Attempts to trace the etymology of the Oceanic concept of mana have been undertaken by various linguists and anthropologists since Capell (1938-39) including Blust (2007) and Blevins (2008). A Proto Eastern Oceanic reconstruction *mana (VSt) ‘to have supernatural power from ancestral spirits as manifest in successful outcomes; be efficacious’; (N) ‘efficacy, success’, is well supported, but to raise it to POc we need either cognates from Oceanic languages outside the Eastern Oceanic subgroup2 or from Austronesian languages external to Oceanic. A few questionable cognates in the MM and PT linkages of Western Oceanic have either markedly different meanings or are in languages where the possibility of borrowing is high. Both Blust and Blevins propose POc reconstructions, in each case attributing a divergent meaning to the POc etymon, but both sets of evidence are problematic. I will begin by reviewing the evidence for a PEOc reconstruction, before discussing possible WOc cognates. Blust’s argument for a POc origin that includes power from natural events including wind and thunder will be considered, followed by that of Blevins who, like Capell, looks for an origin outside Oceanic.
Perhaps the first person to bring the concept of mana to anthropological discourse was Robert Codrington, a missionary-anthropologist whose 1891 book, The Melanesians, was based on his fieldwork in the southeast Solomons and the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu3. He described the concept as
a supernatural power or influence, called almost universally mana. This is what works to effect everything which is beyond the ordinary power of men, outside the common processes of nature; it is present in the atmosphere of life, attaches itself to persons and things, and is manifested by results which can only be ascribed to its operation. (Codrington 1891:118)
The concept was recognised early as of particular importance in Fiji and Polynesia, where hereditary chiefs were believed to derive much of their power and status from possession of mana (Firth 1940:488, Sahlins 1962:319). Robert Williamson (1937:110), a social anthropologist with a particular interest in the religious beliefs and social organisation of Polynesians, argued that from a broad Polynesian perspective its primary meaning seems to have been ‘effective’, with the general implication that the efficacy so imputed went beyond that encountered in everyday life. His view was accepted by Capell (1938–39) who was, however, more concerned by the word’s etymology than its exact meaning.
Firth, writing of the belief as understood in Tikopia, agreed with Williamson:
A possible translation of manu4 or mana in Tikopia would … appear to be ‘success’ or ‘successful’, which can embody reference both to the ability of man and to tangible results. …. Another possible translation of manu is ‘efficacy’ or ‘to be efficacious’. Here the emphasis again is on the fact that the activity works, that it performs the function for which it was intended. But since the efficacy is believed to be only partly due to human endeavour, any translation must also by implication embody a reference to the extra-human causes of the result. (Firth 1940:506)
He also noted (p.497–8) that “to the Tikopia, manu, I am sure has not the connotation of an isolatable principle, a power, or any other metaphysical abstraction – though it may be conceived of as a specific quality.”
Ian Hogbin, who did fieldwork in several different societies of Melanesia, recognised the concept represented in metathesised form in To’aba’ita in the southeast Solomons. He wrote (1936:245) “to have nanama means to be successful through the favour of the spirits”, and added later (p.257), “Magic is not supposed to achieve its end directly. It coerces the spirits to do the work by means of their nanama.”
In 1984, Roger Keesing, an anthropologist whose fieldwork was with the Kwaio of the southeast Solomons, published a substantial critique of the previous literature on mana. Believing that the concept was probably traceable back to POc, but concerned with its interpretation rather than its etymology, he described mana as “a condition, not a ‘thing’, a state inferred retrospectively from the outcome of events” (1984:137). He considered that the concept he was familiar with was primarily verbal rather than the nominal form more common in Polynesia.
Mana is … in Oceanic languages canonically a stative verb, not a noun: things and human enterprises and efforts are mana. Mana is used as a transitive verb as well: ancestors and gods mana-ize people and their efforts. Where mana is used as a noun, it is (usually) not as a substantive but as an abstract verbal-noun denoting the state or quality of mana-ness (of a thing or act) or being-mana (of a person). Things that are mana are efficacious, potent, successful, true, fulfilled, realized; they “work”. Mana-ness is a state of efficacy, success, truth, potency, blessing, luck, realization—an abstract state or quality, not an invisible spiritual substance or medium. (Keesing 1984:138)
There is broad agreement that mana as identified in the southeast Solomons, northern Vanuatu, Micronesia, Fiji and Polynesia has a common core of meaning to do with effectiveness in results and power beyond the ordinary power of men and is well supported both as a stative verb and noun for Proto Eastern Oceanic.
