Publi hed in Melvin Ember,Carol R. Ember & Jan koggard(co.) 2002. Encyclopedia ofWorld Cultures upplement.j\.lacmillan .Y.

Bellona and Rennell Islanders

ETHNONYMS: In 1793 Bellona I land was named after (l

passing British ship, the Bellona. Rennell Island was namedafter Lord Rennell, pre idem of the Royal Geographical Soci­ety in London. In 1799 according to a ch:lrt both islands werenamed Bellonas Island. In 1816 th islands were referred to

a Rennell's Isles. The names the i landers use for sclf­reference are Mugaba (Rcnnell) and Mungiki (Bellona). Themeanings of those names are unknown. Younger people onboth islands sometimes use the name Avaiki.

Orientation

Identification and Location. The Isbnds constitute thesouthernmost and smallest province of the independent Mel­anesian nation Solomon Island (a former British protector­ate) but are inhabited by Polynesians. The combined landarea of Bellona and Rennell is 446 square miles (1,154.5quare kilometers). Bellona I land is 7 miles (11.5 kilome­

ters) long and 2 miles (3 kilometers) wide and lies northwestof Rennell, between 11 0 16' and 11 0 19' South and 1590 45'East. Rennell is 49 miles (79.5 kilometers) long and 9 miles(14 kilometers) wide and located between 11 0 34' and 11 0 47'South and 1590 55' and 1600 37' East. The large, 109 mile­long (176 kilometer) uninhabited Indi pensable Reef lYing50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Bellona emd Rennell IS

called Ngotoakau and is claimed as part of this territory.Tegano Lake, the IClrgcst brackish lake in the Pacific,

covers about 50 square miles (130 square kilometer}s at theeast end of the island. There is no fresh water lm any of theislands; rain is collected for daily use. Yearly precipitation isabout 120 inche (300 millimeters). The climate is £forical

with temperatures from 63 0 Fahrenheit (1 r Celsius) at nightto 93 0 Fahrenheit (340 Cebius) during the daytime. Thereis no communal electric power but a few churche have gen­erators run by diesel oil.

Both islands are of the raised coral type (makarea). Apartfrom villages and garden areas, hmh islands are rocky andcovered by tropical forest. There arc no mammals except forthe flying fox, rat, mouse, cat, and dog. Rennell has two natu­ral harbors; Bellona has none.

Demography. In the 19605 a detailed censu' was made ofthe population as it had been when Chri ·tianity was intro­duced on Bellona in 1938 and gave a count of 441 persons.A general census for the Solomon Islands in September 1998revealed the population of the two islands. On Bellona therewere 295 hou eholds with 1,256 individuals and on Rennellthere were 433 hou eholds with 1,866 inhabitants. Accord­ing to the census, approximately 60 percent live abroad.Many residents have moved to th national capital, Honiara,on Guadalcanal Island. often for education and service­related activities. In 2000. during the ethnic conflict belwe nthe people of Guadalcanal and the people of Malaita, mo tpeople on Bellona and Rennell left the capital and returnedto their i lands.

Linguistic Affiliation. Bellonese and Rennellese are mutu­ally intelligible and are nuclear Polynesian languages in theFutunic subdivision with a few phonemes of unknown origin.Portion of the Bible were translated into Rennellese in 1950and 1994. Two dictionaries and a grammar were publishedin 1975. 1981. and 1988. respectively. Pidgin Englbh is spo­ken by almost all the re idents, and English by a minority. lit­eracy is more than 90 percent in the sense that nearlyeveryone writes and reads Bcllonese and Rennelle e.

Hi.WJ7) ({nd Cultural Relaticnls

According to oral tmditions, the islands originally were in­habited by people of anoth r culture before the ancestors ofpre ent-day Polyne ians arrived in canoes from their home­land, 'Ubea ngango (probably West Uvea in the Loyalty Is­land~, Over~eas French Territories). n their voyage. theance tors of the present-day Polynesian arrived at 'Ubea ma­wngi (probably East Uvea Wallis Island, Overseas FrenchTerritories), and finally reached Bellona, where they foundpeople, the hili, living in cClves at the ocean sides of the island.The hiti were dark-skinned. hort people with long hairreaching to th ir knee and poke a language intelligible tothe invaders. The invaders gradually killed off the indigenousJI1hahitant~.

