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					                       Vanuatu - Background

                                    Location and Geography. Vanuatu is a Y-shaped tropical
                                    archipelago of over eighty islands, sixty-five of which are
                                    inhabited. The Solomon Islands lie to the north, New
                                    Caledonia to the south, Fiji to the east, and the Coral Sea
                                    and Australia to the west. The mostly volcanic archipelago
                                    extends 560 miles (900 kilometers) from north to south
                                    and has an area of 5,700 square miles (14,760 square
                                    kilometers). Espiritu Santo is the largest island. Port Vila,
                                    the capital, which was also the colonial headquarters, is on
                                    the south-central island of Efate.

                                    Demography. The 1997 population of 185,000 is 94
                                    percent Melanesian, 4 percent European (mostly French),
                                    and 4 percent other (Vietnamese, Chinese, and other
                                    Pacific Islander).

                                   Linguistic Affiliation. Bislama, the nation's pidgin English
                                   which emerged in the nineteenth century, is essential for
                                   public discourse. Many aspects of the national culture are
                                   phrased in Bislama, which has become an important
                                   marker of national identity. Alongside Bislama, English
and French are recognized as "official languages." These languages overlie one hundred five
indigenous Austronesian languages, three of which are Polynesian in origin. There are strong
links between local language, place, and identity, but many people are multilingual. Most
children pursue elementary schooling in English or French, although few residents are fluent
in either language. Most national discourse takes place in Bislama, which is becoming

Identification. The name "Vanuatu" is an important aspect of national identity. Leaders of
the Vanua'aku Party, which led the first independent government, invented the term in 1980
to replace the colonial name New Hebrides. Vanua means "land" in many of Vanuatu's one
hundred five languages, and translations of the new name include "Our Land" and "Abiding
Land." Culturally, Vanuatu is complex. Some of the people follow matrilineal descent rules,
while others follow patrilineal rules. Leadership on some islands depends on advancement
within men's societies, and in others it depends on possession of chiefly titles or personal
ability. Although most people depend on subsistence farming and fishing, the economy of the
seaboard differs from that of interior mountain plateaus.

Political leaders have consciously cultivated national culture to foster a national identity,
including political slogans such as "Unity in Diversity." Many rural people, however, are
attached primarily to their home islands, while educated urbanites, refer to supranational
identities such as Melanesian.
Symbolism. The politicians who forged independence emphasized shared culture ( kastom )
and shared Christianity to create a national identity and iconography. The national motto is
Long God Yumi Stanap ("In (or with) God We Stand/Develop"). Leaders of the Vanua'aku
Party, which governed during the nation's first eleven years, came mostly from the central
and northern areas. Objects selected to represent the nation come principally from those
regions, including circle pig tusks, palm leaves, and carved slit gongs. The name of the
national currency, the vatu ("stone") derives from central northern languages, as does the
name "Vanuatu." After independence, holidays were established to celebrate the nation and
promote national identity and unity.

Children from the Jon Frum Cargo Cult Village play in the black sand beach on Tanna Island, which is a short
distance from the active volcano Yasur. Vanuatu is a mostly volcanic archipelago of over eighty islands.

    1.   What is the land area of Vanuatu?
    2.   Where is Port Villa located?
    3.   Describe the population demographics of Vanuatu.
    4.   Which languages are spoken in Vanuatu? Which is spoken most widely and why?
    5.   What does the word Vanuatu mean?
    6.   What is Vanuatu’s national motto? What does it mean?
                            Vanuatu – History
Emergence of the Nation. The New Hebrides (what Vanuatu was called before it became
independent) was a unique "condominium" colony ruled jointly by Great Britain and France
after 1906. Although they instituted a joint court and a few other combined services, each ran
separate and parallel administrative bureaucracies, medical systems, police forces, and school
systems. Competition and conflict between Anglophones and Francophones culminated in the
1970s, when both groups backed different political parties in the run-up to independence. The
French had greatly expanded their educational system, leaving a legacy of Francophones who
commonly find themselves opposed politically to their Anglophone compatriots.

