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Anthropology and Religion

III The Death of the Gods

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III The Death of the Gods

Introduction

The Polynesian families created their household gods and then, under the guidance of the priesthood, the gods created the Polynesians. The loves, wars, and adventures of the gods would fill as many volumes as the similar activities of the gods of Greece, Rome, or Scandinavia. The priests composed a theology, but the textile was so interwoven with the threads of society that it was doomed to decay on contact with Western civilization.

The first foreigners to initiate outside change were the early voyagers and traders. They brought metal tools and loom-woven cloth to a stone-age people. The superiority of metals over stone was so obvious that the Polynesians were seized with the frantic desire to obtain the new trade goods at any cost. They stole and they bartered their own material goods, food, and even their women to satisfy the new needs that had been created. On the trail of the voyagers and traders came the missionaries of a new religion. They were more or less permanent settlers. Though they came primarily to convert the heathen, they brought West-page 64ern goods not only for their own use but to barter with the natives. It was the material goods of this world that appealed primarily to the natives and not the hope of reward after death. Material benefit was associated with the new religion and, if such benefits could be obtained more readily by adopting that religion, why not adopt it? The Polynesians deserted their gods and sold them for a mess of pottage.

The desertion of the Polynesian gods was not so difficult as it may seem. The people had created new family gods all down the ages and, as a consequence, had deserted and forgotten older creations. When sickness afflicted the worshipers of the god Tane in Tahiti, they blamed their god and upbraided him as the god with yellow fangs who was eating his followers. A priest of Tane placed the sennit symbol of the god in a coconut shell, plugged the opening, and set it afloat in the sea to seek a new home in a distant land. Later the priest set sail to seek his god. After visiting various islands unsuccessfully, he came to the island of Mangaia in the Cook group. Here he built a temple, and with a scoop net he sought a fish as an offering on the new temple. In addition to a small fish, he caught up the coconut shell that he had set adrift in Tahiti. He removed the plug, and the sennit symbol within announced its presence with a chirp—Kio. The evicted page 65 god was reëstablished on the new temple as Tane-kio, Tane-the-chirper.

Defeat in war was often attributed to lack of power of the war god, and sometimes the inadequate god was deposed and another set up in his place. The god of the victors was often imposed upon the conquered, as when the god 'Oro from the island of Ra'iatea was imposed upon the followers of Tane in Tahiti. The acceptance of a more powerful god as a means of obtaining temporal power was a common Polynesian characteristic.

In the proselytizing of Polynesia by the London Missionary Society, instances occur in which the desertion of the Polynesian gods was aided by events that occurred within the native culture itself. When the first representatives of the Society went to Tahiti in 1798, they stayed in the district ruled over by the chief Pomare. The selection of the district was influenced by the fact that the navigators Wallis and Cook had landed there and regarded Pomare as the king of Tahiti. In reality, Pomare was but chief of the district and there were more powerful chiefs in other districts. As first the missionaries had very little success in the conversion of the people, though the material goods they brought were much appreciated. The missionaries were opposed, and many of them left the island in page 66despair. When a fresh set of missionaries arrived some years later, Pomare was in a more chastened frame of mind. He had been defeated in battle and had taken refuge on the neighboring island of Mo'orea. The missionaries accompanied him there and began to make headway with him. Pomare had begun to distrust his gods because of his lack of success against his enemies. He began to flirt with the missionaries in the hope that their god was more powerful than his own and would bring him the military success he wanted. At the same time, he was chary of abandoning his own gods entirely. Thus, though the missionaries had hopes of converting Pomare, they could not get him to abandon his gods publicly. In view of the prospects, however, the missionaries ranged themselves on the side of Pomare and regarded his enemies as "heathen." In 1815, Pomare's enemies on the island of Tahiti invited him to attend a conference with them. Pomare, accompanied by his supporters and some of the missionaries, sailed over to Tahiti and, on a Sunday morning, he and his people attended a service conducted by the missionaries. During the service, the enemy was observed advancing with a large armed force, evidently to attack. The congregation became alarmed and the missionaries were prepared to break off the service. Pomare, however, ordered the service to be continued to its proper ending and stated that the page 67enemy could be attended to afterwards. The missionary writer, Reverend W. Ellis,* had praised Pomare's piety and faith in continuing the service in the face of the enemy. The truth is that any religious ritual that was broken off was regarded by the Polynesians as an ill omen for future success. The gods being invoked for assistance turned against their worshipers if the ritual was not properly completed. It was not Christian piety that induced Pomare to go on with the service but the Polynesian fear of a broken ritual. At the end of the service both Pomare and his followers had plucked up courage in the hope that the Christian god would assist them in gaining the victory.

