The Fate of Poetry in a Disappearing Culture: The Case of Rennell and Bellona in Outer Polynesia

Abstract

ALTHOUGH BILINGUALISM AND THE EFFECT OF ONE LANGUAGE upon the structure and lexicon of another are extensively documented in linguistic literature, rejection and altered persistence of unwritten poetry in the face of contact with a world culture have not been often described. For example, no systematic comparison has been made of precontact chants in Hawaii, the songs that came in with the missionaries, and the present songs that are mostly English but may or may not contain vestiges of earlier periods. The object of this paper is to compare three poetic genres on Rennell and Bellona before and after contact with Europeans. This is easy, because regular contact began only at about the time of the acceptance of Christianity in I938-thirty years ago. The whole may constitute a reprimand about too-easy assessments of the impact of culture contact. The three genres treated here are (i) ceremonial greetings, (2) laments, and (3) taunts. Genre i has died out completely. Laments (Genre 2) are still sung and remembered, but no new compositions, as of 1966, have been noted, nor are any of them known to young people except in fragments. Genre 3 has been taken over by young people in a new medium, perhaps with stronger emotional impact. The young people know nothing of pagan times except from hearsay, and their attitudes may presage the future. They have completely rejected ceremonial greetings as ridiculous, and they listen to the old people chanting laments and wonder why they do it; however, they have revived and brought up to date taunts, which had lain fallow for twenty years. The new songs reveal something about the new values. Explanations for fast rejection, slow rejection, and revivification may be found in the new culture.