ABSTRACT

Land is the greatest source of wealth in Tikopia. Some of the terms for a wealthy person are really references to control over land and therefore over food. Taŋata kai kai lasi, “ man who eats greatly ” ; taŋata kai kai rau fenua “ man who eats from the breadth of the land ”; tau fenua, “ owner of the land ”—these are all common expressions for wealthy men. One of the correlates of the power of chiefs is their relative superiority in food resources as exemplified by their greater command of territory. In a burst of confidence Pa Paŋisi, the Motlav missionary teacher, once told me, “ in a few years, friend, I shall be like a chief. I am planting all my wife’s land with coconut trees, and when they begin to bear I shall be as wealthy as any man in Tikopia.” The natives themselves emphasize how the desire for land is a potential cause of dissension. In olden times it even gave rise to fratricide. In former days, it is said, brothers did not go out fishing in canoes or diving for shellfish together, the reason being that their thirst for land might tempt one to kill the other and so inherit the lot. “ He plots for food-sites in order that he may eat alone.” The general principle of patrilineal inheritance rendered it safe for a man to go out with his mother’s brother or his brother-in-law in a canoe. There was no incentive to murder here.