From the outset of the battle which ensued, fortune smiled on Pomare. The opposing leader, whose rank was immeasurably superior to that of Pomare, was killed with a musket ball. On the death of their leader, the enemy retired and victory lay with Pomare and with the Christian god who had supported him. The power of Jehovah having been demonstrated, Christianity was accepted by the whole island of Tahiti, and Pomare became king of the group. Pomare handed over the material symbols of his native gods to the missionaries to be sent to England to show the people of that country what fools the Tahitians had been. A page 68lucky shot had done more than seventeen years of preaching had been able to accomplish.

The gospel was carried to the island of Aitutaki in 1823, and for two years the native missionaries from Tahiti made no headway. Then the favorite granddaughter of a high chief took seriously ill. The high chief made offerings on his temple to his gods, and the priests performed all the native ritual in invoking the gods to restore the child to health. All was to no avail, and the child died. The high chief was so enraged that he sent his son with a lighted torch to set fire to the gods and the sacred buildings on the temple. The high chief felt that his gods had deserted him in his hour of need, so he abandoned them with a drastic demonstration. He then turned to the gods of the missionaries. The native missionary was quick to take advantage of the incident, and he preached a powerful sermon showing the futility of the native gods. The native population was caught up in a wave of emotional reaction, and throughout the island the gods were destroyed and the temples defaced and desecrated. A few images and sacred objects, shorn of their divinity, were sent to London to demonstrate the success that was attending the missionary efforts.

To illustrate in more detail what happened to the native mores and culture after the Polynesian gods page 69were deserted, I am going to take the island of Mangaia in the Cook group as a concrete example of the collapse that occurred.

* Reverend W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches (London, 1829).

Mangaian Gods

The national god of Mangaia, worshiped by all the tribes, was Rongo, a son of the Sky-father and the Earth-mother. The ritual to Rongo was conducted on two temples, one inland of the great upraised coral reef that surrounded the island and the other on the shore side of the upraised reef. The shore temple, named Orongo, contained a large stone image of Rongo and a smaller stone image standing behind it. Human sacrifices were offered to Rongo at the ceremony of installing the commander of a victorious tribe as Military Dictator of the island. After the ceremony, peace was declared over the land by sounding drums on the temple.

Each tribe had its own tribal god with a temple in its tribal district. One of these gods was Tane, a brother of Rongo. A symbol carved in wood represented each god, and these, to the number of thirteen, were kept in a special god house that stood between two important inland temples. They were tended by a hereditary keeper who kept them wrapped in special coverings of thick white bark cloth and fed them with offerings of taro every evening.

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In addition to the important temples, there were shrines on the coast consisting of stones erected to the two gods of fishermen. One, near the shore residence of the Shore-high-priest, was to Rua-tama'ine. Attached to a stake beside it was an open basket in which the fortunate fisherman deposited a portion of his catch as a present to the Shore-high-priest and as an offering to Rua-tama'ine. The stone representing the other god, Rua'atu, received an offering of a small fish from the successful fisherman and a coral pebble from the unsuccessful.

Priests

Of the priesthood, the most important were the two high priests of Rongo. One, termed the Inland-high-priest (Ariki-pa-uta), conducted the ritual at the inland temple of Rongo; the other, termed the Shore-high-priest (Ariki-pa-tai), conducted the ceremonies at the shore temple of Orongo. Both these priests were of the highest rank and their offices were hereditary. They were descended from Rangi and 'Akatauira, two of the three original settlers of Mangaia.

A third high priest was responsible for the distribution of food on public occasions. He rejoiced in the title of the Ariki-i-te-ua-i-te-tapora-kai, the High-chief-who-stood-at-the-head-of-the-food-platter. He also conducted the correct ritual at the shore before page 71the fleet set out for the fishing grounds. It was his office to give each canoe a plaited symbol of coconut leaflets representing Mokoiro, a deified patron of fishermen. The symbol was placed in the bow of the canoe and brought success. The office was hereditary and its holders claimed direct descent from Mokoiro, the third of the original settlers of Mangaia.

