K O D I K A S / C O D E Ars Semeiotica Volume 38 (2015) · No. 3-4 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen Listening to the Unsaid Pacific Shades of Taboo Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) Early taboo research concentrated on studying underlying social structures of Polynesian societies in the Pacific Islands where the term tapu was first encountered by 18 th century European explorers. The focus soon shifted to the ancient aboriginal peoples on the Australian continent and their use of taboo. What is left of the original culture-specific taboo system that kept indigenous societies in order? How did the social and spiritual concept that was handed down from one generation to another change under the influence of colonisation and missionaries? In comparison to the original taboo, our understanding and use of it reflects a rather vague collection of social conventions. In this article, I argue that though the term taboo along with its original meaning have been hijacked, it still functions as a protection and order system for modern societies across the world, including the Pacific regions. Taboos are becoming more important in times of accelerated globalisation because they are a vital part in intercultural communication and, once broken, cannot really be repaired. In Polynesian Tonga, Melanesian Fiji, and indigenous Australia, traditional and modern taboo have become intertwined and recreated through intercultural communication. The indigenous voices cited in this article stem from a collection of 24 semi-structured interviews that were conducted between January and October 2014 as part of a larger, ongoing project about taboo. All interviewees are at home in at least two cultures and in at least two languages: only living in another culture enables people to truly focus on their own. 1 Introduction: A modern taboo breach As long as we are within the cultural space we grew up in, interacting with others who share our cultural values and beliefs, we sort of know how to behave, what to say and what not. British physician and psychologist Havelock Ellis reassuringly summarised this internalised knowledge: “Life is liveable because we know that wherever we go, most of the people we meet will be restrained in their actions towards us by an almost instinctive network of taboos” (Ellis 1948: 193). In a world marked by accelerating globalisation and changing communication technology, taboos need to change as well. What are we to do when our network of taboos is not functional in a different society? If taboos limit our behaviour towards others instinctively and thereby protect our fellow citizens, we should probably hold on to them. But how do we decide which ones to keep and which to break and get rid of? How does taboo breach and elimination actually work? Emma Louisa is one of many Tongans who left the islands and moved to Australia, where she is trying to preserve and hand down to her children some of the Tongan traditions. The following anecdote was, strictly speaking, not part of our interview about taboo. It is a piece of personal information she shared after the interview, when she allowed herself to veer away from the traditional and the questions she had been sent before the interview: When I first came to Australia, one of my brothers got married to an Australian, and she is fat. So I say oh, look at you, you are fat! My brother took me out of the room and explained to me that I cannot say that here, I was supposed to apologize. I said I am so sorry, and she was so distraught and she cried, she was very hurt and then I cried too and she did not want to see me anymore. Then my brother explained to her that I was new here and that in Tonga it is not an insult. In Tonga you can say, you are fat, that is okay, one would just answer, yes, my husband spoils me, or something like that. It was very embarrassing and it took a while to build our relationship but now I am her favourite sister in law, she knows me now (interview with Emma Louisa, 2014). This example shows how important it can be to know about cultural differences in other parts of the world and at the same time how difficult it is to know these things: Weight is not an issue in Tonga and to mention it is not taboo. It would not occur to Luisa to question her approach, her comment was spontaneous. Her brother, who apparently knew how the statement would affect his bride, could have warned Emma Louisa - or his bride. Apart from being a good example for unintentional taboo breach in intercultural communication, it is also very much an example of a modern taboo, it is a taboo in the sense that we use it today across the world. In many parts of the world being overweight is not seen as a good thing. Negative connotations about health and beauty are attached to weight and health-threatening obesity and there are even stories of fat-shaming online. Most languages have euphemisms for overweight people, such as ‘chubby’, ‘well-built’, or ‘real women’ in an attempt to make being overweight acceptable. There have been court cases about discrimination in the work place because of perceived weight issues, and to call someone fat, obese or just overweight is seen as an insult in most parts of the Western world. There are, however, places where big bodies and fat men and women are not discriminated against because their bodies are seen as proof that they are well off, able to live a good life with an abundance of food. In Tonga, around 90 % of the population is overweight in terms of Western standards, followed by Samoa (Tonga Daily News 2014). If a Tongan is called fat, there is no negative connotation attached and the person would certainly not be offended or feel ashamed. It is this modern reaction to a word, a concept, an action, that characterises taboo as we interpret it today. Apart from the different ideas about body fat, an issue like this does not qualify as a taboo in the original sense, the way it was understood and practised in the Pacific Islands over 250 years ago, because it is not something that has to do with hierarchy, power, danger, or uncleanliness, and it is not something that would be punishable by a supernatural force. Steiner (1956: 20 f.) defines taboo as [. . .] concerned (1) with all the social mechanisms of obedience which have ritual significance; (2) with specific and restrictive behaviour in dangerous situations. One might say that taboo deals with the sociology of danger itself, for it is also concerned (3) with the protection of individuals who are in danger, and (4) with the protection of society from those endangered - and therefore dangerous - persons. In “Franz Steiner: A Memoir”, Douglas (1999: 10) pays tribute to his assertion that “meanings come out of social life”. In turn, her own essay, Purity and Danger, which she based on Steiner’s Taboo (1956) was “a sociological approach