This chapter aims first to describe the development of trade and exchange in early Oceanic society. It includes any activity carried out for the benefit of its participants involving not only the transfer of goods but also intangibles like labour and knowledge (§§13.1–2). The nature of wealth is described (§13.2, §13.5). It then takes a wider view of verbs involved in the transfer of possession, subsumed under verbs of giving and receiving (§13.6).
In Melanesia as a general rule, food and shelter are available to all members of a community. Land is owned by the family or clan, and industry alone is required to provide food. For shelter, the bush provides the material, everyone knows the rudiments of house-building, and the assistance of relatives is readily secured for a slight compensation. As Powdermaker (1933:223) writes, describing life in Lesu (= Notsi), a small village of Oceanic speakers in New Ireland:
There is no problem in securing the fundamentals of food, shelter and clothing. Yet there is private property; ornaments, implements of work, currency, pigs, knowledge, medical and magical, are all privately owned. There is wealth and there are rich men, but poverty does not exist. … The importance of wealth is that it allows a man to make the elaborate rites for his dead ancestors, and so gain prestige for himself. Wealth is not hoarded but is always being put in circulation at the constant ritual feasts. And there is no reason why wealth should be saved over any long interval. Old age does not mean economic insecurity. For every old person is well taken care of by either his own children or by classificatory ones. The old people, men and women, are the most respected members of the community, and it is unthinkable that any one of them should be in want.
As Powdermaker summarises on p.225, “the underlying social forces – the principle of reciprocity, the desire for prestige, respect for the old, the mutual obligations within the kinship system – are the animating principles for the economic organisation.”
Nonetheless, no community can claim to be fully self-sufficient. There will be times when subsistence crops are affected by drought or disease. There will be desire for a greater variety of foodstuffs. There will be the urge to acquire what other communities have – better cutting implements or cooking pots. Within the community, individuals will have particular needs for an accumulation of wealth to be available for brideprice, for feasts to mark ritual occasions (§14.1.2.1), for payment in restitution or to cancel a debt, and for sacrifice to the ancestors. There will be people who have specialised skills that others want and there will be people ambitious for prestige. Above all, wealth is desired because it permits generosity, the essence of goodness. All these needs act as motivation for some sort of transfer of wealth.
It is archaeology (Kirch 1997; Spriggs 1997a) rather than linguistic reconstruction that provides our best evidence for early trade. Archaeology has shown that the early Lapita period, from about 3400 to 3100 BP, the period leading to the consolidation of POc, was a time of intensive exchange. One of its most prominent markers was obsidian, volcanic glass that served as a fine cutting implement, used for hair cutting and shaving and in surgical operations. Oceanic speakers sourced it first from Lou island in the Admiralties and Talasea on the Willaumez Peninsula of New Britain, and it has been found widely distributed in Lapita sites (Galipaud & Kelly 2007; Summerhayes 2009). Reconstructed terms include POc *koto ‘obsidian head of spear; obsidian knife or blade’, POc *nad(r)i ‘flint, obsidian, stone with a cutting edge’, and PWOc *qa(r,R)iŋ ‘obsidian; razor’ (vol.1:93). Flint or chert were also exchanged as useful sources for flake tools, and reflexes of reconstructions for obsidian at times refer to such alternatives. Oven stones with good heat-retention qualities, useful in lining earth ovens or boiling food by being dropped into wooden bowls containing food and liquid (vol.1:150), were also in demand. Mussau, which evidently occupied a central position in the early exchange network, shows a considerable range of imported goods in this period: trade in obsidian, chert, oven stones and adzes (Kirch 1997:242; Spriggs 1997a; Summerhayes 2001).
The early Lapita communities were settled on the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, many of them small islands. Moving around by canoe was a part of the daily life of people, and there would have been regular movement between sister communities. The earliest kinds of interaction would have existed to satisfy material needs of newly established settlements and settlements on small islands where resources were limited, as well as meeting social needs such as obtaining spouses. Roger Green (1979:38) describes this early trade as “a network of reciprocal exchanges between related communities that maintained frequent contact.”
As the Lapita people ventured further afield, to the Reefs-Santa Cruz group, Vanuatu, and beyond, so did the trading networks cover greater distances. Kirch (1988b) writes that the remarkable rapidity and success in colonising new Lapita settlements was largely due to the maintenance of contacts with the ‘mother’ communities.
The importance of exchange for Lapita communities did not lie in assuring access to certain material resources such as obsidian or temper, but as a formal mechanism assuring a lifeline back to larger and securely established homeland communities. In the formative period of a new settlement, such linkages could be crucial in the event of unpredictable hazards (drought or cyclone), or to augment demographically small and unstable groups with suitable marriage partners. The ability to draw upon the total range of social and demographic, as well as material, resources of a homeland community could have meant the difference between survival and extinction. (Kirch 1988b:113–4)
Pawley (1981:295) writes that “for a time the sister communities continued to regard themselves as people of one stock and, for a longer period, as people of one language. As the centuries passed, however, contacts between scattered sister communities tended to become relatively less important and less frequent. Adaptive changes in economic and social life led to … weakening of the lines of communication.” Kirch (1988b:107) describes the emergence of two distinct Lapita trading networks, a western one from the Bismarcks to New Caledonia which lasted over 700 years, and an eastern one involving Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and several of the smaller isolated islands (Niuatoputapu, Futuna, Uvea), which “may not have operated for much more than two or three centuries, if even that long”. The two networks were separated by a water gap of 850–1000 km between Vanuatu and Fiji which was sufficiently large to inhibit regular two-way voyaging contacts and maintenance of exchange relationships.
Over time, as populations increased and spread, coastal settlements moved inland and into locations where geographic resources dictated differences in diet. Among the simplest forms of trade was exchange of foodstuffs recognised as equivalent in value. Blackwood (1935:439) describes the exchange of fish and taro between coastal and inland villages in Buka, while Hogbin (1939:17) recognises a similar exchange of fish and vegetables in Malaita between the bush and the saltwater people.
Reciprocal exchange typically becomes regulated, occurring at fixed times and widened in scope to include a greater variety of produce. Communities take advantage of natural resources to develop specialisations, often manufactured items, and regular trade patterns emerge as a result. They may be undertaken both individually and collectively, and may be planned months in advance so that the items to be traded can be collected, and undertaken when the sailing season is at its most reliable.
The following accounts describe ways in which a range of trade patterns have developed over time. They vary in scale, from the small Manam trade exchange (Wedgwood 1934) to the large hiri expeditions of the Western Motu (Seligman 1910), and in complexity, with goods moving through multiple stages as in the Kula Ring (Malinowski 1922) and Vitiaz Straits (Harding 1967) networks. They also vary in intent, with the primary need for material goods and maintenance of social ties now at times being overtaken by the desire for profit as noted in the trade networks of both the Vitiaz Straits (Harding 1967:139) and Santa Cruz (Davenport 1964:62). In contrast, Powdermaker (1933:202), writing of Lesu, and Hogbin (1964a:50), writing of the middlemen in Longgu, describe them as deriving no financial profit from their position. They enter into a transaction because it provides them with an excuse for engaging in social intercourse with peoples whom they would otherwise see only rarely.
