The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of CustomThomson, Basil
History
The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of Custom
Thomson, Basil
Ethnology -- Fiji; Fijians
The shark-god is the tutelar divinity of numerous tribes who are not
_tauvu_ with one another, unless they call him by the same name.
Waterhouse gives the following list of names under which the shark is
invoked: Ndakuwanka, (Outside-the-canoe), Circumnavigator-of-Yandua,
Feeder-of-fish, Lover-of-canoe-spars, Waylayer, Rover-of-the-man-groves,
Expectant-follower, Ready-for-action, Sail-cleaner,
Lord-Shark-that-calls, Tabu-white, Tooth-for-raw-flesh. The tribes that
invoke Ndakuwanka are _tauvu_, but the Soro people who worship
Ndakuwanka recognize no tie with the Yandua tribe, who invoke the
Circumnavigator-of-Yandua. Each of these names covers a distinct cult,
and the fact that a number of unrelated tribes should have agreed in
choosing the shark for their god needs explanation. That shark-worship
is pure totemism is shown by the beneficence of the shark to his
worshippers, and the obligation that lay upon them not to eat their
divinity. Mana, a Soro native, capsized in the open sea, called upon
Ndakuwanka to save him, and a shark rose near him and towed him safe to
land by his back fin. The same god jumped athwart a Soro canoe in the
invasion of Natewa in 1848, turned over to show the tattooing on his
belly, and leapt back into the sea to lead his votaries to the attack.
In 1840 a tabu shark was eaten at Navukeilangi in the island of Ngau,
and all who had eaten of it died. But there the usual features of
totemism stop. The spirits of the dead do not pass into the totem; men
never assume the shark form; the shark-totem does not necessarily
intermarry with any other totem. Totemism in Fiji does not affect the
social system in any way. It is an accident rather than a design in the
religious system; an anthropomorphic divinity would have served as well.
Nor is it totemism in decay, as some have suggested, for with the cult
of the totem so active and vigorous some survival of its attendant
customs in the marriage laws or in the beliefs of the future state would
assuredly have been found. The mental attitude of primitive races in all
parts of the world to worship a species of living animal or plant taught
the Fijians where to look for their tutelary divinity, and the shark
being to a people seafaring in frail craft the most dreaded and
implacable of all the animal kingdom, a number of diverse tribes chose
to propitiate the shark independently.
The shark, though the commonest, is not the only totem. The hawk, the
eel, the lizard, the fresh-water prawn, and man himself have their
adherents. The man-totem were perhaps the only tribe who never practised
cannibalism, the flesh of their totem being forbidden to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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