In the 19805 the "new" Polynesian inhabitants couldtill trace their genealogies twenty-four generdtions back, and

111 considerable derail, to the first immigrants. The oral tradi­tions relate that the fir t invaders consisteu of seven marriedcouples, five of which have since died out. leaving two surviv­ing clans (sa"a) .

In the oral tItJdition narrators tell of s attereu and singu­lar voyage to and from other inhabited place in the West­ern Pacific. Just after settling, some men returned to East'Ubea (Uvea) to get the preciolls root stocks of turmeric forritual dyeing and anointment. In follOWing generations lwomen went to Murua (probably Woodlark Island, Mungua)and returned with place names and new kinds of yams and

Bellcmn cOld Rennell Islanders 47

bananas. Another oral tradition details the arrival of a NewCaledonian ship with tobacco and teel adzes. Other oral tra­ditions state that poultry was brought to Rennell before thefirst Christian teachers were killed in 1910. In the latter partof the nineteenth century Rennellese and Bellone e weretaken to Queensland by Blackbirders to work in the ugarplantations. One Rennellese man is known to have been re­turned. bringing home Western goods uch as axes, cottoncloth, umbrellas. and guns.

The two islands were at first contacted only sporadicallyby Europeans and Americans in the latter part of the nine­teenth century. In 1910 the three first Christian missionarieswere killed on Rennell. and the islands were left to them­selves until preachers from the Seventh Day Adventi t( DA). the hurch of England. and the South Seas Evangel­ical Mission ( SEM) arrived in 1936 to take a group of high­status Rennellese men to mission stations in other parts ofthe Solomons. In 1938. the Christian faith became dominanton Rennell.

Generally. a slow Westernization on the two islandsbegan after World War II. Closer contact with the rest of theSolomon Islands sped the process. More regular shipping wainitiated, and children were sem to school on other islands.Air service to the two island began with weekly flights be­tween Honiara and the airstrips on Bellona and Rennell.Health clinics were established. and wireless contact beganin the 19505.

With a restructuring of the political sy tern of the Solo­mon I lands, Bellona and Rennell were declared an indepen­dent constituency and province within the Solomon Islandson 21 January 1993. Around the tum of the millennium thedifferent churches began losing their power. especially overthe younger generation. Sports. music, and home brewing be­came leisure-time interests. and education anu vocationaltraining rose in Importance.

Settlements

Before World War II people lived in mall homesteads nextto the main trails running lengthwise from east to west onlhe island. Houses were built in clearings in the forests, sepa­rated by garden land and temple areas. Each house common­ly was inhabiled by a nuclear or extended family. with themembers sometimes living in separate hou es around a place1I 'ed for rituals and dancing. Thc houses had posts dug intothe ground, covercd with saddle roofs of dried pandanusleaves rcaching down to about 20 to 28 inches (50 to 70 cen­timeters) above the ground. Temple houses were smallerlhan habitations. A low earth mound often encircleu thedancing area. On both sides were ance tral grave' coveredby mounds of sand. while the graves of important ancestorswere sheltered by thatched leaf roofs on po ts.

After 1945 villages formed when a Melanesian Advent­i t priest was sent to Bellona and had the Adventists builda church in Ngongona; at the same time the South eaSEvangelical Mission built a church in Kapata.

Economy

Subsistence. Before 1945 the Bellonese and Rennelle eeconomy was nonmonetary. entirely based on subsi tencc.The ba 'ic economic values could be said to be "manpower"

48 Bellona and Hennell Islanders

and "objects." Economic a rivities included 'widden gardcn­ing; fishing; some hunting of birds and flying foxe; the build­ing of hou 'es; the carving of troughs, war c1uhs, and s,lcredparaphernalia; and the plaiting of baskets and mats.

Gradually cash was introduced, yet the islander havenot become completely commercialized in a Western sense.Closer contact with the Westernized economy in Honiara,including its industry, stores, ystem' of education, and infra­"tructure had necessitated the acceptance of a monetary sys­rem. However, concepts such as fJ[(Jfit, gain, and ~'alue haveno equivalents in this language. ince people began laboringin other parts of the Solomon Islands after World War Il, acash economy has been implemented on the two islands.