Arrival of a trade group is an occasion of heightened social activity. The Siassi, for example, are renowned as performers, with added reputation as storytellers and retailers of gossip (Harding 1967:183). They bring songs and dances, sometimes by invitation, both to perform and trade. These are owned, and rights by others to perform them must be paid for. Particularly for people from small communities, such occasions also offer an opportunity for obtaining marriageable partners.
Brief ethnographic descriptions follow of some of the better-known trade patterns that have emerged from these beginnings.
Wedgwood (1934:392–3) describes a trade pattern on the island of Manam off the north coast of New Guinea. Soil is poor and the main crops, taro and bananas, cannot be stored for any length of time, so people are generally faced with food shortage towards the end of the dry season. At this time the men make expeditions to the mainland to exchange baskets of canarium nuts and bundles of native-grown tobacco for sago. Every man in Manam has in two or three villages of the mainland some one man who is his trading partner (tawa) through whom all exchanges of goods or valuables are made.
On a much larger scale, the great hiri expeditions of the Western Motu were undertaken annually by coastal-dwelling fishermen and potters of the Port Moresby area to unrelated people living at the head of the Papuan Gulf in order to exchange pottery for sago and for new hulls for their lakatoi (F. R. Barton in Seligman 1910:96ff). As summarised by Bellwood (1979:102):
Every year, towards the end of the south-east trade-wind season in September or October, the Motu would fit out several lakatoi – giant canoes up to 20 metres long by 16 broad with covered superstructures and several parallel hulls, capable of carrying in some cases over 1600 pots or 30 tons of sago – and head along the coast to the northwest to carry out exchange along the normal partnership pattern. They would then return with the sago on the north-west monsoon after about three months.
The Kula Ring, described by Malinowski (1922), is a more complex form of exchange, largely ceremonial. It is a circulating system based on group voyaging between neighbouring islands when trade partners engage in exchange, both of utilitarian goods and also non-utilitarian armshells and necklaces which travel in fixed directions around a chain of islands including the Trobriands, Muyuw, Misima, Tubetube and Dobu, integrating the whole system. Some of the islands are ecologically poor and have become highly specialised – the Amphlett Islands, for instance, are poorly supplied with food, and can obtain this by trading the pots which they make from clay brought from Fergusson Island. As Malinowski describes it, “The main principle underlying the regulations of actual exchange is that the Kula consists in the bestowing of a ceremonial gift, which has to be repaid by an equivalent counter-gift after a lapse of time” (1922:93). Bellwood (1979:102) sees the cycle as “a highly elaborate ritual, closely bound up with magic and considerations of personal status, which at base circulates needed goods to needy localities, but in more general terms serves a fundamental social function of high complexity”.
Another example of a highly developed trade system is that described by Harding (1967) which stretches from the western end of New Britain through the islands of the Vitiaz Strait, to the long coastline between Madang and Morobe. As summarised by Bellwood (1979:103) the trade networks involved in this system are very complex and transcend any form of local identity. Hundreds of communities are involved, exchanging inland root crops for coastal fish, coconuts and pottery. Three groups of sea-borne middlemen, based on Bilbil Island in Austrolabe Bay, the Siassi Islands and the Tami Islands, articulate the flow of commodities with three overlapping trading spheres. It was possible, for instance, for obsidian from the base of the Willaumez Peninsula in New Britain to move step by step and increasing in value all the time, right through the system. Harding (1967:42) notes that “as obsidian moved farther from its source, the size of the pieces traded progressively decreased and the relative value increased.” As well as obsidian, Harding (p.55) lists live pigs, dogs’ teeth, bows and arrows, net bags, pottery and taro amongst present-day mainland exports, while from the islands of the Straits boars’ tusks, live dogs, mats, shell discs, beads, betel nut, red ochre and sago move in return to the mainland. Communities typically specialise; thus Siassi and Tami Islanders make the best canoes, Bilbil, Sio and Gitua clay cooking pots.
Exchanges are made predominantly in terms of equivalence, rather than involving currency. But items vary in quality and size and are more desired in some communities than others, creating opportunities for profit. Harding provides the following series of exchanges to illustrate how the Siassi can turn a basic product into a valuable pig (p.139):
6 –12 coconuts > 3 pots > 1 block obsidian > 10 pots > 1 pig.
Davenport (1964:62–64) describes a complex trade system from the Reefs-Santa Cruz group which, with the inclusion of the nearby Polynesian-speaking island of Taumako (Pileni), in earlier times operated as a single, self-contained social and economic system. Demand is based less on environmental differences and more on the fact that there is a high degree of specialisation of skills and technical abilities within the group. Raw materials such as kinds of shell and stone, and partially processed materials such as cordage, turtle shell and feathers, move from one district or island to another where they are manufactured into products and re-exported. When timber is available, Taumakoans build large sailing outriggers (puke) constructed for trade, load them with sago flour and small paddling canoes, sell both cargo and large canoes to villages of the northeastern Reef Islands, and paddle home with their exchanges in small canoes. The Reef Islanders can then use the puke canoes to trade with the larger southern islands.
Davenport also describes (p.63) the elaborate system whereby feather currency is manufactured by specialists on only one island, Nidu (Santa Cruz), making use of red feathers acquired from Utupia and Vanikoro. This feather currency then has to be fed into wider circulation where it is needed in brideprice. The Reef Islands give up some of their women to Santa Cruz in exchange for brideprice paid in feather currency, and Taumako people give up some of theirs to the Reefs in the same manner. Davenport describes women in this system as “the most valuable commodity of all.”
POc *poli is a well-attested reconstruction for ‘buy’ with antecedents in PAn and PMP. While Blust (ACD) accepts that ‘buy’ is the attested gloss in the great majority of reflexes of PAn *beli, he adds a cautionary note. He writes:
Buying, however, is an activity which involves the acquisition of objects through a common medium of exchange – i.e. some form of money. There is no known evidence of any kind that speakers of PMP (circa 3,000 BC) were familiar with a money economy; moreover, various reflexes of *beli both in WMP and in CMP languages indicate that this item in particular referred to the ‘brideprice’. Since brideprice is a set of economic arrangements between the families or descent groups involved in a marriage, the gloss ‘to buy’ for this form is best seen as an imposition upon an earlier economic order based on exchange by a later one based on purchase.
