Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Building Societies on Outer Islands: Sociopolitical Institutions and Their Names in Polynesian Outliers

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Evolution of Social Institutions

Part of the book series: World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures ((WSEGF))

Abstract

The aim of the chapter is to examine sociopolitical terms in Polynesian Outlier societies, propose their etymologies and derive possible historical implications from these. Outliers represent several independent migrations from West Polynesia into Melanesia and Micronesia, many developed in significant isolation under severe ecological constraints. Their typical size is a few hundred persons; some were reduced to fewer than twenty in the nineteenth century and later restored their size. Surprisingly, these societies are complex, stratified into ‘nobles’, ‘commoners’ and ‘slaves’, with a wide range of variation regarding how leadership is organized. We can speculate that their way of life is largely due to the ideas inherited from the great ancestors who lived on big islands in West Polynesia. Etymologies of sociopolitical terms in six Polynesian Outliers imply that the institutions of leadership and larger social groups were constantly created and reinvented in the history of these islands, frequently in accordance with the principle of the growing conical clan. Interestingly enough, many terms for social groups are derived from the words denoting places of residence, indicating that the social groups are constructed as landholding corporations. Expectedly, the words ‘chief’ and ‘noble person’ are more stable than ‘commoner’ and ‘slave’ in the history of Polynesian Outliers.

There are many things in the sea which do not have names.

Nukeria saying, from author’s fieldwork diary of 2013

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The shortening of the vowel is difficult to explain (cf. Donner 1988).

References

  • Bayard, Donn T. 1976. The Cultural Relationships of the Polynesian Outliers. Otago University Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology 9. Dunedin: Department of Anthropology, University of Otago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayliss-Smith, Tim. 1974. Constraints on Population Growth: The Case of the Polynesian Outlier Atolls in the Precontact Period. Human Ecology 2: 259–295.