Commercial Activities. Money was introduced by the fi thristians and the British colonizers as a means to pay taxes

and tithe. A monetary economy is gradually becoming morecommon, but there are no banking facilities on Bellona andRennel!.

Industrial Arts. People spend their cash on boat fares andairplane trips to the capital of the Solomon Islands, bringingfo(x1 and artifa t to the market or hops for sale. thers livemore or less permanently in Honiara (White River), makinga living from dancing and singing, the carving of traditionalobjects ouch as war clubs, fishhooks, large bowls (kllmCle) ,and walking ticks, and plaiting mat and baskets for sale to

tourists. Some work in offices or in the building indutry.Mo·t take pride in sending their children to schl)(l!. Educa­tion has become a pnmary way to ,lC4uire prestige.

Trade. Very little precontact trade took place except dur­ing the time of the "black birding" ships, \ hen the islanderstraded wood carvings for adzes, knives, whistles, beads, cali­co, and umbrella . In the 1960s the British protectOrate gov­ernment encouraged the people of the olomon Islands to setup cooperative trading companies on their islands. Bellonesand Rennellese entrepreneurs attempted to establish twosuch companies. Their a ets were the copra from the verylarge coconut grown on the two islands, However, this sys­tem failed because the economic ideal of the i lands wereincompatible with those of Western culture.

In 1969 and 1976 Japanese and Australian companiedid test drillings. On Bellona Clln 'iderable amounts of phos­phate were fllund, and on Rennell there were large depositsof bauxite. Because of the conflict between wanting to avoidviolation of ance tral graves and the wish to make a profitin the Western sense, mining has not been inaugurated at theheginning of the twenty-first century.

Division of labor. Before contact with the outsid world,garden work was done communally by all the members of anuclear family according to their abilities. Women did all thecooking, plaiting of bclskets and mats, and the child rearing,while men did all the fishing, hunting, house building, canoecarving, and distribution of harvested crops. There has beena grndual equalization between the sexes since that time.Women and men may receive the same education and areequally likely to be employed in the Solomons. In politic athome and abroad, men are generally the leaders and domi­nate the political arena.

land Tenure. Land ownership i hereditary within a patri­lineal descent group, with an emphasis on male primogeni-

ture. If a younger son possesses talents or Vlrtucs and I

admired hy the members of his lineage, he may inherit themajor parts of his father's land. As land IS scarce and the pop­ulation is growing rapidly, e4ual ownership has become in·crea.ingly difficult. Even before contact WIth other culturc.a landowner could grant u ufruct privileges to others for astipulated period, It is common for a mother's brother(w'winana) to pre 'ent hi' sister' son with a hind area, espe­cially if he is fatherle ·S. However, It IS not uncommon forwomen to inherit lanJ.

KinshifJ

Kin Groups and Descent. In both theory and practice, thecore social structure and organization is u patrilineal descent'ystem, with descent reckoned from the fir·t male immi­grants.

The islands are 'ulxlivided into districts (kanomana/wor,in modern speech, kakai 'cmJ{a//lOtllllflJ{a): six on Rennell andthree on Bellona. In each district people Jive in villages andin separate family settlements. All male hends of householdare des endants of the same clan, Kaitu'u, except for malein the small Iho clan at the west end of Bellona. The patri­lineages are named after the new settlement (lwkanCl/uJ1Iga).Although land principally is inherited patrilineally, there isa growing tendency for men to hand over land to female kll1.

With a growing population, the land areas owned by in­dividuals arc dimini hing in size, and disagreemellls overownership or stewardship of land arc increasing. In preeol1­tact times this was a cau e of imerlineage feuds.

Kinship Terminology. The terminolo/.,'Y of Bellona amiRennell is characteristically Western Polynesian, which in­cludes distinct terms for the mother" brother and cros·cousins. This system is relcaed to some Melanesian kin terllll­nologies.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Ideally, marriages take place only between amale and a female of another lineage. The c1O"est rclation­ship between spouses would be that of cross-cousins. Ilowev­er, a per on traditionally was free to marry anyone frolllanother lineage without the specific consent nf the parel1l~.

Freedom in the choice of a spouse is stressed. Married couplesgen rally live near the husband' parents (virilocal resi­dence). Divorce is common. In pre-Christian days polygy­nous marriages were found among high-staw. people with :I

considerable amount of land. However, Christianity disap­proved of IXllygynous marriages, and they have disappeared.

