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.
Tabi(X) | Bule(Y) | ||||
A | a | Anserehubwe Agolomwele etc. |
Anggavauru Avintena etc. |
e | C |
b | Anggarai Arevo etc. |
Atalai Labwango etc. |
f | ||
B | c | Atanbalo Atavalvusi etc. |
Gilau Gimare etc. |
g | D |
d | Amanggao Inveveo etc. |
Atabulu Avatgalana etc. |
h |
* 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.
01.ratahi(mua) 02.tarabe(bena) 03.aloa 04.tuaga(tuta, tuga) 05.tua 06.tihi 07.hogosi 08.sibi(bena) 09.tama(tata) 10.vwavwa 11.mabi 12.nitu 13.ahoa 14.tasala 15.bwaliga 16.habwe 17.bulena 18.huri |
MMM, M MMMB, MB ZS(m.s.), ZD(m.s.) MMB, eB, eZ, MM B(m.s.) Z(w.s.) yB, yZ, SS(m.s.), SD(m.s.) Z(m.s.) B(w.s.) MF, MFZS, MFZDS, ZH, ZHZS, HB, HZS, MFZ, MFSD, MFZDD, ZHZ,ZHZD, HM F, FZS, FZDS, ZDH FZ, FZD, FZDD, ZDHZ MMBWB, MBWB, WB, MMBDS, MBDS, DS(m.s) MMBW, MBW, W, MMBDD, MBDD, DD(m.s) MMBS, WMB, MBS, S, DDS(m.s) MMBD, WM, MBD, D, DDD(m.s) H W WF, DH(m.s.) HZ, BW(w.s.) WB FZH |
*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
A B | C | D | A has reciprocal relation to B. C is a self-reciprocal term. D has no reciprocal partner. |
ratahi ----nitu tama ---- nitu vwavwa --- nitu tarabe --- aloa tuaga ---- tihi sibi ---- mabi tasala --- ahoa |
hogosi tua bwaliga habwe |
bulena huri |
* 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.
1. ratahin ratahiku = tuagaku 2. taraben ratahiku = tuagaku 3. taman ratahiku = sibiku 4. ratahin tarabeku = tuagaku 5. mabin tarabeku = mabiku 6. nitun tarabeku = nituku 7. ratahin sibiku = sibiku 8. taraben sibiku = sibiku 9. ratahin mabiku = nituku 10. taraben mabiku = nituku |
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.