The main parties in favor of independence in the 1970s were British-supported and
Anglophone, drawing on English and Protestant roots more than on French and Roman
Catholic. Still, all the citizens distinguish themselves from European colonialists as they
assume their national identity. Since independence, the French have provided aid in periods
when the country has been ruled by Francophone political parties. Australia and New Zealand
have largely replaced British assistance and influence.

Ethnic Relations. A relatively small population of Vietnamese (which the French recruited as
plantation workers beginning in the 1920s) and overseas Chinese control a significant
proportion of the economies of Port Vila and Luganville. These wealthy families are linked
by kinship, economic, and other relations with the majority Melanesian population.

Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space Vanuatu is still a rural country. Most ni-
Vanuatu live on their home islands, although the population of the two towns has increased
significantly since independence. Town layout and architecture reflect French and British
sensibilities. A huge American military base that grew up around Luganville during the
World War II still displays that heritage. Rural architecture remains largely traditional. Local
notions of gender and rank influence village layout. Women's mobility is more restricted than
that of men, and in many churches, men and women sit on opposite sides of a central aisle.
People use "bush" materials in the construction of housing, although they also use cement
brick and aluminum sheet roofing. Houses have one or two rooms for sleeping and storage.
Cooking is done in fireplaces or lean-to kitchens outdoors.

After independence, the government erected several public buildings, including a national
museum, the House of Parliament, and the House of Custom Chiefs. These buildings
incorporate slit gongs and other architectural details that display the cultural heritage. The
latter two also model the traditional nakamal (men's house or meeting ground), a ritual space
where public discussion and decision making take place. In many cultures, men and
occasionally women retire each evening to the nakamal to prepare and drink kava, an
infusion of the pepper plant. Scores of urban kava bars have opened in Port Vila, Luganville,
and government centers around the islands. Employed urbanites gather there at the end of the
day, just as their rural kin congregate at nakamal on their home islands.

   1.   Which two countries ruled Vanuatu before it became independent in the 1970’s?
   2.   How have the ruling countries influenced Vanuatu?
   3.   What other cultural groups have had an influence on Vanuatu’s culture?
   4.    Most of Vanuatu’s inhabitants live in rural areas. How has British and French culture
        changed town structure and architecture?
                              Vanuatu - Food
Food in Daily Life. Ni-Vanuatu combine traditional south Pacific cuisine with introduced
elements. Before contact with the West, staple foods included yam, taro, banana, coconut,
sugarcane, tropical nuts, greens, pigs, fowl, and seafood. After contact, other tropical crops
(manioc, plantain, sweet potato, papaya, mango) and temperate crops (cabbage, beans, corn,
peppers, carrots, pumpkin) were added to the diet. Rural people typically produce most of
what they eat, supplementing this with luxury foods (rice and tinned fish) purchased in stores.
The urban diet relies on rice, bread, and tinned fish supplemented with rural products. Port
Vila, and Luganville have restaurants that serve mostly the foreign and tourist communities.

Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. Ceremonies typically involve an exchange of food,
such as the traditional taro and yam, kava, fowl, pigs, and chicken, along with a feast. Pigs
are exchanged and eaten at all important ritual occasions. The national ceremonial dish is
laplap , pudding made of grated root crops or plantain mixed with coconut milk and
sometimes greens and meat, wrapped in leaves, and baked for hours in a traditional earth
oven. In rural areas, during the week many people rely on simple boiling to cook roots and
greens. On weekends, they prepare earth ovens and bake laplap for the evening meal and a
Sunday feast. The exchange, preparation, and consumption of kava are integral parts of
ceremonial occasions.