Cognate sources are given when they are other than the regular dictionary sources as listed in Appendix A, or when these are contrasted with a second source.
| PEOc | *mana | ‘to have supernatural power from ancestral spirits as manifest in successful outcomes; be efficacious’; [N] ‘efficacy, success’ | |
| SES | Bugotu | mana | [N] ‘spiritual or magical power’ |
| SES | Bugotu | mana-ŋi | [VT] ‘to empower’ |
| SES | Gela | mana | [V] ‘be efficacious from spiritual power obtained from charms, prayers, intercourse with ancestors or spirits’; [N] ‘efficacy, success, power, authority’ |
| SES | Gela | mana-ŋi | [VT] ‘to make successful, efficient; empower, authorise; rule over’ |
| SES | Ghari | mana | ‘truth, true, correct’ |
| SES | Ghari | mana-lia | [V] ‘powerful, efficacious’ |
| SES | Lengo | mana | [N] ‘power’ |
| SES | Longgu | nanama | [V] ‘be successful through the favour of the spirits’ (metathesis) (Hogbin 1936: 245) |
| SES | Longgu | ma-manā | [N] ‘supernatural power possessed by spirits’ (a successful man either has ma manā or to be ma manā) (Hogbin 1936: 259) |
| SES | Lau | ma-mana | [V] ‘be efficacious (of medicine), grow well (of trees), spiritually or magically powerful; prosperous, lucky, in good health; be true, fulfilled; impart spiritual or magical power; of ghost, empower a person’ |
| SES | Lau | ma-mana-a | [N] ‘spiritual or magical power’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | ma-mana | [V] ‘be real, true; be efficacious, effective’ (Lichtenberk); [N] ‘blessing, prosperity; ancestrally conferred power’; [V] ‘impart spiritual or magical power’ (Hogbin 1936: 259) |
| SES | To’aba’ita | ma-mana-a | [N] ‘ancestrally conferred power’ |
| SES | Kwaio | na-nama | [V] ‘be effective, fulfilled, confirmed, realised; “work”; of ancestor, support, protect, empower’ (metathesis) (Keesing 1984) |
| SES | Kwaio | nanama-ŋā | [N] ‘protection, efficacy, good luck, blessing, realisation’ |
| SES | Sa’a | na-nama | [V] ‘be powerful, exercise force’ (in material rather than metaphysical sense; contrast saka ‘spiritual power’; metathesis) (Ivens 1927: 186) |
| SES | Sa’a | na-nama-ŋa | [N] ‘power’ |
| SES | Ulawa | mana | ‘ending in invocations, meaning unknown’ (Ivens 1927) |
| SES | Ulawa | na-nama | [V] ‘spiritually powerful’ (metathesis) |
| SES | ’Are’are | na-nāma | [V] ‘be strong, powerful in metaphysical sense’; [N] ‘s.t. extraordinary, effected by a spiritual power’ (metathesis) |
| SES | Arosi | mena~mana | [N] ‘spiritual power in adaro [ghost or spirit] etc.’ |
| Proto Torres-Banks | *mana | ‘supernatural power held by a person or thing; magic force’ (François 2013: 237) | |
| NCV | Mota | mana | [V] ‘to have invisible spiritual force or influence’; [N] ‘an invisible spiritual force or influence’ (Codrington and Palmer 1896) |
| NCV | Mota | manə | [N] ‘supernatural power held by a person or thing; magic force’ (François 2013) |
| NCV | Nokuku | me-mana | ‘miracle, miraculous’ |
| NCV | Lombaha | mana-gi | ‘miracle’ |
| NCV | Vao | man | ‘magic’ |
| PMic | *mana, *mana-mana | [V] ‘be efficacious, have supernatural power’; [N] ‘efficacy, supernatural power’ (Bender et. al. 2003a) | |
| Mic | Marshallese | man-man | [V] ‘haunted, having supernatural powers, taboo’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | mana | [vi] ‘have divine, magical or supernatural power’ |
| Mic | Puluwatese | mana-man | [N] ‘divine, supernatural or miraculous power’; [V] ‘to have such’ |
| Mic | Satawalese | mala-man | [V] ‘be efficacious, have supernatural power’; [N] ‘efficacy, supernatural power’ |
| Mic | Mokilese | man-man | [vi] ‘spiritually powerful, able to do magic without artifice’; [N] ‘magic, spiritual power’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | mana-man | [V] ‘magical, mysterious, spiritual’; [N] ‘spiritual power’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | ke-maẓ | [N] ‘miracle, power’; [V] ‘be powerful as a ghost’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | leme-lem | [V] ‘to be in authority, have power or control’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | mana | [V] ‘supernatural, miraculous, possessed of or manifesting supernatural power or extraordinary efficacy’ |
| Fij | Bauan | mana | [N] ‘supernatural power, a sign, a token, omen’; [ADJ] ‘possessing suspernatural qualities’ (Capell 1941) ; [VSt] ‘be effectual; efficient, as a remedy; wonder working’; [V] ‘a word used when addressing a heathen deity: so be it, let it be so’; [N] ‘a sign or omen; a wonder or miracle’ (Hazlewood 1850) |
