Around 2,500 years in the past, at the western finish of the island of Kadavu in the southern a part of Fiji, the floor shook, the ocean grew to become agitated, and clouds of billowing smoke and ash poured into the sky. When the clouds cleared, the individuals noticed a brand new mountain had shaped, its form resembling a mound of earth in which yams are grown. This gave the mountain its title – (*100*), the big yam mound. Image for Representation.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Can you think about a scientist who might neither learn nor write, who spoke their knowledge in riddles, in tales of incredible beings flying by means of the sky, combating every one other furiously and noisily, consuming the ocean dry, and throwing big spears with drive sufficient to go away huge holes in rocky headlands?
Our newly revealed analysis in the journal Oral Tradition exhibits recollections of a volcanic eruption in Fiji some 2,500 years in the past had been encoded in oral traditions in exactly these methods.
They had been by no means supposed as fanciful tales, however quite as the pragmatic foundations of a system of native danger administration.
Life-changing occasions
Around 2,500 years in the past, at the western finish of the island of Kadavu in the southern a part of Fiji, the floor shook, the ocean grew to become agitated, and clouds of billowing smoke and ash poured into the sky.
When the clouds cleared, the individuals noticed a brand new mountain had shaped, its form resembling a mound of earth in which yams are grown. This gave the mountain its title – (*100*), the big yam mound. (It was renamed Mount Washington throughout Fiji’s colonial historical past.)
So dramatic, so life-changing had been the occasions related to this eruption, the individuals who witnessed it instructed tales about it. These tales have endured greater than two millennia, faithfully handed on throughout roughly 100 generations to achieve us at present.
Scientists used to dismiss such tales as fictions, devalue them with labels like “myth” or “legend”. But the scenario is altering.
Today, we’re beginning to recognise that many such “stories” are genuine recollections of human pasts, encoded in oral traditions in ways in which signify the worldviews of individuals from way back.
In different phrases, these tales served the identical objective as scientific accounts, and the individuals who instructed them had been making an attempt to grasp the pure world, very similar to scientists do at present.
Battle of the vu
The commonest story about the 2,500-year-old eruption of (*100*) is one involving a “god” (vu in Fijian) named Tanovo from the island of Ono, about 56km from the volcano.
Tanovo’s view of the sundown grew to become blocked someday by this large mountain. Our analysis identifies this as a volcanic dome that was created throughout the eruption, elevating the peak of the mountain a number of hundred toes.
Enraged, Tanovo flew to (*100*) and began to tear down the mountain, a course of described by native residents as driva qele (stealing earth). This explains why even at present the summit of (*100*) has a crater.
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But Tanovo was interrupted by the “god” of (*100*), named Tautaumolau. The pair began combating. A chase ensued by means of the sky and, as the two twisted and turned, the earth being carried by Tanovo began falling to the floor, the place it’s stated to have “created” islands.
We conclude that the sequence in which these islands are stated to have been created is prone to signify the motion of the ash plume from the eruption, as proven on the map under.
‘Myths’ primarily based in reality
Geologists would at present discover it exceedingly troublesome to infer such particulars of an historic eruption. But right here, in the oral traditions of Kadavu individuals, this data is available.
Another element we might by no means know if we didn’t have the oral traditions is about the tsunami the eruption brought on.
In some variations of the story, considered one of the “gods” is so frightened, he hides beneath the sea. But his rival comes alongside and drinks up all the water at that place, a element our analysis interprets as a reminiscence of the ocean withdrawing previous to tsunami influence.
Other particulars in the oral traditions recall how one god threw a large spear at his rival however missed, abandoning an enormous gap in a rock. This is an efficient instance of how landforms possible predating the eruption will be retrofitted to a story.
Our examine provides to the rising physique of scientific analysis into “myths” and “legends”, displaying that many have a foundation in reality, and the particulars they comprise add depth and breadth to our understanding of human pasts.
The Kadavu volcano stories mentioned right here additionally present historic societies had been no much less danger conscious and danger averse than ours are at present. The crucial was to outlive, enormously aided by holding alive recollections of all the hazards that existed in a specific place.
Australian First Peoples’ cultures are replete with comparable tales.
Literate individuals, those that learn and write, are typically impressed by the extraordinary time depth of oral traditions, like these about the 2,500-year outdated eruption of (*100*). But not everyone seems to be.
In early 2019, I used to be sitting and chatting to Ratu Petero Uluinaceva in Waisomo Village, after he had completed relating the Ono individuals’s story of the eruption. I instructed him this explicit story recalled occasions which occurred greater than two millennia in the past – and thought he may be impressed. But he wasn’t.
“We know our stories are that old, that they recall our ancient history,” he instructed me with a smile. “But we are glad you have now learned this too!”
Patrick D. Nunn, Professor of Geography, School of Law and Society, University of the Sunshine Coast
This article is republished from The Conversation beneath a Creative Commons license. Read the unique article.