   1. What were the staple foods of Vanuatu pre contact?
   2. What foods were introduced?
   3. What is the ceremonial food of Vanuatu? On what occasions would it be used?
Vanuatu – Economic and Social Structure

Basic Economy. Most ni-Vanuatu are subsistence farmers who do cash cropping on the side.
The mode of production is swidden ("slash-and burn") horticulture, with farmers clearing and
then burning new forest plots each season. Vanuatu has significant economic difficulties.
Transportation costs are high, the economic infrastructure is undeveloped, and cyclone
damage is common. Major export crops include copra, beef, tropical woods, squash, and
cacao. Vanuatu is a tax haven that earns income from company registrations and fees and an
offshore shipping registry. Tourism has become a major growth area. The government
remains the largest employer of wage labor, and few employment activities exist outside the
towns and regional government centers.

Land Tenure and Property. After independence, all alienated plantation land reverted to the
customary owners. Only citizens may own land, although they can lease it to foreigners and
investors. Generally, land belongs jointly to the members of lineages or other kin groups.
Men typically have greater management fights to land than do women, although women may
control land, particularly in matrilineal areas.

Commercial Activities, Major Industries, and Trade. Rural families produce cash crops
(coconut, cacao, coffee, and foodstuffs) for sale in local markets. The opening of urban kava
bars has stimulated an internal market for kava. With the growing tourist industry, there is a
small market for traditional handicrafts, including woven baskets and mats, wood cavings,
and jewelry. Manufacturing and industry contribute only 5 to 9 percent of the gross domestic
product, and this mostly consists of fish, beef, and wood processing for export. The major
trade partners are Australia, Japan, France, New Zealand, and New Caledonia

Social Stratification Chiefly status exists in many of the indigenous cultures, though
differences between chiefly and commoner lineages are slight. Symbolically, a man and his
family's possession of a title is often marked in details of dance costume, adornment, and
architecture. Leadership in the north rests largely on a man's success in "graded societies"
which able individuals work their way up a ladder of status grades by killing and exchanging
circle-tusked pigs. In the central and southern regions, the acquisition of titles also depends
on individual effort and ability. Everywhere leadership correlates with ability, gender, and
age, with able, older men typically being the most influential members of their villages.

Since rural society is still rooted in subsistence agriculture, economic and political
inequalities are muted. However, there is increasing economic stratification between the
educated and employed, most of whom live in urban areas, and rural subsistence farmers. The
middle-class elite is relatively small, and urbanites remain connected by important kin ties to
their villages.

   1.   Describe the basic economy of Vanuatu.
   2.   Who controls the land in Vanuatu society?
   3.   Which crops are grown by local producers?
   4.   How does a man gain Chifley status in each are of Vanuatu?
   5.   How has the economy of Vanuatu shifted in recent History?
                         Vanuatu - Political Life
Government. Vanuatu is a republic with a unicameral parliament with fifty seats. An electoral college
elects a nonexecutive president every five years. There are six regions whose elected councils share
responsibility for local governance with the national government. An elected national council of
chiefs, the Malvatumaori, advises the parliament on land tenure and customs.

Leadership and Political Officials. Since independence, elected officials have mostly been educated
younger men who were originally pastors and leaders of Christian churches. The elders remain in the
islands, serving as village chiefs, though the country's prime ministers, presidents, and members of
parliament have typically acquired honorary chiefly titles from various regions.

Social Problems and Control. The pattern of "circular migration" between rural village and urban
center from the colonial era has broken down as more people have become permanent residents of
Port Vila and Luganville. Many underemployed people live in periurban settlements, and urban
migration has correlated with increasing rates of burglary and other property crimes. Demonstrations
associated with political factions occur occasionally. The urban crime rate is very low.

An informal system of "town chiefs" supplements the state police force and judiciary. Leading elders
in the towns meet to resolve disputes and punish offenders. Punishment sometimes involves the
informal banishment of an accused person back to his or her home island. Unofficial settlement
procedures frequently are used to handle disputes in rural areas.

