the umbrella of the United Church in villages in the Hula area. Such celebrations point to the pervasiveness of Christianity which today regulates village life and also to the extent to which the Hula have assimilated a variety of foreign practices into their contemporary lifeworld. Although the United Church has a presence in other areas of Papua New Guinea (making up 13.1% of all Papua New Guinean Christians in the 1990 census), village ceremonies are highly localized in content, procedure and significance.
Over the past decade Melanesianist anthropology has increasingly given attention to the influence of Christianity on local communities. This has often been linked to capitalism and colonialism and viewed in terms of Christianity's modernising and globalising potential. Christianity therefore is purported to constitute a fundamental aspect of the process of social change. Discussions of this nature commonly draw their strength from comparisons across pre-contact and post-contact periods (see for example Tuzin 1997, LiPuma 2000, Knauft 2002, Gewertz and Errington 1991, 1996, Otto and Borsboom 1997), particularly in inland areas where contact was relatively late in comparison to coastal areas and where the impact of the European encounter appeared to be sudden and dramatic. Areas such as the south eastern coast of Papua New Guinea which have experienced long-term Christianization provide an important contrast to such studies. The examination of the experience of Christianity over periods of up to a century and a quarter foregrounds continuities with the past and highlights unique transformations. The small-scale and often very localized practices which have emerged as indigenous expressions of the introduced religion also preserve aspects of the past which are ontologically fundamental.
My analytical purpose is the investigation of Hula ontology and cosmology which I glimpsed in the practices of the Iru-ale UCWF in 2001. The task is a difficult one. There has been very little anthropological research undertaken in the Hood Point area. Patrol Reports and mission accounts offer valuable, though scant, information. Nigel Oram's socio-economic studies of the 1960s are significant yet provide only a fragmentary beginning to my own project. In a previous article jointly published with Michael Goddard I argued that contemporary Hula express a sense of loss--of what they perceive as a local tradition--which they attribute to the influence of Christianity (2003:156). There it was pointed out that such a view would be contested by the anthropologist aware of the very Melanesian exigencies of kinship and exchange relationships evident in Christian sociality (ibid.). (2) A particular mode of existence--what it is to be Hula in all its plenitude--is also everywhere in evidence. The contours of this aspect of the Hula lifeworld have, nonetheless, become obscured and are more difficult to discern than social exigencies. Comparisons with Austronesian peoples who share similar socio-historical backgrounds provide important clues for the uncovering of Hula Being.
While the Hula refer to themselves as unequivocally Christian, the Christianity they practise manifests a particular religious duality. Firstly, through participation in the local Church, there is an imperative towards the maintenance of a communal yet Christian identity (3) that connects villagers, through Church membership, to the wider Christian community. Village Churches are links in the chain which forms the Hula circuit (United Church circuits are comprised of about 14 villages). This is linked to other circuits and administrated nationally by the United Church which also has ties with other regions of the Pacific. A United Church member from a Hula village visiting Australia will also feel quite at ease attending that country's 'Uniting' Church. At the same time, it is evident that Christianity in the village is expressed in a local form which embodies an ontology that has its origins in the pre-Christian past. I am not suggesting that the Hula practise a form of religious syncretism. Rather, I am attempting to reveal something of the indigenous character of contemporary Christian practice and its continuities with the past.
I begin with a general description of the Hula and their encounter with Christianity. I then introduce the UCWF and relate the circumstances and ceremony of the food presentation to myself. Much has been written on the economic, political, ritual and symbolic importance of food which is evident across Melanesia. (4) What I focus on here, though, is the very public association between women and food which is expressed in the Christian practices which have come to define village sociality among the Hula. From this perspective I consider the ontological significance of food in Melanesian conceptualisations of the body and the implications of this for understanding Hula cosmology. The theme of nurturance through the transformation of substance is shown to be the mythically inscribed ground of Hula existence. In tracing the twofold dimension which I have identified the 'feeding relationship' emerges as a significant mediator in our attempts to articulate past and present practices. Most importantly, the analysis provides insights into the Hula lifeworld which takes its form in localized expressions of Christianity.
OF FISHING AND CHRISTIANITY
The Hula occupy six villages on the south east coast of Papua New Guinea. They speak an Austronesian language which shares basic vocabulary cognates with other coastal groups in the same province such as the Balawaia and the Motu. Originally known as the Bula'a, or Vula'a, today they take their name from the largest of their villages which lies about 110 kilometres east of Port Moresby. Kaparoko, Irupara and Alewai together with Hula constitute what has come to be known as the western group, while Alukuni lies east of Hood Bay and Viriolo Kapari further east towards Cape Rodney. Since the 1960s a significant proportion of the Hula population have migrated to the National Capital District but most maintain ties with the villages. In total the Hula number more than 4000. My research was conducted mainly in Irupara, a small village with a population of about 550, (5) but I also visited neighbouring Hula villages and nearby inland villages with whom the Hula have close ties through marriage, negotiated land usage, and the United Church.