| PAn | *beli | ‘buy’ (ACD) | |
| PMP | *beli | [N] ‘value, price; marriage prestations, brideprice’; [V] ‘purchase’ (Dempwolff 1938: ‘buy’) | |
| POc | *poli | [V] ‘to barter, purchase by exchange’; [N] ‘price, brideprice; value’ | |
| POc | *poli | [V] ‘to barter, purchase by exchange’; [N] ‘price, brideprice; value’ | |
| NNG | Gedaged | poali | [VT] ‘to barter, trade, exchange’ |
| NNG | Wogeo | oalage | ‘ritual exchange between villages’ (Anderson 2003) |
| NNG | Bilibil | poli | ‘to barter’ |
| NNG | Bariai | ol | ‘to buy’ |
| NNG | Mangseng | ol | ‘to buy’ |
| NNG | Hote | vuli | ‘to buy’ |
| NNG | Kove | oli | ‘to buy’ |
| NNG | Kove | oli-ŋa | ‘third, full marriage payment’ |
| NNG | Yabem | (ŋa)oli | [N] ‘payment, reward, price, compensation’ |
| PT | Wedau | unei | ‘to buy, barter’ (unelei ‘to sell, barter’) |
| PT | Motu | hoi-a | [VT] ‘to buy, sell, exchange’ |
| PT | Sinaugoro | voi | [VT] ‘to buy’ |
| MM | Tigak | pul | ‘to buy’ |
| MM | Tabar | vo-vori | ‘to buy’ |
| MM | Halia | hol | ‘to buy’ |
| MM | Teop | von | ‘to buy, reward’ |
| MM | Maringe | foli | [VI, VT] ‘buy’ |
| SES | Bugotu | voli | [VT] ‘to buy, sell, pay; price’ |
| SES | Gela | voli | ‘barter, buy and sell’ |
| SES | Longgu | voli-a | [VT] ‘to buy, pay for s.t.’ |
| SES | Lau | foli | ‘to buy, hire, pay wages’ |
| SES | Kwaio | foli-a | ‘buy’ |
| SES | Arosi | hori | ‘buy, sell, pay’ |
| SES | Sa’a | holi(te) | [N] ‘price, payment’ (-te not understood) |
| SES | Owa | wori | [VT] ‘buy s.t., pay for s.t.’ |
| NCV | Mota | wol | ‘to barter, buy or sell by exchange’ |
| NCV | Raga | voli | ‘buy, barter’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | voli | [VT] ‘buy s.t.; pay bride price’ |
| Fij | Wayan | voli- | [VT] ‘buy or purchase s.t., obtain by trade’ |
| Fij | Wayan | voli | [VSt] ‘be bought, obtained by trade’ |
| Fij | Bauan | voli-a | ‘to buy, purchase’ |
| Fij | Bauan | i voli | ‘price, cost’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | (lī)weli | ‘to change or take the place of s.o.; to exchange one thing for another; trade’ |
A number of languages retain both single and reduplicated forms. It is possible that in some instances the reduplicated form carries the sense of repeated exchanges, but the pattern is not consistent. Longgu and Sa’a use the reduplicated form specifically for ‘brideprice’ while Tamambo identifies ‘brideprice’ with the single form.
| POc | *poli-poli | ‘trade, barter’ | |
| PT | Motu | hoi-hoi | ‘barter’ |
| SES | Gela | voli-voli | ‘barter, buy and sell’ |
| SES | Lau | foli-foli | ‘buy, hire, pay wages; to measure’ |
| SES | Longgu | voli-voli | ‘bride price’ |
| SES | Sa’a | holi-holite | ‘bride price’ (Ivens 1927: 71) |
| SES | Arosi | hori-hori | ‘buy, sell, pay’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | voli-voli | [VI] ‘trade, barter’ |
| Fij | Bauan | (vei)voli, vovoli | ‘trade, barter’ (vei- RECIPROCAL) |
The name ‘Kula’ as in ‘Kula Ring’ evidently is derived from the following:
| PWOc | *kul(a,e) | ‘exchange, buy’ | |
| NNG | Kaulong | kul | [VT] ‘buy, purchase, hire, make compensation, pay a fine, bribe with money’ |
| PT | Gumawana | kula | ‘exchange of shell wealth in Milne Bay Province’ (for †kuna) |
| PT | Dawawa | kune | ‘exchange’ |
| PT | Tawala | une | ‘trading circle, trade items’ |
| PT | Bwaidoga | ʔune | ‘trade’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | kul | [VT] ‘buy, pay’ |
| MM | Madak | kun | ‘exchange’ |
| MM | Patpatar | kul | [VT] ‘buy’ |
| MM | Tolai | kul | ‘pay, buy’ |
| MM | Tolai | ku-kul | [VI] ‘deal, buy, engage in trade or commerce’ |
| NNG | Mengen | koli(rea) | [VT] ‘buy’ |
| NNG | Kove | koli | ‘pay a debt’ |
| NNG | Kove | koli-ŋa | [N] ‘repayment’ |
The ACD lists PCEMP *matay as a noun meaning ‘money, payment, medium of commercial exchange’ with a single non-Oc reflex. Glosses of Oceanic terms may be either noun meaning ‘price’ or ‘payment’, as in SE Solomonic languages and Hawaiian, or verb meaning ‘exchange, buy’ as in Tolai and Kosraean. It is noteworthy that in both Gela and Arosi the reflex of POc *mate when referring to ‘price/payment’ is inalienably possessed, implying that price/payment is an inherent attribute of the item.
| PCEMP | *matay | ‘money, payment, medium of commercial exchange’ (ACD) | |
| CMP | Buru | mata-n | ‘money’ |
| POc | *mate | [N] ‘price’; [V] ‘transact’ | |
| MM | Tolai | mate | [VT] ‘to change, exchange, buy’ |
| SES | Gela | mate- | ‘the price of a thing’ (mate-na ‘its price’) |
| SES | ’Are’are | (pata) mae | ‘very fine shell money, having great value, used to make necklaces and for buying pigs’ (pata ‘money’) |
| SES | Arosi | mae(-na) | ‘payment for work done or land bought’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | misɛ | ‘buy on credit’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | make | ‘price, barter, exchange’ |
Tradeable wealth in Oceanic societies exists in the form of items such as domestic pigs, manufactured items used both as currency, and as valuables ranging from canoes to armbands, and in Polynesia, tapa and fine mats. Surplus foodstuffs will be a valuable source of exchange. Wealth exists as well in intangibles, in labour, and in skills, particularly knowledge of magic and medicine.
Domestic pigs (POc *boRok, vol.4:238) are the supremely valued object in most Melanesian societies. Pigs buy wives, they satisfy important social obligations and needs, and they are the sine qua non of any important festive occasion or ritual event as well as being valuable trade items. They are personal possessions. Young men may beg for one or two piglets from the litter of a relative’s sow, or capture a wild piglet, and wives will put much time and attention into rearing them. A man’s wealth is represented by the number of pigs he can contribute to celebratory feasts and other ritual events.
Throughout Melanesia generally, and also in western Micronesia, goods and services could be exchanged for various kinds of money. These currencies were normally specially manufactured and always had some kind of scarcity value, in the sense that they could not be mass-produced indiscriminately. They were not used simply for trade, but also enabled a man to pay bride price, to recompense injury or murder and to pay other unilateral payments, and also to give loans with interest in order to accumulate the wealth necessary to become a Big Man. Where services were given in terms of labour, these would be repaid in kind.
The most widespread currency in Oceanic communities consists of strings of shell discs, usually small shells ground flat, pierced with a central hole and then threaded on fathom-long strings of native cord. They may be collected into various denominations. In Baluan in the Admiralty Islands seaŋ is the name given to shell money of the best quality, while ulit refers to that of lower quality (Schokkin 2015). In Lesu the currency is the tsera, one unit of which consist of an arm length of tiny flat shell discs strung together. There are two kinds, red and white, the red twice the value of the white (Powdermaker 1933:200). In Kwaio the medium of exchange is bata, tiny beads fabricated from cone shells and strung on fibre into conventional lengths and denominations (Keesing 1982:20). In Longgu, they are fastened into sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 and 4, each set individually named (Hogbin 1964a:19). In Äiwoo on the Reef Islands maŋahau is the name given to a coil of shell money (Koch 1971:156). Names across communities vary along various parameters, according to variety, colour and quality of shell, specified denominations, and so on.
