Transcript Tikopia - University of Denver

Tikopia
A Modern Marvel
Background
• Tiny, tropical island located in the
Southwest Pacific Ocean
• 800 people per square mile of farmable
land
– A very dense population for a traditional
society without modern agricultural
techniques
Background
• Despite it’s dense population, geographic
isolation, and traditional
agricultural/societal techniques, Tikopia
has been successfully occupied for over
3,000 years!!
•
Anthropologist Raymond Firth:
–
“It’s hard for anyone who has not actually been on the island to realize it’s
isolation from the rest of the world. It’s so small that one is rarely ever out
of sight or sound of the sea.”
– “There is no faint haze to tell of the existence of any other land.”
Background
• The maximum distance from the center of
the island to the coast is three quarters of
a mile!
Disadvantages of Tikopia
• Dense Population
• Geographical Isolation
• Scarcity of Economically Significant
Imports (Voyages to already scarce neighboring societies
limited by the danger of the sea and the small size of traditional
canoes)
• Instead of failing, Tikopia has flourished as
a self sufficient population for over three
millennium.
• WHY??
– Sustainable food supply
– Non-increasing population
– “Bottom-up” societal management
• (to be explained…)
Sustainable Food Supply
• Advantageous Environmental Factors:
– High rainfall
– Moderate latitude
– Location in a zone of high volcanic ash fallout
and high fallout of Asian dust.
A stroke of good luck for the Tikopian
People!!!
Sustainable Food Supply
• All other factors attributing to Tikopia’s success
are not simply stokes of good luck.
• Entire island is managed for continuous
production of reliable food supply.
– Most of the island’s land is devoted to food production and
farming by the people (edible nuts and fruits, coconuts,
breadfruits and more)
– In essence, the people created a rainforest of useful plants. The
canopy trees mostly nut-bearing and the under layers devoted to
growing plants that they have specifically adapted to the dry
conditions of their well-maintained harvest land.
The people have created a multi-layered orchard,
structurally mimicking a rainforest, yet with entirely edible plants!!
Sustainable Food Supply
• In addition to these fascinating orchards,
Tikopians facilitate food production in:
– Small freshwater swamps
– Labored Fields:
• Taro
• Yams
• Manioc (South American type of yam)
Sustainable Food Supply
• While these orchards, swamps and fields
produce the society with a steady supply
of starchy plants, they still needed
protein!!!
– Ducks and fish (hunted from the island’s one
small lake)
– Fish and Shellfish (obtained from the
surrounding sea)
– Over fishing was prevented by the chiefs of
the island
Sustainable Food Supply
• The likeliness of natural disaster on the Island of
Tikopia forced these people to harvest more
than one type of emergency food supply:
– They fermented surplus breadfruits in man-made pits,
creating a starchy paste that can be kept for several
years.
– Also, instead of ignoring those plants that produced
undesirable (but somewhat edible) foods, Tikopians
fostered them with the intentions of having an extra
emergency food supply.
Non-Increasing Population
• By modern standards of population
growth, Tikopia should currently have and
estimated 25 million inhabitants.
• In reality, it is only home to about 1,278
people.
• HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???
Non-Increasing Population
•
Six methods of population control still in
operation, one only used in the past. (According to
Firth)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Contraception by coitus interruptus (withdrawal method)
Abortion
Infanticide
Celibacy (different than simply not engaging in intercourseimplies using any possible method of not having children)
Suicide
“Virtual Suicide”
Facilitated starvation of inferior tribes by cutting off their food
source (not in operation for centuries)
Bottom-Up Metaphor
• Kind of approach to environmental
management:
– Small homeland allows all of it’s inhabitants to
be familiar with the entire island or area.
– They know that they all are affected by
developments throughout the area.
– Share a sense of identity and common
interest with other inhabitants.
In essence, the entire community works together to solve their collective problems
Bottom-Up Management
• Each Tikopian house holds pieces of land on the island.
• Anyone can fish on any reef, regardless of where it is
located.
• Kinship among the islanders formed through overcoming
natural disasters as a whole, powerful community.
• Isolation and small size of the island demand that
decisions be made collectively.
• Chiefs share the same lifestyles as common people.
• Kinship, ritual and morality all central themes in the
bottom-up management system of historical Tikopia.
Conclusion
• Until colonial government and Christian
mission influence became relevant in the
20th century, Tikopia had been practically
self supporting on their tiny speck of land
for over three thousand years!!