to the question of belief.” In Purity and 188 Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) Danger Douglas (1966: 73) makes a clear cultural distinction between Anglo-Saxons and primitive peoples by outlining the consequences of pollution as a matter of “aesthetics, hygiene or etiquette” which may “create social embarrassment” for the former and ritual pollution as “a religious offence” for the latter, with far-reaching consequences such as death. The “protection mechanism” Steiner refers to therefore seems to have been misunderstood as well as dismantled by the missionaries who came to the islands in the 19 th century. In Hawaii, just like elsewhere in Polynesia and Melanesia, they brought some improvements, such as hospitals and schools, the eradication of cannibalism and, of course, Christianity. One could argue that Christianity was not an improvement if only because it destroyed social cohesion and traditions; Christians just brought other taboos. They were known for educating against the existing taboo system: throughout the pacific region, taboo-based rituals became forbidden or were replaced with others, which made more sense to the Western missionaries. A 19th century Brockhaus entry creates a scary version of what taboo actually meant for the islanders and how they were ‘saved’ by the missionaries: On most of the South Sea islands, taboo (tapu) designates in part the rules regarding the sanctity and inviolability of divine objects, persons or places, in part the sanctity and inviolability of the same, and in part also the undertakings that are supported by the advantages conferred by this sanctity. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the islanders, specifically the inhabitants of the Society Archipelago and the Sandwich Islands, were enslaved by this terrible superstition of taboo, which imposed a good many privations and cost the lives of many thousands of innocent people. The king was taboo, divine and invulnerable, likewise everything he touched: for this reason he did not enter any house other than his own, as then nobody else would have been able to use it again. Even the cup he drank from would be destroyed immediately afterwards. But the priests would also pronounce a taboo on objects and places that nobody could then touch or access, and even on certain food from which one then had to abstain This superstition has been increasingly disappearing since the European and American missionaries succeeded in opening the doors to Christianity (Brockhaus 1886: 439, transl. Maria Veber cited in Bandhauer and Veber: 24). At least regarding such concepts as taboo and mana (the latter was not recognised by the 18 th century seafarers but became known much later), the missionaries and colonizers lacked an understanding of ancient traditions and order systems that helped pacific peoples survive over thousands of years. 2 Taboo, Mana and the Sacred Most writing about taboo mentions the origin of the word and how tapu was introduced to Europe via Captain James Cook’s journal entries from his third voyage in the Pacific in 1777. He describes peculiar behaviour of the people in Tonga: Not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of any thing . . . On expressing my surprise at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is forbidden (Cook and King 1793: 348). In Tonga, the answer to if something is taboo or not would be a clear yes or no. In a more complex, larger and more heterogeneous society, one will get various answers. In Polynesia it was clear who was able to place or lift a taboo and who was not. This was done by chiefs and Listening to the Unsaid 189 those on top of the hierarchy. A taboo breach could be followed by drastic punishment, including death, and/ or with a punishment by the Gods, through the spirit of the ancestors. Taboos were the unwritten laws in a society that did not have a written language, because that was only introduced by the missionaries in the 19th century. Taboo can be seen as the very essence of society: It consists of rules of behaviour, actions and expectations which constitute society itself. The rules which generate and sustain society allow meanings to be realised which otherwise would be undefined and ungraspable . . . As in any social system, these rules are specifications which draw analogies between states. The cumulative power of the analogies enable one situation to be matched to another, related by equivalence, negation, hierarchy and inclusion. We discover their interrelatedness because of the repetitive formulas on which they are constructed, the economy and internal consistency of the patterns. The purity rules of the Bible . . . set up the great inclusive categories in which the whole universe is hierarchised and structured (Douglas in Neusner, [1979] 2006: 138). All Pacific regions are familiar with the taboo concept and, though there are differences in what is and what is not taboo, they all have one thing in common: when a taboo is broken, punishment from a supernatural source is to be expected. Although tapu was “discovered” and imported to England and Europe in the 18 th century, the power connected to tapu was not connected and studied until the missionaries wrote about this spiritual component in the 19 th century. It is the idea of mana, a sacred, impersonal force that exists in the universe, that the rest of the world has difficulty to grasp and place. Mana is a power essentially inherent in all living beings, trees and plants, but also in institutions, places and stones, and to possess it means to have authority. Mana transcends this world as well as the afterworld, it embeds the spirit of the atua and the ancestors, and it is fluid and changeable. The role of mana, as different from noa which describes the normal, not taboo, is the realm of complexity of the taboo concept in the Pacific. It is, however, not a universal concept that is found elsewhere in the world. In his iconic Elementary Forms of Religious Life ([1912] 1968: 197) Durkheim explains the complex notion of power that is outside of physical power from a North American Indian and a Melanesian Islands perspective, and relates it to the belief in the supernatural in Australian indigenous societies. The wakan of the Sioux and the orenda of the Iroquois are the direct equivalent to the mana in Melanesia, he concludes, so the “diffuse and anonymous force” in Australian totemism must be similar (Durkheim: 197). This may have been wishful thinking, as Smith (2004: 130) points out: I am tempted to suggest that Durkheim’s entire proposal to “supplement” Australian data with Native American was made so that this one interference could be legitimized, thereby enabling Durkheim to “depart” from his precisely stipulated domain, the “circle of facts” (138,n.3/ 95.n.1) limited to Australia as his primary resource, with America as his secondary