Military Activity. The Vanuatu Mobile Force has been active only occasionally, mostly in
international endeavors such as serving as peacekeepers.

Social Welfare and Change Programs - State and nongovernmental organizations have focused on
developing economic infrastructure and public services. Most villages have no electricity, and many
people lack access to piped water despite efforts to expand rural water systems. Several organizations
work with rural youth and women. The National Council of Women sponsors programs to improve
women's access to the cash economy and reduce domestic violence.

A number of international and nongovernmental organizations are active in Vanuatu. Many
international donors are encouraging a comprehensive reform program to make government more
efficient and honest and lower deficit spending.

Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations The principal nongovernmental
organizations are the Christian churches. Religious affiliation is second in importance only to kinship
and neighborhood ties. A few labor unions have attempted to organize urban and rural salaried
workers (such as schoolteachers) but have not been effective in industrial action and political

    1.   How is the government organised in Vanuatu?
    2.   Why would “elders” be more important in this type of society?
    3.   What is meant by the term “circular migration”?
    4.   What Social Welfare programs exist in Vanuatu?
    5.   Which institutions play a part in life in Vanuatu?
        Vanuatu - Gender Roles and Statuses
Generally, women have less control of land and other property, are less mobile, and have less of a say in
                          marriage. In the northern region, women participate in graded societies that parallel
                          those of men. In matrilineal regions, women have better land and sea rights. Many
                          ni-Vanuatu continue to believe in the deleterious, polluting effects of menstrual
                          blood and other body fluids, and men and women sleep apart during women's
                          menstrual periods, when women often give up cooking. Both men and women farm,
                          although men are responsible for clearing forest and brush for new garden plots.
                          Both men and women fish and reef gather, though only men undertake deep-sea
                          fishing. Although women have excelled in the school system, men continue to
                          monopolize economic and political leadership positions. Few women drive cars, and
                          only a handful have been elected to the parliament and the regional and town
                          councils. Women do much of the work in town and roadside marketplaces.

Vanuatu - Marriage, Family, and Kinship
Marriage. The marriage rate approaches 100 percent. Traditionally, leaders of kin groups arrange the marriages
of their children. Marriage is an important event in ongoing exchange relations between kin groups and
neighborhoods and typically involves the exchange of goods. Some educated urban residents have adopted
Western notions of romantic love and arrange their own marriages with or without family approval. Marriage
rules identify certain kin groups as the source of appropriate spouses. In the southern region, marriage is
patterned as "sister exchange," in which a man who marries a woman from another family owes a woman in
return. In some cases, this woman is an actual sister who marries one of her brother's new wife's brothers; in
other cases, the woman is a classificatory sister or even a future daughter. In other areas, notable amounts of
goods (bride wealth) change hands, including money, pigs, kava, mats, food, and cotton cloth. Traditionally,
powerful leading men might marry polygynously, although after missionisation, monogamy became the norm.
There are three types of marriages: religious, civil, and "customary." Divorce rates are very low.

Domestic Unit. The nuclear family is the principal domestic unit, forming the basic household and being
responsible for day-to-day economic production and consumption. Households, however, continue to rely on
extended kin groups in significant

Most people's access to land and sea rights derives from membership in lineages and clans. People call on
extended kin as a labor pool when they build new houses, clear garden land, and raise money and collect goods
for family exchanges (marriage, child initiation, funerals). Residence typically is patrivirilocal. Women move to
live with their new husbands, who themselves live with their fathers' families. Formerly, many men and initiated
boys lived in separate men's houses; today families typically live together as one unit. Both spouses may be
involved in managing family affairs; men, however, citing custom and Christian scripture, typically assert basic
authority their families.

Inheritance. Except in urban areas, where inheritance is modeled on European precedent, people follow local
customs. Land rights pass patrilineally or matrilineally to surviving members of kin groups. In some areas,
people destroy much of dead person's goods. Surviving spouses and children inherit what is left.

