Tapu (Polynesian culture)

Last updated

Tapu [1] [2] [3] is a Polynesian traditional concept denoting something holy or sacred, with "spiritual restriction" or "implied prohibition"; it involves rules and prohibitions. The English word taboo derives from this later meaning and dates from Captain James Cook's visit to Tonga in 1777.

Contents

The concept exists in many Polynesian societies, including traditional Māori, Samoan, Kiribati, Rapanui, Tahitian, Hawaiian, and Tongan cultures, in most cases using a recognisably similar word (from Proto-Polynesian *tapu ), though the Rotuman term for this concept is "ha'a". In Hawaii, a similar concept is known as kapu [4] - /t/ and /k/ are standard allophonic variations in Hawaiian phonology.

Outside Polynesian

The root also exists outside Polynesian languages, in the broader Austronesian family: e.g. Fijian tabu, [5] Hiw (Vanuatu) toq [tɔkʷ] ‘holy, sacred’, Mwotlap ne-teq [nɛ-tɛk​͡pʷ] ‘cemetery’… [6] [7]

Whether Polynesian or not, all modern forms go back to a Proto-Oceanic etymon reconstructed as *tabu [taᵐbu] , and whose meaning was “forbidden, off limits; sacred, due to a sentiment of awe before spiritual forces”. [7]

As for cognates outside Oceanic, they seem to be confined to the Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian group, with a form reconstructable as *tambu. [8]

In Polynesian languages

In Māori tradition

In Māori and Tongan traditions, something that is tapu is considered inviolable or sacrosanct. Things or places which are tapu must be left alone, and may not be approached or interfered with. In some cases, they should not even be spoken of.

In Māori society the concept was often used by tohunga (priests) to protect resources from over-exploitation, by declaring a fishery or other resource as tapu (see rāhui).

There are two kinds of tapu, the private (relating to individuals) and the public tapu (relating to communities). A person, object, or place that is tapu, may not be touched by human contact, in some cases, not even approached. A person, object, or place could be made sacred by tapu for a certain time.

Before European contact, tapu was one of the strongest forces in Māori life. A violation of tapu could have dire consequences, including the death of the offender through sickness or at the hands of someone affected by the offence. In earlier times food cooked for a person of high rank was tapu, and could not be eaten by an inferior. A chief's house was tapu, and even the chief could not eat food in the interior of his house. Not only were the houses of people of high rank perceived to be tapu, but also their possessions including their clothing. Burial grounds and places of death were always tapu, and these areas were often surrounded by a protective fence.

In at least one case, a chief declared a whole settlement - Auckland, a newly founded European settler town - as tapu, to clarify to other tribes that he considered it as under his protection. [9]

Today, tapu is still observed in matters relating to sickness, death, and burial:

Tapu is also still observed at the site of whale strandings. Whales are regarded as spiritual treasures as being descendants of the ocean god, Tangaroa, and are as such held in very high respect. Sites of whale strandings and any whale carcasses from strandings are treated as sacred ground. [11]

Noa

Noa, on the other hand, lifts the tapu from the person or the object. Noa is similar to a blessing. Tapu and noa remain part of Māori culture today, although persons today are not subject to the same tapu as that of previous times. A new house today, for example, may have a noa ceremony to remove the tapu, in order to make the home safe before the family moves in.

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ "Tapu" was translated for James Cook as "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed" ( Cook & King 1821 ); also said in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu "especially." But this may be folk etymology. (See Online Etymology Dictionary: Taboo)
  2. ↑ "Online dictionary". Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  3. ↑ Biggs, Bruce. "Entries for TAPU [OC] Prohibited, under ritual restriction, taboo". Polynesian Lexicon Project Online. University of Auckland. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  4. ↑ "Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park". nps.gov. Here in this wahi kapu, sacred place
  5. ↑ Dixon, Robert M. W. (31 October 1988). A Grammar of Boumaa Fijian. University of Chicago Press. p. 368. ISBN   9780226154299.
  6. ↑ See p.225 of: François, Alexandre (2013), "Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu", in Mailhammer, Robert (ed.), Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories, Studies in Language Change, vol. 11, Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton, pp. 185–244
  7. 1 2 François (2022).
  8. ↑ Entry *tambu ‘forbidden, taboo’ in Robert Blust’s Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD).
  9. ↑ O'Malley, Vincent (6 December 2016). "'The great war for NZ broke out less than 50 km from Queen St': Vincent O'Malley on the Waikato War and the making of Auckland (". Spinoff.
  10. ↑ "Marae protocol", AUT University
  11. ↑ Te Karaka, "The science of strandings', Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, 21 December 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2017.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taboo</span> Societal or cultural prohibition

A taboo, also spelled tabu, is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred, or allowed only for certain people. Such prohibitions are present in virtually all societies. Taboos may be prohibited explicitly, for example within a legal system or religion, or implicitly, for example by social norms or conventions followed by a particular culture or organization.