support, and to import the Oceanic word/ concept mana as the chief guarantor of his interpretation of his central second-order category, the sacred. Anthropologists, ethnologists and psychologists are less divided about the strong similarities between taboo concepts in the Pacific Islands and Aboriginal Australia. Freud (1913), Durkheim (1968), Lévy-Strauss (1969), and others focused on the oldest continent to explore religious beliefs, taboo systems and their functions, so that they could draw their conclusions about how societies work on the whole. Durkheim owes most of his ethnographical knowledge of Australia to the work of Spencer and Gillen who systematically collected data 190 Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) that Durkheim then “interpreted according to his sociological method” (Morphy 1998: 13). Durkheim himself never set foot on Australia. In the following paragraphs I will use examples from the archipelagos of Tonga and Fiji, as well as from Australia arguing that taboo has not lost any of its importance or impact on societies. It has become more vague and complex than in pre-contact Polynesia or in the Pacific Islands in general because international and intercultural contact has increased. At the beginning of the 21 st century, indigenous people in Tonga, Fiji and also in Australia are constantly in intercultural discourse within their own physical space negotiating old traditions and modern influence. The discussion will also show how indigenous people view taboo as essentially positive and protective of identity and social structure, while other societies associate them as negative conventions that are basically restricting freedom and social development. Each taboo example will be supported by interview excerpts with indigenous people which are taken from a collection of 24 semistructured interviews that have been conducted as part of a larger project on taboo in intercultural communication between January and October 2014. They represent a collection of personal, subjective insights of men and women who are at home in at least two cultures and two languages and this provides valuable insights because distance from our own culture gives us a better understanding of self and other. 3 The incest taboo in Tonga In Polynesia, Tonga is the only archipelago that has never been officially colonised, though it has been influenced by missionaries, beachcombers and small traders. It became a modern chiefdom state with a king in the 19 th century (van der Grijp: 215) and is the only monarchy left in the Pacific. Like all other Polynesian nations, Tonga did not have a written language before the missionaries arrived. By 1852, “the traditional chiefly system based on mana and tapu” had transitioned to “a new system of power and authority reflecting missionary influence” (van der Grijp: 215). The system of tabu is abolished. [. . .]All persons are to dress modestly and becomingly. All crime will be punished, and the laws already printed are to be enforced throughout the land. All Chiefs and notables are to be respected. All children are to be sent to school. . .for on this depends the future welfare of our Nation (WMMS: 38, cited in van der Grijp: 215). The missionaries, who had introduced the writing system, were in charge of the school system and therefore had ideological influence. Today, half of the Tongan people do not live on the islands but in one of the classic migration countries, New Zealand, Australia, United States of America. Nevertheless, Tonga has held on to traditions like no other pacific island group. Because many of its citizens are living abroad, the country has become richer; the loyal expats send money and visit their country regularly. Of the around 106.000 people who live in Tonga, 98 % are Tongan while the rest are European and Chinese. Most of the population lives on the main island Tongatapu and a quarter of those in the largest town, Nuku’alofa, around 6 hours flight away from Australia. Tonga has been part of the British Commonwealth since 1970, but it is still a society characterised by an indigenous culture relying on farming and fishing. The survival of the current system is threatened by corruption scandals, limited freedom of the press and scandals such as the issuing of Tongan passports to Hong Kong Chinese for large amounts of money in the 1990’s (van der Grijp 2014: 260 f.). Listening to the Unsaid 191 Like most Tongans who appreciate their country as “the only remaining Polynesian kingdomwith continuity between the ancient chieftaincy [. . .] and the present head of state (van der Grijp 2014: 254), interviewee Emma Louisa who migrated to Australia many years ago proudly speaks about her country of origin. But the protected days of the kingdom seem to be weakening. While she was born and raised in Tonga, her children are already more connected to Australian culture. The next generations that grow up abroad will not see Tonga as their home anymore and support the country in the same way like their parents. They will also decide which taboos they will recognise and observe as their own and which they will not accept. For Emma Louisa, traditions and taboos are relevant: All taboos are important because they are the guidelines for the forbidden in a culture. It is inappropriate to speak of getting rid of a taboo as it is cultural practice, its significance in that culture cannot be denied (interview: 2014). In her opinion, the most important culturally prescribed issue relates to incestuous relations. The incest taboo has been researched in abundance, Freud defined it as one of the two major taboos (the other being murder) relating strong, unconscious desire with the awareness of the forbidden. The incest taboo presents a problem to the very essence of structuralism because it is a norm that disturbs the divide between nature and culture. Lévi-Strauss (1969) does not assume that cultural behaviour has a natural basis but he separates nature and culture, only to stumble over the incest taboo. It is a culture crossing taboo and part of the cultural norm of all cultures. Freud expresses his astonishment in Totem and Taboo (1913: 54) that “the naked, wild cannibals of original Australia” are painfully aware of and meticulously trying to avoid incest at all costs, though “one would not think of them as being able to morally deny themselves something, to learn a cultural norm”. Lévi-Strauss argues that the savage mind is no different from the civilised, but the status of the incest taboo as at the same time natural and culturally induced is scandalous because it questions the nature/ culture divide and therefore an important pillar of structuralism. This position keeps the source of the incest taboo in the unthinkable and at the same time enables the conceptualization of the dichotomy nature-culture. For Lévi-Strauss (1969: 12) the incest taboo presents