Part 17 - Melanesia

Of the three great groups of islands into which Oceania is divided, Melanesia, the most southerly, especially claims our attention. For it is among this group of islands that we can see the farthest eastern limit of betel-chewing, and the gradual substitution of kava -drinking.

Melanesia consist of the following:

1. Bismarck Archipelago.
2. Eastern New Guinea.
3. Louisiade Archipelago.
4. Solomon Islands.
5. Santa Cruz Islands (with Cherry Island, Mitre Island and Tikopia Island).
6. Banks Islands.
7. New Hebrides.
8. Loyalty Islands.
9. New Caledonia.
10. Fiji Islands.

I have arranged the list as far as possible from west to east, in order to show clearly where betel-chewing dies out. The first four groups are betel-chewing peoples. No. 5 indulges in both practices (though kava-drinking here is chiefly ceremonial), and Nos. 6 to 10 are exclusively kava-drinkers.

The two customs never really exist together, and if they appear to do so, we can be sure that we are witnessing the swamping of the one by the other. It would seem that betel-chewing is gaining on kava-drinking, but, as already intimated, the importance of this aspect of our subject is much greater than merely to excite the curiosity of a chance observer. It helps to determine the history of Melanesian immigrants into Melanesia and in showing the existence of a culture altogether different from that prevailing farther south and in Polynesia.

To such an extent was Dr Rivers struck by the high importance of the division of Melanesia into these two classes—those who chew betel, and those who drink kava —that in his great work, The History of Melanesian Society, he bases his whole theory of Melanesian immigration on the acceptance of the existence of two separate peoples, whom he calls the “Betel-people” and the “Kava-people.”

In a letter to me on the subject, Professor Williamson considers it possible that the “Betel-people” may have reached Polynesia, though he owns that during his long experience in Polynesian society^[1] he has never found betel-chewing to exist. We shall return to the subject again shortly.

It is unknown both in Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking of the natives of New Ireland (New Mecklenburg) Rannie says^[2] that he has seen a very marked effect on them when, during a trip to Queensland, they have been deprived of their “chew.” When starting chewing again on their return they become very dull, stupid and sleepy, but the effect wears off in a few days.

It will be amply sufficient for our purpose to discuss betel-chewing in Papua, the Solomons and, finally, the little island of Tikopia, which I regard as the most easterly point where the custom is observed.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See his Social and Political Systems of Central Polynesia, 3 vols., 1924.

[2]:

My Adventures among South Sea Cannibals, p. 267.