Elad’s blog

There is yet another aspect to Ni-Vanuatuian culture, which I did not write about while I was there (I am now back in Sydney).
Officially, the last victim of cannibalizm went into the ground-oven in the island of Malecula in 1969. It is common knowledge, however, that ceremonial eating of human flesh from dead relatives was widespread in Vanuatu at least throughout the 1970s. As black magic is still very central in the culture, and the society system is tribal and based on chieftancy, and sorcerers are very appreciated and feared, I hold it possible that I did talk with some old retired(?)-cannibals while staying in the more remote rural areas of Vanuatu, though while in there I investigated this subject with none. You really don’t want to accidentally break any tabu in the presence of cannibals, even if retired ones.

Don’t get it wrong: the people there are extremely friendly, helpful, generous and hospitable. By constitution, the country is christian, and as it is in many first-generation to christianity places, they have deep religous feelings. I refer only to the rural areas; one of the most interesting things about Vanuatu is the differences between the rural areas and the two urban centres - Vila and Luganville.

Unlike Papua-New-Guinea, Vanuatu has an excellent tourism infrastructure for the common resort-staying tourist. Their tourism office market the state as a pacific paradise, and justly so. While in Vanuatu, it is perfectly easy to stay at a luxurious resort, dine on fancy restaurants, and enjoy terrific sea, beaches, jungles, volcanoes, restaurants, bars and whatever attractions you want - Vanuatu can offer it. It is more difficult to take the course that I took there, going to remote villages and staying with the locals; and then you see and understand more about their way of life, but suffer from poor conditions - e.g., cold showers and unfamiliar food: it is by no means a neccesity in Vanuatu, but rather a choice I made.

It is not a cheap place, either. The two main things on which I spent my money were transportation and guides - both essential in the remote areas. Never underestimate transportation problems there, both between the islands and within the islands - vehicles are rare, expensive, and in bad condition; as are the roads, where present. Many locals see you as an extremely rich person, only because you managed to arrive all the way to their place if not for anything else; and as they have virtually no other income (officialy Vanuatu has something between 75%-80% of unemployment, but this is because all the villagers who work in their gardens and earn no money are considered unemployed) some of them will do their best to take as much money from you as they can, and they can.
Despite the fact that many of them gain no money whatsoever, and that occasionally - usually several times in a year - they are struck by devestating cyclones, I did not see a single begger or any sign of hunger there. I guess their social system and fertile land are sufficient to provide food for everyone.

One of the things I like about the pacific is that in their culture (throughout the pacific, not only in Vanuatu and PNG, but at the rest of melanesia and polynesia as well) there is absolutely no bargaining and no tipping (a tip is considered an insult!): the price you see is the price you pay, always. I prefer it this way, but when you need a guide in a remote village, and you can’t bargain the price - it’s a problem.
Another interesting part of the culture is that every piece of land or sea has its owner, and in many times you have to pay to the chief of some area just to pass through his property (there is no such thing as a public road or common property; you have to pay to various and sometimes hard to detect land owners), or to snorkel in his seemingly-deserted beach. For example, when climbing the volcano at Ambrym, I had to pay separately for the car; the guide; the use of the road; and the use of the land on which the volcano stands. Each payment goes to a different man. In addition, I had to buy and bring my own food and water for this two-day unforgetable experience.

Regarding this experience: I talked afterwards with some volunteers who live in Ambrym, one of them climbed the volcanoes three times already but saw the magma lakes only once. They told me you must have a totally clear sky when climbing (in which case it is extremely hot in the desert within the caldera, so make sure you bring plenty of water), and even then the odds of seeing the lakes are not too good. There is also another possibility, which is much cheaper and maybe better, of doing this climb in a single day, starting really early in the morning; the greatest advantage of this option is that you don’t have to carry much - only water and camera (and perhaps some food), which is important as it is phisically a really demanding treck. Whatever you choose, I strongly advice to do this climb. It is one of the best things I did in Vanuatu, and the moments in which I stood at the edge of the cliff above the magma lake are unforgettable, as are the views of the volcanic deserts within the caldera.

One of the things that surprised me in Vanuatu is the relatively small amount of pigs I saw there. The pig is extremely central in the vanuatian culture, and the pig’s tusks even appear on their flag and play central role in many ceremonies. However, pigs are not as widespread as in PNG; at least, you don’t see them so much. In general, the mixture of the old traditions and the colonial influence, and the pronounce differences between the british-influenced and french-influenced villages (some of which reside in close proximity) were some of the most interesting things I encountered there.

In several occasions they asked me questions I did not know to answer, particularly about the jewish after-life: heaven, hell, and the differences between jewish and christian beliefs in these points. Indeed I spent today some time with the Habad Rabbi here, addressing these issues - it is important to know your religion well before going to such places, as any jew that gets there will certainly be asked about some aspects of judaism.

Another interesting point, though from a totally different field, regards corruption, beaurocracy, and political systems. Both PNG and Vanuatu were more-or-less forced a political system of a democratic based national state, a system which is totally strange to their tribal traditional system, wether it is the wantok system of the papuanians or the chief hierarchy of vanuatu. It is even more interesting because it happened on the same time: PNG independence was in 1975, Vanuatu won its own in 1980. The point is, that the same politicians that gained the independence 30 years ago are still around and in full power, in both countries; both countries suffer from extreme political corruption, as politicians care primarily for their tribes rather than for the entire public; and I guess this is the case in other pacific states, as well - not that in many western countries, with more developed democratic tradition, the situation is much better (actually, I can easily think of a certain middle-eastern weak democracy which also has the same politicians in power for a few decades now, and it also suffers from some evident curruption); but on the pacific it is very evident - and of course, like anywhere in the world, almost everybody in these states hate politicians and nobody believes them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at 9:46 and is filed under Travels, Vanuatu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.