The Authenticity of Traditional Culture and Recognition of History : Netec and Land in Aneityum, Southern Vanuatu

Abstract

Aneityum is the southernmost island of Vanuatu, and is the home of about 850 people. This paper aims to show the fluctuation of authenticity in the island's traditional culture. Ethnographic descriptions about the history have been closely related to the representation of traditional culture, known as kastom (Melanesian pidgin for custom or tradition). In the 1970s, the growing independence movement in Vanuatu used kastom as a political symbol to unite the nation and create a shared identity. Some anthropologists pointed out that it was nothing but a politically-created tradition differing in nature from the kastom of the ordinary people as a lived culture. Also, a new image of kastom, in which modernity and tradition were entangled or harmonized, was discussed in the 1990s. However, it was mainly the discourse of the national elite. On the other hand, ordinary people have had a tendency to separate modernity from tradition in their practice. Recently, many anthropologists have come to pay attention to kastom in its practice as a lived culture, and discuss its authenticity. The uncertainty or fluctuation is a feature of authenticity in their discussion. I will show the social context and process by which the dynamism of authenticity is produced. 'Netec' in the Aneityumese language refers to both a landholding group and a patrilineal kinship group, and also functions as a group to assign personal names. People believe that there is a kind of a traditional rule in which a personal name is connected to a certain piece of land; therefore, the personal name that belongs to the netec cannot be given to someone not a member. However, in practice, people do not follow such a rule perfectly; some non-agnate members can join a netec, and many people are given personal names that pertain to another netec. In sum, there are some non-agnate members in a netec, and personal names can be diffused to another netec. Though such behaviors do not follow the rule of landholding, they have been tolerated tacitly as long as no trouble is caused. However, recently, people have come to recognize such tolerated behaviors as "wrong," and have started trying to prohibit them. That is because many problems relating to land matters have been caused by the admission of non-agnate members to a netec and the diffusion of personal names. Specifically, some people have begun to claim plural land rights through the use of their own patrilineal blood as well as the personal name connected to a different piece of land. In general, people think that a man cannot demand multiple land rights - as he cannot be attributed to more than one netec regarding such a request to be "wrong," and criticizing it generally. With regard to their identities with the land, however, quite a few people have an identity with more than one piece of land. Such problems have become obvious, forcing people to rethink their own kastom consciously, meaning that not only old men, but also young people, are eagerly starting to discuss what 'true kastom' is. That leads them to recognize the tolerated behaviors as "wrong" ones, and they try to prohibit them in the future. Accordingly, the authenticity of their kastom fluctuates. When they discuss whether their kastom is "correct" or "wrong," they always compare it with the old way practiced before the Europeans came. Aneityumese people understand that their own kastom is weak, and most traditional knowledge has disappeared, as has happened in many other islands of Vanuatu. They cite two reasons for the weakening of kastom: the depopulation caused by epidemics, and Christianity. In 1848, a missionary's diary described that the population of the island stood at about 4,000. White traders who frequently visited Aneityum on business brought several epidemics, such as diphtheria, measles and whooping cough. The

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