| Fij | Bauan | mana | [N] ‘supernatural power, a sign, a token, omen’; [ADJ] ‘possessing suspernatural qualities’ (Capell 1941) ; [VSt] ‘be effectual; efficient, as a remedy; wonder working’; [V] ‘a word used when addressing a heathen deity: so be it, let it be so’; [N] ‘a sign or omen; a wonder or miracle’ (Hazlewood 1850) |
| Fij | Wayan | mana | [V] ‘(of a person) be able to make things happen, be effective, have creative power, (of events which are predicted, wished or worked for) come true, happen, be realised’; [N] ‘power to make things happen, creative power; the act of coming true’ |
| Fij | Wayan | mana-mana | [V] ‘be wishful, desire or want s.t. to happen that one has worked for’ (Pawley and Sayaba 2022) |
| PPn | *mana | [N] ‘supernatural power, effectiveness, prestige’; [V] ‘be efficacious’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Niuean | mana | [V] ‘powerful’; [N] ‘power, authority; miracle, magic (of supernatural phenomena)’ |
| Pn | Tongan | mana | [vi] ‘supernatural, superhuman, miraculous; attended or accompanied by supernatural happenings’; [N] ‘miracle; supernatural power or influence’ |
| Pn | Tongan | mana | [vi] ‘supernatural, superhuman, miraculous; attended or accompanied by supernatural happenings’; [N] ‘miracle; supernatural power or influence’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | mana | [N] ‘power, right, influence, authority of an individual’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | mana-mana | ‘magic, magical’ |
| Pn | Samoan | mana | [N] ‘supernatural power’ (Milner 1966; Milner 1966) ; [V] ‘to exert supernatural power’ (Pratt 1911) |
| Pn | Samoan | mana | [N] ‘supernatural power’ (Milner 1966; Milner 1966) ; [V] ‘to exert supernatural power’ (Pratt 1911) |
| Pn | Samoan | ma-mana | ‘be powerful, compelling’ (Milner); ‘to do wonders, supernatural power’ (Pratt) |
| Pn | Nukuoro | mana | [N] ‘supernatural power’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | mana | [V] ‘efficacious’; [N] ‘power of extraordinary non-physical quality, trad. believed derived from gods and ancestors (essentially pragmatic in being demonstrated only by concrete results); while trad. associated with chiefs, can be attributed to other persons, esp. when of rank as indicated by special powers e.g. in healing or predication’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | mana | [V] ‘having authority and the rights and prestige it confers, effectual, binding’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | mana | [N] ‘power, might, influence’ |
| Pn | Māori | mana | [N] ‘authority, control; power, supernatural force’; [V] ‘be effectual, take effect’ (Williams 1975) ; ‘potent, effective, fulfilled’ (Gudgeon 1885) |
| Pn | Hawaiian | mana | [N] ‘supernatural or divine power’ |
The number of cognates from Polynesia, Fiji, Micronesia and parts of the Solomons with consistency of meaning point to a significant and widespread cultural concept. It was consequently difficult for ethnographers to believe that it was not part of some earlier belief system. But, oddly, the concept itself did not seem to be a part of the underlying belief in magic or supernatural power held in societies speaking languages from northwest Melanesia. Success in magic in these communities is believed to come from the correct performance of a spell and associated ritual (see §8.2.1), and does not depend on the intervention of some other quality. Early ethnographers searched in vain for the Eastern Oceanic concept in Western Oceanic. As early as 1910, Seligman observed of the southern Massim region of southeast New Guinea that:
Neither at Wagawaga, Tubetube nor elsewhere in the district does there seem to be any development of that system of personal influence (mana) taboo whereby the thing made taboo receives, as it were, a dynamic charge from contact with an individual, which is dangerous to everyone not rendered immune by the possession of an equal or greater power. (Seligman 1910:576)
Hogbin (1936:268), after dealing at some length with the concept in Longgu and To’aba’ita, pointed out that no such notion could be identified at Wogeo (NNG) or the Polynesian outlier of Ontong Java [Luangiua]. Rather, in both of these societies, magic appeared alone to do many of the functions that mana served elsewhere. He expressed the same idea in Hogbin (1970:171), when he contrasted beliefs held in Wogeo, where people use magic directly to achieve effect, with those in the Solomons and places further east where people achieve results second hand through application of a special power, mana.
