Aneityum

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Aneityum
Aneityum Island
Aneityum Island
Waters Pacific Ocean
Archipelago New Hebrides
Geographical location 20 ° 11 ′  S , 169 ° 49 ′  E Coordinates: 20 ° 11 ′  S , 169 ° 49 ′  E
Aneityum (Vanuatu)
Aneityum
surface 159.2 km²
Highest elevation Mount Inrerow Atahein
852  m
Residents 915 (2009)
5.7 inhabitants / km²
main place Anelghowhat

Aneityum (also: Anatom, Annattom or Keamu) is an island that geographically belongs to the New Hebrides in the southwestern Pacific and politically to the province of Tafea in the island state of Vanuatu .

geography

Aneityum is located around 65 km southeast of Tanna and is the southernmost inhabited island in the Vanuatu island chain. According to the definition of the International Hydrographic Organization , it forms the eastern “corner” of the Coral Sea . The island is roughly oval in shape with a north-south extension of 12.3 km, an east-west extension of 16.9 km and an area of ​​159.2 km².

The landscape is mountainous, with deeply carved valleys that are bordered by narrow ridges. The peaks form a watershed, the small rivers Aname, Anetcho, Antina and Anaia drain to the north, Imkalau, Uche, Lelcei and Ume to the south.

The coast, which is surrounded by a fringing reef, is strongly structured with numerous bays. There are narrow sandy beaches only on the north coast.

In front of the village of Anelcauhat in the south of Aneityum is the only 0.16 km² large side island Inyeug, which is also surrounded by a coral reef that is under conservation. Usually it is uninhabited, but because of the long, fine sandy beaches, passengers from larger cruise ships also land there. The islet has therefore been given the name “Mystery Island” in an effective way.

geology

Aneityum consists of two fused layer volcanoes , the Inrerow Atamwan (812 m) and the Nanawarez (804 m). The rocks occurring on the island are therefore of volcanic origin: basalt , pico-basalt, andesite and basalt andesite . On the northwest side of the Inrerow Atamwan and on the southeast side of the Nanawarez, deep valley incisions have been created by erosion processes. The volcanoes that were active in the late Pleistocene and Holocene are now extinct. Outbreaks in historical times are not recorded.

climate

Aneityum is located in the tropical climatic zone . The weather in the cooler months of May to October is determined by the trade winds , which bring a lot of moisture, occasionally and in places up to 2200 mm of rain per month. The leeward north side is rather dry. The annual average temperature on Aneityum is 23.5 ° C.

The island lies in the hurricane belt of the South Pacific and is often exposed to strong winds from November to April. Already in historical times they caused considerable damage in the cultivated areas. In the years between 1840 and 1900 alone, 68 cyclones swept the island. The 1958 season was particularly devastating. The winds wreaked havoc on the plantations, destroyed houses and toppled fruit-bearing trees. The breadfruit harvest was reduced by half. Cyclone Yali also caused considerable damage in March 1998.

flora

The Vanuatu Archipelago can be divided into two vegetation zones, the border being approximately at the 18th parallel . While the northern and central islands of the group have a rich and complex flora, the southern islands - to which Aneityum belongs - are generally more simply structured and poor in species. The plant communities are different in the coastal areas, in the lowlands, in the higher areas of the volcanoes and in the areas disturbed by humans. Adam J. Copeland, a pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, described the landscape of Aneityum in a letter in the mid-19th century as follows:

“If you drive along the coast in a boat, you can identify three zones or belts, often quite easily identifiable, which can be described as alluvial or cultivated, as barren and forested. The former lies along the coast, is flat and consists of dark, fertile soil. Since it provides a large part of the food, most of the natives are also found there. Coconut palms and breadfruit trees thrive here, as do taro, bananas, sugar cane, etc. The second or sterile zone is more extensive and easier to see. In some places there is no vegetation, nothing but red earth. But mostly you can find grass, ferns and a few stunted trees there. The forested area covers the peaks and the center of the island. "

