Four hundred years of niche construction in the western Solomon Islands

Tomoko: raiding canoes of the western Solomon Islands. In From Field to Museum—Studies from Melanesia in Honour of Robin Torrence, ed. Jim Specht, Val Attenbrow, and Jim Allen

“…In Vella Lavella the entire cultural complex associated with head-hunting was adopted directly from their Austronesian neighbours (Sheppard et al, 2010). I have argued (Sheppard, 2019) that the head-hunting complex spread throughout the New Georgia group sometime after 1600 AD, when the Nusa Roviana hillfort was constructed, and the shrines associated with late-period Roviana appear. Such shrines were constructed in the last several hundred years in Vella Lavella and head-hunting seems to have primarily impacted islands outside the New Georgia Group (e.g., Choiseul and Santa Isabel) in the 19th century, when it intensified under the effects of access to European weapons and the desire to obtain commodities such as turtle shell used in European trade, that was abundant in the straits between Choiseul and Isabel.…”

“…The speed and ease of manufacture relates to the economics of canoe production and the greater head-hunting economy. The economy of the New Georgia group made use of a shell money exchange system, which allowed the near commodification of goods and facilitated inter-island trade in food, material culture and services (Aswani and Sheppard, 2003;Sheppard, 2019). The shell rings of varying value used in these exchanges were known in Roviana generically as poata, with the highest valued ring, called bakiha, made of fossil Tridacna shell showing a distinctive yellow stain.…”

“…Regular raids took place into Choiseul and Santa Isabel where the collection of hawksbill turtle shell in the Arnavon Straits for European trade was combined with head-hunting. This combination allowed chiefs to both acquire mana and the means to engage with European traders, using the most highly valued commodity available, through chiefly sponsored activity (Sheppard, 2019). By the time Woodford sailed along the coasts of Choiseul and Santa Isabel in 1887, the coast appeared abandoned with populations having moved to the interior or to the east or west, away from the activities of the head-hunters (Woodford, 1922).…”

“…Another canoe seized in 1910 from the Kalikogu or inner lagoon side east of Nusa Roviana, probably from the old village at the western end of Honiavasa Island, was regularly used, as described by Silas Oka, to patrol throughout the Group, including into the shallow lagoons where previously the tomoko were hidden. The effect of this close policing, as well as depopulation through European diseases and the benefits of the European copra trade-which could be carried out without the intervention of chiefs-was the end of head-hunting and the decline in the power of chiefs (Sheppard, 2019). In Ghizo, on 27 July 1901, Mahaffy held a great feast to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII and the end of head-hunting.…”