In addition to these three national priests, each of the thirteen tribes had its own tribal priest who served as the medium between the tribal group and their god. He conducted services on the local temple in the tribal district, and offerings of food were made to insure success on tribal ventures. Each priest also had a part of his dwelling house curtained off with a large sheet of bark cloth. Within this sacred chamber, a material form of the god was kept. The priest could consult his god privately within the curtained recess, but public services had to be conducted on the open temple. On the temple courtyard, small houses were erected to serve as temporary residences for the gods during certain rituals. The office of tribal priest was hereditary and he exercised great power.

A custom with religious significance was that of cutting the navel cord of a newly born child. The navel cord was not cut until the afterbirth had come away. The person who cut the cord cleared away the coagulated blood in the part severed. Before cutting, page 72he asked the parents the name of the god to whom the child should be dedicated. Marriage usually took place between people of different tribes. Hence the father and mother of a child worshiped different tribal gods. It was usual for the father to give the name of his tribal god, but sometimes, when the mother's tribe was in the ascendancy, the name of her god was given. The operator then announced, "I hereby cleanse the cord of this child to —," giving the name of the god.

This religious presentation led to the establishment of the office of an official cutter of navel cords, who was termed a vaekai. The vaekai received presents of food and goods for his services, and the cutting of the cord by a vaekai conferred social distinction on the person so treated. The commoners, who were not in the position to employ a vaekai, had their cords cut by ordinary individuals, and social distinction was denied them.

Social Customs

Certain matters concerned with social organization must be mentioned to complete the picture. The Mangaians differ somewhat from their neighbors in the other Cook Islands in the emphasis they gave to success in war. In the numerous wars that took place, the leader of the victorious tribe was publicly installed as the Military Dictator of the island. He was regarded as having secured the Mangaia, which is not only the page 73name of the island but refers also to absolute temporal power. His installation was marked by the offering of a human sacrifice to the god Rongo on the inland temple where the Inland-high-priest officiated. After this first ceremony, the human sacrifice was carried to the shore temple of Orongo, where the Shore-high-priest formally installed the victor in his office of Dictator. The Dictator then named his supporting chiefs as chiefs over districts and subdistricts in the conquered area and also in his own territory. They were installed with public announcement by the Shore-high-priest, who gave each a portion of flesh from the human offering. These were then taken back to the districts and offered on the local temples to insure a successful rule and the fertility of the land. Drums were beaten on the temple of Orongo by a hereditary drum beater and his family. There was a procession around the island, during which the drums were beaten on each district temple in turn. The drums announced the cessation of war, and the survivors of the defeated tribe emerged from their hiding places in safety. The hereditary drum beater received a grant of land from the new administration.

The Constitution

In the history of Mangaia, the fortunes of war wavered among the tribes of the different districts. The vanquished of yesterday were the victors of to-page 74day, and the victors of today were the vanquished of tomorrow. The successful tribe enjoyed the rich food lands, and the conquered eked out a bare existence in the narrow upland valleys and the recesses of the raised coral reef known as the makatea. A change of government could be brought about only by success in battle. The conquered, under this system, cherished the hope of building up their forces by tribal increase or by making an alliance with other tribes to regain power by the arbitrament of war.

Let us now consider how this complex culture, which was the result of a gradual adjustment and evolution extending over a number of centuries, was rudely shattered when the Mangaians deserted their own gods. Just as a hereditary chief was dependent upon his tribesmen for maintaining power and authority, so the gods were dependent upon the continued support of their worshipers. When the Mangaians deserted their gods in favor of Christianity, they destroyed them as surely as if they had been mortal beings.

Advent of Missionaries

In 1823, three native missionaries from Tahiti with the wives of two of them were landed at Mangaia from a London Missionary Society's schooner. They received such rough treatment at the hands of the Mangaians that they all swam back to the ship's boat page 75which had waited outside the reef to see the reception. An epidemic of dysentery broke out on the island soon after the visit, and the natives attributed it to the anger of the visitors' god. Two other missionaries, Davida and Tiare, were landed at the island in the following year. The Mangaians, afraid of incurring another epidemic of dysentery, afforded them protection, built them a house, and allowed them to expound their faith to those who would listen to them.