a methodological problem. He solved it with his theory that the very essence of society depends on exogamous relationships. Exchange is the basis of all social structures, so the exchange of women has evolved as an important part of marriage rules that keep groups interconnected and makes them stronger. Across the world, incest would be seen as taboo today, though the ideas about what actually constitutes incest are different from one part of the world to another, and they are changing over time. In Europe in particular, there seems to be less inhibition to accept sexual relations even between brothers and sisters. A recent case in Germany prompted the German Ethics Council to state “Criminal law is not the appropriate means to preserve a social taboo” (Huggler 2014). This overlap of taboo and law reminds of Frazer’s distinction between civil and religious sanctions (1875) when he refers to Hawaiian police employed by the king to enforce the observation of kapu (name for taboo in Hawaii). Offenders were killed, so the punishment was very “real”. He uses Fiji as a second example, where taboo breaches would lead to the offender being robbed and his gardens despoiled. In the case of incest, it depends very much on the circumstances how it will be treated. In his chapter on the work of van Gennep and Radcliffe Brown, Steiner (1956: 120 f.) cites the following passage by Radcliffe-Brown on incest in Hawaii: 192 Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) There, in former ties, if a commoner committed incest with his sister he became kapu (the Hawaiian form of tabu) His presence was dangerous in the extreme for the whole community, and since he could not be purified he was put to death. But if a chief of high rank, who, by reason of his rank was, of course, sacred (kapu), married his sister he became still more so. An extreme sanctity or untouchability attached to a chief born of a brother and sister who were themselves the children of a brother and sister. The sanctity of such a chief and the uncleanness of the person put to death for incest have the same source and are the same thing. In modern Europe there is no such distinction between the holy and the sacred, incest is socially taboo and there are laws regulating incest in the UK and many European countries, but it is legal in France, Spain and Portugal. In Tongan Culture the taboo seems to still be intact: In Tongan Culture it is a big taboo for cousins to get married, even right through to the tenth cousin. It brings shame upon the family and often severs kinship ties. In some other parts of the world they tolerate first and second cousins getting married. [. . .] “FAKA’APA’APA” expresses the respect between brother and sister, and that extends to all cousins in the family tree. Family gatherings are very important so that one knows who is relative and who is not (Emma Louisa 2014). After reflecting on this for a while, Emma Louisa modifies her argument: “The royal family is allowed to marry each other. It is very complicated, but it is in the constitution. I think by now relatives up to 6 degree are allowed to marry.” She explains how in particular living abroad makes it difficult to stick to even the most important traditions and how she struggles to keep the traditions alive, but at times breaks the strict rules herself: In my family it is still very important, but here in Australia I have to combine the two cultures. My children are Australian, they respect Tongan culture, but they are more at home in the Australian culture. I explain our culture to them, I am very much involved in our Tongan community here and so they learn, but they go to school here and they are different personalities. I explained to my daughter, when you have a girlfriend over, you need to explain our culture to her. She needs to respect it. When they watch television together, my daughter has to say, sorry but this program we cannot watch together with my brother. They watch cartoons and the news, but no love stories. The brother may not enter the room of his sister, it is part of the incest taboo. When they are small there is no problem, they bathe together and all, but when they are 10 and older, then not any more. The parents want to hand down the taboos to their children, but it is becoming more and more difficult. [. . .] I go and talk to my brother with a glass of wine in my hand when he has a beer, that is actually taboo. But it brings us closer together, I respect Tongan culture, but like this we share more, we are closer, but we would not talk about sexuality and things like that. Taboo has changed on its journey across cultures and through time. In semiotic terms, taboos mark things that should not be communicated within a society and they often become visible only when they are broken (Schröder 2013). Of course, the concept of the forbidden, the idea that some objects, topics, people or words are better not discussed but left in visual and audible silence was not really new in 18 th century Europe but it thrived in 19 th century British society where everything to do with sexuality was taboo, e. g. homosexuals would be referred to as ‘confirmed bachelors’, divorced women were outcasts and children born out of wedlock scandalous. The word taboo quickly filled the existing vocabulary gap (Betz, 1981, Kraft 2004). Initially associated with “primitive people”, it was soon applied to “civilized people” as Listening to the Unsaid 193 well and by the end of the 19 th century was widely known (Schröder 2013 b: 7). Cook could have brought the word from other parts of Polynesia, from the Maori in New Zealand, or from the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), where it is called kapu and where Cook lost his life in 1779 in a dispute with the locals. Or, he could have brought it from Fiji, where it is spelled tabu. 4 Power and Respect: An example from Fiji The concept of taboo is known everywhere in the Pacific and of great importance for social order. The archipelago of Fiji is 500 miles (805km) away from the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga. Fiji is usually seen as part of Melanesia, geographically and in terms of its population but it has strong Polynesian cultural influences. Melanesia means “the black islands” which means that compared to Polynesia (many islands) and Micronesia (small islands), it is categorized not purely by size and geographically but racially. Fiji has a different history as well as population structure compared to Tonga, but in terms of politics, the Eastern regions in particular have similar chiefly structure. In her article “The Myth of Cultural Homogeneity and Its Implications for Chiefly Power and Politics in Fiji”, Lawson (1990) examines how and in whose interest the chiefly system was kept in place and how superstition and Christian religion were combined. The fact that a large part of