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Posted on 05 September 2007
Wise Blogger Phil Andrews said:

Smile

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I watched the latest instalment of Bruce Parry’s ‘Tribe’ series last night (http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/anuta/), in which he spent 3 weeks with the people of the island of Anuta, only half a mile in diameter in the middle of the Pacific, 70 miles from any other inhabited island – just a dot in the ocean. I guess I was expecting the usual ingredients of our man engaging in pig wrestling with the locals and undergoing various initiation ceremonies which involve the receiving of some very painful-looking tattoos or the drinking of some potion that contains blood in a ritual to conjure up the spirits of ancestors. Usually it conjures up whatever Bruce has eaten during the day.

So I was delighted when the Anuta turned out to be a model for harmonious community, living as they do by the principle of ‘aropa’, which involves ‘sharing whatever they have as a way of expressing love and compassion for their fellow man’. And sure enough when the harvest (from the land and the sea) is gathered it is divided equally between the 24 families on the island. What is more amazing is that as a people who have little access to consumer goods, when our man presents them with a box of goodies it’s not immediately snaffled by the tribal elders for their own enjoyment, but is carefully counted out so the whole community gets a bit. To top it all these people really smile – genuinely – not just to oil to the wheels of social discourse. They seem to care about each other and to enjoy one another’s company. Each member of the tribe, men, women and children, shakes hands with Parry on his arrival – that’s around 250 people – and the outpouring of collective sadness as he take his leave of them is very moving.

What is it about this community that makes it so ‘good’? It was interesting to learn that the whole island is ‘Christian’, having been converted by missionaries early in the last century, but that doesn't explain their philosophy of communal living. Their rule of life certainly fits well with the message of the missionaries, but it predates their arrival. Is this an instance of natural grace developing among a people who recognise that if life on a little rock in the Pacific is going to work at all no one can afford to be an 'island', thinking of their own desires over than of the collective? Does that really account for all the smiling?

And why is it that our island with all its territory, erudition, religion and complex infrastructures seems to show so little social cohesion and allow so many people to remain poor and uncared for?