It had so happened that in the last war the combined tribes of Ngati-tane and Ngati-manahune had defeated the existing government of Ngati-vara. The Shore-high-priest, whose sympathies were with the defeated Ngati-vara, entered politics and refused to assist in the installation of the victorious leader, Pangemiro. Pangemiro promptly deposed the Shore-high-priest from office and combined the position with that of the Inland-high-priest, held by one Numangatini. The ritual of installation could not be carried out properly, but Pangemiro functioned as Dictator. Pangemiro died three years later and, as there had been no war, the office of Dictator fell into temporary abeyance. The highest ranking chief was Numangatini, holding the offices of both Inland-high-priest and Shore-high-priest.

It was at this peculiar stage that the two Tahitian missionaries landed on Mangaia and came under the page 76protection of the dominant Ngati-tane tribe. In the course of time they made converts among the Ngati-tane, and finally the chiefs of the Ngati-tane and the Ngati-manahune accepted the new religion. The converted males marked their conversion by cutting off their long hair, and the taboos that prevented the sexes eating together and parents eating with their first-born sons were abolished. The national god house was burned to the ground, and the gods that had reposed in it were thrown in a heap before the missionaries. The coverings of bark cloth were removed and cast into the sea. By exposing the gods to the vulgar gaze, they were dishonored. The temples were desecrated by the burning of the god houses on them. Led by the native missionaries, the work of destruction went on, and even the groves of noble trees that gave shelter to the temples were felled to the ground.

The Ngati-vara, who remained in opposition, were horrified and went into mourning. Dressed in evil-smelling bark cloth that had been soaked in the mud of taro swamps, and with faces and bodies blackened with charcoal, they formed a sad procession around the island as a protest against the desertion of the gods of Mangaia.

The new religion preached brotherly love and the cessation of war. The cessation of war was agreeable page 77to the tribes in power at the time, for its acceptance meant that they would enjoy power forever, but to the defeated tribes it meant that they must give up all chance of ever regaining the government and recovering the fertile food lands they had lost. Hence the victorious Ngati-tane and Ngati-manahune readily became Christians, but the defeated Ngati-vara, by refusing to depart from the original constitution, remained "heathen." The missionaries, perhaps without fully realizing it, were political propagandists.

Matters reached a head when the Ngati-vara assembled their forces and offered battle to regain government over the island. European missionary writers have described the event as a struggle between the Christians and the "heathens," but to the anthropologist the struggle was not religious but political. The Ngati-vara were using the only cultural means available to them to change the government. Had they accepted Christianity, they would have given up the only means of effecting change. The Ngati-tane, on the other hand, had followed the course adopted by Pomare in Tahiti in hoping that the missionaries' god would be powerful enough to keep them in power. During the battle, the Tahitian missionary, Davida, remained on his knees, supplicating Jehovah to grant victory to the Ngati-tane; in a thatched hut perched page 78on a high rock, Tereavai, priest of the Ngati-vara, invoked his tribal god Te A'ia to give success to their arms. The spiritual power of Te A'ia, however, had departed with that of the other Polynesian gods, and the heathen were defeated. The Ngati-vara were offered food lands if they would accept the new religion and live in Christian villages. The terms were accepted, though for some time a large number refused to conform to the outward visible signs of an inward spiritual grace. These Christians also signalized their conversion by cutting off their long hair, and the women wore garments of white bark cloth instead of the brown color previously in fashion.

Cultural Revolution

Though the Polynesians in the past had abandoned some gods in favor of others, the substitutions and incidental changes were made in the same basic culture. The process of change proceeded along lines of natural growth and evolution. In the substitution of Jehovah for Rongo and the tribal gods, the Christian complex of a foreign culture displaced elements in the native culture that were associated not only with religion but with the organization of society and the arts and crafts. The results of the clash that occurred between two different cultures were revolutionary.

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Religious Changes

When the Christian iconoclasts gained their victory over their opponents, the native ceremonial following a victory could not be observed. Through the acceptance of the Christian tenets, a human sacrifice could not be offered to Rongo. Without a human sacrifice, the correct ceremonies for installing a new government could not be conducted on the inland and shore temples of Rongo. Numangatini, by transferring his allegiance to Jehovah, could not carry out his duties to Rongo, for which duties the two offices he held had been created. The peace drums could not be sounded. Hence the high priestly offices of the Inland-high-priest and the Shore-high-priest ceased to function. Though Numangatini bore the double title, the function of publicly interceding with the gods for the welfare of the people and the fertility of food supplies had been automatically transferred to the Tahitian missionary, the foreign priest of Jehovah.