A POc reconstruction, *saRa ‘shell money made from small shells’, is proposed. Final -ŋ of Baluan seaŋ is puzzling. It does not reflect a final POc consonant, as these are lost in Baluan.
| POc | *saRa | ‘shell money made from small shells’ | |
| Adm | Baluan | sea(ŋ) | ‘best quality shell money’ |
| NNG | Mangseng | sara | ‘shell money’ |
| MM | Nakanai | sara | ‘small cut shells (Nassa sp.), used as money by the Tolai and primarily for decoration by Nakanai’ |
| MM | Notsi | cera | ‘shell money’ |
| MM | Siar | sar | ‘shell money’ |
Terms used in the measurement of shell money are reconstructed in §16.7.
Also valued as currency are teeth of dogs, porpoises and flying foxes (POc *[l,n]ipon ‘tooth, tusk’, POc *bati ‘canine tooth’) (vol.4:266). Denominations are typically measured in numbers of teeth. Arosi, for instance, has a unit of money, abe, consisting of four porpoise teeth or two dog teeth, and larger denominations like toa ni iʔa, made up of 400 porpoise teeth (Fox 1978). Dog teeth may be incorporated into ornaments like headbands or chest ornaments.
Co-existing shell and teeth currencies are not true currencies insofar as they typically have separate roles. In Buka and north Bougainville (Blackwood 1935:446), shell currency called beroan is given in payment for certain things including compensation for theft, part payment for pigs, for being taught certain kinds of magic, thrown into the coffin as a sign of grief, and so on, while currency known as paio, made of either porpoise or flying fox teeth, “is reserved for use in important transactions”. In Longgu where the local currency consists of fathom-long strings of shell discs, the canine teeth of dogs and the teeth of porpoises, Hogbin (1964a:48) warns that they are not interchangeable. A fathom of discs or ten dogs’ teeth or 50 porpoise teeth may all be assumed to have the same market value, but any one cannot be equated with either of the others. Each traditional transaction requires its own kind of objects – discs alone, dog teeth alone, or, as a bride price, some of all three in fixed proportion. In Sa’a, however, “forty dog teeth was reckoned as a unit and was equivalent to one hundred porpoise teeth, or one shell money of four strings” (Ivens 1927:405).
Other valuables not generally classified as currency but included in the most important classes of payments made within a community – brideprice, indemnification, payments to sorcerers – include body ornaments like combs (POc *saRu), arm and leg bands (POc *bara ‘plaited cane armlet’), shell breast plates (POc *japi ‘bivalve, possibly gold-lipped pearlshell; ornament made from this’), necklaces and ornaments for ear and nose (POc *(sabi-)sabi ‘shell disc uused as earring’) (Hogbin 1939:48).1 Santa Cruz is noted for its belts of red feathers called teau in Natügu (Koch 1971:156), while in Sio in the Vitiaz Strait and along the north coast of New Guinea pairs of curved boars’ tusks known as saŋiri are sought-after (Harding 1967:47). In Polynesia where the giving of gifts is highly ritualised, tapa and fine mats are a major form of wealth (Tcherkézoff 2017).
| PPn | *taqoŋa | ‘valuable, alienable property’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | tōʔoŋa | ‘custom, habit, conduct, behaviour, characteristic; rite, ceremony’ |
| Pn | Tongan | tōʔoŋa(pō) | ‘special gift from a lover’ |
| Pn | Niuean | tōŋa | ‘a Samoan fine mat’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tōŋa | ‘fine mat, the most significant and valuable object in Samoan culture’ (Milner); ‘native property consisting of fine mats and siapo [tapa]’ (Pratt); ‘collective term for fine mats and tapa when presented as offering’ (Tcherkezoff 2016) |
| Pn | Rennellese | hai toʔoŋa | ‘artefact, as mat or tapa, as offered to gods’ |
| Pn | Mangarevan | toŋa | ‘cloak of barkcloth’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | taoŋa | ‘property, possessions’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | taoʔa | ‘object, goods, property, riches’ |
| Pn | Māori | taoŋa | ‘property, anything highly prized’ (flax and feather cloaks are historically the oldest kinds of taoŋa); ‘traditionally anything, tangible or intangible, which represents a kin group’s genealogical identity’ (Tcherkezoff 2016) |
| PT | Dobu | taʔona | [N] ‘payment for personal injury or stolen goods’; [V] ‘to make such payment’ (borrowed from Pn) |
| PPn | *koloa | ‘valuable possessions’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Niuean | koloa | ‘valuable possessions, goods’ |
| Pn | Tongan | koloa | ‘goods, wealth, possessions’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | kogoa | ‘tapa cloth’ |
| Pn | Samoan | ʔoloa | ‘property, goods, wealth’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | koroa | ‘goods, property, valued object, treasure’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | ʔoloa | ‘fine white tapa’ |
In Lesu (Powdermaker 1933:204–6), where there is no profit in trading in pigs, the possession of magic is the most important source of wealth. Both magic and some aspects of medical knowledge, particularly as it relates to childbirth, are private possessions in the hands of a few, and are performed only for payment. See Chapter 8 for examples from Mekeo (Stephen 1987:43), Kove (Chowning 1989:224) and Longgu (Hogbin 1964a:58).
In Oceanic communities, a man’s reputation is enhanced not by accumulating possessions but by giving them away. Throughout Oceania the major channel for the distribution of wealth is through the giving of feasts (§14.1.2.1). Other occasions involving the exchange of goods and services include (i) brideprice transactions, (ii) reimbursement for services, (iii) payment as compensation or fines, and (iv) as sacrifice to the gods. Any individual who needs to make a contribution will be met with the assistance of a wide circle of kinfolk and affines. All such assistance will carry with it the obligation to reciprocate in time, as the opportunity occurs.
Every event of importance in a man’s life such as the death of his parents, or the marriage of his children or the offering of a sacrifice to the ancestors, is celebrated by a feast. Feasts are also held to give thanks for services rendered. In particular they are an opportunity for individuals to display and distribute wealth through the giving of pigs to be slaughtered and eaten, and by providing quantities of foodstuffs. The more feasts a man gives and the more lavish he is in the provision of food, the greater is his prestige, and the greater his chances of becoming a big man (Hogbin 1939:61–62). If he is already a big man or is an hereditary chief, he will be careful to uphold his reputation by his actions, and one of his responsibilities will include deciding on the number and timing of feasts. A similar role is undertaken by the Polynesian ariki. Goldman (1970:363) describes the situation in Tikopia where, in spite of limits imposed by population pressure on one small island, the same pattern ensues.
In Tikopia, the chief has the ability to control the ritual circulation of goods. Tikopia has no spare land. Population numbers must be kept at a sustainable level. They can produce enough to feed themselves, but no surplus to export. The chief must have wealth. He is the initiator of the grand cycle and is responsible for keeping in motion the distribution and redistribution of food. Circulation is certainly the most conspicuous and pressing obligation of ariki.
Three categories of lexical item are associated with feasting: terms for ‘feast’; terms for distributing goods, perhaps especially food items; and terms for counting goods in order to ascertain their exchange value. The last category is described in some detail in §14.1.2.1.
