Ngaputoru The Elder and the Younger — Foreign and Autochthonous Origin and Hierarchy in the Cook Islands The three islands of ‘Atiu, Ma‘uke and Mitiaro form one of the local polities which can be regarded as having had some degree of internal political coherence in the form of overarching chiefly authority at the beginning of colonial contacts (Siikala 1990). This unity of the Ngaputoru group is emphasized also in the historical narrative accounts — mythical in nature — about the origin of both the islands and their populations. These origin narratives establish a connection between divine and human worlds, but at the same time they also reveal the same transcendent reversal of the younger/elder relationship as the myth of ‘Aho‘eitu. The origin narratives of both ‘Atiu and Ma‘uke tell about the migration of the original founding chiefs from Avaiki. Typical to these heroic figures on both islands is that they were renegades, younger brothers who had to leave their original home island because of a lack of land or because of a defeat in a fight. Their travel from the transcendent Avaiki, however, transforms them into chiefs who are able to establish their own reigns on the new islands they now occupy. In the case of ‘Atiu, historically the dominant of the islands, the origin of the population is claimed to descend from Tura. The historical narrative about Tura gives a clear picture of his genealogical position: Ina-tokoai-kura lived with her husband, who was Tangaroa. He was called Tangaroa because he was a god and he was said to be a bird. This is why our island is called Enuamanu. Some say differently, but this is mine. Ina-tokoai-kura lived with her husband Tangaroa, and they had their children, whose names were ‘Atiu Mua, whom some people say is Mariri, the first was ‘Atiu Mua, the second was ‘Atiu Nui and the third was ‘Atiu Iti. ‘Atiu Mua had two children, Papa and Tuariki. ‘Atiu Nui had a son, Mariri, this was ‘Atiu Nui’s second child. ‘Atiu Iti, Ina-tokoai-kura’s third child by Tangaroa, had Tura Ariki. The genealogy of Tura looks as follows: ‘Atiu Iti thus seems to be the youngest of the three sons of the shade of a woman, Ina-tokoai-kura and Tangaroa, who was said to be a god and a bird. And from this youngest grandchild the population descends. The other two, ‘Atiu Mua and ‘Atiu Nui (also known as ‘Atiu Muri) gave birth to other significant descendants, among whom Tura also stands in a teina-tuakana-relationship. ‘Atiu Mua is said to have given birth to Papa, who is the earth. ‘Atiu Nui’s descendant is in turn Mariri, to whom the bird-motif is also attached. He is known by the name Mariri-tutu-a-manu, Mariri-the-image-of-a-bird. There seems so to be a system prevailing in this account. The human beings are the younger brothers, and the elder ones remind us more of gods; they are connected through their superior abilities, for example, to fly like Tangaroa. It is the youngest of the whole genealogical structure, Tura, who has to leave the supernatural homeland and go to look for an island for himself. The arrival of the canoe of Tura at ‘Atiu from Avaiki marks the beginning of the population there. The origin of the Ma‘uke population is similarly narrated in a migration myth, according to which Avaiki was filled with blood, and the tribes there were at war with each other. The son of Tangaroa had to leave the island and travel to look for another island to live on. The origin of the Ma‘uke population is thus also divine, but however from the side of the loser in war. The people originate from those who are not able to secure a place for themselves in Avaiki, which is thus left to the gods alone. In both cases the origin is not through the paramount lines, but through the younger and losing ones. The transcendent character of the origin leaves the elder lines in Avaiki and gives them more of the attributes of the gods, while it transforms the younger ones into chiefly human beings through their travels. In this respect the Ngaputoru situation is structurally homologous to the Tongan ‘Aho‘eitu case. The overall situation leads, however, to different conclusions. The third island of the group, Mitiaro, has to thank both for its soil and for its population of the other two islands. The soil was transferred by gods and spirits from ‘Atiu and Ma‘uke to Mitiaro to make it inhabitable, and in a similar way the descendants of ‘Atiu and Ma‘uke populated the island. Mitiaro thus falls totally in a youngest-descendant category in the polity of Ngaputoru. The parents of this descendant are ‘Atiu and Ma‘uke, which have gender values attached to them. ‘Atiu is the male, and thus father; and Ma‘uke is the female and mother. Hierarchically significant distinctions in this island polity are accordingly the positional distinctions between the members of a nuclear family which are used as a metaphor for the whole political system. The elder/younger opposition plays a role in the origin narratives as a marker between gods and humans, the markers of the political hierarchy are the gender values and parent/child relationships. If we look at the origin narratives from the point of view of their politically significant end-result, this is the whole significance of these. Through their mutual relationships the islands acquire their qualities, and these qualities in turn determine each island’s hierarchical position.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 21:09:37 +0000
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