Ethnology of Tokelau Islands

Kindred Relationships

Kindred Relationships

The functional social group based on blood relationship is the kindred or persons reckoning descent and inheriting property from a common ancestor. Theoretically kinship is reckoned with all those who can trace descent from the earliest common ancestor, but for the requirements of exogamic marriage, the social obligations of blood relatives, and the practical division of land the kindreds trace their origin from a later ancestor.

The kindred is directed by the eldest living male. When he dies the position passes to his younger brothers, and when they die, to the eldest son of the first head. In this succession system the Tokelau custom of giving the leadership of a group to the eldest man is combined with the usual Polynesian custom of inheriting chieftainship directly from father to eldest son. Formerly the kindred head ( matai) received an hereditary title, but due to the modern tendency of society towards a greater independence of the family and household and private ownership of land, this, and the use of the term matai, have been dropped. The kindred head superintends the care and use of kindred lands and directs the affairs and councils of the kindred. However, his residence is in his wife's house, and the land he works is the property of his wife's kindred. Because of his absence from the daily life of his own kindred and his residence away from the land, his eldest sister assumes a position of great importance. She resides on her kindred's property,

Table 4. Kinship Terms *
Collateral—Male Side Lineal Collateral—Female Side
Male Female Male Female Male Female
granduncle grandaunt grandfather grandmother granduncle grandaunt
tupuna tupuna tupuna tupuna tupuna tupuna
father's brother father's sister father mother mother's brother mother's sister
tamana matua sa, matua tauaitu or matua tamana matua tuatina matua
father's brother's father's sister's brother self sister mother's brother's mother's sister's
son daughter son and daughter taina m. s. tuafafine m. s. son and daughter son daughter
taina m. s. tuafafine m. s. ilamutu or fakatau tuatina tuangane w. s. taina w. s. tuatina taina m. s. tuafafine m. s.
oldest oldest tuangane w. s. taina w. s.
kimua or fakamua kimua
youngest youngest
kimuli kimuli
father's brother's children's father's sister's children's brother's son daughter's son son daughter sister's son daughter's son mother's brother's mother's sister's
son daughter son and daughter tama m. s. tama fafine m. s. tama or ataliki tama fafine or afafine ilamutu m. s. or fakatau ilamutu m. s. or fakatau children's children's
tama tama fafine ilamutu tamasa w. s. tama sa w. s. son and daughter son daughter
fakatau tuatina tuatina tama tama fafine
tuatina tuatina
tama w. s. tama fafine w. s.
grandnephew grandniece grandson granddaughter grandnephew grandniece
makupunu makupunu makupuna makupuna makupuna makupuna

and the men of her household and her sisters' husbands use the kindred plantations which she controls. Because of her residence in the chief household of the kindred, she is termed the fatupaepae (rock of the house foundation). She is the head of the female side of the kindred and directs particularly the work of the women. Due to matrilocal marriage, she also adopts the eldest son of the male head of the kindred, to rear him within the chief household of his own kindred, of which he is representative of the male line and heir to the headship.

The kindred is not a stable institution but increases with each generation. When it becomes too large to function as a unit, it gradually regroups itself into new kindreds. The common ownership of land is, however, the determining factor in the formation of the kindred, for when the land of a kindred is divided, new groups form in the succeeding generations, each based on the ownership and inheritance of one of the new land divisions.