Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Anthropology and Religion

The Major Gods

The Major Gods

In order not to confuse the reader with unfamiliar names, I will submit but four of the major gods in this brief outline of Polynesian religion. These are Tane, Rongo, Tu, and Tangaroa, names which, I think, will not be found in Indonesia or the early page 36lands from whence the Polynesians came. Knowing what happened in the development of selected ancestral names into names for social groups or tribes and in the deification of selected ancestors as gods, I feel that the Polynesian technique of deifying ancestors applies to the major gods I have mentioned. I believe that the major gods—Tane, Rongo, Tu, Tangaroa—and the other older gods were navigating ancestors who guided their voyaging ships through the later part of the eastward movement through Micronesia into the Society Islands. They may have actually landed on these islands, for Ra'iatea was peopled for some centuries before dispersal took place. There was ample time for them to be deified and then to become enshrouded with the mists of antiquity. The older ancestral gods that were worshiped in the land of origin or were created along the early part of the eastward voyages were dropped, forgotten, and supplanted by later deified ancestors.

It may be taken for granted that the various family groups that developed in Ra'iatea worshiped the particular deified ancestor from whom they were descended. They paid particular deference to their own deified ancestor but were well acquainted with the gods of their neighbors. We have historical evidence of this in the traditions that wars took place between the different major gods. The wars of the gods were page 37the struggles that took place between the descendants of those who created them.