Journal Article

The mysterious bath of Tu'i Tonga Fefine. Kinship, incest and sacred marriage in Polynesia, part I

Douaire-Marsaudon, Françoise

2002

Overview

According to the accounts of the French navigator Dumont d'Urville, in the ancient chiefdom of Tonga (South Pacific), during the ceremony of investiture of a new Tu'i Tonga, or paramount chief, the Tu'i Tonga Fefine, or the late Tu'i Tonga's sister, went to purify herself in a sacred fountain, and nobody would take a bath in this fountain under punishment of death. Replaced in Tonga's symbolical system, this ritual suggests that the Tu'i Tonga Fefine has given birth to an offspring who can be but the new Tu'i Tonga himself and refers simultaneously to an incest between the late Tu'i Tonga and his sister. However, oral traditions and royal genealogies tell that the Tu'i Tonga Fefine was, because of her exalted rank, prohibited to marry till the seventeenth century and, then, used to be married with `a stranger' - a prince of the Fijian royal House. What, under these conditions, could be the signification of the incest - which could be seen also as a sacred marriage - inferred by the great lady's ablution? We propose to enlighten the mystery of the Tu'i Tonga Fefine's bath by trying to understand firstly the relationships which linked these prominent personages at the top of the Tongan hierarchy. Secondly, we will examine how Tongan society conceived some of the events of the life-cycle - fecundation, pregnancy, birth. In the conclusion, we will present an interpretation of the ritual bath and give an explanation of the royal incest as it is phantasmed in the rite. The aim of this article is to show how political logics could be conjugated with elements pertaining to the construction of the personal subject. Reprinted by permission of Anthropos Institut

• Subject: Incest / Kinship / Life cycles / Marriage / Political elites / Political systems / Polynesia / Ritual / Siblings / Symbolism / Tonga