The high office of the Distributor of Food also was shorn of its religious significance. The charms that gave success to the fishing fleets were no longer made, for the patron deity, Mokoiro, was deserted as was Rongo; his priest was displaced by the native missionary from a distant island. Now before the fishing fleet page 80set out, the fishermen bent their knees on the seashore while the missionary, Davida, offered up a Christian prayer for success.

The hereditary priests of the tribal gods also joined the ranks of the unemployed. The expert craftsmen, who carved the gods out of wood and made the special thick bark cloth to clothe them, lost their employment and their status in society. The keeper of the national god house lost his position, for the house was burned to the ground and the gods defiled. The beater of the drum and his family were deprived of their office of making drums and sounding them to usher in peace, for the ritual was abandoned and with it went the gifts of land that pertained to their office. Gods, temples, and ritual were swept away in one fell swoop, and the hereditary offices of three high priests, thirteen tribal priests, and two subsidiary offices disappeared with them.

The food basket of the fish deity, Rua-tama'ine, was no longer hung up near the now-deserted house of the deposed Shore-high-priest. The fishing festivals in honor of first-born sons and first-born daughters could no longer be observed, for they had been accompanied by offerings of fish to the tribal gods. The individual fisherman dropped not a pebble and spoke not a word as he passed the stone shrine of Rua'atu. The avalanche that had swept away his major deities page 81swept away the minor deities as well. He had been taught by the new priest that Jehovah was a jealous god and "Thou shalt serve no other gods but me."

The change from a polytheistic to a monotheistic system made the gods of the father and mother identical. The child's navel cord had to be cut as a physical necessity, but the process was divested of its religious significance. The cord was no longer cut to the tribal god of the father, and the child could no longer boast of the social distinction given by having his cord treated by a vaekai expert. The official cutter of cords joined the ranks of the unemployed. The missionary priest of the one god had supplanted him, and the ritual of admission was changed to the making of the sign of the cross on the infant's forehead with a finger dipped in water.

The new religion required assembly places for its converts, and the large houses of worship of another culture took the place of the stone inclosures that had been defaced and desecrated. The roofed church displaced the open temple, and within its entrance stood the font indicating that admission to the service of the new god was by baptism with water and not by the cutting of the navel cord. The ritual within the new building was conducted by the missionary Davida and his successors. The multiple duties that had been carried out on various temples by a number of priests of rank page 82and power were dispensed with, and the new forms were the monopoly of a single missionary. Ancient offices that had been inherited from illustrious ancestors were swept away, and a visiting missionary, appointed by the white representatives of the London Missionary Society, took their place. Sic transit gloria Mangaiae.

A few more changes took place as a direct result of the new religion. Prayers and hymns supplanted the chants and incantations of the old religion. The ancient ritual had formed what may be termed the immaterial property of the priestly families. It had been of immense value to them but, as its value disappeared, the ancient chants were no longer taught and were soon forgotten.

The Bible was translated into the Rarotongan dialect, and one of the white missionaries stated with pride, "The Bible is read, studied, and quoted by the Polynesians of today in place of the heathen songs and myths of bygone ages." * The learned natives, termed 'are korero, ceased to transmit orally the Mangaian myths, legends, and traditions, for they had ceased to be of academic value. What has filtered through are woefully attenuated versions often distorted to conform more closely to the Biblical stories page 83with which the minds of native informants had become saturated.

The Mangaian version of the future state consisted of an underworld for the souls of those who died an ordinary death and a special region in the heavens, termed Tai'iria, for those who died in battle. In the underworld, an ogress named Miru received captured souls and cooked them in an oven, not as punishment for evil in this world but simply because she was a female cannibal. It was easy for the Mangaians to accept the new theory of a hell in the underworld with an everlasting fire to punish the nonconverted. A heaven in the upper spaces as a reward for the Christians supplanted the Tai'iria of the favored warriors.

The frequent human sacrifices were replaced by the one supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the symbolism of the holy sacrament struck a reminiscent chord.

