6 - Kava on Tanna: the development of secular patterns of consumption

Summary

Perhaps the most far-reaching changes in Tannese kava use relate to the frequency of its consumption. For there has long been a parallel secular form of kava drinking, which was initially adopted as an aggressive response to Christian attacks on the ritual, and which is subject to far fewer constraints. In order to understand this development it is necessary to recount briefly the history of the attitudes of Christians on Tanna towards kava.

Christians and kava

The policies that Christians adopted towards kava in the last century showed some variation, albeit within a framework of overall disapproval. There are no indications that the London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries, who were the first to work on Tanna, attempted to interfere with kava drinking despite their obvious disgust (Turner 1842–3: 5–11; 1861: 85). Presbyterian teachers from Aneityum, who were first sent to Tanna in 1854, arranged for their relatives at home to send them kava on the mission vessel, the John Knox, so that they could maintain satisfactory relations with the Tannese (Adams 1984: 73; Copeland 1861: 171). Initially, this seems to have been tolerated by the mission. However, John Paton, who had arrived at Port Resolution in 1858, saw kava as a great evil and insisted that no more be sent. This caused great resentment among the people of Port Resolution, who then demanded that the John Knox take them to Futuna to enable them to obtain kava there (ibid.; Adams 1984: 115; Paton 1965: 180).