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'Tikopia' is the southernmost of the Santa Cruz Islands, located in the province of Temotu. It is also the southernmost of the Solomon Islands.

Tikopia is a high island, covering an area of 5 km² (2 sq. mi.). The island is the remnant of an extinct volcano, its highest point, Mt. Reani, reaching an elevation of 380 m (1,247 ft) above sea level. Some discussions of Tikopian society include its nearest neighbour, the even tinier island of Anuta.
The population of Tikopia is about 1,200. Historically the tiny island has supported a high-density population of a thousand or so. Strict reproductive policy prevented further increase. Unlike most of the Solomon Islands, the inhabitants are Polynesians, and their language Tikopian, is a member of the Samoic branch of the Polynesian languages.
Tikopians practice an intensive permaculture system, similar in principle to forest gardening and the gardens of the New Guinea highlands. Their agricultural practices are strongly and consciously tied to the population density. For example, around 1600 A.D, the people agreed to slaughter all pigs on the island, and substitute fishing, because the pigs were taking too much food that could be eaten by people.
Unlike the rapidly Westernizing society of much of the rest of Temotu province, Tikopia society is little changed from ancient times. Its people take great pride in their customs, and see themselves as holding fast to their Polynesian traditions while they regard the Melanesians around them to have lost most of theirs.
Four chiefs reign over the islands of Tikopia and Anuta, still holding court in their huts.
Tikopians have a highly developed culture with a strong Polynesian influence, including a complex social structure. The influence of Polynesian culture is not so far distant from local memory: it has not been so long since widespread infanticide was as natural and as necessary as sharing food and learning to dance. Because of these population control methods, resulting in zero population growth and a sustainable economy, pre-contact Tikopian society was described as idyllic, even utopian. Its society was strongly communal: the sea was full of fish, the land grew excellent food, and the people supported one another.
New Zealand anthropologist, Raymond Firth, who lived on Tikopia in 1928 and 1929 provides a detailed account of the social life of Tikopia at that time. He shows how the society was divided geographically into two zones and was organised into four clans, headed by clan chiefs. At the core of social life was the ''te paito'' - the house inherited from male (patrilineal) ancestors, who were buried inside it. Relationships with the family grouping of one's mother (matrilateral relations) were also very important. The relations between a mother's brother and his nephew had a sacred dimension: the uncle oversaw the passage of his nephew through life, in particular, officiating at his manhood ceremonies. Intricate economic and ritual links between ''paito'' houses and deference to the chiefs within the clan organisation were key dimensions of island life.
Firth speculates about the ways population control may have been achieved including celibacy, warfare (including expulsion), infanticide and sea-voyaging (which claimed many youths). Currently, many of the young men leave the island, heading to either the Russell Islands or the national capital, Honiara, in search of work. As a result of this outflow of men, population control is less necessary.
Vegetation and human settlements in Tikopia were devastated following Cyclone Zoe's landfall in December 2002. Surprisingly, despite the extensive damage, no deaths were reported, as the islanders followed their traditions and sheltered in the caves in the higher ground. The narrow bank that separated the freshwater lagoon from the sea was breached by the storm, resulting the continuing contamination of the lagoon and the threatened death of the sago palms on which the islanders depend for survival. A remarkable international effort by "friends of" the island, including many yacht crews who had had contact with Tikopia over the decades, culminated in the construction of a gabion dam to seal the breach.

Contents

See also

External links

Further reading

See also

★ Melanesia

★ Oceania

★ Pacific Islands

★ Pacific Ocean

★ Polynesian outlier

★ Cyclone Zoe

★ Jared Diamond's ''Collapse'' describes Tikopia as a success case in matching the challenges of sustainability, contrasting it with Easter Island.

External links

★ An essay on Tikopia, prepared for the BBC

★ BBC photo essay, from the aftermath of Cyclone Zoe Despite the overwhelming devastation and the greatest fears, no one on Tikopia was killed in the disaster.

★ Tools and practical help after the cyclone

★ Restoring the freshwater lagoon of Tikopia

Further reading

★ ''We the Tikopia'' (1936), Raymond Firth's classic study, still used in anthropology classes today