Malinowski, who worked in S.E. Papua, chiefly the Trobriands, i.e. places where the concept did not exist, agreed with Hogbin, noting that Codrington’s assumption that what the latter described was applicable to the whole of Melanesia could no longer be supported. He described Codrington’s description of mana as
almost the exact opposite of the magical virtue as found embodied in the mythology of savages. … If the virtue of magic is exclusively localised in man, can be wielded by him only under very special conditions and in a traditionally prescribed manner, it certainly is not a force as described by Dr Codrington … The real virtue of magic5 as I know it from Melanesia is fixed only in the spell and its rite, and cannot be ‘conveyed in’ anything but can be conveyed only by its strictly defined procedure. (Malinowski 1948:57)
After searching widely for cognates in northwest Melanesia, Keesing (1984:147) wrote “I have found only one probable mana cognate among Oceanic languages west of the Solomons”, namely Tubetube namwa-namwa in the Papuan Tip. Notwithstanding Seligman’s evidence that there is no evidence of mana [in its EOc sense] at Tubetube, Keesing reported the following personal communication from Martha Macintyre: “A Tubetube folk healer [told Macintyre]: “namwanamwa ne nima-gu (my hands are mana).” Keesing was aware, almost at the same time, of a parallel example from an ethnographer in the Lau islands of Fiji, where a folk healer is quoted as saying “sa mana liga-qu” (my hands are mana).
To Keesing, this was incontrovertable evidence that the two concepts were identical, providing the necessary evidence for a POc reconstruction parallel to that for PEOc. The highly detailed Tubetube gloss produced on the basis of these examples – ‘be efficacious, work, be good, be true, have positive qualities, fulfil potential (that is, of an animate or inanimate entity, to manifest qualities appropriate to one’s nature)’ – presumably comes from Keesing himself, acutely aware of the detailed meanings of mana terms in the SE Solomons.
However, the regular translation of namʷa-namʷa in Tubetube is ‘good’ (Lithgow 1987). Why Martha Macintyre chose to translate namʷa-namʷa as ‘mana’ is unknown. Furthermore, although metathesised and partly-reduplicated examples of mana are accepted as cognate in a number of SE Solomonic languages (nanama in Longgu, Kwaio and Sa’a, mamana in Lau and To’aba’ita), the Tubetube term has mʷ rather than expected m, so the correspondence with EOc mana is doubly irregular. On these grounds namʷa-namʷa cannot be accepted as cognate with the reflexes of PEOc *mana. The Tubetube term is cognate with other Central Papuan terms reflecting Proto Central Papuan *namʷa ‘good’.
A small cluster of languages in north Bougainville, Halia, Teop and nearby Nehan, have apparent reflexes of PEOc *mana meaning ‘true’ or ‘truth’, a concept that is included among the wider meanings of mana terms in the SE Solomons and Wayan Fijian. It is a logical loosening of meaning from ‘become true, be realised’, as in Wayan and other languages. In effect, mana in these three languages denotes an inherent quality, rather than a quality validated only by results. This could mean either a) that north Bougainville languages originally had the result-dependent term but loosened its meaning, b) that they borrowed just one element of its meaning from SES languages, or c) that the terms are unrelated.