The generic name for a feast was probably a nominalisation of the verb POc *kani[-] ‘eat’ (vol.4:224–230). Forms in some languages reflect the reduplicated form *kani-kani, in others *kani-an with the nominaliser *-an.
| Adm | Titan | kani-an | ‘a feast’ |
| NNG | Kove | hani-ŋa | ‘a feast’ |
| NNG | Mangap | kan-ŋana | ‘eating, meal time, a feast’ |
| NNG | Takia | an-aŋ | ‘a feast’ |
| PT | Gumawana | kaika | ‘food, meal, eating, a feast’ |
| MM | Tinputz | kæn | ‘a feast’ |
| NCV | Mota | ɣana-ɣana | ‘a feast, meal’ |
| NCV | Kiai | ani-ani | ‘a feast’ |
| NCV | Paamese | ani-ene | ‘food; meal; staple part of a meal (as against the meat and vegetables), feast’ |
The forms above also mean ‘food’ and ‘meal’ in some languages, and Clark (2009) lists cognates which do not even include ‘feast’ in their glosses. It is often difficult to find a generic term for ‘a feast’ in a dictionary of an Oceanic language, but easy to find terms for different kinds of feast, i.e. feasts are generally named for their specific function. In Gedaged, for example, a feast, wei, is given to repay workers on a big undertaking while soabul is a feast primarily to gain prestige for the giver. Numerous terms have been collected for ‘mortuary feast’, ostensibly a feast held some months after a person’s death, to honour the dead person and thank those who rendered burial services, but no reconstructions have been possible except at a low level. In Papuan Tip communities, mortuary feasts have developed into major occasions for the exchange and distribution of wealth (Seligman 1910:276, Malinowski 1922:170, Battaglia 1991:86, Fortune 1963:193–200). However, it has not proven possible to reconstruct terms for these specialised feasts.
Three verbs meaning to ‘distribute’ are reconstructed here:
Distributing food among large numbers of people at feasts continues in many Oceanic speaking cultures, and was apparently the activity denoted by POc *wase, reflexes of which are well distributed across Oceania. Blust (ACD) glosses *wase ‘distribute, as food at a feast’, but its uses evidently extended on the one hand to dividing something up and counting the portions, and on the other to giving (freely and without expectation of return). The ‘count’ sense is reflected in the Admiralties, North New Guinea, Meso-Melanesian and Micronesian, but there are indications that the wider senses have persisted in some languages (Gedaged, Sinaugoro). The ‘give’ sense has led to the use of the reflex of *wase as the default term for ‘give’ in a number of Oceanic languages of SW New Britain and the SE Solomons. In Central Pacific languages, it is the ‘divide up’ sense that has mainly survived. Thus the reflexes of *wase attest to several semantic shifts.2
The forms under ‘cf. also’ below reflect a putative POc *waso rather than the overwhelmingly attested *wase.
| PEMP | *wa(n)se | ‘divide’ (ACD) 3 | |
| POc | *wase | ‘distribute (food at a feast), divide up, count out’ | |
| Adm | Seimat | wexe | ‘count’ |
| Adm | Wuvulu | wake-i | ‘count’ |
| NNG | Bariai | wade | ‘distribute; count out’ |
| NNG | Sio | wae | ‘divide and distribute’ |
| NNG | Tami | (ta)wat | ‘distribute’ |
| NNG | Dami | -wese- | ‘count; read’ |
| NNG | Arove | wai | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Atui | yas | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Sengseng | vai | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | -wae | ‘give away, distribute, bestow, deal out, apportion’ |
| NNG | Takia | -wae | ‘deal out, distribute, apportion out (work, food), share’ |
| NNG | Numbami | -wesa | ‘distribute, divide out, dish out (food)’ |
| NNG | Yabem | -wà | ‘separate, sever, divide’ |
| NNG | Manam | -ware | ‘count’ |
| NNG | Bam | -war | ‘count’ |
| NNG | Kairiru | -was | ‘distribute’ |
| NNG | Ali | -wes | ‘count’ |
| NNG | Sissano | -wɛs | ‘distribute; deal out’ |
| NNG | Sera | bek-bek | ‘distribute’ |
| PT | Sinaugoro | vare-vare | [VI] ‘give gifts’ |
| PT | Sinaugoro | vare-vare-vini | [VT] ‘give gifts to’ |
| PT | Roro | -wate | ‘distribute’ |
| MM | Vitu | vaðe-ni | ‘distribute’ |
| MM | Nakanai | vara(rapu) | ‘give gift with no need of return’ |
| MM | Tabar | ase | ‘count’ |
| MM | Lamasong | us | ‘count’ |
| MM | Patpatar | wa-was | ‘count’ |
| MM | Label | uas | ‘count’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | wəsə-i | ‘count; read’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | wəs talmi | ‘count, add’ (lit. ‘count gather’) |
| MM | Tangga | wes | ‘count’ |
| MM | Nehan | aha | ‘count’ |
| MM | Halia | ase | ‘number, count’ |
| MM | Taiof | as-as | ‘count’ |
| MM | Teop | ahe | ‘count; set store by; read’ |
| MM | Marovo | ase | ‘count’ |
| MM | Kilokaka | aʔ-ahe | ‘count’ |
| MM | Maringe | -ahe | ‘count’ |
| SES | Gela | vahe | ‘give, give to’ |
| SES | Longgu | wate- | [VT] ‘give, send, offer’ |
| SES | Lau | kʷate | ‘give, give up, hand over, present’ |
| SES | Kwaio | kʷate, kʷate- | ‘contribute, give’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | wate | ‘herald at a feast the assigned food portions to the different villages; make an oration at a feast’ |
| SES | Sa’a | [waʔe]wate | ‘distribute food at a feast after making an oration’ |
| SES | Arosi | wate | ‘give’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | ase | [VT] ‘share s.t., divide out s.t.’ |
| PMic | *waSe | [VI] ‘count’ (Bender et al. 2003a) | |
| PMic | *waSe-ki | [VT] ‘count’ (Bender et al. 2003a) | |
| Mic | Kiribati | ware | ‘calculate, enumerate, spell’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | ware-ka | [VT] ‘count or read (s.t.)’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | oɛ-oɛ | [VI] ‘count’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | oe-k | [VT] ‘count’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | wat-wat | [VI] ‘count up; estimate by counting’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | wate-k | [VT] ‘count up’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | wate-wate | [VT] ‘count, reckon, enumerate’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | weta-xi | [VT] ‘count, reckon’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | wada-wad | [VI] ‘count; read’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | wadɛ-k | [VT] ‘count; read’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | wad | [VI] ‘multiply (in mathematics)’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | wadi-ki | [VT] ‘multiply it’ |
| Mic | Pulo Annian | wete-wetɛ | ‘count’ |
| PCP | *wase | ‘divide; separate’ (Geraghty 1983: PEOc ‘divide’) | |
| Fij | Bauan | wase- | ‘divide, separate’ |
| Fij | Wayan | wase- | [VT] ‘divide, separate into parts or sections’ |
| Fij | Wayan | wase | [VSt] ‘divided into parts’ |
| PPn | *wahe | ‘divide, separate’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | vahe | ‘divide, divide out, allot, distribute; division’ |
| Pn | Tongan | vahe-a | ‘divide’ |
| Pn | Samoan | vae | ‘divide, separate; cut, sever’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | vae | ‘divide, separate; division’ |
| Pn | Anutan | vae | ‘divide a group of objects into subsets’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | va-vae | ‘separate, divide into parts’ |
| Pn | Māori | wae | ‘divide, division, separate’ |
| NNG | Kove | waðo | ‘count’ |
| NNG | Wogeo | -wayo | ‘count’ |
| NNG | Kaiep | -wiau | ‘count’ |
POc *soli, *soli(t,ŋ)-i- appears to have profiled the assignment of a portion to one person, whereas *wase profiled distribution among a number of people. Again, it has given rise to reflexes meaning simply ‘give’, this time in Central Pacific languages.