- Adam J. Copeland

The settlement and cultivation areas are still in the coastal area and in the immediate coastal hinterland. The islanders cultivate taro, yams, bananas, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and fruit-bearing trees (breadfruit, coconut palm). Navy lieutenant Philip Doyne Vigors from HMS Havannah , who visited Aneityum in 1850, saw artfully laid out and irrigated terraces for the cultivation of taro in the south of the island, which are hardly needed today because of the smaller population. A little cocoa and pepper are grown for export. In abandoned areas or areas that have been severely disturbed by humans, secondary vegetation with Hibiscus tilliaceus thickets ( linden-leaved marshmallow ) has settled.

The original vegetation in the humid interior of the island, which is exposed to the monsoon rains, includes an open forest of Kauri trees ( Agathis sp. ) Mixed with Calophyllum , which can reach heights of up to 20-30 m. The undergrowth is dominated by Hernandia cordigera and various ferns . Kauri forests are particularly resistant to strong winds. The original flora in the drier areas includes Acacia spiorbis , which probably immigrated from the east coast of Australia, as well as the sandalwood tree , which, however, only occurs occasionally in the wild. The trees that were once common on Aneityum were severely decimated in the 19th century, as their wood was very popular in Asia. Today sandals are planted, especially in areas deforested by cyclones.

At heights over 500 m, the forest is dominated by Weinmannia and Metrosideros .

Large areas of the mountain slopes are arid, particularly in the north and northwest of the island. This is often the result of the ruthless logging in the 19th century and the subsequent erosion.

history

When and from where the initial settlement on Aneityum took place has not yet been conclusively clarified. Pollen examinations from a swamp near Anelcauhat showed that slash and burn was to a large extent from 1000 to 800 BC. Have taken place. This finding suggests that Aneityum was settled during the Lapita expansion . The uncovering of specific Lapita pottery during excavations in 2012 confirmed this assumption. The ceramic shards can be dated to the year 829 (± 9 years). The first settlement was therefore allowed early in the 1st millennium BC. BC, probably from the larger islands of Efate or Tanna . The motifs of the numerous petroglyphs found in the interior of the island - geometric representations (mostly concentric circles or dotted lines), anthropomorphic images, hand and footprints - are very similar to those of Efate and Tanna and some other islands in the Hebrides. However, there are also significant linguistic and cultural parallels with the Loyalty Islands located around 250 km to the southwest .

A strictly stratified social order developed, similar to that on the neighboring island of Tanna. Around 1830 Aneityum was divided into seven chiefdoms ( nelcau ). They were headed by a chief ( natimarid ) who was subordinate to a number of district chiefs ( natimi alupas ). The chieftainship was inherited patrilinearly . Their legitimation was based less on physical violence than on the ceremonial influencing of natural phenomena, for example on controlling the weather, plentiful harvests or successful fishing. Her privileges required for the exercise of rule included the enjoyment of kava and ritual cannibalism. Polygamy was also a privilege of the elite.

The early missionaries report of frequent wars between the tribes. Missionary John Geddie writes: "War was the rule, peace the exception". It is not uncommon for several tribes to join forces and form alliances in order to have a larger number of warriors. The tactic of sudden ambushes (hit and run) was common. Because of this and because of the primitive weapons (spear and club), the number of victims seems to have been manageable. On the other hand, large festivals were held - also across tribes - at which quantities of food were presented and consumed. The more lavish the festival, the higher the chief's prestige.

The districts subordinate to the natimi alupas mostly comprised the water catchment area of ​​a valley pointing from the mountains to the coast, in which the households were distributed between the gardens and fields. The boundaries were usually marked by the mountain ranges.

Women were largely without rights in society, their life was a daily drudgery. They did most of the field work, gathering seafood, preparing the food, and looking after the children. Femicide was common, and when the husband died, the widow was strangled.