The teaching that Jehovah created the world in six days and the subsequent taboo of every seventh day as a day of rest were accepted literally by the Mangaians. The institution of the Sabbath led to the abandonment of the annual lunar cycle with months determined by the rising of the new moon with each night named after the phases of the moon. Its place was taken by the Christian solar year divided into twelve calendar months with their subdivision into weeks, each culminating in a sacred Sabbath. The taboo of the Sab-page 84bath was such that all the food for the Sabbath was cooked on the preceding Saturday. All work on the Sabbath was tabooed, and even walking to other villages on Sunday was punished by a fine of five dollars.

* W. W. Gill, From Darkness to Light in Polynesia (London, 1894), p. 253.

Social Changes

In addition to religious changes, the new religion effected drastic changes in social matters. At the last battle between the converted and the unconverted, Numangatini with the combined offices of two high priests was the highest ranking chief on the Christian side. He was regarded as having acquired the position of Dictator, but he could not be installed with the ancient rites that had been abandoned on the acceptance of Christianity. However, he was regarded by the converted Christians and the missionaries as the king of Mangaia. Hence a new title was created and, war having been ended by the last battle, the office became hereditary instead of depending on the varying fortunes of battle. Similarly, the offices of district and subdistrict chiefs also became hereditary instead of being redistributed after each conquest.

After the way had been paved by the native Tahitian missionary, a white missionary took up his residence in Mangaia, and three native pastors were appointed to minister to the increasing number of converts. The manner in which the missionaries had taken page 85precedence in social matters is shown by the order of precedence in calling the distribution of food at the public feasts. In the original culture, the order was: (1) tribal priests, (2) high priests, (3) military dictator, (4) district and subdistrict chiefs. In the new society, the order was (1) white missionary, (2) three native pastors, (3) king, and (4) district and subdistrict chiefs.

A drastic change was also introduced in the native marriage customs. In the native culture, the chiefs could have more than one wife, and they could add a wife's sister to the ménage. It was also considered the correct thing for a man to marry his brother's widow and so keep her children in the deceased's family. In the old order, the marriage was made by the mutual consent of the two families concerned and there was no religious ceremony. The new order demanded that all marriages should be conducted with a religious ceremony by the church and, furthermore, that only one wife be allowed. Men with plural wives were ordered to select one and abandon the others, even though they had had children by them. Some heartrending separations took place for, if the husband did not make his choice, he was refused admission to the church by adult baptism. The one marriage was legalized by a church service. If a church member took back another wife, he was excommunicated by the church page 86and ostracized by the church members. As a result of monogamy, the sororate custom disappeared, for a man could not take his wife's sister while his wife was alive. The levirate custom also was abandoned because, even for the sake of fatherless orphans, a man could not take his brother's widow into his household if he already had a wife. The restriction to one god was accompanied by a restriction to one wife. In the native culture, there was no connection between gods and wives.

Furthermore, the native marriages were arranged by parents on either side, with due regard to family alliances and to keeping the chiefly stock pure. The church, however, stepped in and refused to marry any couple until they had discovered the real wishes of the pair to be married. If a young couple disagreed with their parents, the church opposed the wishes of the parents and thus helped to break down parental and family control.

The church, as guided by the white missionaries, appears to have regarded most of the ancient customs as relics of heathenism and therefore to be abolished. One of the white missionaries, on going to the church to marry a couple, found the bridegroom's tribe lying stretched across the road for a distance of a hundred yards, while the intended bride tripped merrily over their bodies on the way to the church. She was being page 87honored by her prospective husband's tribe with the ancient custom termed maninitori. However, the missionary could see nothing in it but the revival of a heathen custom and, as punishment, he postponed the marriage until the following day.

Code of Laws

The taboos that belonged to the native culture were abolished, and a new set of taboos was imposed in a code of laws which, among other things, was aimed at regulating relations between the sexes. The whole nature of the Mangaians was to be changed by a system of punishments that would suppress their natural desires. The punishments consisted of fines, of which part was paid in cash and part in trade goods. To curtail the opportunities for clandestine meetings, the curfew bell was introduced, and any persons found outside their houses after 8.00 p.m. were fined.

Some of the laws dealing with sex matters, as translated from the missionary laws of Mangaia, were as follows:

Fornication. Fine: One dollar cash and fourteen dollars trade.

Village conduct. If a man puts his arm around a woman in the road at night, and he has a torch in his hand, he shall go free. If no torch, to be fined one dollar cash and nine dollars trade.

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Tattooing love marks. The man who does this on a woman or the woman who does this on a man shall be fined two dollars cash and thirteen dollars trade.