| MM | Nehan | mana | ‘true’ |
| MM | Halia | mana | ‘true’ |
| MM | Teop | mana | ‘truth’ |
| SES | Ghari | mana | ‘truth, true, correct’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | ma-mana | ‘be real, true; be efficacious, effective’ |
| SES | Lau | ma-mana | ‘be efficacious (of medicine), grow well (of trees), spiritually or magically powerful; prosperous, lucky, in good health; be true, fulfilled; impart spiritual or magical power; of ghost, empower a person’ |
| Fij | Wayan | mana | ‘(of a person) be able to make things happen, be effective, have creative power; (of events which are predicted, wished or worked for) come true, happen be realised’; [N] ‘power to make things happen, creative power, the act of coming true’ |
In the sense of ‘becoming true’ mana may be linked to its use in invocations to the gods as noted in the closely related languages of Simbo and Roviana, in parts of the SE Solomons, and in Fiji. Waterhouse (1949:150) writes that in Roviana mana tu is used in invocation, as when placing offerings for tomate [those to whom sacrifice is made]. In Ulawa mana i eu dili appears in a variety of invocations (translation not given) (Ivens 1927:330, 331, 338, 339). Hogbin (1936:261–3) writes that in To’aba’ita, sacrifices ensure the continuance of mamanaa. He quotes a spell that ends with Oke mama-mamana which he translates as “Make this magic effective through the operation of your mamanaa.” He adds that it “is a sort of tag used regularly as a conclusion.” Hocart (1914:98), who worked in Fiji early in the century after doing research in Simbo, was struck by similar invocatory usage (‘let it be so!’) in Simbo/Roviana and Fiji,
He wrote: 275
Fijians [like Simboese] … do not distinguish ‘true’ and ‘right’. Says one informant: “if it is true (ndina) it is mana: if it is not true, it is not mana. … A Fijian medicine does mana if it works; it does not mana if it does not work”. In fact, the words are almost interchangeable, and natives will speak of a sacred stone as mana or ndina (‘true’). … In winding up a prayer the words mana and ndina are always coupled: “mana ee i ndina” (“let it be mana, let it be true”) is the Fijian ‘Amen’.
Blust suggests (2007:409) that the reference that mana refers to something true or coming to pass in both Fiji and the Solomons “may be a post-Christian usage that derives from the characteristics of scriptural translation, where the fulfillment of prophesies was described as an expression of divine mana”. However, its inclusion in the performance of sacrifices in Roviana and To’aba’ita, in untranslated exhortations from Ulawa and in Hazlewood’s 1850 Fijian dictionary where mana as a verb is described as “a word used when addressing a heathen deity: so be it, let it be so”, point to an early pre-Christian usage.
A cluster of terms from languages including Simbo/Roviana spoken in Choiseul/New Georgia in the north-west Solomons show further promise as reflexes. For comparison we add geographically close SES terms:
| MM | Varisi | mana | ‘power, good fortune, success’ |
| MM | Nduke | mana | ‘be propitious, potent, effectual’ |
| MM | Roviana | mana | ‘potent, effectual; used in invocation’ |
| MM | Simbo | mana | ‘powerful, potent, effective, gracious, true, power’ |
| MM | Simbo | mana-tu | ‘invocation: make it mana!’ |
| SES | Gela | mana | ‘be efficacious from spiritual power obtained from charms, prayers, intercourse with ancestors or spirits’ |
| SES | Bugotu | mana | ‘spiritual or magical power’ |
However, Blust (2007:412) warns:
Given the evidence of rather extensive lexical borrowing across major genetic boundaries, the distribution of mana reflexes within the central and western Solomons must be treated with caution. … Where such evidence is found in the western Solomons, it is unclear whether the form-meaning association is native or whether it was acquired by diffusion from Guadalcanal-Nggelic languages in the central Solomons.
Although it is possible that these northwest Solomonic terms are valid reflexes rather than borrowings, stronger support than these is needed to permit a POc reconstruction.
In his quest for a POc reconstruction for mana, Blust dismisses the evidence from various Indonesian languages offered by Capell (1938-39) in support of a putative PMP origin for the term.6 Instead, he draws on the existence of a network of examples world-wide “in which cultural traditions that initially may appear to be arbitrary creations of the human mind turn out on closer inspection to be inspired by the natural world” (2007:416). He attempts to draw together the separate concepts of mana ‘wind’ in Papuan Tip languages and mana ‘thunder’ in languages of North/Central Vanuatu and Polynesia by proposing an etymon, POc *mana ‘power in natural phenomena’ that later came to mean ‘wind’ in the west and ‘thunder’ in the east.