Domestic Unit. Before World War II, the basic hou e­holds were Jisper ed along the main trail. The averagehousehold consi ted of just over four nuclear family memberssometimes supplemented by in-laws and occasional visitingkin -people. In front of the house were the ritual grounds laidout in a semicircle, with ancestral graves around them facingthe main trail. Traditional houses were of varying sizes, oftenconstructed as a roof made of pandanus leaves on posts with­out walls. The houses of wealthy lanJholders had curvedroofs. The variou' Christian faiths attempted to display theirstrength by building large prayer houses. At the turn of themillennium ocial prestige was -hown to the communitythrough the size of one' hou'e or hou es.

Inheritance. Prior to World W;}r II, we;}lth W;}S me;}suredby the size of the property a landholder possesscd. Aroundthe turn of the twenty-first century, valucs graduallychanged. "Wealth" in landholding has becomc of lesser im­portance than "wealth" in higher education. Obviously, arich landowner can hetter afford to send his children abroadfor education than can a person with less wealth in property.Marcrial go(xls have less prestige than funds for sending one'schildren to school.

Socialization. In an infants' earliest days, child rearing isthe ta·k of its mother and her ~ male kin. Once a child canwalk and talk, the father's duty is to socialize him or her intohis or her coming position in society. Strictness is importantin the upbringing of children, and punishment GII1 be harsh.Bellona hfls begun to form kindergarten chools, and on Ren­nell there arc five. Rcllona has three primary schools and Re­nnell has eight. On Rennell there is a secondary school, andthere arc plans to est3blish tertiary schools.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. In theory, Bellona and Rennell havea more shallow social organization than do most other Poly­nesian societies. Class is little talked of, but the islands stillhave three different social status levels: persons of high pres­tige (llllkllIIlW), ordinary landowners (mllatu'a), and personsof the lowest status (penKea i tu'a, servants). On Rennell morewords arc used for the low-status individuals (pegell i l.u'a,guani, and tino). Persons born ou t of wedlock belong to thelast category.

Political Organization. The patrilineal descent groupswere politically independent, usually with a few prestigiousmen as their high-ranking heads. Before World War II, thetwo islands had no chiefs in the Polynesian sense. In 1993,when Bellona and Rennell were pronounced a province ofthe Soillmon Islands, a provincial government WflS formed asan allegedly democratic political system with .1 premier, vari­ous ministries, and a provincial assembly. Constitutionally,the islands are subdivided into ten wards.

Social Control. Land disputes, theft, vandalism, uncon­trolled consumption of "home brew," and verbal fights arcamong the major crimes. People usually maintained peaceand order by themselves through lineage elders, but a police­man and two constables were stationed on the islands in the1970s.

Conflict. In the days of incessant interlineage blcxxl feuds(hefore the introduction of Christianity), wives were sent outas peace negotiators between the parties. Land disputes, de­fending honor after insults, and mutual killings in raids weresome of the reflsons for ongoing conflicts. Society had beenin H constant state of conflict until Christiflnity was accepted.Present-dZlY conflicts arc solved in local courts and in the Sol­omon Islands High Court.

Religion and Exp"cssivc Culture

Religious Beliefs. Bellona and Rennell were among thelast Polynesian Islands to convert to Christianity. Their al­IlHlst complete isolation during the war in the Western Pacif­ic prevented the population from acquiring extensive

Bellona and Rennell Islanders 49

knowledge about Chri tian doctrines, but this isolation madeit possible for anthropologists to acquire a detailed picture ofa pre-Christian Polynesian religion. The world of the islandswas inhabited by an impressive hierarchy of g<xls, deities, andworshiped ancestors classified as sky g<x1s, who were associat­ed with the universe and with the nonsocialized nature sur­rounding human beings. District deities comprised a lowerlevel of supernatuml beings, whose existence was organizedas that of human beings and who protected society in its pres­ent foml. Ancestors acted as messengers between the worldof humans and that of god and deities, taking g(xxls, wealth,and children to the island societies. Almost no act was car­ried out without communication with the supcrnflturals. Atfeasts in the homesteads and temples, men and gods commu­nicated, raw fo<xI for the g(xls and cooked £<xxl for the deitiesand ancestors were distributed among the participants, andsacred and profane dflnces were perfonned to honor the godsand the guests.

