The island of Tikopia is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The island is actually part of the British Solomon Islands, yet culturally as well as linguistically, Tikopia is classified with Western Polynesia. Tikopia is a small, volcanic island, about six square miles in size. The climate is relatively hot and humid. This island is home to approximately 2,000 people.
Traditionally the people of Tikopia practiced fishing, collecting, and horticulture to survive. Hunting was never used as a means of food because of the lack of animals on the island. Therefore marine life is the main source of food in their diet. Fishing is done primarily by use of line or net fishing with the use of canoes, or collecting with nets by the many reefs. Yet, the majority of the Tikopian diet is derived from fruits, vegetables, and root crops. Many of these foods are wild as well as cultivated. The Tikopia way of farming uses as method referred to as the “slash-and-burn” method and planting is done with digging stick tools. Crops include breadfruit, taro, yams, manioc, sago, coconuts, and bananas. Men also find themselves practicing woodworking techniques, fishing, net making, and clearing fields. The women tend to the majority of the care in the fields.
The Tikopians are housed in 21 villages along the coast. Most families are only nuclear, but households having extended families are also commonly found. These villages are divided into two major social and geographical areas. Relations between contrasting areas are often hostile. Within these villages they are broken down into clans. Almost every village has one politically and ritually dominant clan. This culture also has a developed status system. The chiefs of a village are usually the most senior men in the direct lines of descent from their ancestors. Succession of these offices are determined by direct ancestral descent.
Tikopia religious systems are orientated around rituals for ancestors and gods. They worship the gods and ancestors in hopes of favorable weather, crop productivity, fishing success, and curing of illness. The clan chiefs are the most important mediators between the supernatural. This chief also acts as the priest at important ritual events. Tikopia marriage is also well structured. Marriages are prohibited among relatives of the first degree, Tikopians are divided into two classes, the chiefly class and the commoner class, the preference is intra-class marriages but are not strictly enforced. Polygyny is practiced, but monogony is the preferred form of marriage. Occasional separations of married couples occur, but Tikopians have no formal form of divorce. Abortions are practiced in the culture and act as a function to control the population.
Because of the location of Tikopia they have had few contacts with outside groups. Tikopians occasionally visited other islands, but were limited by hazards related to traveling by canoes. Westerners began contacting the island in the beginning of the nineteenth century. By the 1950’s most Tikopians had been Christianized and most native ritual practices had ceased.
Firth, Raymond. The Work of the Gods in Tikopia. New York: Humanities Press, 1967.
Firth, Raymond. We, The Tikopia: Kinship in Primative Polynesia. Boston: Beacon Press, 1936.
Firth, Raymond. Tikopia Ritual and Belief. Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.
Firth, Raymond. Rank and Religion in Tikopia. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970.
Lagace, Robert O. and Eleanor C. Swanson. “Society-Tikopia.” <http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/EthnoAtlas/Hmar/Cult_dir/Culture.7873>
Author: Laura Pasek