THE STORY OF RAGA: A MAN'S ETHNOGRAPHY ON HIS OWN SOCIETY
(II)KIN RELATIONS

INTRODUCTION

1

　　　This is the second part of an English translation of a hand-copied book which was written in the“Raga" language by the late Rev. David Tevimule in 1966.１） “Raga" is a language spoken by the people of North Raga(northern part of Raga or Pentecost Island) in Vanuatu. The work consists of twenty chapters and concerns various aspects of North Raga culture: its origin myth, kin relations,initiation rite, rank-taking system, chiefs, and customs concerning birth, marriage, and death. In this paper I translate Chapters 6 and 7 in which Rev. David Tevimule describes traditional kin relations２） and explains the meaning of relationship terms.

2

　　　First of all, I summarize the materials concerning North Raga traditional social organization, relationship terminology and marriage system collected during my field research there３）.All of the people of North Raga are now Christian. After the arrival of Christianity the system was obliged to change in some aspects. Information from different people is sometimes confusing and in all, knowledge of the traditional system is now possessed only by a few people. One such knowledgeable person is the Rev.David Tevumule, who is said to be best versed in the traditional kinship and marriage system. My materials on such systems are mainly based on his information, which is, of course, supplemented by that from other knowledgeable people.

Social Organization

　　　The population of North Raga is divided into exogamous matrilineal moieties named Tabi and Bule. Each moiety consists of numerous named matrilineal descent groups. These descent groups are classified into four larger groups in each moiety, which have no names. I call this kind of groupa cluster. Clusters are discriminated from each other by the fact that children of male members of each group are named distinctly (Yoshioka 1985:29, Table 2). This group functions as the most corporate group and as an exogamous unit in the alliance system. In addition to these three social groupings, there is the fourth grouping. Each moiety is divided into two groups by combining two clusters into one. I call this kind of group a division. A division is not a named group nor a corporate one, but functionsonly in connection with the marriage regulation. The North Raga social organization is summarized in Figure I.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　* Anserehubwe, Agolomwele.. :names of the descent groups.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　 * X , Y :moieties. 　 　　* A - D :divisions　　 * a - h :clusters
　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure I


　　　 It is necessary here to explain some North Raga concepts of kinship.

1)tavalu(na)４） means ‘a category' or ‘a party'. It sometimes has the meaning of‘opposite'.In the context of social organization, tavalui refers to a moiety.

2)vara(na) means ‘a category subordinate to tavaluna'. When it　is used in the context of kinship or social organization, it is exclusively related to the matrilineality.It refers to a matrilineal line, a matrilineal descendant, or a matrilineal relation. People sometimes translate it as a family. Moreover a matrilineal descent group is referred to by vara. This term is also used to indicate the cluster and the division, as well as, in some cases, the moiety.

3)atalu(na) means ‘a side'. Ira ataluku, which literally means ‘people of my side',is basically used to mean‘my cluster member'. It sometimes means‘my moiety member' especially in front of the moiety members. When it is used in an expression like“Inau atalun Vira Doro(I am a descendant of Vira Doro)", it contains the meaning of bilateral descent.

4)atalavara(na) is used in the same way as ataluna. Atalavaraku has the same meaning as ira ataluku. Atalavaran Vira Doro has the same meaning as atalun Vira Doro.

5)hou(na) means ‘a line'. In the context of kinship, it indicatesbilateral descent. “Inau houhou Vira Doro" means “I am a bilateral descendant of Vira Doro".

6)atalahou(na) is used in the same way as houhou.

7)hava(na) means “kin". Although one's hava mainly indicates his cluster member or his moiety member, it also indicates a member of the opposite moiety according to the context. Because in North Raga kinship concept, every people has some kinship relation with each other(See ‘Relationship Terminology').

　　　The whole of North Raga is divided into many named plots. The land-owing unity is the descent group, each of which possesses many plots, one of these being recognized as the group's place of origin and bearing the name of the group itself. Its other plots are scattered here and there in places not　far from this place of origin. People, whose subsistence mainly depends on slash-and-burn cultivation of taro and yam, are able to cultivate any plots owned by any descent groups in their own cluster.
　　　A man should live on one of such plots of his cluster after the death of his father, although he is able to live on any plots of this father's cluster (usually with his father) during his father's lifetime. Since the plots of the cluster are widely scattered over the whole of North Raga５）,thecluster is not localized. Moreover, it should be noted that after the death of his father, a man does not necessarily live with his mother's brother. Hemay live on one of many plots of his cluster, where his mother's brother mayor may not live. Therefore such a residence rule is avunculocal only in its widest sense. Marital residence is virilocal.

