The South Pacific nation of Fiji has a rich tradition of storytelling: to this day, Fijian locals like to sit around the fire in the evenings and relate traditional stories of Fijian gods, famous places, and mythical events, all while sipping bowls of fresh kava. Fittingly, kava has a place in Fiji mythology as a […]
For most Westerners, Vanuatu is probably one of the best-known island cultures in the South Pacific, partly because of the country’s active promotion of Vanuatu culture and tourism, including its national beverage, kava. Vanuatu’s tourism industry does a brisk business catering to travelers who want to get a taste of Vanuatu culture, its lush jungle […]
The Tongan archipelago is a chain of islands in the South Pacific, nearest to Fiji and Samoa, which has been inhabited by humans for about 3000 years, making it one of the oldest settled islands in the South Pacific. Although Tongan culture has gone through its share of changes, especially due to later Western influence, […]
One of four main islands in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the South Pacific Ocean, Pohnpei is a lush mountainous island that has been home to human beings for thousands of years. Although its name was originally Anglicized as “Ponape”, the title was changed to Pohnpei as a more accurate reading of the […]
In the ancient Hawaiian Islands, kapu was the name for the code of conduct that regulated and restricted nearly every aspect of Hawaiian daily life. Designed to enforce the political and religious foundations of Hawaiian society, kapu restrictions ruled on what people could eat, with whom they could associate, where they could harvest and fish, […]
