Routledge Revivals
Tikopia Ritual and Belief
First published in 1967, this book gives some of the fruits of the author's study of Tikopia ways of thought as the result of three field expeditions. Most Polynesians became Christians more than a century ago but Tikopia had a substantial pagan population until quite recent years. This book of essays describes rites and beliefs of a people who still maintained their traditional institutions remote from civilization. Studies of totemism, of magic and of beliefs in the fate of the soul in the afterworld, not only throw light on Polynesian attitudes but also contribute to the interpretation of standard theoretical problems in social anthropology. Studies of rumour, suicide, and a new essay on spirit mediumship, also provide links between social anthropology and psychology. A general review based on the author's visit in 1966 describes the modern position after the adoption of Christianity.
No people have ever been studied from this point of view in such minute detail and with such scholarly documentation. The picture of life in this island is presented in the most readable form, for Dr Firth is a master of English prose. Listener
The value of this book lies in just this careful observation of intimate human relationships, and in the wealth of material on which its conclusions are based. New Statesman
To anthropologists, the publication of this book is an important event. Psychologists, sociologists and all who take a less professional interest in the expression of the basic human emotions in an unfamiliar setting will study it with profit and those who ask no more than the romance of distant skies may read it with pleasure. Spectator
Tikopia Ritual and Belief
Raymond Firth
First published in Britain in 1967
by George Allen and Unwin Ltd
This edition first published in 2011 by Routledge
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1967 George Allen & Unwin Ltd
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A Library of Congress record exists under ISBN: 67087599
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-69468-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-14544-9 (ebk)
Tikopia Ritual and Belief
RAYMOND FIRTH
F.B.A.
Prqfessor of Anthropology in the University of London
First published in 1967
First published in the United States by Beacon Press in 1967
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.
Copyright 1967 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Library of Congress catalog card number: 67-12333
Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Published as a Beacon Paperback in 1968
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
Between pages 967
INTRODUCTION
The set of essays in this book constitutes Volume II of my studies on Tikopia religion and associated topics. (Volume I is represented by The Work of the Gods in Tikopia, London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology, Nos. I and 2, 1940, second edition, 1967; Rank and Religion in Tikopia, a work long in draft, and the publication of which will now follow soon, I hope, is intended to be Volume III.)
All but one of the essays have been published before. (Chapter 14, on spirit mediumship, is new and has beeen written especially for this volume.)
To give the reader a general idea of the background to the rites and beliefs described, I have given as Chapter I, under the head of an 'Outline ofTikopia Culture', my original report on research in Tikopia prepared immediately after my return from my first expedition in 19289. Then follow chapters on ritual procedures in three characteristic fieldschildbirth and adolescence; status display; and organized friendshipwhich cut across lineage structure. The first two of these essays take up the problem of the representativeness of ritual, which I think is of importance and has often been overlooked. The essays on rumour, dreams and suicide illustrate action and belief in various fields where irrational motivations of individuals are expressed in a commingled personal and social idiom. The studies of rumour and of suicide have, I think, some originality as contributions to areas little worked by anthropologists. The studies of mana, magic and totemism, too, were designed to put forward various rather unorthodox views.
These essays are not simply a study in 'primitive' practice and ideology. Traditionally Tikopia ritual and belief were very complex, and the increasing contact of the Tikopia with the outer world, including proselytizing Christianity, gave rise to some fresh complexities. Most of the essays include data collected not only in 19289 but also in 1952 on my second expedition and refer to various aspects of social change. The last three essays in particular, with the final commentary from 1966, illustrate some of the intricate adjustments Tikopia have made, especially in their beliefs, to the new challenging situations.
The essays in this volume deal with a variety of Tikopia ideas and practices. But they all have in common the same component of interest with concerns beyond the technology, economies and social relations of everyday affairs. Ceremonies for children or ceremonies of bond friendship involve practices carried out with formality and attention to more than technical detail. This indicates that these practices have a general referent, and signify a type of social relationship exceeding that of the immediate occasion. The interpretation of dreams, ideas of magic or assertions about the possession of mana, assume the operation of forces and the existence of entities outside the ordinary technical sphere. Most of the situations described display a commingling of components, so that formalization of behaviour is linked with a belief in the presence or operation of spirit powers or other extra-human forces.
Tikopia traditional belief postulated an elaborate spirit world peopled by ghosts of the recently dead, spirits of ancestors and a great range of other types of spirits, including many who have never been men. These were believed to be able to affect the lives of men in many ways, from encounters with spirits in dreams to action by spirits on the fertility of crops and catches of fish. Many of these spirit figures were built into the structure of the Tikopia religious system by associating them with lineages and lineage leaders, especially in the standard rite of the kava, which involved invocation of the spirits and libations and offerings to them. In