Relationship Terminology

　　　As known from the usage of the concept of hava, which I have translated askin,‘kin' does not entail consanguinial relations. The consanguinial kin isnot terminologically differentiated from fictive kin and every person of North Raga is categorized by a certain‘kinship' term. It is proper, in this sense, to use ‘relationship term' in place of ‘kinship term'.
　　　I have listed relationship terms with some of their genealogical specifications in Figure II. These genealogical specifications are extracted　from genealogies which I collected during my field research. Taking accout of the reciprocal relationships between terms(shown in Figure III), we can logically identify more genealogical specifications of each term.

　　　　　　　　　　　*Terms in parentheses are only used in address.
　　　　　　　　　　　*Terms such as aloa, tasala, bwaliga, and bulena are used only by men.
　　　　　　　　　　　*Terms such as ahoa and habwe are used only by women.
　　　　　　　　　　　*(m.s.) :Men's speaking.
　　　　　　　　　　　*(w.s.) :Women's speaking.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure II

　　　　　　　　　　　　* Hogosi is used between different genders while tua is used between
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　people of the same genders.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure III


　　　Of eighteen terms listed in Figure II which are used to refer to persons, all terms without vwavwa are used with suffixed possesive particles such as -ku(-nggu), -mwa and -na which mean‘my', ‘your' and ‘his(her)'respectively. Tamanggu means ‘my father', ratahiku means ‘my mother', and taman ratahiku means ‘my mother's father'. These terms are also used in address with such particles. Terms in parentheses in Figure II are only used in address and they are used without possesive particles. Vwavwa is accompanied by a possesive particle such as bilaku(my), bilamwa(your) and bilana(his or her).Bilak vwavwa means ‘my paternal aunt' and vwavwa bilan Tom means ‘Tom's paternal aunt'. Vwavwa is also used in address without the posessive particles.(For a detailed description of possesive particles, see Yoshioka 1987).
　　　In daily life people sometimes use the verbal definition of the relationship terms. Some of such definitions made by a man are shown in Figure IV. The verbal definition is always made by thinking of a concrete genealogical relation. A man defines ratahin ratahiku as tuagaku because he calls his real mother's real mother tuagaku. In this sense, the verbal definition of relationship terms is based on the genealogical relation.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　 Figure IV


　　　Although I have referred to the genealogical relation, I should point out here that the North Raga terminology as a system is not based on one's genealogical relation but one's affiliation to the social group, that is, the cluster. The verbal definition mentioned above is valid only within a scope of genealogy.The table of relationship terms with their genealogicalspecifications is also used to analyse the terminological system only withinthe scope of genealogy. Moreover, in the North Raga system there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between relationship terms and genealogical relations. For example, a man who is ego's FFBDS is referred toby the term tama if he belongs to the same cluster as ego's father while he is referred to by the term sibi if he belongs to the same cluster as ego's mother's father(Yoshioka 1985:35). This is shown in Figure V.

　　 *‘f' and‘h' are clusters.

　Figure V

　　　The relationship between terms and clusters is shown in Figure VI, which indicates that people in the opposite moiety are categorized according to their affiliation to the cluster. It should be added here that all men who belong to the cluster‘e' have bwaliga relation to all men who belongs to the cluster‘g' while all men in the cluster‘f' have bwaliga relation to all men in the cluster‘h'.Therefore ego's tama is bwaliga to ego's male sibi, and ego's male mabi or nitu in one cluster is bwaliga to ego's male mabi or nitu in the other cluster.

　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　* This figure shows the case in which ego belongs to the cluster ‘a' and
　　　　　　　　　　his real mother married a man of the cluster ‘e'.
　　　　　　　　 * Letters of the alphabet correspond to those in Figure I.
　　　　　　　　 * mabi-nitu shows that mabi and nitu are placed in alternate generations
　　　　　　　　　in the matriline.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure VI


　　　Although those who are in the same moiety as ego are terminologically classified by the principles of generation and sex regardless of their affiliation to the cluster６）(see Figure VIII), men in the same cluster as ego have bwaliga relation to men in one cluster of the other division in thesame moiety. For example, ego's tarabe in ego's cluster has bwaliga relationto ego's tarabe in one cluster of the opposite division. In this case, the child of the former is called nitu by ego while the child of the latter is called mabi. Such a mechanism will be further explained in the following.