Taking woman inland. If a man takes a woman to the mountains for bad purposes, he is to be fined fifteen dollars—one in cash and fourteen in trade.

Crying after a dead woman. If a man do this, and he and the woman were not relatives, or if he wear mourning for her, he is to be fined fifteen dollars— one in cash and fourteen in trade.

These fines may not seem very high in these days, but they meant a great deal at the period when they were in force.

With the introduction of a system foreign to native culture came also the foreign technique for enforcing the laws. Police were appointed to detect lawbreakers, and judges were appointed to inflict fines. These officials were selected from the deacons and members of the church. The fines, like ancient Gaul, were divided into three parts: one went to the king, one to the judge, and one to the police. The fines constituted the whole salary of the officials, and it is but natural that the police should have hailed as many people as possible before the judge. The police force increased in an extraordinary manner. In 1891, for a population of 1,860 there were 155 police, or one policeman to every 12 inhabitants. The enforcement of the moral laws led page 89to a regular system of espionage on the private life of the people. The police visited the various houses after the curfew sounded and at irregular intervals during the night. The absence of residents, particularly young people, was held as positive proof of clandestine love affairs, and the absentees were promptly fined the next day. The deacons and elders who did not happen to be in the police force felt it their duty to report cases of suspicious conduct.

Though the Mangaians had adopted a code of laws, they had not been instructed in the fundamentals of British justice. They did not understand that an accused person is not guilty until full evidence on both sides has been submitted to the judge and a conviction made on that evidence. In the imperfectly understood system that was adopted, the accused was convicted by the police, and the judge held office not to weigh the evidence impartially but to inflict the fine automatically. Both police and judge desired as many convictions as possible in order to share the greater spoil. In other words, the system degenerated into a racket, which was made possible by the introduction of something totally foreign to native culture—money.

Adolescents and young unmarried people could not wholly grasp the moral sin in obeying the physiological urge of nature, whereas the elders of the church, whose sex life was practically over, were ready to pun-page 90ish those who took advantage of opportunities of which they could no longer avail themselves. To the younger people the sin was the sin of being found out, and so they bent their faculties to the sport of evading the police. When caught, they paid their fines without any feeling of moral delinquency.

Both native pastors and white missionaries experienced additional difficulties that did not emanate from the native people whom they had persuaded to desert their own god s. The natives naturally inferred that the Christian religion was the religion of the white man. But, though they themselves were subjected to a severe code of theocratic laws, the white sailors and traders who followed on the heels of the missionaries were by no means willing to conform to it. They broke the moral law by living with native women without going through the initial stage of marriage by the church. They introduced alcohol and gambling with cards, things hitherto unknown in the island. The code of laws was therefore amended to include fines against drunkenness and gambling. In addition to their own failings, the natives were burdened with the failings of civilization.

Though other laws were framed for a good purpose, I have stressed that aspect of the code that interfered with the private life of the people in a somewhat unwarrantable manner. With the establishment of gov-page 91ernment control from New Zealand as late as 1900 a.d., the theocratic code of laws was amended, and the people have had time to adjust themselves to a more reasonable rule.

Songs, Dances

The new religion established further laws or taboos against the recreations of the people. The missionary Gill, in discussing the dances that accompanied the old-time dramatic performances, stated:*

"But the dance itself was invariably connected with very serious evils; so that on the establishment of Christianity, it was abolished."

Gill further explains the evils:

"The chiefs, whether married or not, often wore phallic ear ornaments." Thus, to abolish the ornaments, the missionaries abolished the dance.

The dramatic songs that accompanied the dances were also forbidden on the grounds that such entertainment was in honor of the gods. Gill states:

"This inherent idolatrous tendency was one reason for the suppression of these dramatic efforts."

The formation of church choirs and the practicing of hymns took the place of the old classical songs and dances, and a good deal of ancient lore of ethnological value was consequently forgotten.

* W. W. Gill, From Darkness to Light in Polynesia, pp. 252-253.

Op. cit.

page 92

Arts and Crafts

Changes were also effected in the field of material culture. The scanty apparel suited to a tropical climate offended the missionary ideas of decency. The converts attempted to copy their teachers by substituting white bark cloth for the brown colored material hitherto worn, and later a demand for textile cloth was created. The missionaries carried a stock of cloth for their own needs and for trade purposes. The native women, on acquiring textiles, masked their beautiful figures in unsightly garments made on the pattern of nightshirts and termed "Mother Hubbards." The product of Western looms supplanted the native material, and the manufacture of bark cloth became a neglected and, ultimately, a forgotten craft. It is the irony of fate that, at the present time, civilized people in scantiness of attire have literally outstripped the natives.

