The Matter of Makira

Colonialism, Competition, and the Production of Gendered Peoples in Contemporary Solomon Islands and Medieval Britain

Bibliographic Data

ID2156265
AuthorsM W Scott (0000-0002-2301-6924, Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume23
Issue1
Pages115-148
Publication date2012-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-7206 • E-ISSN: 1477-2612
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02757206.2012.649276
OpenAlexW2122252192
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited60

Since civil tension disrupted Solomon Islands between 1998 and 2003, the Arosi of Makira have elaborated discourses according to which their island contains a secret and preternaturally powerful subterranean army base. These discourses have clear antecedents in Maasina Rule, a post-World War II socio-political movement sometimes analysed as a "cargo cult". Offering an alternative interpretation, I compare Arosi discourses about the Makiran underground to the Matter of Britain as represented in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (completed c. 1138). I argue that both sets of discourses arise from the dynamics of mutually precipitating communities mythologizing themselves and each other in terms of the analogous oppositions colonizer is to colonized as allochthon is to autochthon as male is to female. This comparison, I conclude, recommends the medieval European phenomenon of a "matter" as a productive model for understanding contemporary ethnogenetic myth-making in and beyond Melanesia. Keywords: EthnogenesisGenderColonialismGeoffrey of MonmouthSolomon Islands Acknowledgements This article draws on field research carried out in 1992–1993, 2003, and 2006. I am greatly indebted to the people of Arosi for sharing their hospitality, experiences, thoughts, and stories during these periods. I acknowledge the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Social and Economic Research Council of the UK (Grant No: RES-000-23-1170) for their generous support. Earlier versions of the article were presented in the Social Anthropology Seminar Series, University of Edinburgh (Oct. 2008); the Research Seminar on Anthropological Theory, London School of Economics (Nov. 2008); the Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group and the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Western Australia (July 2010); and (in abstentia) to participants in the "Cargo Cults, Kastom, and Kago Kalja" working session at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Alexandria, VA (Feb. 2010). I thank the participants at these venues for their thoughtful engagement with the paper, in particular, Magnus Course, Marc Tabani, Lamont Lindstrom, Debra McDougall, and Andrew Lynch. The article has also benefitted from the constructive comments of three anonymous reviewers for History and Anthropology. But, I especially recognize Krista Ovist for co-conceiving the comparison, consulting on its development, and collaborating on translations from Jean Bodel. Notes Sightings of non-routine but conventional air traffic may have stimulated these claims. People may have seen, for example, aircraft deployed by the New Zealand Defence Force as part of its 1999 "Exercise Tropic Twilight" (http://www.oag.govt.nz/2003/east-timor-health/docs/timor-health.pdf [accessed 2/7/2008]) or transport used by expeditions such as the 2006 Galathea 3 search for gingers on tropical islands (http://www.dalbergpoulsen.com/recent.html [accessed 31/8/2007]). For additional analyses of Maasina Rule (also termed Marching Rule), see Akin (1993 Akin, D. W. (1993), Negotiating Culture in East Kwaio, Malaita, Solomon Islands, PhD Thesis, University of Hawaii, HI. [Google Scholar]: 319–383), Burt (1994 Burt, B. 1994. Tradition and Christianity: The Colonial Transformation of a Solomon Islands Society, New York: Harwood Academic Publishers. [Google Scholar]: 171–201), Keesing (1978 Keesing, R. M. 1978. Politico-religious movements and anti-colonialism on Malaita: Maasina Rule in historical perspective. Oceania, 48(4): 241–261. vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 46–73[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Laracy (1983 Laracy, H. M. 1983. "Introduction". In Pacific Protest: The Maasina Rule Movement, Solomon Islands, 1944–1952, Edited by: Laracy, H. M. Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific. [Google Scholar]) and Scott (2007 Scott, M. W. 2007. The Severed Snake: Matrilineages, Making Place, and a Melanesian Christianity in Southeast Solomon Islands, Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. [Google Scholar]: 105–129). Others have argued against this interpretation, however (e.g. Keesing 1978 Keesing, R. M. 1978. Politico-religious movements and anti-colonialism on Malaita: Maasina Rule in historical perspective. Oceania, 48(4): 241–261. vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 46–73[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Worsley 1968 Worsley, P. 1968. The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of "Cargo" Cults in Melanesia, 2, New York: Schocken. [Google Scholar]). Historian Pocock (1975 Pocock, J. G.A. 1975. British history: A plea for a new subject. Journal of Modern History, 47(4): 601–621. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) coined this term to overwrite "British Isles" with a neutral name inclusive of Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. Such relexification maps ongoing transformations of this conflict. By "romance of place" I do not mean an idealized, dreamy, or exoticizing representation of a place. Rather, I mean "romance" in the sense of a vernacular treatment of pleasurably exciting incidents and adventures that may contain fabulous elements but also make claims to historical verity (Auerbach 1974 Auerbach, E. 1974. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature trans. W. R. Trask, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ [Google Scholar]; Baugh 1967 Baugh, A. C. 1967. "The Middle English Period (1100–1500)". In A Literary History of England, 2, Edited by: Baugh, A. C. vol. 1, 109–312. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. [Google Scholar]: 173–199; Strohm 1971 Strohm, P. 1971. Storie, Spelle, Geste, Romaunce, Tragedie: generic distinctions in the Middle English Troy narratives. Speculum, 46(2): 348–359. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). My use of the concept of dialogic polyphony is informed by the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin, especially 1984 Bakhtin, M. 1984. Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics ed. and trans. C. Emerson, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. Here, I take as my methodological precedent Sahlins' (2004 Sahlins, M. 2004. Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture and Vice Versa, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]) project of interrogating prima facie similarities between the mid-nineteenth century "Polynesian War" in the Fiji Islands and the Peloponnesian War of the fifth century BCE in order to render these very different histories mutually illuminating. The chief secondary source for the biography of Geoffrey of Monmouth is Curley (1994 Curley, M. J. 1994. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Oxford: Maxwell Macmillan. [Google Scholar]). On developments towards "modern" authorship in the medieval period, see Bennett (2005 Bennett, A. (2005), The Author, Routledge, New York. [Google Scholar]: 38–43). For example, discourses about what some Makirans refer to as a kakamora stone, which they describe as the source of the underground army's extraordinary powers (Scott, forthcoming Scott, M. W. "Collecting Makira: Kakamora Stones, Shrine Stones, and the Grounds for Things in Arosi". In The Things We Value: Culture and History in Solomon Islands, Edited by: Burt, B. and Bolton, L. Wantage: Sean Kingston Publishing. forthcoming [Google Scholar]), could be compared to aspects of the Arthurian grail cycle, especially as represented by Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. See Reeve (2007 Reeve, M. D. (ed.) (2007), The History of the Kings of Britain: An Edition of De gestis Britonum [Historia Regum Britanniae], by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, England. [Google Scholar]) for the Latin text of the Historia Regum Britanniae. In his later work, The Life of Merlin, Geoffrey presents the possibility that Morgen of Avalon may be able to heal Arthur's wound. As Faletra (2000 Faletra, M. A. 2000. Narrating the Matter of Britain: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Norman colonization of Wales. Chaucer Review, 35(1): 60–85. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 2008 Faletra, M. A. (trans. and ed.) (2008), The History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Broadview Editions, Plymouth, England. [Google Scholar]: 200) points out, however, in the History of the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey never unequivocally asserts that the prophesied agent of British restoration will be Arthur. That understanding appears only in later texts, many of which represent the hope of Arthur's return as longstanding popular belief in Brittany and Wales (e.g. Loomis 1941 Loomis, R. S. 1941. King Arthur and the antipodes. Modern Philology, 38(3): 289–304. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1959a Loomis, R. S. 1959a. "The Oral Diffusion of the Arthurian Legend". In Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Edited by: Loomis, R. S. 52–63. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar], 1959b Loomis, R. S. 1959b. "The Legend of Arthur's Survival". In Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Edited by: Loomis, R. S. 64–71. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]). Historically, the island has also been known as San Cristoval. The parallels are even closer between the Matter of Makira and those versions of the Matter of Britain according to which Arthur and his men lie sleeping under a mountain (see Loomis 1959b Loomis, R. S. 1959b. "The Legend of Arthur's Survival". In Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Edited by: Loomis, R. S. 64–71. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]), a motif likewise attached to a myriad heroes and kings in the folkloric traditions of Europe. Others appear to be turning to Islam, Sharia Law, and theories of Arabic origins for renewed Malaitan identity (McDougall 2009 McDougall, D. 2009. Becoming sinless: Converting to Islam in the Christian Solomon Islands. American Anthropologist, 111(4): 480–491. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Moore 2008). Boirayon's (2003a Boirayon, M. 2003a. The dragon snake: A Solomon Islands UFO mystery. Nexus, 10(5): 59–63. [Google Scholar], 2003b Boirayon, M. 2003b. Giant races still exist in the Solomon Islands. Nexus, 10(5): 65–67. [Google Scholar], 2009 Boirayon, M. 2009. Solomon Islands Mysteries: Accounts of Giants and UFOs in the Solomon Islands, Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press. [Google Scholar]) sensationalist conspiracy theory publications about what he calls UFOs and dragon or diamond snakes operating from subterranean bases on Malaita (and Guadalcanal) could be read as evidence of such accounts. Some academics have avoided applying terminologies of unilineal descent without qualification to the Solomon Islands contexts they study (e.g. Dureau 1998 Dureau, C. 1998. Decreed affinities: Nationhood and the Western Solomon Islands. Journal of Pacific History, 33(2): 197–220. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Hviding 2003 Hviding, E. 2003. "Disentangling the Butubutu of New Georgia: Cognatic Kinship in Thought and Action". In Oceanic Socialities and Cultural Forms: Ethnographies of Experience, Edited by: Hoëm, I. and Roalkvam, S. 71–113. Oxford: Berghahn Books. [Google Scholar]; Keesing 1971 Keesing, R. M. 1971. "Descent, Residence and Cultural Codes". In Anthropology in Oceania: Essays Presented to Ian Hogbin, Edited by: Hiatt, L. R. and Jayawardena, C. 121–138. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. [Google Scholar]). In recent accounts of social tensions in Solomon Islands, however, I detect an increased willingness to employ them (e.g. Braithwaite et al. 2010 Braithwaite, J., Dinnen, S., Allen, M., Braithwaite, V. and Charlesworth, H. 2010. Pillars and Shadows: Statebuilding as Peacebuilding in Solomon Islands, Canberra: Australian National University E Press. [Google Scholar]: 19; Kabutaulaka 2001 Kabutaulaka, T. T. (2001), "Beyond Ethnicity: The Political Economy of the Guadalcanal Crisis in Solomon Islands", State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project Discussion Paper 01/1, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra. [Google Scholar]; Moore 2004 Moore, C. R. 2004. Happy Isles in Crisis: The Historical Causes for a Failing State in Solomon Islands, 1998–2004, Canberra: Asia Pacific Press. [Google Scholar]: 95), perhaps in response to new forms of insular self-essentialization. Solomon Islanders from other regions, including Malaita, would likewise describe their local kastom as mandating and prizing such qualities and behaviours (e.g. Gegeo 1998 Gegeo, D. W. 1998. Indigenous knowledge and empowerment: Rural development examined from within. Contemporary Pacific, 10(2): 289–315. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). I cannot confirm that Malaitans refer to Makirans as women. But some Malaitan matter-making seems to express such a view of Guadalcanal people. An origin story told by the Malaitan Michael Kwa'ioloa claims for example that: the Guadalcanal people are descended from Malaitans from Siale in central Kwara'ae who lived in the area of Rere on Guadalcanal. ...When those people returned to Siale they left a woman on Guadalcanal who died and was buried at a place called Vunuanuli, at Ruafatu. That is why in Guadalcanal the woman is the head of the family or clan, because it was a woman who was left when they returned to Malaita. (Kwa'ioloa & Burt 2007 Kwa'ioloa, M. and Burt, B. 2007. 'The chiefs' country': A Malaitan view of the conflict in Solomon Islands. Oceania, 7(1): 111–127. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 114) This is a myth of colonization and a colonizing myth. It hierarchically encompasses both the people of Guadalcanal and their matrilineal ideology as derived from and subordinate to the people of Malaita and their agnatic ideology on the grounds that Malaita is to Guadalcanal as male is to female. With similarly gendered colonizing connotations, some Langalanga Malaitans assert that "'the Langalanga control the whole country'" (in Guo 2006 Guo, P. (2006), "From currency to agency: Shell money in contemporary Langalanga, Solomon Islands", Asia-Pacific Forum [Ya Tai yan jiu lun tan], vol. 31, pp. 17–38. [Google Scholar]: 35) because a certain type of shell money that only they produce is widely used in bride price payments. Through this money, the Langalanga stand as a collective father in relation to the children born to women purchased with their money: "the women would then give birth to children. Therefore, Langalanga shell money and [Langalanga] power is in their blood" (in Guo 2006 Guo, P. (2006), "From currency to agency: Shell money in contemporary Langalanga, Solomon Islands", Asia-Pacific Forum [Ya Tai yan jiu lun tan], vol. 31, pp. 17–38. [Google Scholar]: 35). This same consultant attributed to some Malaitans an awareness that their bellicose nature derives from Hauhuari'i: "People of 'Are'are know about Hauhuari'i; 'You Makirans have spoiled us' [they say]. ...They know it is a rock from Makira. Some old men know the story of the rock". Like the Kwara'ae and Langalanga discourses described in note 19, these representations could be said to entail colonizing implications. Without employing myths or metaphors of descent, this man nevertheless suggests that Makiran masculinity is, in effect, the father of Malaitan masculinity. While I recognize the many parallels between Arosi discourses and those Clark (1997 Clark, J. 1997. "Imagining the State, or Tribalism and the Arts of Memory in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea". In Narratives of Nation in the South Pacific, Edited by: Otto, T. and Thomas, N. 65–90. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. [Google Scholar]) documents in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, it seems to me that Clark's identification of a "Gothic world view" in Melanesia might imply, perhaps inadvertently, such a developmental approach. For example, http://www.thesolomongiants.com/ (accessed 10/11/2003); http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/dragonsnake.htm (accessed 16/3/2005); http://www.thewatcherfiles.com/giants/solomon-giants.htm (accessed 7/12/2010

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