Kin Groups. Families are organized into larger patrilineages or matrilineages, patricians or matriclans, and
moieties. Lineages tend to be localized in one or two villages, as kin live together on or near lineage land. The
membership of larger clans is dispersed across a region or island.
                      Vanuatu - Socialisation
Infant Care. Babies often nurse until they are three years old. Both parents are involved in
child care, but siblings, especially older sisters, do much of the carrying, feeding, and
amusing of infants. Babies are held by caregivers almost constantly until they can walk.
Physical punishment of children is not common. Younger children may strike their older
siblings, while older siblings are restrained from hitting back.

Child Rearing and Education. Many communities and ensure the growth of children through
ritual initiation ceremonies that involve the exchange of pigs, mats, kava, and other goods
between a child's father's and mother's families. Boys age six to twelve typically undergo
circumcision as part of a ritual event.

Most children receive several years of primary education in English or French. Many walk to
the nearest school or board there during the week. Less than 10 percent of children go on to
attend one of the twenty-seven secondary schools.

Higher Education. Tertiary education includes a teachers' training college, an agricultural
school, several church seminaries, and a branch of the University of the South Pacific in Port
Vila. A few students pursue university education abroad. The adult literacy rate has been
estimated at 55 to 70 percent.

Etiquette. Customary relationships are lubricated by the exchange of goods, and visitors
often receive food and other gifts that should be reciprocated. Lines in rural stores are often
amorphous, but clerks commonly serve overseas visitors first. People passing on the trails or
streets commonly greet one another, and the handshake is an important aspect of initial
encounters. A woman traveling alone through the countryside may receive unwelcome
attention from men.

                           Vanuatu - Religion
Religious Beliefs. Most families have been Christian since the late nineteenth century. The
largest denominations are Presbyterian, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Seventh-Day Adventist,
and Church of Christ. Baha'i and Mormon missionaries have attracted local followings. Some
people reject Christianity and retain traditional religious practices. Others belong to syncretic
religious organizations that mix Christianity and local belief. Nearly everyone maintains firm
beliefs in the power and presence of ancestral spirits.

Religious Practitioners. Christian priests, ministers, pastors, and deacons lead weekly
services and conduct marriages and funerals. A number of people are recognized as
clairvoyants and diviners, working sometimes within and sometimes outside the Christian
churches. These people, who are often women, divine the causes of disease and other
misfortunes, locate lost objects, and sometimes undertake antisorcery campaigns to uncover
poesen (sorcery paraphernalia) hidden in a village. Other people specialize in rain, wind,
earthquake, tidal wave, and other sorts of magical practice. Many ni-Vanuatu also suspect the
existence of sorcerers.
                                                         Rituals and Holy Places. Ni-
                                                         Vanuatu celebrate the Christian
                                                         calendar, particularly the Christmas
                                                         and New Year's season, which they
                                                         call Bonane .At the year's end,
                                                         urbanites return to their home
                                                         islands. In villages, people form
                                                         choruses and visit neighboring
                                                         hamlets to perform religious and
                                                         secular songs.

                                                         Ni-Vanuatu continue to celebrate
                                                         traditional holidays. In many places,
                                                         islanders organize first-fruit
celebrations, particularly for the annual yam crop. The most spectacular celebration is the
"land jump" on southern Pentecost Island. Tourists sometimes attend other traditional rites,
such the dancing and feasting that accompany male initiation and grade-taking ceremonies in
many of the cultures and the Toka (or Nakwiari ), a large-scale exchange of pigs and kava
celebrated with two days of dancing.

Every community recognizes important places associated with ancestral and other spirits.
These "taboo places" may be mountain peaks, offshore reef formations, or rocky
outcroppings. People avoid these locations or treat them with respect.

Death and the Afterlife. Nearly all families turn to Christian funerary ritual to bury their
dead. Ancestral ghosts continue to haunt their descendants. Many people experience their
spiritual presence and receive their advice in dreams.

