The survival of tabu into the present day is not a mere case of cultural continuity within change. It is an institution which seems to force itself or demand that it survives. DR JACOB SIMET writes

Tabu (shell money) is a traditional valuable which was and is still used in Namatanai, in New Ireland Province, the Duke of York Group of Islands and on the Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain.
It is little nassa shells strung onto skeins of rattan. Before the arrival of outsiders on New Britain and Namatanai, tabu was used in both ritual ceremonial and commercial exchange.
The basic unit of tabu is the fathom (pokono) and in commercial transactions, it is divisible into seven denominations. From my research for doctoral thesis in the early 1980s, I estimated that there were 43,000 fathoms of tabu in one village alone; at the exchange rate of K5.00 per fathom.
Today tabu can buy anything in the local markets and village trade-stores and including some services such as school fees and court fines, while at the same time still being important in ceremonial occasions such as marriage and mortuary ceremonies
Recently there have been moves to set up commercial operations to deal in tabu on a large scale, which would involve the importation of shells from overseas into New Ireland and New Britain.
Since their first arrival on New Ireland and New Britain, outsiders have tried to understand and at the same time have been intrigued by the importance and centrality of tabu to the lives of the people.
The Reverend Benjamin Danks, an early Methodist Missionary who lived among the Tolai, wrote in 1887; "I am convinced that the man who best understands the power and uses of tabu, be he missionary or trader, will carry the greatest influence among the people, because in understanding the subject he will be led almost into the secrets of their very hearts, and their life will be understood by him as though it was spread before him as a chart". Reverend Danks said that tabu seemed to captivate the minds, hearts and souls of the "natives". Today it seems to still capture the imagination of most people of Namatanai, the Duke of York and New Britain; including the most learned, sophisticated and highly profiled.
Over the years there have been differing views and opinions about the real value of tabu; mainly whether it was a currency with the main function of commercial transactions or a ritual object with the main function of ceremonial exchange.
After comparing tabu to other exchange valuables in the Pacific, P. Enzig wrote in 1949 that; "Most ethnologist agree that the dewarra (Duke of York term) or tabu is the most highly developed form of currency in the Pacific area. Even authors who are otherwise reluctant to admit the monetary character of various objects used for payment in primitive societies, readily admit that the shell strings used in certain parts of the Bismark Archipelago qualify to be considered a currency". To support this argument, Enzig then went on to list a number of characteristics which tabu shared with other currencies, such as; easy divisibility, a store of value, a medium of exchange, a standard of value and a standard of deferred payments.
On the other hand there were those who recognized tabu as a currency but argued that its value and importance lay elsewhere.
The anthropologist AL Epstein acknowledged the important commercial function of tabu but argued that its value was elsewhere. In 1969 he wrote; "Yet despite its important economic functions, the real significance of tabu for the Tolai lay elsewhere". He tried to elucidate this statement by employing a Tolai statement which seemed to crystallize the difference between the economic and ritual value of tabu. "Today when everyone uses Australian currency too, the distinction between the secular and ritual significance of tabu is expressed in such a phrase as; a mani ure ra nian, ma a mani ure ra minat, money pertains to food(i.e to mundane things), but tabu pertains to death".
Quite clearly, when compared with exchange valuables of other parts of the Pacific, tabu was closer to a currency than most. In other parts of the Pacific, exchange valuables did not fit the criteria for currency, such as divisibility, portability, durability and store of value. In many parts of Polynesia, mats were and still are an important item of exchange. In Island Melanesia the most common exchange valuable were and to some extent still are; feathers and some varieties of shells. The Yap stone money is the better known of the exchange valuables of Micronesia. In Papua New Guinea exchange valuables ranged from the cowrie-shells of the Highlands to dogs teeth of the Admiralties Group.
From the available ethnography, it is clear that while the value and importance of most of these valuables lay in the ceremonial realm, they also had some economic functions. However on the whole, as soon as modern currencies were introduced, their economic value and significance declined very rapidly. The better documented case in this regard is the cowrie-shell which was widely used in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. However, when the first outsiders entered the area, they shipped in tons of cowrie-shells from the Torres Strait Islands for trade with the local people. This devalued the cowrie-shell immediately and eventually destroyed it. The picture is the same for most parts of the Pacific, and for that matter, many parts of the world.
Tabu is the only valuable which has maintained a relatively resilient position; retaining both its economic and ceremonial and value. Today tabu continues to be used on New Britain, in the Duke of York and on New Ireland as an item of ceremonial exchange and also as a medium of commercial exchange. It continues to captivate the minds, hearts and souls of New Irelanders, Tolai and Duke of York people, from the ordinary village person to the most learned, sophisticated and highly profiled.
Since first sustained contact with the outside world about 130 years ago, tabu has undergone many trials and tribulations. In the late 1880s the German Colonial Administration banned the use of tabu in trade between traders and the local people. The local people refused to accept anything else in return for their produce (mainly copra), so the Colonial Administration had to order the manufacture of glass beads in Germany, which looked like the shells. The people accepted this for a short while but then preferred the natural shells.
During World War II, large stocks of tabu were destroyed in the islands, by allied bombing of villages due to the Japanese occupation in the area. As a result, ceremonial and commercial activities using tabu were at a very low level and only regained normalcy some time when tabu stocks were restored after the war.
The traditional source of tabu shells was Nakanai in the West New Britain Province. In the last thirty years the population of the Namatanai, Duke of York and the Tolai has grown to the point of demanding more tabu than the traditional volume, which has meant the opening up of new sources of shells. Other new sources in the Pomio District, in the south-west of East New Britain were opened up. This could not meet the demand so other sources such as Manus and Bougainville had to be opened up. There was still great demand so sources ion the Solomon Islands had to be opened up and this remains one of the major sources today.
In the last fifteen years a number of entrepreneurs have opened "tabu banks" in different parts of Namatanai, the Duke of York and New Britain. These are facilities which were and still are for the exchange of tabu into modern currency and vice-versa. Some Local Level Governments in East New Britain are part of this trade.
About five years ago the East New Britain Provincial Government decided to formalize tabu in the local economy. This related to the importance of tabu in local economic activity, as it was as often as modern currency, the kina. Among other things, the study was to standardize tabu in order for it to have an exchange rate to the kina. The findings of this study are yet to be made known.
The survival of tabu into the present day is not a mere case of "cultural continuity within change". It is an institution which seems to force itself or demand that it survives, seemingly that it has an inert life which determines its continued survival in the modern day of new forms and different valuations of transactions between people. In the study of traditional ceremonial and economic exchange in Oceania, there were three matters which attracted the most attention and were considered enigmatic. These were the taonga; the spirit which guided exchange among the Maori of New Zealand. There was also the spirit which guided the movement of mwali and soulava in Trobriand exchange. Then there was and there still is; tabu.
Those of us who have studied this subject over the years sometimes feel that we know it enough to be able to say that it is a mere tool of human ingenuity . However at other times, there is that feeling that tabu is driven by something else; something inherent in itself which determines that it must survive. Is this inherent property of the same nature as the taonga or the spirit that drives the mwali and soulava?

The writer is the Director of The National Cultural Commission


 

 

Previous | Back to Top | Next