Whispers and Vanities in Samoan Indigenous Religious Culture

The moving boat is meant to represent the man’s journey through life. As the boat
moves along it hits a coral formation, metaphor for man coming to a point where he
wants to make a new life, i.e. create a child. The coral formation is therefore
metaphor for the penis. The paddler at the end of the boat, the foe muli, then calls out:
“taliu, taliu, ua to’a i le tu, ua mama le vaa” (“bailer, bailer, we struck a hard coral
rock, the boat is leaking”), at which point the boat becomes the vagina. The
performer playing the bailer then comes away from the other performers and makes
exaggerated bailing actions using a coconut shell. His actions include urinating into
the bailer/shell and sprinkling it over his fellow performers who share in the sacred
belief underpinning the ritual. The urine is equated with sperm, the ultimate symbol
of man’s power to procreate. The ‘sperm’ is thrown on people to make the point that
we are all issues of sperm. To end the ritual the performers move to where the
paramount chief sits, the highest rank issue of Tagaloa, and they flash him, making
the point: “no matter how highly ranked you are, in the ultimate we share the same
origins and destiny” 35 . After the flashing there is celebration and the performers
break into dance. The dance is a celebration of human power and divinity.
The Salelesi auala vaa ritual is a solemn performance and in ancient times could not
be performed by outsiders. It was performed at the break of dawn and people were
forewarned to make sure that nothing, especially children, would get in the way of the
performers. The tapu surrounding the ritual was so strong that interference with it
could bring about death.
In the auala ritual the sacredness of the sex act is shown by the very formal way in
which the ceremony is carried out, from the movement towards the paramount chief
to the mimicking of the sex act to the urinating in the coconut shell and then flashing
of the paramount chief on reaching him. The conversation between the performers of
the vaa ritual and the gods is deadly serious.
In the Salani tini there is still formal ceremony but the conversation between the
performers and the gods is more playful. There is not the need for asserting one’s
divinity in the same way. Rather, the aim is to lift the spirits of the couple in
preparation for their big night. The sa’ē on the other hand, has very little formal
ceremony. The purpose of the dance is to openly flaunt one’s sexuality and if
possible entice a sexual liaison and perhaps even a marriage union. In each of these
events the body and its sexual organs while always tapu were not above being
celebrated. Indeed, not to flaunt it would be considered the height of disrespect and
prudishness, both qualities to be discouraged if one sought the mana of the gods
and/or the interest of a desirable suitor.
In the culture of tuumumusu there is connection between the story of the mating of the
sun and a human woman, the rituals of welcoming the naiufi as manaia, the
traditional medicinal treatment of the laoa, and the ritual celebrations of the naked
human body, its sexual organs and the sex act in funeral, marriage and poula
ceremonies.
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A common origin in terms of a common genealogy and a common destiny in terms of the fact
that we will all return upon death to God Tagaloa.
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