the population in Fiji is Indian has been used to argue in favour of the “traditional” structure in which the indigenous population was organised, though this structure had already changed under missionary influence. In particular Chiefly traditions in the Eastern regions have been promoted as protecting traditional culture. [. . .] much of the absolutist nature of chiefly rule persisting into modern times has been reinforced on the one hand by the early policy of indirect rule based on eastern structures requiring a strong chiefly system and, on the other, by lingering superstitious fears, which have been melded effectively with Christian beliefs (Lawson 1990: 808). In his ground-breaking anthropological work The Golden Bough (1894: 180), in the section about tabooed persons, Frazer writes about kana lama which is the Fijian name for a disease “supposed to be caused by eating out of a chief ’s dishes or wearing his clothes.” The offender would die from a swelling of their throat and body. Frazer concludes that a Fijian chief is therefore “a source of danger as well as of blessing” (p. 181). An Australian diplomat who attended a dinner in honour of the visiting Governor General at the Fijian Mission to the UN in New York in 1986 witnessed this juxtaposition first hand: The Governor General was a traditional Chief and sat at a separate table to eat. The seating arrangement honours the Chief and protects the attendees from possible danger (personal conversation with Cavan Hogue, 2015). Interviewee Eta was born and raised in Fiji, she belongs to the 57 % indigenous population. 37 % of people living in Fiji are Indians, the remainder is of European, Polynesian or Asian origin. For Eta, the main taboo area in indigenous Fiji has to do with hierarchy and power relations within Fiji’s chiefly societies: Most of the taboos are based on restrictions on what you say or how you behave towards those who are older than you and most particularly to the chiefs, because it is a chiefly society. So I find most of the things you should or shouldn’t do is based on that you should show your respect by behaving or not behaving towards those who are older than you or to the chiefs particularly. 194 Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) [. . .] there are a lot of taboos [about] what you cannot do or can do, and a lot of them are what not to do when the elders or chiefs are there. That shows how much you respect the chiefs and the elders. One of the things you are not supposed to do is to speak with the chiefs like we do right now, eye contact, particularly if you speak to the chiefs or the elder. If you are responding to what he says, you keep your eyes on the floor, (. . .) and you keep your distance. I cannot come really close if you are a chief, you keep your distance to show respect, so it’s actually showing deference. And that’s quite different from the meaning of respect in the modern sense. (Eta 2014) She draws a clear line between mutual respect between strangers or friends and family, and deference, which she describes as submissive behaviour. Communication between chiefs and ordinary people is always expressed as a power relation, and the positions of power are reached by birth, not merit, achievement or election. There are similar expressions of this type of power distance and deference in modern societies, there are rituals of respect in armies towards those in higher rank, people used to have to take their hats off when passing those wearing top hats, indicating their higher rank. Modern court rooms are semiotic treasure-chests of rituals expressing deference before the court, such as bowing in and out of the room, keeping a certain distance and addressing the judge in a certain way, all measurements that ensure submissive behaviour imposed on the defendants while the judge will be in an elevated position holding all the power. Like other Pacific nations, Fiji claims to be a democracy. Lawson (1996: 35) describes the minimal attributions of democracies as “a system in which no person can arrogate to him or herself unconditional or unlimited power”. Fiji has undergone many social changes, military coups and constitutional changes. It is part of a modern world with a tourist industry and a more mixed population, but it still carries the features of a traditional chiefly society. Holding on to the traditional power structures and their expression is, in Eta’s eyes [. . .] not good because our societies are more and more multiracial, and that kind of modern respect is very different; [. . .] They don’t know how to relate to others, to respect them and to respect them in the modern way. They cannot relate the respect in the traditional sense to those who are outsiders. So the only thing that’s left there is something that is quite negative, see what I mean? Two different sets of rules. What she describes here is a problem of globalization. The young generation in Fiji is using social media, travels and is less inclined to keep old traditions alive. People like Eta who live in Fiji as well as in Australia import and export values and knowledge, they are messengers who relate back what they discover. 4.1 Lesbianism must be a Western Thing Apart from focusing on old hierarchical patterns that create problems and culture clashes within and outside of the Islands, Eta identifies homosexuality as an important taboo in modern Fiji. Homosexuality has not been a taboo in traditional Polynesian societies such as the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), and many pacific islands such as Samoa and Tahiti are known for accepting a third gender as normal and legitimate; traditional Fiji also was not really worried about homosexual relationships, which Eta confirms when she thinks back about how she grew up in the village. Homosexual relationships are not against the law in Fiji, but same sex marriage is, for religious reasons. Interestingly, the taboos that were introduced by Listening to the Unsaid 195 the Christian missionaries proved to be stronger than the ones they came to abolish. Eta explains: I suppose homosexuality is one of the last taboos. And funny enough, in Fiji it is sort of included, it is part of the constitution, but society has not accepted it yet. What is happening here is there is always a clash between the liberal and the religious belief. Fiji is very religious, so it is also a sin. That is the basis: no, it is a sin, you are not going to entertain that. It has been on TV too, no, we are not going to accept it. It’s a taboo that is going to be hanging around for a long time. [. . .] The village is tolerant but [that] does not mean that they accept it. They often would have snide remarks whereas in urban areas they would just campaign against [homosexuals]. In urban areas the religion is stronger, it’s not so tolerant. In the villages they are religious but it is more