Ontong Java (Luangiua) Erotic

The Ontong Java people, who call their home Luangiua, are a Polynesian community inhabiting Ontong Java Atoll, one of the largest atolls in the Pacific, lying in the northern reaches of the Solomon Islands. A Polynesian outlier, they speak Ontong Java (Luangiua), an Austronesian language of the Polynesian subgroup, and number a couple of thousand across the atoll and a diaspora, with many connected to the main settlement of Luaniua and to Honiara. The anthropologist Ian Hogbin studied the atoll in the early twentieth century.

Society and subsistence

Ontong Java is a vast ring of low islets around an immense lagoon, and life there is overwhelmingly oriented to the sea. The people are expert fishermen and canoe sailors, harvesting fish, shellfish, and other marine foods, while coconut, taro grown in pits, and pandanus provide plant staples on the thin atoll soils. Coconut products and, in modern times, trade with the wider Solomons supplement subsistence. Society is organized around chiefs and kin groups holding rights to land and lagoon, and the atoll historically maintained an elaborate ceremonial and religious life centered on ancestors and priests, documented before extensive conversion to Christianity reshaped island religion. The atoll's remoteness and very low elevation leave it exposed to storms and rising seas, a growing concern for the future of its low lying islets.

Appearance and adornment

Ontong Java people have a Polynesian appearance: brown skin, robust and well built frames, and dark wavy to straight hair. Traditional dress was barkcloth and plaited fiber waist garments and skirts suited to the tropical atoll, with the upper body often bare and the skin oiled with coconut. Ornaments included shell necklaces and armbands, dolphin and porpoise tooth valuables, flower garlands, and combs, and tattooing was practiced. Ceremonial dance featured decorated dress, body ornament, and rhythmic song. Modern clothing is now everyday, while customary dress and ornament appear at feasts and cultural performance.