Abstract
In this chapter, anthropologist Jean Louis Rallu explores the traditional, precolonial relations between women and men in Melanesia, tracing the changes to sexual and social mores that took place within Melanesian societies under Christianization and colonization. In the second part of the chapter, he considers some of the recent challenges faced by non-governmental and intergovernmental International Organizations in the Pacific Islands in their attempts to confront gender inequality and gender violence in this region. Evaluating the multiple effects of tradition, Christianization, and colonization on gender relationships and gender violence, he inquires how this has impacted later dialogue and cooperation between International Organizations and Pacific Island communities.
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- 1.
This fieldwork took place between 1992 and 1995, when I worked at the University of the South Pacific, and between 2005 and 2008, during my time at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
- 2.
The nakhamal is the house where all adult men of a lineage slept. Women slept in separate houses with their daughters and uncircumcized sons. Sexual relations occurred during the day. Nakhamal also translates as “lineage” (or “clan”) and was traditionally exogamous. Although villages were mainly exogamous, endogamous marriages could occur between different nakhamal within the same village.
- 3.
Currently, the minimum age of marriage for females varies throughout Melanesia, from 14 in Papua New Guinea to 18 in Fiji. There are rare reports from Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea of fathers selling their much younger daughters into marriage (UNIFEM 2010, p. 10).
- 4.
This fine was usually paid in the form of tusked pigs, which were bred for various ceremonies, including marriages, deaths, circumcision, and namanggi ceremonies, where men took a new title.
- 5.
In the pre-contact period, the closest villages to the shore were 1 or 2 km inland, to avoid attacks from the sea, tsunamis, and tidal hurricane waves.
- 6.
Traditional ceremonies related to the cult of ancestors were forbidden by missions, as well as traditional songs and dances that were considered “indecent.” The Melanesian Mission was the only Pacific mission to show interest in traditions that were not inconsistent with the Christian faith (Codrington 1891).
- 7.
High bride prices, often thousands of dollars, continue to be paid today.
- 8.
These included the ceremonial roles performed and gifts received at the births, circumcisions, and deaths of the children of the women they “gave” in marriages.
- 9.
Adultery is translated in bislama (pidgin) as “steal woman,” because there is no compensation of bride price.
- 10.
From the fifth degree of kinship instead of from the eighth degree.
- 11.
Today, most countries in Oceania allow marriages according to either traditional kinship rules or Canon Law. For further details , see Unifem (2010, pp. 3, 8).
- 12.
Intergovernmental IOs working to end gender violence include UN Women, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Labour Organization (ILO), World Health Organization (WHO) , UNICEF, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Other organizations that also engage in this work include the World Bank and many regional organizations, such as the Pacific Community (SPC) .
- 13.
The Pacific Island countries that have ratified CEDAW and the dates they joined are Samoa (1992); Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu (1995); Tuvalu (1999); Solomon Islands (2002); Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati (2004); Cook Islands, Republic of Marshall Islands (2006); Nauru (2011). See http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/states.htm. Accessed on 3 August 2017.
- 14.
The new government of Tonga planned to ratify CEDAW in 2015, but postponed it due to opposition from the Catholic Women’s League. See http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/283057/tonga-government-steps-away-from-cedaw-ratification. Accessed on 3 August 2017. Palau signed the treaty in 2011 but have yet to ratify it.
- 15.
These are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu (UN Women 2014b, p. 18).
- 16.
Surveys were conducted in Samoa (2000), Kiribati and Solomon Islands (2008), Tonga and Vanuatu (2009), and Fiji (2011) (UN Women 2013a, p. 5).
- 17.
In Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, and Tonga, around 10 per cent of women aged between 15 and 49 reported having experienced sexual violence by non-partners, while the prevalence of child sexual abuse is 19 per cent, 16 per cent, 2 per cent, and 8 per cent respectively in each of these countries. Figures are higher in the Solomon Islands, where the rate of non-partner sexual violence against women is 18 per cent and the prevalence of child abuse is 37 per cent; in Vanuatu, these rates are 33 per cent and 30 per cent respectively (UN Women 2013b, p. 5).
- 18.
For further discussion of church attitudes to gender violence in Samoa, see the chapter by Schoeffel, Boodoosingh , and Percival in this volume.
- 19.
For further details about AGJP, see UN Women (2014a).
- 20.
The Pacific Islands have among the lowest rates in the world of women in leadership positions, ranging from 16 per cent in Fiji to 0 per cent in the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Tokelau, and Vanuatu (UN Women 2014b, p. 26).
- 21.
For example, the Fijian Government enacted the Domestic Violence Decree in 2009. The first draft had been formulated in 1994 and it took nearly ten years for a second draft to be completed, then a further five years to reach the stage of enactment. Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, whose government was responsible for enacting the Decree, put down this delay to “a shocking lack of political will” (Fijian Government 2015).
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Rallu, J.L. (2018). The Impact of Colonization and Christianization on Gender Violence in the Pacific Islands. In: Blyth, C., Colgan, E., Edwards, K. (eds) Rape Culture, Gender Violence, and Religion. Religion and Radicalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72224-5_3
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