    Google Scholar 

  • Besnier, Niko. 2000. Tuvaluan: A Polynesian Language of the Central Pacific. London, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biggs, Bruce. 1980. The Position of East ‘Uvean and Anutan in the Polynesian Language Family. Te Reo 23: 115–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birket-Smith, Kaj. 1956. An Ethnological Sketch of Rennell Island: A Polynesian Outlier in Melanesia. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, Peter H. (Te Rangi Hiroa). 1938. Ethnology of Mangareva. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 157. Honolulu, HI: Bernice P. Bishop Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buse, Jasper, and Raututi Taringa. 1996. Cook Islands Maori Dictionary with English-Cook Islands Maori Finderlist. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capell, Arthur. 1935–1936. The Sikayana Language: A Preliminary Grammar and Vocabulary. Journal of the Polynesian Society 44 (175): 163–172, 45 (177): 9–16, 45 (178): 67–73, 45 (180): 142–153, 46 (181): 24–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carneiro, Robert L. 1981. The Chiefdom: Precursor of the State. In The Transition to Statehood in the New World, ed. Grant D. Jones and Robert R. Kautz, 37–79. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, Vern, and Tobias Soulik. 1973. Nukuoro Lexicon. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, Vern. 1966. Nukuoro Kinship. Ph.D. Dissertation. Chicago: University of Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Ross. 1986. Fagauvea and the Southern Outliers. Te Reo 29: 113–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Ross. 1994. The Polynesian Outliers as a Locus of Language Contact. In Language contact and change in the Austronesian world, ed. Tom Dutton, and Darrell T. Tryon, 109–140. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 77. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Ross. 1998. A Dictionary of the Mele Language (Atara Imere), Vanuatu. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davletshin, Albert I. 2015. The Position of Nukeria in the Polynesian Language Family. In The Thirteenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics (13 ICAL). Abstracts, 33–34. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davletshin, Albert I. 2016. Origin and Development of Social and Political Terms in Two Polynesian Languages—Nukeria and Rapanui. Oykumena 36 (1): 57–67. (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Davletshin, Albert I. 2017. Socio-political Organization of the Pre-contact Nukuria According to the Local Oral Tradition. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 142 (1): 49–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davletshin, Albert I. 2018a. Nukeria Creation Story. Anthropos 113: 115–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davletshin, Albert I. 2018b. Case Marking in the Nukeria language and Its Development: Interplay of Semantics and Phonology. In 14 ICAL Madagascar. International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Abstract Book. 17–20 July 2018, 111. Ambohitsaina: University of Antananarivo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davletshin, Albert I. 2018c. Food Distribution among the Polynesian Peoples of Papua New Guinea. In Complex Studies of Pacific Insular Societies, ed. Y.V. Latushko, and K.S. Ganzey, 84–91. Vladivostok: Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Far East Press (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Donner, William W. 1985. Sikaiana Social Organization: Social Categories and Relationships in a Contemporary Polynesian Society. Ph.D. Dissertation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donner, William W. 1988. Sikaiana Vocabulary: Na Talatala ma na Male o Sikaiana. (Lexicon of the Sikaiana Language.) Honiara: Government Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donner, William W. 1992. Lineages and Land Disputes on a Polynesian Outlier. Man (New Series) 27: 319–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donner, William W. 2008. Changing Concepts of Chief and Hierarchy on a Polynesian Outlier. Pacific Studies 31 (2): 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dougherty, Janet W.D. 1984. West Futuna-Aniwa: An Introduction to a Polynesian Outlier Language. University of California Publications in Linguistics 102. Berkeley, CA; Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Earle, Timothy K. 1997. How Chiefs Came to Power: The Political Economy of Prehistory. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Early, Robert. 2012. The Languages of Outlier Polynesia. In Polynesian Outliers: The State of the Art, ed. Richard Feinberg, and Richard Scaglion, 49–75. Ethnology Monographs 21. Pittsburgh: Ethnology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eilers, Anneliese. 1934. Inseln um Ponape: Kapingamarangi, Nukuor, Ngatik, Mokil, Pingelap. Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition, 1908–1910, Band 8. Hamburg: Friedrichsen, De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elbert, Samuel H. 1975. Dictionary of the Language of Rennell and Bellona. English to Rennellese and Bellonese. Copenhagen: The National Museum of Denmark.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elbert, Samuel H., and Torben Monberg. 1965. From the Two Canoes: Oral Traditions of Rennell and Bellona Islands. Copenhagen: Danish National Museum in cooperation with the University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emory, Kenneth P. 1965. Kapingamarangi: Social and Religious Life of a Polynesian Atoll. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 228. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Englert, Sebastián. 1978. Idioma rapanui: gramática y diccionario del antiguo idioma de la Isla de Pascua. Santiago: Universidad de Chile.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 1996. Sanctity and Power on Anuta: Polynesian Chieftainship Revisited. In Leadership and Change in the Western Pacific: Essays in Honour of Sir Raymond Firth, ed. Richard Feinberg, and Karen A. Watson-Gegeo, 56–92. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology 66. London: Athlone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 2009. Nukumanu Kinship and Contested Cultural Construction. Journal of the Polynesian Society 118: 259–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard, and Richard Scaglion (eds.). 