Medicine and Health Care
The national health service emerged from the separate French and British colonial systems.
Most sick people turn initially to local diviners and healers

who determine whether the source of disease is supernatural or natural and concoct
medicines. Folk pharmacology includes hundreds of medical recipes, mostly infusions of
leaves and other plant material.

Secular Celebrations
In addition to Independence Day (30 July), Constitution Day (5 October), and Unity Day (29
November), the government has established Family Day (26 December) and Custom Chiefs
Day (5 March). Organized and impromptu sports matches are popular, as are money-raising
carnivals, agricultural fairs, and arts festivals.

The Arts and Humanities
Literature. Although nineteenth-century missionaries created orthographies and dictionaries
for some of the languages, indigenous literature is mostly oral. Ni-Vanuatu appreciate oratory
and storytelling and have large archives of oral tales, myths, and legends. Since
independence, an orthography committee has attempted to standardize Bislama spelling.
Publications mostly consist of biblical material and newspapers, newsletters, and pamphlets.
Writers working in English or French have published poems and short stories, particularly at
the University of the South Pacific.

Graphic Arts. The tourist industry supports an active cottage handicraft and carving industry,
including woven baskets and dyed mats, bark skirts, penis wrappers, miniature slit-gongs and
other carvings, shell jewelry, bamboo flutes and panpipes. A few art galleries in Port Vila sell
the work of local artists.

Performance Arts. The string band is the preeminent musical genre. Hundreds of bands
perform at village dances and weddings, and their music has been important in the emergence
of a national culture. Young musicians sing of local and national issues in local languages
and Bislama. Popularized on cassette tapes or broadcast on the two radio stations, some of
those songs have become national standards. Many bands travel to Port Vila in June to
compete in an annual competition. Small community theater organizations whose dramas
often address national issues perform in Port Vila, and occasionally tour the hinterlands.

The State of the Physical and Social Sciences
Several international research associations, such as France's ORSTOM, have studied
agriculture, volcanism, geology, geography, and marine biology in Vanuatu. A local amateur
society, the Vanuatu Natural Science Society, emphasizes ornithology. The University of the
South Pacific Centre in Port Vila houses that university's Pacific languages unit and law
school. The Vanuatu Cultural Center supports a succesful local fieldwork program in which
men and women are trained to study and document anthropological and linguistic

Allen, Michael, ed. Vanuatu: Politics, Economics and Ritual in Island Melanesia , 1981.

Bonnemaison, Joël. The Tree and the Canoe: History and Ethnography of Tanna , 1994.

——, Kirk Huffman, Christian Kaufmann, and Darrell Tryon, eds. Arts of Vanuatu , 1996.

Coiffier, Christine. Traditional Architecture in Vanuatu , 1988.

Crowley, Terry. Beach-La-Mar to Bislama: The Emergence of a National Language in
Vanuatu , 1991.

Foster, Robert J., ed. Nation Making: Emergent Identities in Postcolonial Melanesia , 1995.

Haberkorn, Gerald. Port Vila: Transit Station or Final Stop? , 1989.

Jolly, Margaret. Women of the Place: Kastom, Colonialism and Gender in Vanuatu , 1994.
Lindstrom, Lamont. Knowledge and Power in a South Pacific Society , 1990.

Lini, Walter. Beyond Pandemonium: From the New Hebrides to Vanuatu , 1980.

McClancy, Jeremy. To Kill a Bird with Two Stones: A Short History of Vanuatu , 1980.

Miles, William F. S. Bridging Mental Boundaries in a Postcolonial Microcosm: Identity and
Development in Vanuatu , 1998.

Rodman, Margaret C. Masters of Tradition: Consequences of Customary Land Tenure in
Longana, Vanuatu , 1987.

Van Trease, Howard, ed. Melanesian Politics: Stael Blong Vanuatu , 1995.

Weightman, Barry. Agriculture in Vanuatu: A Historical Review , 1989.


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