Archipelago in French Polynesia
The
Society Islands
(
French
:
Iles de la Societe
,
[2]
[3]
officially
Archipel de la Societe
;
[4]
[5]
Tahitian
:
T?taiete m?
)
[6]
are an
archipelago
in the South
Pacific Ocean
that includes the major islands of
Tahiti
,
Mo?orea
,
Raiatea
,
Bora Bora
and
Huahine
. Politically, they are part of
French Polynesia
, an
overseas country
of the
French Republic
. Geographically, they form part of
Polynesia
.
The
archipelago
is believed to have been named by Captain
James Cook
during his first voyage in 1769, supposedly in honour of the
Royal Society
, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands; however, Cook wrote in his journal that he called the islands
Society
"as they lay contiguous to one another".
[7]
History
[
edit
]
Dating colonization
[
edit
]
The first Polynesians are understood to have arrived on these islands around 1000
AD.
[8]
[9]
[10]
Oral history origin
[
edit
]
The islanders explain their origins in terms of an orally transmitted story. The feathered god Ta'aroa lay in his shell. He called out but no-one answered, so he went back into his shell, where he stayed for aeons. When he came out he changed his body into the multi-layered dome of the sky. Other parts of his body he transformed into Papa-fenua, the earth. Other parts he made into Te Tuma, the ata, or shadow of his phallus. Ta'aroa said, "Cast your eyes on my phallus. Gaze upon it and insert it in the earth." He came down to earth at "Opoa in Havai'i" (now
Ra'iatea
), one of the most sacred places in the Society Islands. Other gods were created, and these ran directly into the time of the people. The high chiefs or ari'i rahi were descendants from the gods, reckoned to be forty generations previous. In their presence commoners showed respect by stripping to the waist. The high chiefs erected
marae
as places of worship.
In the generations before Europeans arrived, a cult called 'Oro-maro-'ura developed: the cult of the red-feathered girdle. This became a tangible symbol of the chief's power. Key followers of the 'Oro cult were the 'arioi, who lived separately from the common people. They wore scented flowers and adorned themselves with scents and scarlet-dyed cloth. The head of each 'arioi group was heavily tattooed from ankle to thigh and known as a blackleg. Both male and female blacklegs were a privileged group but they were forbidden to have children. Their babies were all killed at birth. They received and gave lavish presents. They had a wide range of artistic skills and could be priests, navigators and lore specialists. Only good-looking men or women could become 'arioi. They played a crucial role in ceremonies associated with birth, deaths and marriage.
[11]
: 23?28
The Society Islands are home to the
Taputapu?tea Marae
, a UNESCO world heritage site on
Ra’i?tea
.
[12]
European contact
[
edit
]
In 1767 HMS
Dolphin
, sailing under Captain
Samuel Wallis
, landed on Tahiti. The captain and crew were quite sick with
scurvy
on arrival and were keen to obtain fresh food. Europeans quickly found that the islanders were desperate to obtain iron, which was prized for use in woodworking and as fish-hooks. The sailors found that young women and girls were eager to exchange sex for a nail.
The islanders were delighted at the abundance of iron on the ship and tried to board the ship in search of iron. Wallis reported that he shot cannon to maintain control of his vessel and the iron on board.
[11]
: 39?47
Louis de Bougainville
, a French nobleman, sailor and soldier, left France on his circumnavigation of the globe in 1766.
[13]
By the time he reached the Society islands in 1768, his crew was stricken with scurvy. Despite the crew being twice as numerous as that of the
Dolphin
, the islanders had sufficient food to trade their surplus for axes, knives and other iron goods.
[11]
: 90?96
James Cook
arrived in
Tahiti in April 1769
.
Between 1772 and 1775, the
viceroy of Peru
, the
Spaniard
Manuel Amat y Juniet, organized three expeditions to the Society Islands. Having news of James Cook's expedition and fearing a British colonization of the island, he ordered a first expedition under the command of the Spanish sailor
Domingo de Bonechea
, with Tomas Gayangos as assistant, aboard the frigate "Aguila". In the second expedition (1774-1775), Domingo de Bonechea and Jose Andia y Varela, aboard the ships "Aguila"
[14]
and "Jupiter",
[14]
recognized or discovered a dozen islands between the archipelagos of Tuamotu and the Austral Islands, and established a mission in Tahiti, which lasted only a couple of years. Domingo de Bonechea, whose health was weakened, died during this expedition.
[14]
The islands became a
French protectorate
in 1843 and a colony in 1880 under the name of French Establishments of Oceania (
Etablissements Francais d'Oceanie, EFO
).
Geography
[
edit
]
The islands are divided, both geographically and administratively, into two groups:
They have a population of 275,918 inhabitants (as of 2017
[update]
).
[1]
They cover a land area of 1,590 square kilometres (610 sq mi). The Society Islands are a tropical South Sea archipelago of
volcanic
origin. They represent the most economically important of the five
archipelagos
of French Polynesia. The highest point is
Mount Orohena
, which reaches 2,241 meters, located on the island of Tahiti.
The population of the islands is concentrated in the coastal regions and becomes increasingly sparse towards the mountainous center of the islands. The main island of Tahiti (Iles du Vent), where 50% of the inhabitants live, is also home to the capital of French Polynesia, the city of
Papeete
.
Fauna and flora
[
edit
]
The tropical forests of French Polynesia are home to a great variety of rare animals and plants.
Above all, the islands are known for their olfactory
landscape
. The Tahitian tiare (
Gardenia taitensis
), which blooms exclusively on the Society Islands, is one of the most fragrant of all flowers and is now protected.
The
atolls
surrounding the islands are covered with numerous
corals
, around which butterfly and clown fish frolic. Manta rays also reside here.