the old, traditional way. Fundamentalism has not got there and therefore [they are] more tolerant. The Church is Catholic or Methodist and Anglican, they all come with anti-homosexuality. It is kind of softening, but there is the fundamentalism that comes from America and the religious influence from America is very, very strong. If you do your homework and read articles you find the media is quite forceful, they are trying to inform. They are walking a fine line, they don’t want to push this tolerance because there might be action from the public, so they do it slowly. Having distinguished between traditional disregard and Christian prohibition in terms of homosexuality, Eta describes an encounter that made her question her own reaction, which is a classic reaction to something that is perceived as out of the norm and possibly should not happen at all. In the village she grew up in, a few of her relatives were “effeminate” and “came out as gay later in life”. Because of this experience, she saw it as natural and did not question it. But, when I went to Suva I didn’t know lesbians existed. I grew up thinking lesbianism must be a Western thing! If it is that, it has nothing to do with me. And I didn’t see the two to be the same, that they are both homosexual. I did not know about it, until I came [to Australia] to study. It was my first experience when I saw 2 lesbians. Actually, they were sitting there smooching. I came out of the door and I saw that, and turned around, and it was an embarrassment and I looked away. I walked up the stairs and I stood there and thought, my God, it’s the first time I have seen two women kissing each other. Why did I react like that, I had to ask myself, because I did know that in Fiji but not too much, why did I react like that? I’ve never seen any lesbian so that was a real challenge for me. Eta is an academic who studied in Fiji as well as in Australia, and she has university teaching experience in both countries. Her research focuses on how to avoid the constant clashes in Fijian society. This may explain her extraordinary reaction to the perceived taboo breaches she encountered in Australia: she did not question the two women kissing, but her embarrassed reaction to the scene. In turn, she went to the library and educated herself on the topic. She did the same with other issues such as mental illness and depression, for which there is no word in the Fijian language. Though she comes to the conclusion that traditional taboos are still alive in modern Fiji, and have been added to by the missionaries, the role of the spiritual power has become blurred. [Taboo] has a spiritual dimension to it, but I have to say that that spiritual connection in Fiji is more and more fading. That connection means it has to do with our ancestors and ancestry and the enforcement of the missionaries to my country is over 200 years ago now. The missionaries had to suppress this, so in the place of the spirit of our ancestors, there is the Holy Spirit. So that has replaced the spirit. Once, when I took some students to Fiji on a research project, one of the students asked me about my ancestral spirits and I couldn’t answer it because I am so far removed 196 Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) from all that. It made me think about who my ancestors are and who I worship. Obviously it was an important part of it, who are my ancestors. But in my generation, it is no longer present. Some twenty years after her article on Power and Politics in Fiji, Lawson (2013: 16) claims that Christianity and the “Pacific Way” have found common grounds and Christianity is no longer seen as a negative Western imprint on customs in the Pacific but has become indigenised. At the same time, chiefly power and political order persist: In Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, however, despite the essential Christian message of equality, there remain strong associations between divine power and chiefly power in the reinterpretation of an indigenised Christianity, which in turn have tended to support a socially and politically conservative order (Lawson 2013: 15). 5 Aboriginal Australia: The importance of earth and the dead body The colonialization of Australia has been marked by land-taking and the history of the Stolen Generations, where mixed race indigenous children were taken away from their families and sent to Christian homes or families so they would have a chance to be “integrated” into white Australia. The uprooting and displacement of Aboriginal Australians happened to a degree that often makes them feel like strangers in their own country today. The meaning Aboriginal people attach to land and earth is hard to understand for modern Australian society. Ethnologist W. E. H. Stanner (1968) wrote about the total silence regarding the colonial past of Australia in history books and called it The Great Australian Silence. In the Boyer Lectures (aired on ABC Radio National) of 1968 titled “After the Dreaming”, he describes the symbolic and enigmatic meaning of land like this: No English words are good enough to give a sense of the links between an Aboriginal group and its homeland. Our word “home”, warm and suggestive though it be, does not match the Aboriginal word that may mean “camp”, “heart”, “country”, “everlasting home”, “totem place”, “life source”, “spirit centre”, and much else all in one. Our word “land” is too spare and meagre. We can now scarcely use it except with economic overtones unless we happen to be poets. The Aboriginal would speak of “earth” and use the word in a richly symbolic way to mean his “shoulder” or his “side”. I have seen an Aboriginal embrace the earth he walked on. To put our words “home” and “land” together into “homeland” is a little better but not much. A different tradition leaves us tongueless and earless towards this other world of meaning and significance. When we took what we call “land” we took what to them meant home, the source and locus of life, and everlastingness of spirit (Stanner 1991 [1968]: 44). Only in 2008 the then Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, broke this silence and symbolically acknowledged the rights of Aboriginal People by officially apologizing for the wrongdoings of the colonizers. My interviewee identifies as a Yaegl man, though his father is Dutch, his mother Aboriginal. Clarence has fair skin and is constantly negotiating between modern, multicultural Australia and his aboriginal roots and the traditions of the first peoples of Australia. When he travels to the Northern Territories, he feels “like a fake Aboriginal” (Clarence 2014), they call him Gabbariginal, because Gabba means white. His tribe is the Yaegl and his nation is Bundjalung country in the north of New South Wales. There are about 700 nations and each has different tribes. For some time, Clarence explains, he has been having