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Tabua business : Re-circulation of whale teeth and bone valuables in the central pacific

2007; Polynesian Society; Volume: 116; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

2230-5955

Paul van der Grijp,

Island Studies and Pacific Affairs

Nowadays, Tongan craftsmen import whale teeth from Fiji and cow bones from New Zealand for the artworks they make for sale in Tonga, New Zealand, Hawai'i and elsewhere in the Pacific. This practice raises a number of issues that I explore in this article. In Fiji, whale teeth are known as tabua, ceremonial gift objects that provide good luck and are endowed with mana or supernatural powers. Fiji is the only place in the world where natural whale teeth have this privileged and sacred status. In Tonga, but not in Fiji, whale bone and teeth are increasingly used for artworks, specifically, Polynesian-style ornamental sculptures and fishhooks. The raw material comes from stranded whales, from recycled bone of whales hunted long ago and from tabua imported from Fiji. Recent fieldwork in both Tonga and Fiji among carvers, suppliers and middlemen enabled me to trace the contemporary illegal trade in sacred tabua from Fiji to Tonga, where the tabua are carved and resold as ivory art objects in Tonga, New Zealand and Hawai'i. This contemporary circulation of whale teeth is a historical inversion; in the past, Tonga was the source of the whale teeth so highly valued in Fiji. This article focuses on whale teeth, but I also include whale and cow bone used as raw materials for contemporary art objects and markers of cultural identity. I address two major research questions: (1) Why are whale teeth a prevalent feature of Fijian culture, and (2) What is the actual circulation of whale teeth, whale bone and cow bone at present, particularly between Tonga and Fiji?