However, part of the underwater world of French Polynesia has been affected by
nuclear tests
conducted by the French government between 1966 and 1968.
Climate
[
edit
]
The climate of the islands varies between
tropical
and subtropical due to their size. The heat and very high humidity, together with the islands' fertile
volcanic
soils, have created dense, mostly inaccessible
tropical forests
. There are two seasons: a warm one, which lasts from November to March, and a cooler one, from April to October.
Climatic Table
January
|
February
|
March
|
April
|
May
|
June
|
July
|
August
|
September
|
October
|
November
|
December
|
December
|
27.0 °C
|
27.1 °C
|
27.4 °C
|
27.1 °C
|
26.4 °C
|
25.2 °C
|
24.7 °C
|
24.6 °C
|
25.0 °C
|
25.6 °C
|
26.3 °C
|
26.6 °C
|
26.6 °C
|
Religion
[
edit
]
Most of the population of the Society Islands profess
Christianity
including various
Protestant
Christian denominations
and the
Catholic Church
. The Protestants arrived with the first
English
explorers, while the Catholics settled in the area first with the arrival of the
Spanish
and permanently with the beginning of the
French colonization
of the region, which was consolidated with the establishment of a
protectorate
over the islands. By 1774 the Spanish had settled in the region briefly and installed a large cross that they brought from their colonies in
Peru
.
[15]
In January 1775 the priest Fray Jeronimo Clota celebrated the first Catholic mass on the islands.
[15]
The Spanish did not remain in the area due to the continuing uprisings in other of their colonies.
[15]
Queen P?mare IV
expelled French Catholic missionaries from her kingdom in 1836 and provoked the annoyance of France. Between 1838 and 1842, French naval commander
Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars
responded to French complaints and forced the queen and Tahitian chiefs to cede Tahiti as a French protectorate. In the 1880s France formally annexed the islands.
Today the Catholic Church owns at least 45 religious buildings in the area, all under the
ecclesiastical
responsibility of the
Metropolitan Archdiocese
of Papeete (Archidiocese of Papeete or Archidioecesis Papeetensis)
[16]
with headquarters on the island of Tahiti. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Immaculate Conception
(
Cathedrale Notre-Dame de l'Immaculee Conception
) stands out on the island.
On each island the religious situation is different. On Bora Bora, for example, there are more Protestant Christians than Catholic Christians,
[17]
as a result of the fact that the English arrived there before the French,
[17]
however, both groups now regularly perform
ecumenical
Christian acts and live together.
[17]
Transport
[
edit
]
Each of the Society Islands has a small airport.
Faa'a International Airport
is located in Tahiti and is the largest airport in the Society Islands.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Population"
.
Institut de la statistique de la Polynesie francaise
(in French). Archived from
the original
on 27 June 2019
. Retrieved
7 June
2019
.
- ^
Castillo, Emmanuel Drake del (1893).
Flore de la Polynesie francaise : iles de la societe, Marquise, Pomotou, Gambier, Wallis
(in French). Masson.
- ^
Robineau, Claude (1984).
Tradition et modernite aux iles de la Societe : Les racines
(in French). IRD Editions.
ISBN
978-2-7099-0687-6
.
- ^
Deschamps, Emmanuel; Deschamps, Aiu (2007).
L'archipel de la Societe : Tahiti et ses iles
(in French). Editions Le Motu.
ISBN
978-2-87923-225-6
.
- ^
Bora Bora : Polynesie Francaise ; Archipel de la Societe ; Iles sous le Vent
(in French). SU. 2005.
- ^
Moore, Peter (2019-05-14).
Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World
. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
ISBN
978-0-374-71551-9
.
- ^
Horwitz, Tony
. Oct. 2003,
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
, Bloomsbury,
ISBN
0-7475-6455-8
- ^
P. V. Kirch: On the Road of the Winds ? An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact; Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 2002, pp. 230?231. There is much debate as to the exact date of the original Polynesian migration to Tahiti, and indeed whether it came in one wave or several. Some experts put it as late as 500?800 BCE.
- ^
Wilmshurst, J.M. (2011).
"High-precision radiocarbon dating shows recent and rapid initial human colonization of East Polynesia"
.
PNAS
.
108
(5): 1815?20.
doi
:
10.1073/pnas.1015876108
.
PMC
3033267
.
PMID
21187404
.
- ^
Stevenson, J (2017). "Polynesian colonization and landscape changes on Mo'orea, French Polynesia: The Lake Temae pollen record".
Holocene
.
27
(12): 1963?75.
Bibcode
:
2017Holoc..27.1963S
.
doi
:
10.1177/0959683617715690
.
S2CID
132920438
.
- ^
a
b
c
Salmond, Anne (2009).
Aphrodite's Island. The European Discovery of Tahiti
. Penguin/North Shore.
ISBN
9780520261143
.
- ^
Centre, UNESCO World Heritage.
"Taputapuātea"
.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre
. Retrieved
2024-04-22
.
- ^
Bougainville,
Voyage autour du monde
(1771).
- ^
a
b
c
Cinta, Joaquin de la Santa (2016-02-08).
50 Heroes espanoles olvidados
(in Spanish). BibliotecaOnline SL.
ISBN
978-84-15998-44-0
.
- ^
a
b
c
Ibarrola, Alonso.
Tahiti y sus islas
(in Spanish). Tantamount.
ISBN
978-1-909929-08-1
.
- ^
"Papeete (Archdiocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]"
.
www.catholic-hierarchy.org
. Retrieved
2021-08-22
.
- ^
a
b
c
"A Tahiti et Bora-Bora, des catholiques au paradis sur terre? | RCF"
.
rcf.fr
. Retrieved
2021-08-22
.
External links
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]
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