James Cook discovered Aneityum in 1774 during his second South Sea voyage (1772–1775) to Europe. After a two-week stay on Tanna, where the crew took in water and firewood and repaired the tiller of the HMS Resolution , Cook sailed "south of Tanna to take a closer look at Annattom." He does not state precisely in his logbook when he visited Aneityum has sighted, but it contains a brief description: "It seems to be just a small island of good height and hilly surface". On July 30, 1774, Cook landed on Erromango , but did not set foot on Aneityum.

The merchant captain and explorer Peter Dillon , who in 1826 unveiled the mystery of the fate of the La Pérouse expedition , explored the possibilities of extracting sandalwood in 1825. In 1844, the Englishman James Paddon (born September 23, 1811, † February 13, 1861) built a permanent trading post and a sandalwood depot on the island of Inyeug. From then on, Aneityum became a regular destination for merchant ships to exploit the sandalwood deposits. The logging was only profitable for a few years, because in 1854 Paddon closed his station and moved to the Île des Pins .

After two catechists from Samoa had prepared the field, the Scottish-Canadian Reverend John Geddie (* April 10, 1815, † December 14, 1872) founded the Presbyterian mission on Aneityum in 1848 . Geddie simplified the English text of the Bible and translated it into the local dialect. He printed the summary on an imported machine, but also a twelve-page textbook for elementary school students. His version of the Bible is still in use on Aneityum today. The ruins of the first stone church, the mission house and the remains of the printing press can be seen at Anelcauhat.

Catholic Marists established a mission station on Aneityum in 1847, but had to give up again in 1850 because they suffered from diseases and could not assert themselves against the more successful Presbyterians.

population

The inhabitants of Aneityum belong to the Melanesians and speak an Austronesian dialect .

According to estimates based on archaeological findings, the population before the European discovery was 4600 to a maximum of 5800 people. Older assumptions that assumed a population of 9,000 to even 20,000 are likely to be greatly exaggerated.

A census of missionaries is available for 1858 , the population was 3800. A measles epidemic in 1861 reduced the population to 1600. A devastating cyclone in 1875, followed by diarrheal diseases, diphtheria and influenza, resulted in numerous deaths, so the island ended in the 19th century had only 400 inhabitants. In 1932 the low point was reached with 182 inhabitants. It was not until the 1960s that the island's population gradually increased again to today's level of 915 (as of 2014).

Infrastructure, economy, traffic

There are four villages on Aneityum, all of which are in the immediate coastal area and a few scattered settlements in between . The main town with the largest population is the village of Anelcauhat (410 inhabitants) on the south coast. There is a police station, an infirmary (with a trained nurse), a post office, a branch of the National Bank of Vanuatu, as well as markets and small shops. In the north of the island is Anawamet or Port Patrick with 185 inhabitants, in the southwest the village of Uje with 62 inhabitants and in the south Umej with 259 inhabitants (status 2014).

There is no continuous ring road connecting the settlements, just a footpath. Several old access roads lead into the uninhabited interior of the island, which were once laid out for the transport of timber, but they were not maintained and are hardly passable today.

In the villages of Anelcauhat and Umej there are primary schools, in Analcauhat there is also a secondary school. Further education is only possible on the larger islands of Tanna and Efate.

There is no commercial passenger shipping between the southern islands of Vanuatus. However, supply ships that call at Aneityum two to four times a year also take passengers.

The airfield (ICAO: NVVA; IATA: AUY) is located on the small side island Inyeug and consists of the 610 m (2000 ft) long, unpaved runway and a small terminal building, nothing more than a shelter. It is served by Air Vanuatu small aircraft from Port Vila via Tanna. The passengers are brought to the main island by boat.