problems and pain Listening to the Unsaid 197 in the left side of his body, especially in his leg. His Australian GP could not find anything physically wrong with him, but prescribed physiotherapy, which has not helped so far. We have men’s places and women’s places. In aboriginal culture women had their own burial grounds and men could not walk on those. There are also sacred places for men where they do their business and women are not allowed. There are places where you could not walk around and if you were there were still adverse effects that could happen to you. My mum told me that I have walked upon certain ground that I shouldn’t have and thereby I have a certain injury in one leg and she said I need to see a witch doctor. Who will take that away from me? However, witch doctors today are a bit harder to find and also, would I believe in that? I guess I am more and more inclined to do it though, because I am having problems. [. . .] the doctors have their beliefs. My mum believes that what I trod on was a sacred place, so I shouldn’t be walking there. I guess things are highly influenced by modern society, so at times I get a little bit confused but I do respect not going to women’s places. If I was given the opportunity I would probably go and see a witch doctor. We have spoken where I could find a witch doctor, it is just a bit of searching. They used to travel around as they still would today but it is crazy. Taboo has become more complex and because of intercultural communication, it does not seem to be viable in the form in which taboo used to structure and protect indigenous Australia. Influence and change is also induced by the media, old rituals are inevitably questioned with more interaction and information from outside. Facebook, for example, is seen as a positive tool for young Aboriginal people because they like to keep in touch. They use new media just like other young people, but at the same time their elders wish for taboos to remain unchanged and intact. A change in the old structures and taboos are a threat to identity, but some de-tabooization is seen as good and just a part of modern life. Hartmut Kraft (2004: 118) views taboo breeches as attacks on the identity of a community, but also as a prerequisite for development. As in the Tongan example, traditional taboos are handed down from one generation to the next, and some of the customs may be difficult to follow: My mother is the big influence there, she is aboriginal my father is Dutch, so a lot of the taboos are from my mother and some from my brothers, my cousins, my uncles, my grandfather. I have been taught some from my aunties and uncles etc, mostly they are spoken and taught. I have been overwhelmed by the spiritual [. . .] that I must talk to the elders of the past and speak to them because I have done something wrong and ask for forgiveness. As in the pacific islands, a taboo breach in aboriginal Australia will be subject to punishment within the tribe and there may be additional punishment by a supernatural power. The degree of the perpetrator’s guilt may also be determined by the punishment: An aboriginal Australian accused of stealing, would be positioned a few meters across from other men of the tribe who throw spears at him. If he is hit, that is his punishment, if he gets away unscathed, it may mean that he was not that guilty and that the spirits have forgiven him. (from a conversation with Clarence Bruinsma, 2014) The key taboo areas Clarence is talking about have to do with land and death. In paying respect to the people who first owned the land, official speeches, meetings and conferences in modern Australia are preceded with either a welcome to country by an aboriginal elder, or by an acknowledgement of the land and the original owners past and present. This is based on old traditions of nomadic tribes: The welcome to country has to be done by an elder and you acknowledge the land. When aboriginals walk across land, they light fire at the borders which is saying that they wish to come 198 Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) in. Then people would come over and say OK, come in! Rather than just walking in, it is like walking in to someone’s home without knocking first, you make sure that you are invited to be there. They guide you through and make sure you don’t walk across sacred areas. If you touched a taboo, you may not know that you have done that at the time, but there will be illnesses or injuries from doing that. You’d have to seek the help of elders and witchdoctors who would then run ceremonies, similar to a priest and masses or exorcism, they would take the spirit out of you that punishes what you have done. Still works and is going on today (Clarence: 2014). When I walk upon land I ask for permission [. . .], there are people who have died on that land and that is why it is protected. It is an overwhelming sensation and I guess in our modern society we don’t listen to what our bodies say, or what the land is saying to you, so I just stop and think and move myself away. What I will do is go and talk to someone who knows the area and ask what is special about this place. So if you are not from that country you acknowledge the earth you walk on, if you find someone who knows the land to welcome you into the country. Then you are given the right to enter the place and they will ask their elders to look after me while I was there, travelling. Taboo is often connected to irrational assumptions about death and dead people. In their article “Tapu and the invention of the ”death taboo“: An analysis of the transformation of a Polynesian cultural concept”, New Zealand researchers Gilmore, Schafer, and Halcrow (2010) compare the tapu of death with the taboo around death in the modern world. They come to the conclusion, that death in Polynesia was not repressed and tabooised, but that the rituals were more about worship and respect of the deceased. The tapu of death and the dead extended to places that are connected to death. Cemeteries are still tabooised in Polynesia today and they are forbidden places, if the graves are those of important people. Eta from Fiji remembers how respect was shown to the chiefs and their spirits after death: I remember when I was a little girl, each time as kids when we went past a graveyard, because there is a graveyard for commons and there is a graveyard for chiefs. It’s taboo to go past the graveyard, we were not allowed to talk and we have to tiptoe and also you are not even allowed to point at the graveyard. That’s showing your respect to the chiefs or to the spirits of the chiefs but that’s all I can remember about the spiritual essence of respect. The reason for this is the connection of the dead ancestors with the spiritual environment of the atua (gods and spirits in Polynesia, equivalent for Mana). Tapu recognises the extent and importance of death