The Encyclopedia of World Religions

. P ,

bore goodwill to people; others bore ill will. Some were the souls of the departed. Most islanders had elaborate ideas of what happened to the soul after death. It journeyed, sometimes to the underworld, sometimes to the upperworld, and sometimes to a distant island. Pacific islanders provided scholars with classic examples of INITIATION rituals. They also had elabo rate ceremonies for the dead. Some of the ceremo nies involved beautiful artwork. The body of the dead received careful attention. Sometimes it was buried temporarily; sometimes it was exposed. The bones of the dead often became important RITUAL objects. Most Pacific islanders used MAGIC of some sort in their daily life. Many societies also had magi cal specialists. These were often men. But in many places people sought out women for help in heal ing and in furthering love relationships. Polynesia gave the English-speaking world the words mana and TABOO . Things as well as persons could have mana. The word referred to a powerful religious state. Such states were also tabu, that is, they required persons to observe special prohibitions. Some Pacific Island societies were matrilineal and matrilocal, that is, people traced their descent through their mothers, rather than their fathers, and they lived with their mothers’ families. Never theless, Pacific island religions remained strongly male-centered. That was true even of religions in which goddesses were prominent. In western parts of the region, religion was the secret preserve of adult men. They found the presence of women polluting and therefore threatening.

Pacific Ocean religions The religions of the peoples who lived on Pacific islands before Euro peans arrived. This area is sometimes called Oce ania. Its religions are sometimes called Oceanic religions. The Pacific Ocean contains more than 10,000 islands. Some are immense, for example, New Guinea and the islands of New Zealand. Oth ers are extremely small. The islands stretch from New Guinea in the west to Easter Island in the east, from the Hawaiian Islands in the north to New Zealand in the south. The eastern half of this region is called Polynesia. The northwestern quar ter is called Micronesia. The southwestern quarter is called Melanesia. People first settled in New Guinea 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. They only began to settle Micro nesia and Polynesia much later, perhaps around 2000 B . C . E . The islands at the far extremes—the Hawaiian Islands, Easter Island, New Zealand— were settled even later, roughly 500 to 1000 C . E . In general, the islands of Polynesia are more pro ductive than those of Melanesia and Micronesia. As a result, Polynesians, unlike Melanesians and Micronesians, developed complex hierarchies of social classes. Chiefs and kings are very important figures in Polynesian religions. They are not so important farther west. The islands have their own languages, cul tures, and religions. Any attempt to describe “the religion” of the islands is bound to fail. But some features did appear in many different places. Pacific Ocean islanders paid attention to a vari ety of spiritual beings, sometimes called spirits in English, and sometimes called gods. Some beings

S 330