Marriage System

　　　I have already analyzed the marriage system of North Raga in a previous paper, where I showed that there are two kinds of alliance system in North Raga (Yoshioka 1985). One is the asymmetric system between clusters which is based on the sister-exchange(Figure VII-I). The unit of the asymmetrical
alliance is a pair of clusters whose male members are bwaliga to each other. The other is the symmetric system between clusters which is based on the daughter-exchange(Figure VII-II). Men who are bwaliga to each other exchange the daughter of each other in marriage. The marriage regulation underlined in the former system is expressed by people as follows: a man should marry his female mabi and a woman should marry her male sibi, while such a regulation underlined in the latter system is expressed as follows: a man in one division in a moiety should marry a daughter of a man who belongs to the other division in the same moiety.

　　　
* Letters of the alphabet correspond to those in Figure I.
　　　　* Arrows indecate the direction of the movement of women at
marriage.

Figure VII

　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　 Moiety X　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Moiety Y

　　　　 * Letters of the alphabet corespond to those of Figure I.
 * Central lines in the boxes divide alternate generations.
 * ------ means marriage between male member of the moiety X
and female member of the moiety Y.

 Figure VIII

　　　The North Raga marriage system in connection with the relationship terminology is summarized in Figure VIII. In it:(1)All tarabe, male tuaga, tua, male tihi and aloa in ego's cluster‘a' marry ego's female mabi in the clusters ‘f' and‘h'.(2)All tarabe, male tuaga, tua, male tihi and aloa in cluster‘c' marry ego's female nitu in ‘f' and ‘h'. Those men who have married ego's female nitu are called bwaligaku. (3)All tarabe, male tuaga, tua, male tihi and aloa in cluster‘b' marry ego's vwavwa( cluster ‘e') in one of the alternate generations and to ego's female sibi(cluster‘g') in one of the alternate generations. (4) All tarabe, male tuaga, tua, male tihi and aloa in cluster ‘d' marry ego's vwavwa in cluster ‘e' of the other alternate generations and ego's female sibi in cluster ‘g' of the other alternate generations.Those men who have married ego's vwavwa are called huriku.(5)All of the male members in ego's cluster refer to ego's mabi and nitu as mabi and nitu respectively. But for tama, vwavwa, and sibi, a different situation exists. Those in ego's alternate generations refer to ego's tama, vwavwa and sibi by the same terms as ego while those in the opposite alternate generations refer to ego's tama and vwavwa as sibi and ego's sibi as tama or vwavwa.(6) Men in the clusters‘a' and ‘c',‘b' and ‘d',‘e' and ‘g', ‘f'and ‘h' are bwaliga to each other. Those whom the former in the pair call mabi are called nitu by the latter.
　　　The relation between wife-giver and wife-taker is shown in Figure IX.All male members of ego's cluster marry ego's female mabi while female members in the same alternate generations as ego in ego's cluster marry ego's sibi and those in the other alternate generations marry ego's tama.

　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　* The arrows indicate the direction of the movenent of women at marriage.
　　　　　　　* Central lines in the boxes divide alternate generations.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure IX

3

　　　In this section I briefly comment on the kinship and marriage system in today's situation. As already said, the traditional system has changed in some aspects and some knowledge about it has been lost.
　　　Even now it is a common recognition that the moiety is exogamous, and it is easy to find a man who knows that each moiety is divided into two divisions. But people are confused about how many clusters there are in each moiety. One of the reasons for such confusion may be that although in the traditional system children of male members of each cluster were distinctly named,adopting Christian names caused the naming system to change. Now only some persons have such names as their personal names. Moreover, many people do not know all the names of the descent groups in their own cluster. The relation between descent groups and cluster is explained in the myth. But the details of such a myth have been forgotten.
　　　Among the factors which caused confusion in the social grouping, the most influential one is the change in the marriage system. Although the moiety exogamy is rigidly obserbed even now, it happens that a man marries to his vwavwa, his sibi and even his nitu. The vwavwa marriage is most prevalent among these ‘incorrect marriages', while nitu marriages are very few. Such marriages cause confusion in the terminological system because the latter's structure depends on the mabi marriage. When the terminological system is confused, the system of social grouping becomes confused because the latter has the harmonious relation with the former in the traditional sysytem. For example, traditionally all male members of one's father's cluster were one's tama but the vwavwa marriage has made it possible to find his nitu and mabi in that cluster(Figure X).