So far, the islanders have lived mainly from subsistence farming , but cruise tourism has provided an economic upswing and is now the islanders' most important source of income. The ships are in the roadstead in front of Ineyung , the passengers are disembarked. Cruise ships have to pay a substantial anchorage fee. When a ship arrives, many Anelcauhat residents board their boats to sell home-made souvenirs or organize snorkeling and sightseeing tours of the coral reefs for tourists.

cards

Web links

Commons : Aneityum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Aneityum in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)

Individual evidence

  1. International Hydrographic Organization (1953): Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition (PDF; 994 kB), p. 37. Retrieved on February 7, 2010
  2. a b c d Matthew Spriggs: Landscape, land use and political transformation in southern Melanesia. In: Patrik Kirch (Ed.): Island Societies. Cambridge University Press, London-New York-Melbourne 1986, ISBN 978-0-52110543-9 , pp. 6 f.
  3. ^ JN Carney, A. Macfarlane: Geology of Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna and Aniwa. New Hebrides Government, 1979
  4. ^ DIJ Mallick: Development of the New Hebrides archipelago. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, London 1975, pp. 277-285
  5. ^ Dieter Mueller-Dombois and F. Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands. Springer, New York 1998, ISBN 0-387-98313-9 , p. 94
  6. Donald Denoon (ed.): The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York-Melbourne 1997, p. 81
  7. ^ M. Schmidt: La flore et la végétation de la partie méridionale de l'archipel des Nouvelles-Hébrides. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences Vol. 272, No. 918, November 1975, pp. 329-342
  8. ^ The Reformed Presbyterian Magazine for 1864, Johnson, Hunter & Co, Edinburgh, pp. 264 f.
  9. ^ Dieter Mueller-Dombois and F. Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands. Springer, New York 1998, ISBN 0-387-98313-9 , pp. 93-105
  10. G. Hope and M. Spriggs: A preliminary pollen sequence from Aneityum Island, Southern Vanuatu. In: Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, No. 3, 1982, pp. 88-94
  11. ^ Stuart Bedford, Matthew Spriggs, Richard Shing, "By all means let us complete the exercise." The 50-year search for Lapita on Aneityum, southern Vanuatu and implications for other “gaps” in the Lapita distribution. In: Archeology in Oceania, Vol. 51, 216, pp. 122-130
  12. ^ Mary Elisabeth Shutler, Richard Shutler: A Preliminary Report of Archaeological Explorations in the Southern New Hebrides. In: Asian Perspectives No. 9, 1966, pp. 157-166
  13. ^ George Patterson: Missionary life among the cannibals: being the life of the Rev. John Geddie, DD, first missionary to the New Hebrides with a history of the Nova Scotia Presbyterian mission on that group. James Campbell & Son, Toronto 1882
  14. ^ Norma McArthur: Population and Prehistory: The Late Phase on Aneityum. The Australian National University ( Diss. ), 1974
  15. JC Beaglehole: The journals of Captain James Cook on his voyages of discovery. The voyage of the Resolution and Adventure 1772-1775. Cambridge University Press 1961, pp. 508-509
  16. ^ Andrew Sharp: The Discovery of the Pacific Islands. Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 133
  17. Dorothy Shine Berg: They Came for Sandalwood: A Study of the Sandalwood Trade in the South-West. University of Queensland Press, 1967, ISBN 978-1921902284 (reprint)
  18. ^ Eugene Myers Harrison: John Geddie - Messenger of the Love of Christ in Eastern Melanesia. Scripture Press Book Division, Chicago 1949
  19. ^ Charles Girard (ed.): Letters from the Marist Missionaries in Oceania 1836-1854. ATF Press, Adelaide 2016, ISBN 978-1925232813
  20. Matthew Spriggs: Archaeological research on Aneityum, Southern Vanuatu, 1978-1979: a summary. University of Hawaii, Department of Anthropology, 1982, p. 85
  21. ^ Matthew Spriggs: Population in a Vegetable Kingdom. Aneityum Island (Vanuatu) at European Contact in 1830. In: Patrick Vinton Kirch, Jean Louis Rallou (Eds.): The Growth and Collapse of Pacific Island Societys, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 2007, pp. 278-305
  22. ^ Vanuatu School Mapping Report 2012
  23. gcmap