Tikopia is the southernmost of the Santa Cruz Islands, located in the province of Temotu. It is also the southernmost of the Solomon Islands.

Tikopia is a high island, covering an area of 5 km² (2 sq. mi.). The island is the remant of an extinct volcano, its highest point, Mt. Reani, reaching an elevation of 380 m (1,247 ft) above sea level.

The population of Tikopia is about 400. Historically the tiny island has supported a high-density population of a thousand or so. Strict reproductive policy prevented further increase. Unlike most of the Solomon Islands, the inhabitants are Polynesians, and their language Tikopian is a member of the Samoic branch of the Polynesian languages.

Unlike the rapidly westernizing society of much of the rest of Temotu province, Tikopia society is little-changed from ancient times. Its people take great pride in their customs, and see themselves as holding fast to their traditions while they regard the Melanesians around them to have lost most of theirs.

Four chiefs reign over the islands of Tikopia and Anuta. The chiefs still hold court in their huts.

Tikopians have a highly developed culture with a strong Polynesian influence, including a complex social structure. The influence of Polynesian culture is not so far distant from local memory: it has not been so long since widespread infanticide was considered as natural and as necessary as sharing food and learning to dance. Aside from this unpleasantness, Tikopian society was idyllic: nobody was cold, nobody was hungry, nobody was lonely. Its society was strongly communal: the sea was full of fish, the land grew excellent food, and the people supported one another.

New Zealand anthropologist, Raymond Firth , who lived on Tikopia in 1928 and 1929 found a "cult of virginity" and widespread infanticide among the islanders, whom he otherwise described as gentle and loving. Reproductive policy was particulary restrictive, however: only the eldest son in each family was allowed to have children and when an unwanted child, for economic or virginic ideal reasons, was born, the face of the child was "turned down", a euphemism for infanticide. The most common method was the deliberate blocking of the infant's nasal passages by an adult's fingers.

Today, Firth's "cult of virginity" is long since past into oblivion. While the reasons for this might be regarded as due to a cultural shift due to the introduction and widespread acceptance of Christianity, there is an important demographic element as well: many of the young men leave the island, heading to either the Russell Islands or the national capital, Honiara, in search of work. As a result of this outflux of males, only one in three girls will find a husband should she choose to remain on the island.

Related Articles

• Melanesia
• Oceania
• Pacific Islands
• Pacific Ocean
• Polynesian outlier

External Links

• An account of a stay on the island, includes a map
• An essay on Tikopia, prepared for the BBC
• BBC photo essay, from the aftermath of Hurricane Zoe Despite the overwhelming devastation and the greatest fears, no one on Tikopia was killed in the disaster.