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Anthropology and Religion

Code of Laws

Code of Laws

The taboos that belonged to the native culture were abolished, and a new set of taboos was imposed in a code of laws which, among other things, was aimed at regulating relations between the sexes. The whole nature of the Mangaians was to be changed by a system of punishments that would suppress their natural desires. The punishments consisted of fines, of which part was paid in cash and part in trade goods. To curtail the opportunities for clandestine meetings, the curfew bell was introduced, and any persons found outside their houses after 8.00 p.m. were fined.

Some of the laws dealing with sex matters, as translated from the missionary laws of Mangaia, were as follows:

Fornication. Fine: One dollar cash and fourteen dollars trade.

Village conduct. If a man puts his arm around a woman in the road at night, and he has a torch in his hand, he shall go free. If no torch, to be fined one dollar cash and nine dollars trade.

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Tattooing love marks. The man who does this on a woman or the woman who does this on a man shall be fined two dollars cash and thirteen dollars trade.

Taking woman inland. If a man takes a woman to the mountains for bad purposes, he is to be fined fifteen dollars—one in cash and fourteen in trade.

Crying after a dead woman. If a man do this, and he and the woman were not relatives, or if he wear mourning for her, he is to be fined fifteen dollars— one in cash and fourteen in trade.

These fines may not seem very high in these days, but they meant a great deal at the period when they were in force.

With the introduction of a system foreign to native culture came also the foreign technique for enforcing the laws. Police were appointed to detect lawbreakers, and judges were appointed to inflict fines. These officials were selected from the deacons and members of the church. The fines, like ancient Gaul, were divided into three parts: one went to the king, one to the judge, and one to the police. The fines constituted the whole salary of the officials, and it is but natural that the police should have hailed as many people as possible before the judge. The police force increased in an extraordinary manner. In 1891, for a population of 1,860 there were 155 police, or one policeman to every 12 inhabitants. The enforcement of the moral laws led page 89to a regular system of espionage on the private life of the people. The police visited the various houses after the curfew sounded and at irregular intervals during the night. The absence of residents, particularly young people, was held as positive proof of clandestine love affairs, and the absentees were promptly fined the next day. The deacons and elders who did not happen to be in the police force felt it their duty to report cases of suspicious conduct.

Though the Mangaians had adopted a code of laws, they had not been instructed in the fundamentals of British justice. They did not understand that an accused person is not guilty until full evidence on both sides has been submitted to the judge and a conviction made on that evidence. In the imperfectly understood system that was adopted, the accused was convicted by the police, and the judge held office not to weigh the evidence impartially but to inflict the fine automatically. Both police and judge desired as many convictions as possible in order to share the greater spoil. In other words, the system degenerated into a racket, which was made possible by the introduction of something totally foreign to native culture—money.

Adolescents and young unmarried people could not wholly grasp the moral sin in obeying the physiological urge of nature, whereas the elders of the church, whose sex life was practically over, were ready to pun-page 90ish those who took advantage of opportunities of which they could no longer avail themselves. To the younger people the sin was the sin of being found out, and so they bent their faculties to the sport of evading the police. When caught, they paid their fines without any feeling of moral delinquency.

Both native pastors and white missionaries experienced additional difficulties that did not emanate from the native people whom they had persuaded to desert their own god s. The natives naturally inferred that the Christian religion was the religion of the white man. But, though they themselves were subjected to a severe code of theocratic laws, the white sailors and traders who followed on the heels of the missionaries were by no means willing to conform to it. They broke the moral law by living with native women without going through the initial stage of marriage by the church. They introduced alcohol and gambling with cards, things hitherto unknown in the island. The code of laws was therefore amended to include fines against drunkenness and gambling. In addition to their own failings, the natives were burdened with the failings of civilization.

Though other laws were framed for a good purpose, I have stressed that aspect of the code that interfered with the private life of the people in a somewhat unwarrantable manner. With the establishment of gov-page 91ernment control from New Zealand as late as 1900 a.d., the theocratic code of laws was amended, and the people have had time to adjust themselves to a more reasonable rule.