THE FEMALE PRESENCE IN HEAVENLY PLACES: MYTH AND SOVEREIGNTY IN TONGA

Abstract

In a recent discussion, Valeri attempts to explain features of Tongan kingship by looking anew at myths of the origin of kingship and of kava and by highlighting the 'oedipal' and cannibalistic themes that he finds. Attempts to apply European psychoanalytic theories to nonWestern myths lead to serious error and are particularly inept in the case of Tonga. Valeri' s concentration upon male, father-son, or even elder brother-younger brother, rivalries obscures the centrality of the brothersister relation in Tongan culture and polity. I compare myths analysed by Valeri with other myths, and take into account aspects of Tongan political life and mores which he overlooked or misconstrued, in order to argue that kava may be identified with a female principle, which is crucial to the installation of all title-holders and central to the myth of the origin of the divine TuH Tonga title, the mythical divine 'king' of all Tonga. This female principle in the case of the TuH Tonga title may be further identified as the goddess Hikule'o, the most potent and enigmatic figure in the Tongan pantheon. She was ' father' s elder sister5 to Tangaloa ^Etumatupu^a the god-father of the first Tu i Tonga. In close, incestuous, relation with him, she was die heavenly agent of the resurrection of the cannibalised body of semi-divine \Aho^eitu as the divine title-holder on earth. Thus, Hkule o is the genetrix of both the Tongan religious hierarchy, expressed in the fahu, (the core of relationships between divine brother, sister, and sister's [female] child), and also the system of titles which ramified from that of the * highest' , the Tui Tonga, over generations of political struggle. The Tui Tonga offered 'first-fruits' annually to Mkuleo, as a brother's child honours his 'father's sister* or fahu. These mythical themes relate directly to the TuH Tonga's kava ceremony and may be related also to trends in Tongan political life and history where the goal has not been to kill the father to gain the mother, but to acquire in 'marriage' a high-ranking virgin, the vessel of mana (mystical potency), who is beloved of powerful brothers and both treasured and jealously guarded by them.1