Tangaroa is the great atua of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures that live within them, especially fish, in Māori mythology. As Tangaroa-whakamau-tai he exercises control over the tides. He is sometimes depicted as a whale.

In Melanesian and Polynesian cultures, mana is a supernatural force that permeates the universe. Anyone or anything can have mana. They believed it to be a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being a source of power. It is an intentional force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polynesian languages</span> Language family

The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Māori culture</span> Practices and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand

Māori culture is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture and, due to a large diaspora and the incorporation of Māori motifs into popular culture, it is found throughout the world. Within Māoridom, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori culture, the Māori-language suffix -tanga being roughly equivalent to the qualitative noun-ending -ness in English. Māoritanga has also been translated as "[a] Māori way of life." The term kaupapa, meaning the guiding beliefs and principles which act as a base or foundation for behaviour, is also widely used to refer to Māori cultural values.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kapu (Hawaiian culture)</span> Ancient Hawaiian code of conduct

Kapu is the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct of laws and regulations. The kapu system was universal in lifestyle, gender roles, politics and religion. An offense that was kapu was often a capital offense, but also often denoted a threat to spiritual power, or theft of mana. Kapus were strictly enforced. Breaking one, even unintentionally, often meant immediate death, Koʻo kapu. It is related to the concept of tapu or tabu found in other Polynesian cultures, from whence came the English word "taboo." The Hawaiian word kapu is usually translated to English as "forbidden", though it also carries the meanings of "keep out", "no trespassing", "sacred", "consecrated", or "holy".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marae</span> Communal or sacred place in Polynesian societies

A marae, malaʻe, meʻae or malae is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term also means cleared and free of weeds or trees. Marae generally consist of an area of cleared land roughly rectangular, bordered with stones or wooden posts perhaps with paepae (terraces) which were traditionally used for ceremonial purposes; and in some cases, such as Easter Island, a central stone ahu or a'u is placed. In the Easter Island Rapa Nui culture, the term ahu or a'u has become a synonym for the whole marae complex.

Tākitimu was a waka (canoe) with whakapapa throughout the Pacific particularly with Samoa, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand in ancient times. In several Māori traditions, the Tākitimu was one of the great Māori migration ships that brought Polynesian migrants to New Zealand from Hawaiki. The canoe was said to have been captained by Tamatea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion of Māori people</span>

Māori religion encompasses the various religious beliefs and practices of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand.

Funerals in Tonga, despite the large Christian influence they have received over the last 150 years or so, are still very much a traditional affair and an important part of the culture of Tonga, especially if it concerns the death of a member of the royal family or a high chief.

The word banua or vanua – meaning "land," "home," or "village" – occurs in several Austronesian languages. It derives from the Proto-Austronesian reconstructed form *banua. The word has particular significance in several countries.

An ariki, ꞌariki, aliki, ali‘i, ari'i, Rotuma) aiki or hakaiki, akariki or ‘eiki (Tonga) is or was a member of a hereditary chiefly or noble rank in Polynesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tangihanga</span> Māori funeral rite

Tangihanga, or more commonly, tangi, is a traditional funeral rite practised by the Māori people of New Zealand. Tangi were traditionally held on marae, and are still strongly associated with the tribal grounds, but are now also held at homes and funeral parlours. While still widely practised, tangi are not universally observed, and some tribes have expressed concerns about lower numbers of tangi.

Taboo is a monograph based on a series of lectures by Franz Steiner, now considered to be a classic in the field of social anthropology. The volume was published posthumously, edited by Steiner's student Laura Bohannan, and the first edition, brought out in 1956, contained a preface by his mentor E. E. Evans-Pritchard. The lectures analyze one of the great problematic terms of modern ethnography, that of taboo, derived from the Polynesian word tapu, adopted by Western scholars to refer to a generic set of ritual inhibitions governing what was thought to be primitive society or the ‘savage mind’.

Bible translations into Oceanic languages have a relatively closely related and recent history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghosts and spirits in Māori culture</span>

The topic of ghosts and spirits (kehua) in Māori culture is often considered a tapu subject, yet many Māori legends contain mentions of apparitions and paranormal occurrences. It is claimed that long deceased family members may appear to warn of upcoming danger, such as with the famous phantom canoe in 1886 that many reportedly saw on Lake Tarawera, that is believed to have been an omen for the volcanic eruption that occurred eleven days later.

Word taboo, also called taboo language, language taboo or linguistic taboo is a kind of taboo that involves restricting the use of words or other parts of language due to social constraints. This may be due to a taboo on specific parts of the language itself, or due to the need to avoid a taboo topic. The taboo against naming the dead in parts of the world is an example. Taboo words are commonly avoided with euphemisms, such as the English euphemism pass away, meaning "die". It is a common source of neologisms and lexical replacement.

Maungapohatu is a settlement in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. Located in a remote area of the Urewera bush country about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Lake Waikaremoana, it was founded by Rua Tapunui Kenana in 1907 and was substantially rebuilt twice during the next two decades. At its peak more than 500 people lived there but today it is once more a very sparsely populated place.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.