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 * T = tama, V = vwavwa, M = mabi, N = nitu
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 * When ego marries correctly, he refers to persons in his
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　father's cluster by the terms in parentheses.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure X


　　　Even now people insist that ego in Figure VIII should marry a daughter of a man of division ‘B'. When ego marries a daughter of a man of cluster‘c',no confusion occurs, but when he marries a daughter of a man of the other cluster in division ‘B', a vwavwa marriage and a sibi marriage occur. Traditionally ego's bwaliga is a man who has married his nitu. But if ego marries his vwavwa, he becomes bwaliga of the latter's father and reciprocally he refers to him as bwaliga, who had been his huri. Because of vwavwa marriage, ego's bwaliga may become the same person as ego's huri, who should belong to a diffent cluster from that of ego's bwaliga. In today's situation, these two clusters become amalgamented.
　　　The terminological system itself is undergoing change. In my first research in this area in 1974 I never heard the word ‘tawean', which is Pidgin English. But during my second reserch there from 1981 to 1982 I often heard this word used by the younger generation. Tawean means‘brother-in-law'. A wife's brother as well as a sister's husband are referred to by tawean. This usage has resulted in the confusion of mabi and sibi. Some persons said that mabi and sibi are the same and that it is correct for a man to marry his sibi.
　　　The intrinsic character of the traditional terminological system has also contributed to the present confusion. In the traditional system the genealogical relationship should not be extended to the classificatory relationship (by which I mean here the relationship outside genealolgy). As already seen, one's genealogical tarabe has a completely differnt role from the classificatory tarabe. The marriage with a daughter of one's classificatory tarabe in a certain cluster is correct while the marriage with daughters of his tarabe in the other clusters is not correct. But if a man gives importance to the genealogical relations and extends it to the classificatory relation, he may insist that I marry correctly even if he marries a daughter of his classificatory tarabe in his division.

4

　　　In the text of Father David the traditional kin relations are described.　I supplement it here by pointing out the characteristic relationship among　kin in today's situation.
　　　Tarabe in ego's cluster(for example ego's mother's brother)is the propertygiver to ego because the inheritance rule is matrilineal. But he is not an authorized person and the jural authority over a man or a woman in marriage is vested not in his or her tarabe but in tama(real father or classificatory father if he is dead). In North Raga there is no tentioned relationship between tarabe in ego's cluster and ego such as reported in the other matrilineal societies. There is also no tentioned relationship between ego and the other kin in ego's moiety without huri. Huri is the husband of vwavwa. Huri should be an authorized person to ego because it is said that when one's huri came near him, he ran away. Now such a custom has been lost.
　　　Tentioned relationship is found between ego and sibi. Some restrictions are placed on ego's behavior toward his or her sibi. This is described in Father David's text. Conversely, ego's mabi should observe some restrictions in front of ego. When ego marries one of his female mabi, ego calls her brothers bulena(Figure XI). It is not necessary for ego to assist his bulena while bulena should assist ego on any occasion.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 *‘d' calls ‘a',‘b', and‘c' bulena while they call ‘d' sibi.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 *‘e' calls ‘a',‘b', and‘c' mabi and they call‘e' sibi.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure XI


　　　It is said that members of the same moiety should help each other. Especially,men who call each other bwaliga should do so. Bwaliga should give assistance to each other on any occasion such as ceremonial exchanges, building of a new house, or making a new yam field and so on. Even if it happens that tarabe in ego's cluster marries incorrectly ego's female nitu, such a tarabe is treated as ego's bwaliga and should behave as ego's bwaliga.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Figure XII