| POc | *soli, *soli(t,ŋ)-i- | ‘distribute, pass to another’ | |
| Adm | Seimat | solit-i | [VT] ‘change places with, exchange; replace’ |
| SES | Gela | holi | ‘pass from one to another, as a sickness’ |
| SES | Gela | holiŋ-i | [VT] ‘infect’ |
| SES | Lau | toli | ‘distribute, set out portions at a feast’ |
| SES | Kwaio | toliŋ-i- | ‘distribute to, apportion’ |
| SES | Sa’a | toliŋ-i- | [VT] ‘assign a portion of food to a person at a feast’ |
| SES | Arosi | toriŋ-i- | [VT] ‘assign a portion’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | torin-i- | ‘assign one’s portion of food on a feast; give, grant, permit’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | toli | [VI] ‘share out s.t., distribute shares of s.t.’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | toliŋ-i- | [VT] ‘share out, distribute s.t.’ |
| SES | Owa | toriŋ-i- | [VT] ‘buy s.t.’ |
| PCP | *soli[-] | ‘give’ | |
| Fij | Bauan | soli-a | ‘give’ |
| Fij | Bauan | vei-soli | ‘exchange’ (vei RECIP) |
| Fij | Wayan | soli | ‘be given, awarded, granted’ |
| Fij | Wayan | soli-soli | ‘give, keep giving things, be generous’ |
| Pn | Anutan | tori | ‘give’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | holi | ‘give freely’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | soli | ‘give, present, award’ |
| Pn | Emae | sori-a | ‘give, sell, send’ |
| Pn | Ifira-Mele | sori-a | ‘sell’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | sori | ‘give, hand over’ |
| Pn | West Uvea | soli | ‘give, lend, borrow’ |
A third reconstruction, POc *tara(s), taras-i-, apparently had the meaning ‘distribute, divide up, share’ without specific reference to food. Again, a ‘distribute’ verb has become a ‘give’ verb, here in southern New Ireland.
| POc | *tara(s), *taras-i- | ‘distribute, divide up, share’ | |
| Adm | Titan | talas-i | [VT] ‘share, divide up’ |
| Adm | Titan | tala-tal | [VI] ‘divide up, share’ |
| NNG | Takia | -tar(pale) | ‘break into smaller pieces, divide, distribute, break, break off’ |
| NNG | Takia | -tar(pas-) | ‘divide things, separate out into groups’ |
| MM | Notsi | tals(en) | ‘distribute’ |
| MM | Tangga | til(ni) | ‘distribute’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | tar | [VI] ‘give’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | tar-i | [VT] ‘give’ |
| MM | Patpatar | tar | ‘give’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | tar | [VI] ‘give’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | tar-i | [VT] ‘give’ |
| MM | Siar | tar | [VI] ‘give’ |
| MM | Siar | tar-i | [VT] ‘give’ |
All adults will own some private property, both individually and as a member of a kinship group. Above all, they will need it if they are to marry. Brideprice is a set of economic arrangements between the families or descent groups involved in a marriage. Marriage is ratified by payments, either in the form of wealth given by the man’s kin to the woman’s, or in the form of roughly equal exchanges of wealth between the two sides (Chowning 1977:56). In Melanesia brideprice usually includes a range of goods, strings of shell money as well as pigs, bowls and other valuables. In Polynesia, fine tapa and mats predominate. The bigger the amount, the greater the prestige. POc *poli, reconstructed above, may have in its earlier manifestation referred to brideprice, or payment of brideprice. The handing over of valuables is always done in public, and typically occurs in stages, each stage separately named (Powdermaker 1933:210, Ivens 1927:71–74, Turner 1884:93).
Relatives give one another assistance in all major undertakings such as house-building, preparing a new garden and ritual celebrations. Payment for labour is most often obtained by stressing bonds of kinship, affinity or residence with an expectation of reciprocity. It is a debt to be repaid when the opportunity arises (Blackwood 1935:450, Hogbin 1939:57–58). A village headman will pay for labour given by men in building a men’s house or by women in providing food by staging a feast. On a personal level, if a person requires the help of a specialist in medical matters or to influence an outcome through magic, the specialist will be paid, usually in some form of currency. In Kove, for example, sorcerers were often hired, both to cause harm to a person and at other times to effect a cure (Chowning 1989:224). Malinowski describes the services of the magician as the most important of services rendered in the Trobriands. As in Kove, the sorcerer is paid by the man who asks him to kill or who desires to be healed. Substantial payments are also given for magic of rain and fair weather (Malinowski 1948:181).
When a debt is assessed in countable terms, as for example, with pigs contributed for a feast or as part of brideprice, a record of the debt may be kept by way of a system of knots on a rope. Harding (1967:182) writes that in Siassi “the formal presentations of the [men’s house] feast are balanced, recorded (by means of knotted cords), and are a matter of public record”. In Bwaidoga, “for bananas and coconuts, for the days that must elapse till a friend returns, knots are tied in a piece of string” (Jenness & Ballantyne 1920:61). The POc term for ‘tie a knot’ (also a noun ‘knot’) evidently could also be used metaphorically for ‘debt’.
| POc | *buku | ‘debt’ (from POc *buku ‘tie a knot, fasten’: vol.1:85) | |
| NNG | Sio | buku | ‘debt’ |
| PT | Bwaidoga | -buki | ‘be in debt’ |
| PNCV | *buku | ‘debt’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Mota | pug | ‘a debt, fault; to owe a debt’ |
| NCV | Raga | bugu-na | ‘debt which has to be paid with pigs or mats’ |
| NCV | Nguna | na-puku | ‘debt, obligation of reciprocity’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | vuhu | [VT] ‘give wedding present’ |
SE Solomonic reflexes of POc *ponot and the SE Solomonic reflexes of PEOc *sui both interpret the payment of a debt as an act of closure. With that meaning it may be applied equally to payment for services and payment as indemnification for compensation. The PPn reflexes of *sui, however, carry a different interpretation, casting payment of a debt primarily as an act of substitution.
