Kanak

expand_more Description

The Kanak of New Caledonia traditionally used intensive irrigation in raising the staple crops of yams, taro and bananas, a diet supplemented by fishing and raising pigs. The nuclear family was the principal unit of production and fundamental social unit, organized successively into extended families, patrilineages, and clans, a system elaborately mapped onto the settled and natural landscape as a set of genealogies, land rights, and territories. Lineage heads served as chiefs who maintained the social order and were the focal points of redistribution networks; the heads of ancestral lineages served as clan elders who weighed in on moral issues (including land and matrimonial disputes) and guided ceremonial life. Under French territorial administration, the Kanak lost control of much of their traditional lands, undercutting the role of chiefs, while mining offered male employment outside the communities. Social unrest following the collapse of a nickel boom in the 1970s spurred an independence movement and economic reforms.

Identifier

Region

• Oceania

Subregion

• Melanesia

Subsistence Type

• intensive agriculturalists

Samples

• EA
• SCCS

Countries

• New Caledonia