2012. Polynesian Outliers: The State of the Art. Ethnology Monographs 21. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 1977. The Anutan Language Reconsidered: Lexicon and Grammar of a Poly-nesian Outlier. Vols. 1–2. HRAFlex Books. New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 1978. Rank and Authority on Anuta Island. In Adaptation and Symbolism: Essays on Social Organization, ed. Karen Ann Watson-Gegeo, and S. Lee Seaton, 1–32. Honolulu, HI: University Press of Hawai‘i.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 1979. Anutan Concepts of Disease: A Polynesian Study. IPS Monograph Number 3. Lā‘ie, HI: Institute for Polynesian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 1981. Anuta: Social Structure of a Polynesian Island. Lā‘ie, HI; Copenhagen: Institute for Polynesian Studies in co-operation with the National Museum of Denmark.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 1998. Oral Traditions of Anuta: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Richard. 2000. Nukumanu Lexicon. Unpublished Manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firth, Raymond. 1936. We, the Tikopia: A Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia. London: George Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firth, Raymond. 1956. Succession to Chieftainship in Tikopia. Oceania 30: 161–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firth, Raymond. 1985. Taranga Fakatikopia ma Taranga Fakainglisi: Tikopia-English Dictionary. Auckland: Oxford University Press in cooperation with the University of Auckland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman, Irving. 1970. Ancient Polynesian Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, Roger C. 1971. Anuta’s Position in the Subgrouping of the Polynesian Languages. Journal of the Polynesian Society 80: 355–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenhill, Simon J., and Ross Clark. 2011. POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online. Oceanic Linguistics 50: 551–558.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guiart, Jean. 1953. L’origines de la population d’Ouvea (Loyalty). Etudes Mélanésiennes 6: 26–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guiart, Jean. 1961. The Social Anthropology of Aniwa. Southern New Hebrides. Oceania 32 (1): 34–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guiart, Jean. 1963. Structure de la chefferie en Mélanésie du Sud. Université de Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guiart, Jean. 1973. Le dossier rassemblé. In Système des titres, électifs ou héréditaires, dans les Nouvelles-Hébrides Centrales d’Efate aux îles Shepherd, ed. Jean-Jacques Espirat, Jean Guiart, Marie-Salomé Lagrange, and Monique Renaud, 47–370. Mémoires de l’Institut d’Ethnologie 10. Paris: Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogbin, Ian H. 1930. Notes on a Grammar of the Language of Ontong Java. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 5: 823–851.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogbin, Ian H. 1931. The Social Organization of Ontong Java. Oceania 1: 399–425.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogbin, Ian H. 1934. Law and Order in Polynesia: A Study of Primitive Legal Institutions. London: Christophers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hovdhaugen, Even. 1993. Samoan tui “King, Paramount Chief”: A Semantic Reinterpretation. In Language—A Doorway Between Human Cultures: Tributes to Dr. Otto Chr. Dahl on His Ninetieth Birthday, ed. Oyvend Dahl, 212–215. Oslo: Novus Forlarg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hovdhaugen, Even. 2006. A Short Dictionary of the Vaeakau-Taumako Language. Kon-Tiki Museum Occasional Papers 11. Oslo: Kon-Tiki Museum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard, Irwin. 1981. Proto-Ellicean. In Studies in Pacific Languages and Cultures in Honour of Bruce Biggs, ed. Jim Hollyman and Andrew Pawley, 101–118. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, Patrick V. 1984. The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch, Patrick V., and Roger C. Green. 2001. Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia: An Essay in Historical Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kubary, Jan Stanislaw. 1900. Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Nukuoro- oder Monteverde-Inseln. Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft in Hamburg 16: 71–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuschel, Rolf. 1988. Vengeance Is Their Reply: Blood Feuds and Homicides on Bellona Island. Two Volumes. Copenhagen: Dansk Psykologisk Forlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 1986. Leadership in Proto-Oceanic Society: Linguistic Evidence. Journal of the Polynesian Society 95: 341–356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieber, Michael D. 1994. More Than a Living: Fishing and the Social Order on a Polynesian Atoll. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieber, Michael D., and Kalio H. Dikepa. 1974. Kapingamarangi Lexicon. PALI language texts. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, Hao-Li, and Richard Scaglion. 2019. Austronesian Speakers and Hereditary Leadership in the Pacific. Anthropological Forum 29 (3): 267–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marck, Jeff. 2000. Topics in Polynesian Language and Culture History. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moir, Barbara G. 1989. Mariculture and Material Culture on Takuu Atoll: Indigenous Cultivation of Tridacna Gigas (Mollusca: Bivalvia) and Its Implications for pre-European Technology, Resource Management, and Social Relations on a Polynesian Outlier. Ph.D. Dissertation. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monberg, Torben. 1966. The Religion of Bellona Island. A Study of the Place of Beliefs and Rites in the Social Life of Pre-Christian Bellona. Copenhagen: The Danish National Museum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monberg, Torben. 1991. Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. Pacific Islands Monographs Series 9. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monberg, Torben. 