In October 1938 a meeting was held in the homesteadNiupani at the lake. A series of rites were conducted bothto the Christian god and to the old deities. After a short peri­od of social and ideolog'ical chaos the Christian faith becamedominant on Renncll. Shortly thereafter a group of Renne!­lese went to Bellona to announce the dismissal of the old dei­ties and the two ishll1ds were proclaimed Christian. The olddeities were chased away to their abodes at the eastern hori­zon. The two stone images of gods on Bellona were crushed;sacred buildings and areas were destroyed and uprooted. Afew years after the end of World War II foreign missionariesordered people to build churches }lnd establish villagesaround them.

On Rennell the first Adventist church was founded inHutuna at the lake. Later, in Tahamatangi and Tegano theSSEM built two churches at the lake. Over the years the mis­sions have founded new churches with surrounding village,and during the 19705, 1980s, and 19905 a few families con­verted to Baptism, Baha'i, the Anglican Church. and the fun­d}lmentalist Adventist Church Concerned Bretheren (CB).In all there were twenty eight local religious communities onthe two islands at the tum of the millennium.

Religious Practitioners. In the pre-Christian religion alladult men had religious roles. Three formal types were distin­guished: priest-chiefs, second priest-chiefs, and }lssistants topriests. An informal role was that of a medium who occasion­ally was possessed by fl district deity or }lncestor and who,with a twisted voice or in an unintelligible language, spokethrough him.

The first two Christian denominfltions which were e ­tablished were the South Seas Evangelical Mission (laterSouth Seas Evangelical Church-SSEC) flnd Seventh DayAdventists. Both still follow the beliefs taught to them by themissionaries, but their doctrines are less philosophical thanthose of either their pre-Christian religion or of Western tlle­ology.

When asked alxlLIt the differences between their beliefs,both sects claim that the only difference is the time of wor­ship: Saturday versus Sunday. However, the strict fo(xl ta­b<xls of the SDA and the payments of a tithe of 5 to 30percent of one's earnings differ from the practices of thcSSEC, which collects cash during church services. The Sev­enth Day Adventists do not believe in death. They believe

50 Bemlxl

death and re-urrection will take place after the 'econd com­ing of Chri t and is an event eagerly wished for.

Ceremonies. The most important pre-Christian ceremo­nies were harvest rituals that were pcrformeJ in cycles withinthe patrilineal descent groups, each lasting two or moreweeks. Uncooked tubers were presented ro the ky-gods, andclx>ked food to the district deities anJ ance tors. The fooJthen was Jistributed among the partiCIpants.

Arts. [n pre-Christian times the major an forms were poet­ry, dancing, tarooing, wood carving of eremonial club, andthe making of staff-like obje t . Making tapa and the plaitingof baskets and mats are female skills. Wood carving has al­most become an industry, mostly in the capital. The is[anJersare praised for their arts anJ sell it to tourists. Wood carversfrom Bellona have decorated a number of buildings in thecapital. Dance groups perform traditional dances at homeand abroad. Modern music is c mposed with traditionalthemes and played at concerts and recorded.

Medicine. Except for the prevention of disea e by prayersto the supernatural beings or by avoiding certain f<XxI items,the islanders did not have medicinal I mctices in the pre­Christian era. The gods took care of life, health, and death,but hot stones, coconut oil, massage, and green leaves havebeen and are still used to induce abortions and to treat cer­tain illne es. mmon disease arc respiratory infections,skin diseases, diarrhea, anJ sexually tran mitted di eases.Homeopathic medicine was introduced by the South SeasEvangelical Mission. Modern, scientifi medi in was intro­duced later and was received with enthusiasm. The i landshave sixteen health posts and clinics. All eriml ca es are re­ferred to the national ho pital in Honiara.

Death and Afterlife. [n the pre-Chri tian era Jeath in­volved a long series of rituals and extended mourning. Thebeliefs were that dead individuals left the i lanJs, went todance on the reef, and were taken to the alxxles of the godsunder the horizon. Low-status individuals went to the under­ground, where they were erased on a flat stone in the dark­n ss and forgotten.

