Universal animation

Universal animation; the conception of Atua, Mana, Ani, Kalit, and the like - Creation of gods - Hero-worship - Atua, Oroniatua - Gods of the sea, the air, the land, daily occupations - Animation of beasts, plants, and stones - Cosmogany and mythology; views of Nature - Beginnings of metaphysics - Legend of Papa and Kaka - Separation of Heaven and Earth - Rangi-Ru and Maui - Maui as deity and animating principle of earthquake, fire, and sun - Hawaiian and Maori Mauis - Wakea - Tangaroa the Polynesian Zeus, god of the sun, the firmament, the horizon - Tii as a variation of time - Tane, god of the sky - Hina, goddess of the moon - Gods of Olympus and Hades, Hikuleo, Milu, Pele - Hero-gods: Meru, Moso, Oru, Maru - Priests; universality of the office - Priests and chiefs - Priest-kings - Consecration of priests - The priests' functions - Temples and places of sacrifice; various kinds of sacred places - Graves as places of veneration - Temples - Lack of genuine idols - Embodiments of gods - The Tii - Stone images - Feather-idols - Graves and funeral customs; stay of the soul near the body and about the grave - Various forms of interment - Skull-worship - Sacrifices to the dead - Burying alive.

Universal animation

UNIVERSAL animation, or the endowment of all things with a soul, is the broad foundation of all religion among Polynesians and Melanesians alike; everything, even to the utensils, had a soul or was capable of having one. We must not, however, conceive this animation as exclusively of an ennobling kind. The words spirit and soul indicate generally any expression of life. The squeaking of rats, the talk of children in their sleep, is called "spirit" in Tahiti. But by the system; of embodying tutelary spirits, souls are consciously imported into objects, and; accordingly, just as a future life in Bolotu is assigned to the souls of men, beasts, plants, and stones, so it is also to the implements of every kind of handicraft. Thus this system led to the primitive pantheism which found its most characteristic stamp in the conception universal in Oceania of the atua, Akua, or Hotua.

Ancestral image (Korvar) from New Guinea - approx, 300mm high. (British Museum.)

The conception of Atua, Mana, Ani, Kalit, and the like

Atua in Polynesia indicates the spiritual in the widest sense, tua apparently standing here in the sense of the other world: it is God, deified man, spirit, soul, shadow, ghost. The word is consciously used in a generic sense just as mana is in Melanesia. Codrington says it is a power or influence which is in a certain sense supernatural, but expresses itself in any kind of force or superiority which man may possess. It has no fixed connection with anything, and can be transferred to almost everything. But spirits, whether disembodied souls or supra-mundane beings, possess it and can impart it. All the religious rites of the Melanesians consist in obtaining mana, or deriving benefit from it.

The other world can become practically effective for the living, either through the mediation of departed souls which wander between heaven and earth, or by the entry, whether temporary or permanent, of a god into an earthly object. In this way the tutelary spirits who are extraordinarily important in the practical service of the gods, came into existence. Their inspiration is desired because they bring to knowledge that which they have acquired in their intercourse with the gods of Bolotu. If they do not come willingly it is sought to constrain them by prayers and sacrifices, and in the last resort, by the incantations of delirious ecstasy.

The Polynesian atua recurs in the Ani or Han of Ponapé, the Kasingl and Kalit of the Pelew, the Anut of Kusaie, and the Van's of Tobi. This spirit worship which is directed towards creatures regarded as animated, appears in many places to have degenerated into pure beast worship. Thus in the Mortlocks the bastard mackerel (caranx) is reverenced as the god of war, and the Kurnai see in the Australian warbler and the azurine the creators of the sexes. That the animating element is also understood by Kalit appears from the fact that a Kalit is assigned to dead objects; Semper was asked by the Pelew Islanders about the Kalit that ticked in his watch.

The Vui of the New Hebrides dwell in a region called Panoi. They stand in relation with deified ancestors, and are invoked in case of danger. All serious illnesses, on the other hand, are attributed to magic, or the evil influence of the Atai or Tamate, who are the souls of the dead, and as such very distinct from the Vui.

No sooner has the soul left the body than it enters upon its wandering, which ends in various ways, according to its rank and deserts. At first it does not go far away, and by a combination of forces can often be recalled; to which end the relations round the death-bed call out, loud and impressively, the name of the departing. It is believed that immediately after death the soul can be recaptured. In a Gilbert Island dirge, the dead man's wife calls upon him as a bird, which flies ever farther to its home and its adoptive parent.