1996. The Bellonese: High, Low—and Equal: Leadership and Change on a Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands. In Leadership and Change in the Western Pacific: Essays in Honor of Sir Raymond Firth on the Occasion of His Ninetieth Birthday, ed. Richard Feinberg, and Karen A. Watson-Gegeo, 187–204. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology 66. London: Athlone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyle, Richard M. 2007. Songs from the Second Float: A Musical Ethnography of Takuu Atoll, Papua New Guinea. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyle, Richard M. 2011a. Takuu Grammar and Dictionary: A Polynesian Language of the South Pacific. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyle, Richard M. 2011b. Songs for a Dead ariki: The Delicate Art of Performing Politics. Journal of the Polynesian Society 120: 149–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyle, Richard M. 2012. Performing Arts. In Polynesian Outliers: The State of the Art, ed. Richard Feinberg, and Richard Scaglion, 173–185. Ethnology Monographs 21. Pittsburgh: Ethnology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkinson, Richard. 1897. Zur Ethnographie de Ontong Java- und Tasman-Inseln, mit einigen Bemerkungen über die Marqueen- und Abgarris-Inseln. Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie 10: 104–118, 137–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkinson, Richard. 1907. Dreisig Jahre in der Südsee. Land und Leute, Sitten und Gebräuche im Bismarckarchipel und auf den deutschen Salomoinseln. Stuttgart: Strecker und Schroder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pawley, Andrew. 1967. The Relationships of Polynesian Outlier Languages. Journal of the Polynesian Society 76: 259–296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pawley, Andrew. 1982. Rubbish-Man Commoner, Big-Man Chief? Linguistic Evidence for Hereditary Chieftainship in Proto-Oceanic Society. In Oceanic Studies: Essays in Honour of Aarne A. Koskinen, ed. J. Siikala, 33–52. Helsinki: Finnish Anthropological Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranby, Peter. 1982. The Dual Reflexes of Proto-Polynesian *s in Anuta. Te Reo 25: 3–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, Thomas F. 1977. Prehistoric Niue: An Egalitarian Polynesian Society. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Auckland: Department of Anthropology, Auckland University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sahlins, Marshall D. 1958. Social Stratification in Polynesia. Monograph of the American Ethnological Society. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmond, Anne. 1975. A Luangiua (Ontong Java) Word List. Auckland: University of Auckland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarfert, Ernts, and Hans Damm. 1929. Luangiua und Nukumanu, mit Anhang über Sikayana, Nuguria, Tauu und Carteret-Inseln, Halbband 1: Allgemeiner Teil und materielle Kultur. Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition, 1908–1910, Band 12. Hamburg: Friedrichsen, De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarfert, Ernts, and Hans Damm. 1931. Luangiua und Nukumanu, mit Anhang über Sikayana, Nuguria, Tauu und Carteret-Inseln. Halbband 2. Soziale Verhältnisse und Geisteskultur. Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition, 1908–1910, Band 12. Hamburg: Friedrichsen, De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scaglion, Richard. 2012. Socio-Political Organization. In Polynesian Outliers: The State of the Art, ed. Richard Feinberg, and Richard Scaglion, 157–171. Ethnology Monographs 21. Pittsburgh: Ethnology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmeltz, Johann D. E., and Rudolf Krause, 1881 [2013]. A Contribution to the Knowledge on the Peoples of the South Seas: Nukuor (Monteverde Islands). In Nukuoro: Sculptures from Micronesia, ed. C. Kaufmann, and O. Wick, 214–223. Basel: Fondation Beyeler, Hirmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thilenius, Georg. 1902. Ethnographische Ergebnisse aus Melanesien. Halle: Ehrhardt Karras.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tregear, Edward. 1899. A Dictionary of Mangareva (or Gambier Islands). Wellington: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yen, Douglas, and Janet Gordon (eds.). 1973. Anuta: A Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands. Pacific Anthropological Records, No. 21. Honolulu, HI: Department of Anthropology, Bernice P. Bishop Museum.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Many friends, colleagues and accidental foreigners have helped this work to be born, but it is impossible to mention all. I would like to thank here in the first place Aruka Kareva, Brendon Wells, Rumano Mahara and Tom Puaria. I am also grateful to Aymeric Hermann, Mikhail Zhivlov, Richard Moyle, Richard Feinberg and William Donner.

Support from the Basic Research Program of the National Research University Higher School of Economics is gratefully acknowledged, too.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research University Higher School of Economics, International Center of Anthropology, 21/4 Staraya Basmannaya St., 105066, Moscow, Russia

    Albert I. Davletshin

  2. Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia

    Albert I. Davletshin

Authors
  1. Albert I. Davletshin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Albert I. Davletshin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Center of Anthropology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

    Dmitri M. Bondarenko

  2. Laboratory of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Stephen A. Kowalewski

  3. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA

    David B. Small

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Davletshin, A.I. (2020). Building Societies on Outer Islands: Sociopolitical Institutions and Their Names in Polynesian Outliers. In: Bondarenko, D.M., Kowalewski, S.A., Small, D.B. (eds) The Evolution of Social Institutions. World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51437-2_27

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51437-2_27

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51436-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-51437-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation