Post #466470 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Jul 2, 2009 3:55 PM

Thanks guys, both of the links above cannot be resurrected often enough, as they should inspire the casual Tiki fan to dig deeper. There is a lot of scattered info out there. Though we all know and appreciate the fact that Polynesian pop is by definition NOT concerned with the deeper meanings of Tiki gods, it is indeed frustrating for those who want to know more that there are no concise answers to many of the questions about the names and meanings of the various deities of the Polynesian people.

The reason why, and the reason why there will never be ONE authoritative work on the ancient Tiki traditions is that much of the knowledge is based on conjecture. The two facts that A.) Pacific ancestor worship religions were based on AURAL transmission and not on WRITTEN texts like in the West, and B.) that Westerners, mostly the missionaries, did a darn good job eradicating these pagan beliefs, has left a lot of holes in many island traditions. There are SOME stories and myths that have been recorded and saved into the 19th and 20th century, but not enough to recreate the complete pantheon of all the gods that once reigned the Polynesian netherworld.