Blust relies on wordlists from Tryon (1976:330) as evidence that POc *mana is reflected in various Torres-Banks terms meaning ‘thunder’. More recently, François (2013:237) has offered a different set of terms as evidence for Proto Torres-Banks *mana ‘supernatural power held by a person or thing; magic force’. The terms listed by Tryon, we suggest, support PT-B *mʷonu rather than *mana with the meaning ‘thunder’. Below are listed the ‘mana’ reflexes from François contrasted with terms for thunder from the same languages given by Tryon. François regards them as distinct and unrelated terms.
| thunder | mana | |
|---|---|---|
| (Tryon 1976) | (François 2013) | |
| PT-B | *mʷonu | *mana |
| Hiw | mon | manə |
| Lo Toga | mon-lal | menə |
| Lehali | mon-beibai | n-man |
| Mosina | mʷon | man |
| Mota | manu | mana |
In dismissing evidence that thunder is identified with mana ‘supernatural power’ in NCV languages, we are left with Polynesian terms as the only evidence of a possible connection between the two concepts.
Mana has the meaning ‘thunder’ in a number of Polynesian languages, while another partly overlapping group includes mana with meaning ‘supernatural power’ or similar. Three languages, Tongan, Nanumean and Tikopia, belong to both groups. Their distribution in the two primary subgroups of Polynesian permits attribution of both meanings to PPn *mana.
| PPn | *mana | [N, V] ‘thunder’; [N] ‘supernatural power, effectiveness, prestige’; [V] ‘be efficacious’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | mana | (1) ‘to thunder’; (2) ‘supernatural power or influence’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | mana | ‘thunder’ |
| Pn | Nanumea | mana | (1) ‘thunder’; (2) ‘magical power’ (of person, potion etc.) |
| Pn | Rennellese | mana | ‘to thunder (poetic)’ |
| Pn | Anutan | mana | ‘thunder’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | mana | (1) ‘thunder’; (2) ‘efficacious’ (Firth 1940) ; (2.1) ‘power of extraordinary non-physical quality’; (2.2) ‘thunder trad. believed to be produced by gods as sign of power’ (Firth 1985) 7 |
| Pn | Pukapukan | mana | ‘thunder’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | mana | ‘thunder’ |
| Pn | Takuu | mana | (1) ‘continental thunder’; (2) ‘thunder and lightening occurring simultaneously’ |
| Pn | Sikaiana | mana | ‘thunder’ |
As both meanings are attributable to the same PPn form, either the two concepts are related or they are homophones. Blust believes the former, i.e. that it is part of the human condition that people readily conceive of powerful forces of nature as carrying within them some unseen supernatural agency and that thunder here is basically a representation of supernatural power.
He looked further afield in search of mana cognates that are associated with powerful forces of nature, and found possible candidates in terms for wind in languages of the Papuan Tip.
In a number of Papuan Tip languages including Dobu, Tubetube, Saliba and Misima, mana means ‘wind’. In attempting to strengthen the suggestion that wind might also be seen as an example of power in natural phenomena, Blust sought evidence that a number of mana terms in Papuan Tip languages referred particularly to powerful winds (pp415–6). He includes a reference from Jenness and Ballantyne (1928) that Bwaidoga mala ‘wind, weather, time of day’ often carries with it the notion of a supernatural force that manifests itself in the weather. However, Bwaidoga mala does not reflect PPT *mana. Along with Kukuya mana ‘time, weather’ and Tawala mala ‘time’, it reflects PPT *ma(r,R)a ‘time, weather’.8
Blust also suggested a similar connection between mana and powerful wind in Micronesia by proposing Satawalese mana-man ‘typhoon’ as cognate with mana. But the Satawalese term is a reflex of POc *mal(i,e)u ‘wind’9 (vol.2:124). The Satawalese reflex of PMic *mana-mana ‘be efficacious, have spiritual power’ is mala-man (Bender et al. 2003a). Moreover, we already have in POc *paRiu ‘cyclone’ and possibly also POc *jaŋi ‘strong wind’ (vol.2:123, 124) wind terms more suggestive of power. Without these examples there is no evidence that mana is associated with winds of greater consequence and thus an appropriate representation of supernatural power.