| PMP | *pened | ‘stopped up, plugged’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *ponot | ‘to close up; be full, complete’ | |
| NNG | Sio | pono | ‘cover up; hide; block off; mend a net’ |
| NNG | Sio | pono-ti | [VT] ‘block up, as one’s breath’ |
| PEOc | *pono | ‘to settle a debt; complete, close up’ | |
| SES | Bugotu | pono | ‘close’ |
| SES | Gela | pono | ‘blocked up’ |
| SES | Lengo | pono | ‘blocked up’ |
| SES | Longgu | vono | ‘a dam’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | fono-a | ‘compensation paid for a death; completion’ (Hogbin 1939: 92) |
| SES | To’aba’ita | fono | [VI] ‘be closed, shut; be complete’ |
| SES | Lau | fono | ‘to pay in full, settle a debt; complete, fulfil’ |
| NCV | Mota | wono | ‘to pay a debt; to close, fill up’ (Codrington 1891: 327) |
| PEOc | *sui | ‘pay, redeem a debt’ | |
| SES | Gela | hui | ‘to make a money payment to recover land or property’ |
| SES | Gela | hui-hui | ‘to redeem, pay for a service’ |
| SES | Gela | hui-pagu | ‘redeem a debt’ (pagu ‘a debt’) |
| SES | Bugotu | hui | [VT] ‘to take down, cease, finish, redeem’ |
| SES | Lau | sui | ‘to be finished’ |
| SES | Kwaio | sui | ‘finished’ |
| PPn | *sui | ‘exchange, change, replace’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Niuean | hu-hui | [VT] ‘to change, alter, amend’ |
| Pn | Tongan | hu-huʔi | [VT] ‘to ransom, redeem’ (unexplained -ʔ-) |
| Pn | East Futunan | sui | ‘replace, substitute’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | sui | ‘change, replace, substitute for’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | yu-yui | ‘change, substitute for’ |
| Pn | Samoan | sui | ‘change, as clothes’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | sī | ‘replace, substitute, in special sense, a sacrificial victim killed as equalisation for a death’ |
| Pn | Takuu | sui | ‘replace, change, pay, go after in revenge’ |
| Pn | Tongan | totoŋi-huhuʔi | ‘pay compensation for’ |
Payment may also be given to compensate for harm done to someone by another, and as a fine if a person has offended community mores. In cases of accidental killing in To’aba’ita, for example, the person actually responsible has always to pay some compensation to the relatives although a sorcerer may be held to be ultimately responsible (Hogbin 1939:96). Ivens writes (1927:241) that the common offering made in Sa’a to appease the family ghosts for an offence or by way of propitiation was a porpoise tooth or a dog’s tooth placed in the relic case. Breaking of a chief’s tabu, however, required a heavy fine payable in shell money (p.255). Reconstruction beyond Proto SE Solomonic is not well supported.
| PEOc | *soso | ‘compensate, propitiate’ | |
| SES | Longgu | toto | ‘pay compensation’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | haʔa-totoa | ‘propitiate’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | toto-rana | ‘part of the bride price given back to the husband after the wife has been taken back to her people; restitution’ |
| SES | Sa’a | toto | ‘propitiate a ghost, pay a fine’ |
| SES | Sa’a | toto akalo | ‘sacrifice to a god to remove defilement’ |
| SES | Sa’a | toto rae | ‘payment by a widow who wished to remarry - appease her dead husband’ |
| SES | Kwaio | toto | ‘compensate, pay a fine’ |
| SES | Lau | toto | ‘pay a fine’ |
| SES | Arosi | toto | ‘to pay a fine, give money to be reconciled’ |
| SES | Owa | toto-mara | ‘pay compensation to’ |
| Fij | Bauan | soso | ‘to give in exchange, replace; hence atone, expiate’ |
| Fij | Bauan | soso-ya | [VT] |
Across the Oceanic world sacrifice to the ancestors typically involves an offering of foodstuffs in return for anticipated goodwill (§8.2.4). No other return is envisaged. In the southeast Solomons, where sacrifice has become highly ritualised, pigs are bred specifically to be sacrificed as burnt offerings (Keesing 1982:80, Ivens 1927:241ff ).
In Polynesia Williamson (1937:121) writes that “special ceremonial occasions such as births, marriages and deaths, were accompanied by offerings to the gods. After fishing, it was frequently the custom to offer a share of the catch to the gods, and other important activities such as house-building, the launching of large canoes, and warfare were likewise occasions for the making of sacrifices”.
A single reconstruction with limited distribution, POc *ulak, *ulak-i- ‘make an offering to a ghost’ is included in Chapter 8.
A number of the verbs reconstructed in this chapter thus far have sense that includes transferring possession of something from one person to another in some culturally defined or restricted situation. In the terminology of vol.5:422-423 they are ‘caused movement’ verbs. An English caused movement verb that is used in a broad range of situations is give: an agent transfers a theme to a recipient. Oceanic languages have verbs with a similar meaning.
Indeed, it is fairly common to find verbs in Oceanic languages that function as caused movement verbs and have ‘give’ among the glosses of their reflexes; see POc *lapi ‘take, get, give’/PNCV *lavi ‘carry, take’ and POc *la(q)-i- ‘take, get, bring’/PNCV *la-i ‘take, give’ (vol.5:426–427), POc *kʷau, *kʷa(p,b)-i- (?) ‘get, take’ (vol.5:428) and POc *taRu(q) ‘put down, lay down’ (vol.5:449. In Hoava (MM), vale ‘give, put’, reflecting POc *pala-i- ‘give’, has both functions:
| Koni | buma | sa | kuma | pula | vale-a | goe | sa | dae | buma. | |
| FUT | GREEN | ART:SG | water | if | give-3SG | 2SG | ART:SG | dye | green |
Across languages the archetypal change of possession verb is the one that means ‘give’. In POc this was evidently *pani-, which took the recipient as its object, as the verbs below with an encliticised or suffixed object marker show.4 The fact that it took the recipient as object resulted in use first as the final verb in a serial verb construction, where it marked the recipient or beneficiary, then in its grammaticisation as a benefactive marker or preposition in various languages, as in Manam:
| natu | i-ruʔu-i-an-a | |
| child | 3SG-wash-3SG-BEN-1SG |
| Adm | Wuvulu | i-na-ware-fan-au | [3SG-RLS-talk-give-1SG] | ‘She told me’ |
| NNG | Kove | i-pa-ɣau | ‘he gives me (s.t.)’ | |
| NNG | Gitua | van-gau | ‘give me (s.t.)’ | |
| NNG | Bing | panu-au | ‘give me (s.t.)’ | |
| NNG | Takia | i-pana-g | ‘he gives me (s.t.)’ | |
| NNG | Manam | i-aŋ-ʔita | ‘he gave it to us’ |
The reconstruction itself is straightforward. It has no known non-Oceanic cognates and almost peters out at the southeastern boundary of Western Oceanic.
| POc | *pani- | ‘give’ (OBJECT is the recipient) (ACD) | |
| Adm | Wuvulu | fani | ‘give’ |
| Adm | Seimat | hani | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Kove | -pani | ‘give him’ |
| NNG | Gitua | van | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Mindiri | pani | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Dami | pani | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | pani | ‘give (him); hand over, bestow, grant, confer, impart, accord, yield’ |
| NNG | Takia | -pan- | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Medebur | -ana | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Manam | -ana | ‘give’ |
| NNG | Manam | -ani | ‘give (him)’ |
| NNG | Manam | -(a)n- | (benefactive marker) |
| NNG | Wogeo | vani | ‘give’ |
| PT | Motu | heni- | ‘give to, hand to’ |
| MM | Lihir | hen | ‘give’ |
| MM | Tangga | fen | ‘give’ |
| MM | Taiof | fan | ‘give’ |
| MM | Kubokota | vani | ‘give’ |
| MM | Lungga | vani- | ‘give’ |
| MM | Kia | vani | ‘give’ |
| NCV | Lewo | (wari)vani | ‘carry to; give to’ |
| MM | Roviana | poni | ‘give’ |
| MM | Hoava | poni | ‘give’ |
The cognate sets below have skewed distributions: they are reflected only in parts of Oceania. There are at least two reasons for this. One is the semantic widening of reflexes of POc *wase, *soli, and *tara(s), all meaning ‘distribute’ to mean ‘give’ (§13.5.1). Another is inclusion of ‘give’ among the meanings of the caused movement verbs mentioned above, especially in Vanuatu.