and the recognition of the tapu paves the way to a new understanding about how to deal with death. A deeper understanding and mutual respect for the different world visions of indigenous and western researchers will make it possible to explain the death taboo in different societies (Gilmore et al 2013: 331). Captain Cook observed in A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (vol 3: 333): Women, it has been observed, are always tabooed, or forbidden to eat certain articles of food. We have seen many of them, at their meals, have their meat put into their mouths by others; and, on our requesting to know the reason of it, we were informed, that they were tabooed, and not permitted to feed themselves. This prohibition was always the consequence of assisting at any funeral, touching a dead body and many other occasions. Clarence points out that he is not sure if he could even do it, touch a dead body. He explains that in aboriginal Australia, traditionally the males look after the males and the females after the females in death. Listening to the Unsaid 199 My uncles would be the ones who would put me in the ground and who would handle my body. They would do the ceremonies in looking after my body and it would then be the responsibility of the females to mourn. There is no set time for mourning periods. If it is a female dies, the aunties would look after the body and they would put her in the ground and do the ceremonies. You do not just touch a body. If you must, there are ceremonies to do. You did not use to have burial grounds, but today, what if someone wants to develop on the land where someone is buried? So if there is a body there, a ceremony will be held to move the body to another place. To make sure that the people who are touching the body would not be affected negatively spiritually later on. Touching of a body, especially by a witch doctor is a very bad thing and could lead to sickness and death. Some people were buried in special sites, but some may be buried near where they actually lived so that way they would be kept close to the family and you were still looked after after you passed away so they might be right next to where people were camping. There are ceremonies and rituals for the people depending on seniority and who they were in the family. People who have visited Australia or know something about aboriginal culture may have heard that they observe a picture taboo of their dead. This means, that the name of a deceased person is taboo and a picture of the person should not be shown. TV programs usually run a statement of caution, that there are images of people who are now deceased, to observe this taboo. This general warning is, however, a bit too ambitious, because not all tribes observe the taboo and, those who do, the name and image is not taboo forever but only for a certain amount of time. The extent of time depends on the age and importance of the deceased (Stewart 2013). In the face of Facebook and other social media, these rules cannot really be upheld any more and even those who would like to practise the picture and name taboo surrender to the new media (Steward 2013). Clarence knows about the original custom, he heard of it when he was very young: Once someone has passed away, traditionally you wouldn’t speak about that person and you wouldn’t use the name and that is showing the respect that they have passed and you are not bringing them back to this world because they part from this world and go to the next world, pass on. Now society has changed, people talk about death now and talk about those people, there has been that change from the western world influence on Australian aboriginal people. The community will decide when you can start talking about that person or about the event. I have been to the northern territory last year, and it is still very strong. In Polynesia, the burial places of higher members of society are taboo, but talking about funerals or what is to happen after death are not. In Fiji, the mourning relatives often decide not to smoke for a year or not to fish in a certain area, out of respect for the deceased. These self-imposed taboos can have positive effects for the community. Today, the Pacific is being exploited by many countries using modern fishing techniques, so some species are endangered. The Locally Managed Marine Area Network is now trying to use the deeply embedded understanding of taboo to conserve the fishing grounds. Chiefs and commoners are supposed to agree on imposing a taboo on fishing in a certain area, rather than waiting for a Chief to die and then imposing the taboo as an expression of respect and mourning. (Our Pacific Ways 2012). It is questionable if this works and if it has any effect in light of who is really responsible for the exploitation of the Pacific fishing grounds. 200 Sabine Krajewski (Sydney) 6 Conclusions The taboo-landscape in Polynesia has changed: some of the original meaning of tapu has been lost, the spiritual dimension is all but forgotten. In this article, in particular in the part about taboos in Fiji, I have shown that it is possible to replace one set of taboos with another. Some taboos are stronger than others and resist elimination, but the influences of colonialization and missionaries and also globalization in general are undeniably strong. However, in light of the Chiefly system in the Pacific islands, paired with the concept of mana, taboo will remain very different from the Western version. As the examples show, the importance of the spiritual seems to be fading and sacredness may be losing a dimension. The system becomes impaired for those who are exposed to other cultural customs for too long. In all three spaces examined, it seems to become more and more difficult to hand traditions and beliefs to new generations, which is partly due to globalisation processes and the use of social media. This does not mean that there are fewer taboos, or that they have completely different functions. Taboos can still be protective, they can protect identities, individuals and whole societies from different types of danger. They also protect power structures and are at times more powerful than written laws and rational thought alone. The “modern version” of taboo, without the notion of mana in the Pacific or the spiritual powers of aboriginal Australia, still protects the individual or groups within a society, such as families or communities, from hurtful experiences or the development of shame and isolation. At the same time, there are also modern taboos that serve the power needs of certain groups but not society. The question is how to distinguish the one from the other and how to assess the influence globalisation and new media have on taboos as this is a vital part of intercultural communication and crosscultural understanding. 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