L’igname et le fruit du nôôle. Plantes, animaux, personnes et collectifs dans le système socio-cosmique d’Arama (Kanaky Nouvelle-Calédonie)

Abstract

The yearly first fruit ceremony for yams has been described in most societies of Kanaky New Caledonia. In the far north of the country, however, Arama society’s special feature is that a few weeks before the yam ceremony a small ceremony is held which revolves around the fruit of a tree, the nôôle. This ceremony concerns ad hoc collectives of people acting together. Classically in Kanaky New Caledonia, the yam ceremony concerns a localized social configuration, here the Great House and its ancestors. It is made up of four hamlets conceptualized as Houses organized by an order of precedence. This ceremony also concerns kinship groups (and relations with the Catholic Church). This article analyses both ceremonies in relation to their environments, to horticulture and to their sequential unfoldings. Its perspective is a dynamic, processual description of aspects of the Kanak world construed as a socio-cosmic space and system.