In modern times Alukuni is considered an ancestral village, although it is commonly acknowledged that the Hula originally came from the Marshall Lagoon area. According to Oram, either a small group, or a single family, possibly from the village of Waiori, were allowed by the dominant group of that section of the coast, the Keapara, to settle off the shore around the middle of the 18th century (1968:244). They built their houses on stilts about two hundred metres from the shoreline--a common practice in all the Hula villages until the 1950s--and depended on the Keapara, with whom they traded fish for vegetables and canoes, for their livelihood (ibid.). They owned no land. Towards the end of the eighteenth century a group, led by the brothers La'a and Leva Lui, left Alukuni in their canoes and, through negotiations with the Makerupu people--which included the giving in marriage of two of their sisters--founded the village of Hula at Hood Point. Alewai and Irupara were settled soon afterwards and while the Hula continued to fish they also began to make gardens.
At the time of European contact Hula social organization was based on residential units called kwalu, a term which modern-day Hula translate as 'clan'. (6) Kwalu were formed from smaller units known as kepo (literally a large double-hulled trading canoe without sails or masts). The kepo were named canoes large enough to hold a lineage group. They were particularly important in defining residential patterns in the newly established villages. Kepo members built their houses on mangrove piles over the sea. The house of a kepo head was distinguished by a large verandah on which the fishing nets were hung. This was also the place where ceremonies took place. Important group functions such as the making of large nets and the building of trading canoes were undertaken within the kepo (Oram 1968:246). Ritual functions such as the opening of the season for a particular type of fish were performed by kwalu heads.7 The first Irupara village consisted of two kepo lines of about six houses each built approximately 200 metres from shore. By the early part of the 20th century, when the second village was built closer to shore, there were five lines and 23 houses in which four kwalu were represented--three Hula and one from the inland villages. This residential pattern reflected a local emphasis on marriage alliances rather than descent groups--an important point because it explains why the people of Irupara (and neighbouring Alewai) often insist that 'we are all family'. There is great significance given to the notion of 'family' in the coastal villages. The term is the legacy of the Christian missions. In the context of Church activities the Hula have adopted the term as the missions intended but importantly they also use it to refer to the extended village family when it is considered appropriate.
While kinship (in the anthropological sense) displays a number of cognatic elements, the Hula continue to employ a patrilineal idiom with regard to matters of inheritance, and senior men take pride in reciting gulu ai (literally 'generations counting') that link them to village founders and map the relationships of village families. This knowledge is the province of vele para (an old man whose knowledge makes him a 'king') and is passed on, with other knowledge that is valuable to the lineage, to a worthy heir. 'Vele' is also used as a substitute for kwalu when the latter is being referred to by the vele para. Gulu ai knowledge is not used primarily to identify membership in a certain group but, rather, to explain how individuals are related to each other. Traditionally such knowledge served to circumvent conflict in the village as the vele para pointed to a family connection that was more important than the issue under dispute. Residence is usually, although not strictly, patrilocal. The women of the Hula villages are not all Hula-born. Many have married in from neighbouring villages, and from more distant coastal areas. They bring with them a diversity of skills and receive instruction in local gardening techniques from their in-laws. The historical importance of marriage alliances in expanding and strengthening the Hula villages cannot be overstated. Such alliances were also significant in establishing trade relationships.
The Hula engaged in elaborate trade networks with the Motu-Koita and Kerema people further west as well as with neighbouring inland villages, exchanging fish for vegetables, sago and clay pots (Oram 1968:248). They also visited the Balawaia beaches taking fish, sago and arm-shells which they exchanged for pork, vegetables, bird of paradise plumes and boars' tusks (Kolia 1977:33). Trading alliances were matched by complex fighting alliances. Although there is evidence that smaller-scale inter-village conflicts continued into the early mission period (Beswick 1879-81:29, 125, Lindt 1887:60, Oram 1981:220-21), according to Hula oral traditions the period between about 1820 and 1860 was a time of intense warfare (see Van Heekeren 2004a: 101-127, Kolia 1977:111-115).
The Hula first encountered Christianity during the early contact period of the London Missionary Society (LMS). The Rev. W. G. Lawes made an initial visit to the area in 1876 and two Pacific Island teachers were placed at Hula the following year (Oram 1971:118). Oram has claimed that the Hula were the first people in the LMS area to enthusiastically adopt Christianity (1968:254). By the end of the Second World War the LMS had consolidated its position in Hula village with almost all social activities being undertaken in the name of the church (ibid.:259). Alewai village, although adjacent to Hula, has stronger ties with Irupara which lies about fifteen minutes walk west along the beach. When these villages were first settled the daughter of one of the founders of Irupara married one of the sons of the founder of Alewai. The woman managed to persuade her husband to move to her village although this was not the custom.
Alewai villagers attended the LMS church that was built in Irupara in 1922. And when the independent Church which grew out of the LMS in 1962, the Papua Ekalesia, merged...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.
More articles from
Oceania
Introduction: HIV and AIDS in rural Papua New Guinea, 01-MAR-07
Sovasova and the problem of sameness: converging interpretive frameworks for making sense of HIV and AIDS in the Trobriand Islands, 01-MAR-07
'Turning sex into a game': Gogodala men's response to the AIDS epidemic and condom promotion in rural Papua New Guinea., 01-MAR-07
Looking for additional articles?
Click here to search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Click here to search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company analysis or best practices in managing your organization, Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible, authoritative information they need to support their business goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting, company research or defining management best practices - Goliath is your leading source for accurate information. |