Blevins (2008) follows Capell (1938-39) and Blust (2007) in seeking to uncover the etymology of mana terms meaning ‘potent, effectual, of supernatural power’ in Eastern Oceanic. She accepts the general arguments presented in Blust (2007) and adds previously unrecognised reflexes from New Caledonia and more questionable ones from Southern Vanuatu while not lessening support for PEOc *mana in its canonic sense.
| SV | Lenakel | e-mna(it) | ‘divine cause of an illness through a dream’ (-it ’directional suffix indicating movement upwards) |
| SV | Lenakel | ie-mna(it) | ‘diviner, sorcerer who divines cause of illness through dreams’ |
| SV | Kwamera | aməna | ‘work, produce, enlarge, improve’ |
| NCal | Iaai | mæn | ‘powerful, power, strength’ |
| NCal | Iaai | mæniñ aŋ | ‘power of the wind’ (aŋ ‘wind’) |
| NCal | Xârâcùù | mā | ‘recognised, famed, acclaimed for ability or force of character’(Grace 1976) |
A number of comparisons Blevins makes with terms from Western Oceanic are, however, problematic. Madak manman ‘wind’ can be rejected as cognate; it is a reflex of POc *mal(i,e)u ‘wind’ (vol.2:124). Ramoaaina mamane ‘lightning’ is questionable in both form and meaning. A small cluster of north Bougainville terms, Halia namname ‘human spirit, soul, shadow’, Haku name-name ‘spirit, soul’ and Petats nam-name ‘soul’ appear semantically too distant to be linked. For our unease about Tubetube namʷa-namʷa see §9.3.1.
Blevins considers that the strongest arguments for the existence of a POc ancestor to the Eastern Oceanic mana terms lie in locating possible cognates in Austronesian languages external to Oceania. She identifies a link between a possible cognate in a Celebic language of the Kaili-Pamona group, Bare’e mana, and those in three Southeast Solomonic languages, Gela, To’aba’ita and Kwaio, where glosses share a reference to ancestrally conferred power. As a result she revises and expands the ACD’s entry of Proto Western Malayo-Polynesian *mana ‘inherit, inheritance’ to PWMP *mana(q)10 ‘inherit(ance) from ancestors’ (p262). However, of the fourteen possible WMP reflexes Blevins lists, only Bare’e mana ‘inheritance, heritage; inherited position or rank, quality of spirit or body that one has from one’s forebears’, includes spiritual qualities as inheritable. The other WMP terms, if the sources go beyond a minimal gloss of ‘inheritance’ to spell out what is included, refer to property, wealth, heirlooms.
For comparison, the glosses quoted by Blevins for the three Southeast Solomonic languages are given here. They are from Fox (1955) for Gela and as quoted by Keesing (1984:141) for the other two. It is noteworthy that neither corresponding entries in Lichtenberk’s To’aba’ita dictionary (2008) and Keesing’s Kwaio dictionary (1975) mention ancestrally conferred power.
| SES | Gela | mana | [V] ‘be efficacious from spiritual power obtained from charms, prayers, intercourse with ancestors or spirits’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | ma-mana | ‘be true, real, fulfilled; be successful (of a man); impart spiritual or magical power’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | mamana-a | [N] ‘blessing, prosperity; ancestrally-conferred power’ |
| SES | Kwaio | na-nama | ‘be effective, fulfilled, confirmed, realised; “work”; of ancestor, support, protect, empower’ |
Capell in fact had included the Bare’e term as a possible cognate, presumably because he saw mana linked with hereditary rank as in Polynesian societies. However, as Blust (2007:409) notes, no connection between mana and hereditary rank that could justify its inclusion at POc level has been demonstrated. In this he is supported by Ann Chowning, an anthropologist whose fieldwork spanned all three Western Oceanic subgroups. She wrote (1991:64) while considering evidence for hereditary leadership “that we have no linguistic evidence [from Western Oceanic] that POc society had a concept called mana that pertained either to gods and spirits, or to primogeniture.”
