Tikopia of Melanesia - Research Paper Example

Cultural Research Paper Outline: Research Outline: I. INTRODUCTION – Thesis ment: Tikopia believe in promoting their idea of zero population growth and changes in society so as to ensure there is survivability. A. Subsistence Practices II. BODY A. Cultural Aspects i. Political Organization ii. Economic Organization iii. Beliefs and Values iv. Social Organization v. Social Change vi. Kinship vii. Gender Relations viii. Sickness and Healing III. CONCLUSION A. Summary of key points Introduction: Tikopia of Melanesia: Tikopia of Melanesia is known to have gone through so many changes in society.

Agriculture is their key means of subsistence, and they can be referred to as the emerging agriculturalists or horticulturalists. The Tikopia live on the island of Tikopia which is in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean. The land is lead by traditional ritual leaders who are also chiefs. In the Tikopia society, these chiefs are key economic focus (Nowak & Laird, 2010). The other name that refers to the Tikopians society is chiefdom. This research paper will talk about the Tikopia of Melanesia practice different subsistence practices, their beliefs and values and their political organizations.

Thesis Statement: Tikopia believe in promoting their idea of zero population growth and changes in society so as to ensure there is survivability. Subsistence Practices: Tikopia of Melanesia usually practices a precise technique of agriculture. The Tikopians normally search for dried swamps and clear forests which usually provide them with trade routes, markets and land that is irrigated. The access that the group has over empty land gives them control over the resources. The Tikopia also incorporates technology into their subsistence practices.

By use of up-to-date technology, the Tikopia usually incorporate agriculture which is intensive such as flood control, irrigation and terraces. In addition to this, technology has assisted the community in building roads, bridges, ports. There is ownership of technology which allows the community to have control over their distribution and production (Nowak & Laird, 2010.  Most men in the Tikopia society do all the hard work such as building fences, cleaning forests and most of the community’s planting processes.

The women prepare food and take care of children. Both men and women play key roles in their society’s subsistence practices. The community uses redistribution and exchange of balanced reciprocals to ensure that their services and goods are transported. Balanced reciprocals exchange refers to an agreement where there is a return of an item which is equivalent to another item or one with a greater value. Redistribution refers to a tribute, an individual’s labor or the products of society, which is collected, counted, sorted and then stored for future use.

Tikopia’s Cultural Aspects: Political Organization: A Tikopian village or district is usually divided into four systems of principal kin groups (Macdonald, 2000). These kin groups are referred to as the patrilineal clans. These clans are usually divided into patrilineages. These clans are not confined in a small area, since each clan has a member in each the district or a village. Each of these villages or districts has a number of households which are in one clan. The clan may be ritually or politically prevailing in the districts.

This system is strongly integrated into a system of local groups and the kin which are both strongly developed into status systems. The status systems are; therefore, developed into a political form which constitutes of a rank structure where there is a chief at its apex. The patrilineages are usually headed by chiefs, known as the “maru” (Macdonald, 2000). They are the most senior of all the men and a direct descent from the ancestor’s lineages. These lineages have a significant economic, ritual and political function but usually have more significance than the “ariki”, the clan chiefs.

Economic organization: Tikopia is an isolated and small chiefdom which has in the last thousands of years which are micromanaged in an environment that suits their lives. People in Tikopia usually grow food for their own families they ensure that land is cultivated, and the plants are useful and edible. The chiefs are entailed to own land, and they give parcels to a family member (Nowak & Laird, 2010). There is the sale of land where only the villagers know about it, and land cannot be owned by an outsider.

The village has communal orchards where each member in the family is entitled to their own garden, where they can harvest and feed their households (Nowak & Laird, 2010). If a garden has not been allocated to a certain family, another member in the community may plant their crops in it without the need of asking permission from others for free even if it means the piece of land is right outside the home of another person (Diamond, 2011). Beliefs and Values: Horticulture in this community is less intensive than agriculture; thereby it provides a reduced amount of produce for land that is f the same amount.

The community believes in Zero population growth, where they do not develop their land or shift to agriculture so as to increase their capacity of carrying (Diamond, 2011).  Each year, the chiefs normally perform rituals where they usually instill the idea of Zero population growth in members of their villages. The Tikopia of Melanesia had so many techniques in the past which have been the key population maintenance at a level that is sustainable. Most parents usually stop giving birth when their eldest son reaches an age in which he can marry or if the parents have attained a definite number of children.

Most parents aim at getting four children each of them from different sexes or two girls and one boy (Diamond, 2011).  Being celibate in Tikopia does not indicate that the person has to abstain but a direct translation that a person is not allowed to have children. Conclusion: Most societies in the past had changed into what Professor Diamond referred to as the “progress traps”. This term describes the act where people in certain societies feel the desire to expand or grow for its own disadvantage (Macdonald, 2000).

People of Tikopia are an excellent example that refers this statement, and for the last three thousand years, the Tikopia have enacted a careful balance that exists between what they offer themselves for consumption and what they get from horticulture. References: Diamond, J. (2011). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed [Kindle version] (2011 ed.). (Original work published 2005) Macdonald, J. (2000). The Tikopia and “What Raymond Said. In S. R Jaarsma & M. A. Rohatynskyj (ed/s), Ethnographic Artifacts: Challenges to a Reflexive Anthropology (pp. 107-123). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Retrieved from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/10289/3340/1/the%20tikopia.pdf Nowak, B., & Laird, P. (2010). Cultural Anthropology (S. Wainwright & D. Moneypenny, Eds.) Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUANT101.10.2/sections/ch00