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Ethnology of Manihiki and Rakahanga

Family Pedigrees

page 28

Family Pedigrees

Family pedigrees record the elements and mechanism of social structure, lineal descent, marriages, sex, seniority, and collaterals in each generation. The sex and order of birth in each generation were always recited, but collaterals were left for their own descendants to trace. The skilled genealogist, however, besides knowing his own lineal descent, memorized the descent of the leading families in the community and could, by acquaintance with the collaterals of each generation, show how all the families were linked together by common ancestors of more recent date and how they all descended from the original biological family. He could demonstrate how all the inhabitants of the atoll were linked together by a common blood tie.

Owing to the partial dislocation of native culture that followed the advent of Christianity in Manihiki and Rakahanga, however, many of the distant marriages in the pedigrees have been forgotten. One native, Kairenga, for example, was unable to give the marriages in his pedigree from the 4th to the 9th generation. He was doubtful about the 11th and 12th generations, but from the 13th generation onward he recited them as a matter of course. Some children who died young, or adults who had no issue, have been dropped out of the records in the course of time. It is the living descendants who perpetuate lineal descent.

The value of even the last part of Kairenga's pedigree in establishing his social position is illustrated in the following summary of the sexes and order of births in each generation. Kairenga's own ancestors are represented by capital letters under “order of birth,” and Kairenga is represented by the capital in the 21st generation.

Generation Males Females Order of birth
12 2 1 M, f, m
13 1 1 M, f
14 1 2 M, f, f,
15 3 3 M, f, m, f, f, m
16 3 1 M, m, f, m
17 2 2 m, f, M, f
18 6 1 M, m, m, m, f, m, m
19 2 1 M, m, f
20 2 1 F, m, m
21 2 1 M, m, f
10 24 14

Kairenga was senior to all descendants of the younger brothers and sisters of the five generations from the 12th to the 16th. In the 17th genera- page 29 tion his male ancestor was born third in a family of four, but he records that the elder brother and sister of that generation had no issue, so he retained his seniority in the 17th generation. In the 18th and 19th generations his ancestors were again first-born males. In the 20th generation the male line was broken, but Kairenga's mother was the first-born and senior in birth to her two brothers. If a patrilineal title had descended in the line succession would have gone to the oldest brother of Kairenga's mother and to his male issue. There was no title, however, and Kairenga's mother, from her position, had an important share of family land, which was inherited by her son. Kairenga himself was the senior member of a large family community. This would only have been possible under a bilateral system of tracing descent.

The family, because the parts played by husband and wife in reproduction were fully recognized and the child regarded as flesh and blood of both parents, was bilateral and traced its descent through both parents. Other things being equal, more importance was attached to patrilineal descent. If, however, the mother came of a more important lineage than the father and more land and property were inherited from her, matrilineal descent assumed a correspondingly greater importance. A mother of high rank might form a break in a male line, but even so it was more important to be joined to an illustrious line by a female link than to be connected by a male link to an insignificant line. Patrilineal descent was, however, all-important in succession to rank and title. (See pp. 52, 54.) A female break in the ariki line was usually fatal to succession.