A˜‘a Kwara'ae: The Meaning of Tabu in a Solomon Islands Society

This paper examines the concept of tabu as employed by the Kwara'ae people of Malaita in Solomon Islands. Building upon previous studies of Malaitan societies, it shows how tabu not only governs relationships between ancestor spirits and men by opposing them to defiling relationships with women, but also forms a governing principle of all relationships in Kwara'ae society. Ultimately tabu appears to be a means of mediating relationships of power among both the living and the dead, and this is the source of its religious and cosmological significance.