Tikopia Erotic

The Tikopia are a Polynesian people inhabiting the small volcanic island of Tikopia in the eastern Solomon Islands, a Polynesian outlier lying within Melanesia. They number roughly a thousand islanders, with a larger community settled elsewhere in the Solomons, and speak Tikopia, an Austronesian language of the Polynesian subgroup. Their society was made famous by Raymond Firth's ethnography We, the Tikopia, published in 1936.

Society and subsistence

Tikopia is a tiny high island, and its people developed intensive, carefully managed cultivation to sustain themselves within strict natural limits. Nearly the whole island is a managed orchard garden of yams, taro, breadfruit, coconut, and other tree crops, complemented by fishing on the reef and open sea. Society is organized into four patrilineal clans, each led by a hereditary chief (ariki) whose authority is bound up with land, ritual, and the wellbeing of the community. Firth documented the traditional religious cycle, the Work of the Gods, before the island's conversion to Christianity. The Tikopia are also known historically for deliberate regulation of population to match the resources of their small territory, an ethic of restraint woven into custom. Cyclones and drought periodically threaten the island, and the community has long relied on stored food and strict custom to weather hard years.

Appearance and adornment

The Tikopia show a broadly Polynesian appearance: light to medium brown skin, sturdy and well proportioned builds, and dark hair ranging from wavy to straight. Traditional dress was barkcloth (tapa) waist garments and skirts, with both men and women customarily bare above the waist. People decorated themselves with turmeric and coconut oil, wore flower garlands and necklaces of shell and beads, and practiced tattooing. Today Christian and modern cloth dress is usual for everyday life, with barkcloth, garlands, and body ornament reserved for custom occasions, dance, and the ceremonies that still mark island life.