For other cultures on the olomon Islands, see List ofCultures by Country in Volume 10 and under specific culturenames in Volume 2, Oceania.

Bibliography

Birket-Smith, Kaj (1956). An Et/mulogical Sketch of ReT/lieU ls­land: A Polynesian Outlier in Melanesia. Danish Hisr-filol.MeJd. 35, no. 3. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard.

Chri ·tian en, Sofus (1975). Subsistence OIl Be/lona Island(MunRiki): A Study uf the Ecology of a PolYlleswn Outlier in theBritish olcml(JIl Islands ProreclOrate. Language and Culture ofRennell and Bellona [slands. Volume 5. Copenhagen: Na­tional Museum of Denmark anJ Royal Danish Geographical.\x:iety.

Elbert, Samuel H. and Torben Monbcrg (1965). "From theTwo Canoes: Oral Traditions of Rennell anJ Bellona Is­lanJs." Language and Culture uf Rennell and Bellona Islands.Volume I. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Copenha­gen: National Museum of Denmark.

Kuschel, Rolf (1988). "Vengeance Is Their Reply: BI<X>dFeuds :mJ Homicides on Bellona Island." Language and Cui-

lUre uf Rennell and Bellona Islands. Vol. VII, Part 1-2. Copen­hagen: Dansk Psykologisk Forlag.

Ku chel, Rolf, Torbcn Monberg, and Torben Wolff (2001).Bibliugraphy uf Be/kma and Uennell Islands, Solunwn Islands.2nd revi ed edition. Copenhagen: University ofCopenhagen.

Monberg, T orben (1991). "Bellona [lanJ Beliefs anJ Ritu­als." Pacific Islands Monogrll/Jh Senes, No.9. Honolulu: UI1I­ver'ity of Hawaii Pre~.

Rossen, Jane Mink (1987). Songs of T3cllcma Islands (NliTaungua 0 Mungiki) Vats. I and 2. Copenhagen. Acta Ethno­musi ologi a Danica.

TORBEN MONBERG

Bemba

c.HNONYMS: Wemba, Awemba, AbaBemba

Orientation

Identification and location. The worJ "Bcmba" h,ls ~ev­

eral meanings in pre em-day Zambia. The core Bemba groupare subjects of Paramoul1l Chief Chitimukulu. Th y livearounJ the center of a plateau called Lubemba in the North­ern Province. However, approximately twelve other groupthat reside in the Lliapuia Province, in 'outhern Katanga(Democrati Republic of Congo IDRC]) , and in the ruralareas of the Copperbelt Province speak dialects of IchiBemb3and con ider themselves loosely 3ffjliated with the coreBemba group. They may call themsclve hy the particulargmup name-Alishi, Bisa, Chishinga, Kunda, Lala, LamoaLunda, Ng'umbo, Swaka, T abwa, or Unga-but the tenden-y in urb, n areas is to usc the generic term "Bemba", In this

broad sense the Bemba form the most important ethnic groupin the urban areas of the Copperbelt, including Kitwe, NdoI;J,Mufulira, Luanshya, Chingola, ami Chililaholllowe in ZamhiaanJ a significant minority in Lubumba ·hi in the DRC.

The plateau heartlanJ of the Bemba reaches a height ofapproximately 4,300 feet (1,300 meters) and is located from100 to 1ZO Sand 300 to 3ZO E. It ri es from the lowlands ofLake Bangweulu :.1I1d the Luapula Valley to the south anJwest and Lake T3nganyika and the Luangwa Valley to thenorth and east. The Chambeshi River, which feeds LakeBangweulu and fornl part of the southern Congo Jrainageha in, meanJers through its center. The plateau i' mnde ofold crystalline rocks that arc rich in mineral but producepoor oil fertility. The natural vegetation consists of thin for­est of tall tree' termeJ,lVanna wo(>dland.

Demography. The core Bcmba group's IX)pulation i~ <Jp­proximately 400,000, excluding those who have permanentlyetdeJ in urban areas. Th first colonial censuses between1910 and 1930 estimated the number at 100,000; in 1963 thefigure was 250,000. Including those permanently setd d inurban areas, the number of p ople who identify themselvesas Bcmba is 741,114. However, those who speak IchiBemoa