Forbidden sea turtles: Traditional laws pertaining to sea turtle consumption in Polynesia (Including the Polynesian Outliers)

Reginawoodrom Rudrud

doi:10.4103/0972-4923.62669

Abstract

Throughout the Pacific regions of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia, sea turtles are recognised as culturally significant species. The specifics of human-sea turtle interactions in these regions, however, are not well known, in part because ethnographic and historic reports documenting these interactions are scattered, requiring extensive archival research. Ethnographic and environmental data collected over a ten-year period are analysed to assess patterns of human-sea turtle interactions prior to (and sometimes beyond) Western contact. From the ethnographic data for Polynesia, a region-wide pattern emerges where sea turtle consumption was restricted to special ceremonies when the elites such as chiefs and priests but no one else ate turtle. Only in two countries did this pattern differ. Environmental data does little to elucidate explanations for this region-wide treatment of sea turtles as restricted food sources, as there is no correlation between environmental variability and the presence or absence of these restrictions. Instead the results of this research suggest such practices may have been part of an ancestral Polynesian society, developing well before human settlement into this region of the Pacific.

Highlights

IntroductionThe sea turtles’ cultural valuation in Pacific society is far above that of other marine animals (Woodrom Rudrud et al 2007)
Revered as sacred animals, desired as prestigious forms of ceremonial food and iconised in symbolism in the PacificIslands1, the sea turtles’ cultural valuation in Pacific society is far above that of other marine animals (Woodrom Rudrud et al 2007)
These practices often manifested through the development of various consumptive taboos or traditional laws that demonstrated a ‘cultural valuation’ that elevated sea turtles above other food sources

Summary

Introduction

The sea turtles’ cultural valuation in Pacific society is far above that of other marine animals (Woodrom Rudrud et al 2007) In the past, these practices often manifested through the development of various consumptive taboos (tapus, kapus) or traditional laws that demonstrated a ‘cultural valuation’ that elevated sea turtles above other food sources ‘An integrated biocultural perspective comprehends that foods have both tangible (physical) and intangible (meaning-centered, symbolic) realities, and that a particular cuisine is best understood in the specific cultural–environmental–political matrix in which it has developed’ (Etkin 2008: 1). Foods speak to both tradition and continuity and to modernity and change. They foster identities at the same time that they create and enforce boundaries—

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