Blevins turns next to the non-Austronesian languages of New Guinea in search of possible borrowings that could throw light on the origins of mana (pp264–68). In addition to her own set of mana look-alikes (Table 10, p267) she includes a putative Trans New Guinea reconstruction, *mana ‘instructions, customary practices, talk’ from Andrew Pawley (2008b). But although she may feel confident about the form of word sought, she is far from certain about the concept embodied. Is she looking for links with inheritance, ancestors, traditions, wind, thunder, truth, instructions, ritual, magic, power? The possibilities are enormous.
Identifying borrowings is possible if the source language can be located, either close to the borrower or linked with it by trading or other exchanges. Unfortunately, this is not an option when no reliable reflexes are identifiable in western Melanesia.
Blevins (p.270) proposes PMP *mana(q) ‘supernatural power, associated with spirits of the ancestors and the forces of nature; inherit(ance) from ancestors, including qualities of spirit or body, customs and laws’ and PEMP/POc *mana ‘supernatural power, associated with spirits of the ancestors and the forces of nature’. She has done a careful and thorough exploration of possible antecedents of mana in its canonic form. But without further as yet undefined limits, she, like the rest of us, is operating in a very vague field. At present there are simply too many unknowns for us to accept her proposals as more than highly speculative.
There are two hints of a possible final consonant in POc †*mana(q). One, described in detail by Blevins (2008:256), comes from the South Vanuatu language Kwamera. Kwamera has a term, -aməna ‘work, produce, enlarge or improve (as one’s resources)’. Although Blevins is right in noting that Kwamera’s final vowel retention points to loss of a final *-q or *-R (see Lynch 2001c:103–5), the term’s status as a reflex of PEOc *mana is highly questionable in view of its semantic distance.
The second instance is from an article by Blythe & Fairhead (2017) which describes information given by one Dako, a native inhabitant of Uneapa (Bali-Vitu). Dako was abducted from Unea by an American merchant explorer, Benjamin Morrell, in 1830, and taken to America where he became an informant to American Ethnological Society founder-member, Theodore Dwight Jr. Dwight subsequently published two accounts of Uneapa life and language (1834, 1835).
Dako informed Dwight (1834:186) that his people ‘acknowledge one Supreme Being (Manaka), the creator, rewarder of the good and punisher of the bad’ and how ‘their art of curing diseases and producing rain is also derived from him’. Blythe & Fairhead (2017:25) continue:
While it is impossible to recover precisely what manaka meant to Dako, comparative linguistics and contemporary field data suggest that it entailed a wider semantic range than ‘supreme being’. … Uneapa today consider manaka (POc mana or perhaps manaq (Blust 2007)) a self-manifesting force. … Moreover, manaka also refers to a genre of myth that describes processes of primordial and ongoing creativity, including the origins of places, animal and plant species, and precedents for social practices. The agents depicted in this genre of myth are not humans but vuvumu, the origin beings whom Manaka first created and from whom human Uneapa descend.
Although Bali manaka points to a putative POc *manaq, semantically there is little commonality with the term as used in Eastern Oceanic languages. Blythe (pers comm.) does not think mana/manaka is a personal attribute of humans in the Bali-Vitu Islands. The Bali term is best considered a chance similarity rather than cognate with reflexes of PEOc *mana.
Several POc reconstructions for *mana made earlier have here been reconsidered. They are:
We can be confident of a reconstruction to PEOc, but the arguments given by these three authors for a POc reconstruction remain unconvincing. An association between supernatural power as evidenced in human action and powerful forces in nature is suggested only in Polynesia, where thunder is the powerful natural force. Blust’s evidence for a connection between thunder and supernatural power in the Torres-Banks languages and his arguments that ‘wind’ in Papuan Tip languages can be taken as referring to storm winds are rejected. Blevins’ argument for an association with ancestral inheritance is based on very slender evidence while her search for a non-Austronesian source of borrowing covers an impossibly vast field. While we accept Keesing’s arguments in favour of a primarily stative verbal meaning for *mana, as it applies to PEOc, his claim to have a single Western Oceanic cognate in Tubetube is also rejected.
The possibility remains that mana terms located in the north-west Solomons are genuine cognates, and are traces of a POc term similar in meaning to that reconstructed for PEOc, but that is dependent on further evidence from western Oceanic sources. On present evidence, our earliest well-supported reconstruction stands as PEOc *mana (VSt) ‘to have supernatural power from ancestral spirits as manifest in concrete results; be efficacious’; (N) ‘efficacy, success’.