　　　Joking behavior or funny talk is called vwauvwau. Vwauvwau is permitted between a woman and her husband's classificatory father(tama) or father's sister(vwavwa),or between a man and his classificatory father. See Figure XII. Suppose ‘d' gets angry with‘e'on some occasion. ‘e' tells him that she is leaving home. But actually she hides in some place near the house. ‘d' searches for her here and there and at last finds her near the house. In such a case, ‘e' can talk with ‘a' and ‘b' about it and they can laughat‘d'. In other words, those who can laugh at a man by talking about a happening between him and his wife which disgraces him are only his tama and vwavwa, besides his wife. It is also said that ‘b' can talk with ‘d' about‘c''s funny episode such as the above. It is also said that ‘a' can take the hand of ‘e' and let it touch the hips of the former. When ‘a' does so,she will make bwaraitoa to‘d' on the occasion of‘d''s rank-taking ceremony.
　　　Bwaraitoa has the same meaning as vwauvwau and people say that these two are the same. But it seems that bwaraitoa is used often on a ceremonial occasion while vwauvwau is used in everyday life. Bwaraitoa is observed on three occasions at least. The first is when a child is born. In this case, a child's classificatory tama and vwavwa steal some property of the child's real tama and sometimes the former put a taboo on the latter's cultivation or other things. The second is the marriage ceremony. In this case, the vwavwa of the bridegroom acts funny with his ratahi; for example, the former sprinkles water or mud on the latter. These vwavwa are given red mats called bwana７） (a kind of traditional money) by the parent of the bridegroom. The third is the rank-taking ceremony. In this ceremony, a man needs many pigs, which are given by some men at the ceremony８）. When the man who is given pigs dances on the ceremonial ground in order to receive such pigs, his classificatory tama or vwavwa dances jokingly following him. This is bwaraitoa in this case. After that the man's wife or his mother should give red mats or small red mats called bari９） to those who did bwaraitoa１０）.
　　　In North Raga, generaly speaking, the wife-taker is in a superior position to the wife-giver,taking account of the following facts:that the wife-takersof ego's cluster are ego's sibi and tama; that one should observe many restrictions in front of his sibi; that one's tama has jural authority over him;and that one's tama or vwavwa has the right to laugh at him and make funof him. As already said, tama and sibi of male members in ego's alternate generations in ego's cluster are called sibi and tama respectively by male members in the opposite alternate generations, and tama and sibi of the latter are called sibi and tama respectively by the former. The general relationship between wife-taker and wife-giver is summurized as shown in Figure XIII.

　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Figure XIII


5

　　　In this paper, I present Father David's Raga text with an English translation. His original text is not spoken one but written one and it seems to contain many writing and spelling mistakes. I made many correctionswith the collaboration with Mr. Richard Leona,who is a native speaker of the Raga language and who was my collaborator in the work of this translation. Although in my earlier paper titled“The story of Raga (I)" I presented the original writing with corrected writing, in this paper I present only a corrected version of the text. Colons and periods in this text are not always in the original. They are sometimes omitted, or exchanged, or supplemented in order to clarify the relationship between the original and its translation. I have also omitted the original parentheses in the text to avoid a complexity.
　　　Some words in the parentheses in the translation are supplemented by me to clarify the meaning of the original sentence. When the Raga word is used in the translation, I show its English translation in a bracket or explain its meaning in a footnote. As for the footnotes, those in the text are common with those of its translation.

NOTES

1)In “The story of Raga(I)", I treated the first two sections of Chapter 6 of the original as sections 8 and 9 of Chapter 5. Therefore section 1 of Chapter 6 in this paper is originally section 3 of Chapter 6.
2)I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. P.E. Davenport of Shinshu University who read an earlier version of this paper and improved my English.
3)I was engaged in field research in North Raga in 1974, from 1981 to 1982, and again in 1985.
4)na is a possesive particle of the third person singular.
5)In the case of the cluster‘a' which contains many descent groups such as Anserehubwe, Agolomwele, Lolkoi and so on, the plots of Anserehubwe are scattered in the northernmost part, the plots of Agolomwele in the north-east part, and those of Lolkoi in the central part, and so on.
6)Ego's SW belongs to the same moiety as ego. But she is categorized as mabi. For the discussion of this, see Yoshioka 1985.
7)See footnote 23 in the text.
8)This is a part of the ceremonial exchange done in the series of the Bolololi ceremony. For detail description, see Yoshioka 1983a,1983b, and 1986.
9)See footnote 21 in the text.
10)I will present a detail description of bwaraitoa in the following parts of this paper.

REFERENCES

Yoshioka,M
　　　1983a Bororori I - Hokubu Raga ni okeru buta ni matsuwaru gishiki -. (Bolololi I - A Ceremony Centering Around Pigs in North Raga -.) Annual Review of Social Anthropology 9:167-190.
　　　1983b Bororori II - Hokubu Raga ni okeru riidaashippu -. (Bolololi II -Leadership in North Raga -.) Japanese Journal of Ethnology 48:63-90.
　　　1985 The Marriage System of North Raga, Vanuatu. Man and Culture in Oceania 1:27-54.
　　　1986 A Report on Bolololi: Rank-taking Ceremony in North Raga, Vanuatu.(Unpublished. A report dedicated to the Vanuatu Cultural Centre.)
　　　1987 The Story of Raga: A Man's Ethnography on His Own Society(I) The Origin Myth. Journal of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Shinshu University 21:1-66.