The PMP term for ‘give’ was *beRay. The expected POc reflex would be †*boRe or †*poRe, but instead only *peRe is reconstructable and that only with a few reflexes, restricted in their distribution. It must therefore be regarded as a dubious reconstruction.
| PAn | *beRay | ‘give’ (ACD) | |
| PMP | *beRay | ‘give, present gifts to; gift’ (ACD) | |
| PEMP | *boRe | ‘give’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *peRe | ‘give’ (for †*poRe) | |
| PT | Iamalele | -vele-ni | ‘give’ |
| PT | Iduna | -vele- | ‘give’ |
| PT | Tawala | wele | ‘give, donate, hand over’ |
| MM | Bali | viri | ‘give’ |
| MM | Meramera | bili | ‘give’ |
POc *pala, *pala-i- ‘give’ does not have many known reflexes, spread across just two subgroups, but their geographic distribution clearly warrants a POc reconstruction.
| POc | *pala, *pala-i- | ‘give’ | |
| NNG | Mengen | pal-pale | ‘distribute’ |
| MM | Vitu | vala | ‘give’ |
| MM | Halia | hala | ‘give’ |
| MM | Hoava | vale | ‘give’ |
| MM | Marovo | vala-ni- | ‘give’ |
| MM | Blablanga | fala(o) | ‘give’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | fale- | ‘give’ |
| SES | Lau | fale | ‘give’ |
The converse of English give is receive: an agent accepts transfer of a theme from a giver, i.e. the agent is recipient. Curiously, we are unable to reconstruct a POc term glossed ‘receive’. However, English get is used both where the subject is a recipient with little agentivity (Tom got a medal) and where the subject is clearly an agent (Tom got a sandwich from the plate). It is possible that no POc verb for ‘receive’ offers itself because POc verbs of transfer of possession like POc *lapi ‘take, get, give’ (vol.5:426) and POc *la(q)-i- ‘take, get, bring’ (vol.5:427) are as wide in function as English get and also serve as ‘receive’.
Another English verb where the agent illicitly transfers possession of something to her-/himself from another person is steal. Take and get are relatively unrestricted culturally, whereas steal is restricted to a transfer of possession that is proscribed by a law, a rule or a convention. The POc verb *panako is reconstructed with this meaning. At some pre-POc stage its forerunner was morphologically complex, and this accounts for the fact that, rarely among root forms, it has three syllables (vol.5:29–30). It has a variant, POc *painako, the etiology of which is not clear. It is reflected in Mussau, in Papuan Tip languages, and in Meso-Melanesian languages other than those around the Willaumez Peninsula. There are a number of reflexes below which, without a detailed knowledge of each language’s phonological history, could be assigned to either variant.
| PAn | *Cakaw | ‘steal’ (ACD) | |
| PMP | *takaw, *panakaw | ‘steal’ (ACD) 5 | |
| POc | *panako | ‘steal’ | |
| Adm | Loniu | pa-hena | ‘steal’ (< *pa-penako [ACD]) |
| Adm | Titan | pāna | [VI] ‘steal’ |
| Adm | Titan | pānawe | [VT] ‘steal’ |
| Adm | Papitalai | pena | ‘steal; thief’ |
| Adm | Lou | panak | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Kove | -panaho | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Malalamai | -wanoɣo | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Sio | panawe | [VT] ‘steal s.t. from s.o.’ |
| NNG | Sio | panɔwe | [VI] ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Tami | pi-pinau(adin) | ‘thief’ |
| NNG | Tami | minau | ‘steal’ (m- unexplained) |
| NNG | Lukep | -pinau | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Malasanga | -puno | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Roinji | pana-i | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Mindiri | panek | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Wab | panuo-ŋ | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | panau | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Manam | -anako | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Wogeo | -vanako | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Kairiru | -vanaq | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Dangal | pina | ‘steal’ |
| NNG | Kapin | panaɣ | ‘steal’ |
| MM | Bali | vanaɣo | ‘steal’ |
| MM | Bola | panaɣo | ‘steal’ |
| PSS | *vanaɣo | ‘steal’ | |
| SES | West Guadalcanal | vanaɣo | ‘steal’ |
| SES | Bauro | hanaɣo | ‘steal’ |
| SES | Kahua | hanaɣo | ‘steal’ |
| PNCV | *vanako | ‘steal’ | |
| NCV | Tamambo | vanaho | ‘steal’ (archaic) |
| NCV | Uripiv | vena | ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Uripiv | venao | ‘theft’ |
| NCV | Big Nambas | ð̼nah-i | [VT] ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Port Sandwich | vönaxö | ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Labo | venaʔ | ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Neve’ei | ve-venaʔ | [VI] ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Neve’ei | venokh | [VT] ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Paamese | henaa | [VI] ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Lewo | vinau | ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Namakir | banak | ‘steal’ |
| NCV | Nguna | vanako | ‘steal’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | hanaʔo | ‘steal’ |
| SV | Lenakel | ə-vnak | ‘steal’ |
| Pn | Māori | fānako | ‘steal, theft, thief, thievish, thieving’ |
| POc | *painako, *penako | ‘steal’ | |
| Adm | Mussau | ainao | ‘steal’ |
| PT | Motu | henao-a | ‘steal’ |
| PT | Gabadi | vainao | ‘steal’ |
| PT | Roro | veinao | ‘steal’ |
| PT | Muyuw | veinau | ‘steal’ |
| PT | Gumawana | vainawa-na | [VT] ‘steal’ |
| PT | Gumawana | vainao | [VI] ‘steal’ |
| PT | Ubir | bainau | ‘steal’ |
| MM | East Kara | fenau | ‘steal’ |
| MM | Nalik | vinau | ‘steal’ |
| MM | Nehan | wenaua | ‘steal’ |
| MM | Uruava | vainao | ‘steal’ |
This chapter has the rather clumsy title of ‘Trade, exchange, distribution and transfer of possession’, but a common thread is that almost all its verbs profile a change of possession of some kind (§§13.3, 13.5.1, 13.5.3–4, 13.6).
Something of what is known about trade prior to European contact is summarised in §13.2. Trade routes cannot be projected back in any detail to Lapita times, but the archaeology shows that trade has always been an important aspect of Oceanic speakers’ ways of life and provides insight into what has been traded.
Verbs relating specifically to trade are reconstructed in §13.3. Trade and exchange entails the movement of wealth, and forms of wealth are described in §13.4, along with the relevant reconstructions. Specific contexts of wealth movement are discussed in §13.5, a topic that again involves verbs denoting change of possession. Finally, change-of-possession verbs with more general meanings, especially ‘give’, are reconstructed in §13.6.