1995
Copyright PERSEE 2003-2023. Works reproduced on the PERSEE website are protected by the general rules of the Code of Intellectual Property. For strictly private, scientific or teaching purposes excluding all commercial use, reproduction and communication to the public of this document is permitted on condition that its origin and copyright are clearly mentionned.
Patrick Pillon, « Parenté agnatique et par alliance, positions statutaires et circulation des offrandes : le déroulement contemporain d'une cérémonie des morts dans la vallée de la Kouaoua (Nouvelle-Calédonie) », Journal de la Société des Océanistes, ID : 10.3406/jso.1995.1962
Kinship along masculine and wedding lines, statutory position and the circulation of offerings. A contemporary death ceremony in the Kouaoua valley (New Caledonia). Contemporary death ceremonies are built up upon a dual opposition between two groups representing respectively the dead person's paternals and his maternal uncles. Each of the two mainly concerned lignages summons up their own kin along both masculine and wedding lines. Relationship to the dead - whether male or female - in both masculine and wedding lines gives the clue to the various statutory precedences actualized during the different stages of the ceremony, as well as the encompassing classification of the participating groups made during food distribution. Death brings up an inferiority position to the members of the chiefdom organizing the gathering which devolute statutory positions to the various participating groups all the higher as these belong to the dead's maternal uncles or as they are all the more sociologically removed from themselves according to both masculine and wedding lines. The circulation of gifts and counter gifts emphasizes participation rather than actual quantities being exchanged or their balance. As one can judge, these contemporary death ceremonies could be a compromise between different types of precolonial ceremonial gatherings. (Key words : South Pacific ; New Caledonia ; Kouaoua ; death ceremonies ; kinship along masculine and wedding lines ; statutory positions ; circulation of exchanges ; social change.)