A change in houses also took place. The white missionaries introduced a type of architecture that had been evolved in a temperate climate to keep out the cold. The native walls of upright stakes that allowed ventilation through the interstices were replaced by thick walls of wattled wood plastered with lime obtained from coral. The single-roomed house was supplanted by dwellings divided into many apartments page 93adorned with Venetian blinds, but even the windows did not give such free ventilation as the native houses. When the tubercle bacillus was introduced by Europeans, the lime-walled houses retained the bacilli far more than did the open native houses.

The new types of houses were grouped on either side of a street in the neighborhood of a church. This entirely new arrangement was inaugurated by the missionaries in order that their converts could be near the church and the missionary school. The scattered inland house sites near the cultivations were deserted, and the population was grouped into villages for the first time.

The changes that occurred in the island of Mangaia are an example of what occurred in the various island groups throughout Polynesia. The missionaries, naturally enough, could not introduce their religion without carrying with it the foreign culture of which Christianity formed a part. Though traders and government officials have aided some of the changes, the most potent factor in the destruction of the old-time native culture was the death of the Polynesian gods.

Summary

The Christian missionaries introduced a religion that had been evolved in a different cultural setting. This religion carried with it its own cultural values, page 94and the Polynesian values that centuries of practice had established in a different geographical setting were condemned as "heathen practices." The old taboos were replaced by new restrictions. The death of the Polynesian gods was followed by profound changes that, commencing with religion, extended to the disorganization of society and the wrecking of the native arts and crafts. The changes at first were tyrannical and but dimly understood. In the course of time, however, further adaptation took place, and the church and the government assumed their respective values in an adjusted culture. The Mangaians, as well as the rest of the Polynesians, have readjusted themselves to the Christian religion. If Christianity is any criterion of Western culture, the island communities of Polynesia are more civilized today than the masses in the great cities of Europe and America.

As an anthropologist, I see religion as an essential part of the culture of any people. Probably a psychologist or a theologian could phrase things better than I can, but I have attempted to avoid what has been termed "the verbal bondage of a sterile and paralyzing metaphysics." I have a firm conviction that the things man has created with his mind and worshiped in the spirit are as real to him as the material things he has made with his hands. A system of ethics may be sufficient for the intellectual minority, but it is devoid page 95of the feeling and emotion that appeals to the masses of the people. The belief in the supernatural and in the immortality of the soul must be accepted as real facts that have led to action and results. I am not concerned as to whether the supernatural and immortality can be proved or disproved scientifically. As a student of the manners, customs, and thoughts of peoples, I am concerned with their beliefs. The belief in immortality is a living, vital fact that has brought and still brings comfort and happiness to large masses of people. But, though religion seems to be a necessary part of every culture, its value in Western civilization has been depreciating. Professor John Dewey, in his Terry Lectures, held that the center of gravity in our civilization had shifted more and more from religion to economics. With many people money has become not a means to an end but the end itself.

Our present civilization is sick and fast losing its right to be called "civilization." The discoveries of science, which should be utilized entirely for the benefit of man, are being prostituted for the wholesale killing of people. The pity of it is that those nations which desire peace are being forced to arm in a hitherto unparalleled manner by those who desire to rule the world by force. Truth has again sought cover in a well from which she may never emerge. The Christian ideals that religion has taught us seem to have been page 96cast aside by millions of people. Instead of brotherly love, we have racial intolerance and merciless persecution. Our civilization stands on the verge of a relapse, not into barbarism, but into sheer savagery. I believe that the Christian religion is an integral part of Western civilization or culture and that it is one of the few restraining forces that may yet guide us back to faith in goodness, truth, and justice. The death of the Christian gods would mean the collapse of the culture to which they belong just as surely as the death of the Polynesian gods led to the end of Polynesian culture.

Religion needs no scientific proof, for it is based on faith. Faith to those who have it is a vivid reality. Could we but restore that faith, we might be able to say to a sick world in the words of the Great Master, "Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole."

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Map of the Islands of Polynesia