Kastom,Christianity and the First Ancestor of the Kwara'ae of Malaita

The Kwara'ae of Malaita, now mainly Christian and enmeshed in the cash economy, invoke an ideology of kastom, reconciling biblical and ancestral origins, validating land claims, and legitimizing as traditional postcolonial political hierarchies built on the old ritual svstem. The political uses of kastom ideology in contemporary Kwara'ae, and their historical roots, are explored.