ポリネシア神話の構造分析 : Tahaki神話の変換(東部ポリネシア)
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概要
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The Polynesian ancestors, who traveled the ocean and immigrated to many islands, have handed down cultural material and knowledge of several thousand years ago to their descendants. Myths, one of the cultural heritages, have been changed form and content by the isolation of the Islands. The purposes of the, present article are to make clear, firstly, the structural relationships between the Maui and Tahaki myths in New Zealand and, secondly, the transfofmational relationships between some Tahaki myths in Eastern Polynesia. By analysis, we can see systematic changes between the variants of the Tahaki myth. Thus, we know that the Levi-Straussian structural analysis of a myth is also valid in Eastern Polynesia. Maui and Tahaki are famous mythological heroes in Polynesia and they have more powerful manas than their elder brothers, though they are not the primogenitures. They venture to other-worlds, overcome their enemies and solve their difficult problems. Although Maui should be in a superior position to Tahaki in the Polynesian custom. Maui is treated as a minor and the heroes are given the opposite values in character, looks and status by the people. We can see clearly these differences among the Maori myths in New Zealand. In the mythological aspect we know that there are many<complementary semantic oppositions between the Maui and the Tahaki myths. The former has the structure of the trickster type, and the latter the fusion type, which bridges the gap between two and one. In the social aspect, the former belongs to the commoner, and the latter to the chief. The chief's people possess the cosmological origin myths in which it is told how the sky and the earth are eternally separated, but that is a secret among commoners. In this constructed world system, the Maui myth which recreates the world cannot function, but the fusing function of the Tahaki myth can operate effectively in order that communication be restored between the sky and the earth. Thus we know that the differnt values of Maui and Tahaki derive from the difference in the knowledge between the commoner and the chief and this difference corresponds to the semantic oppositions between the Maui and the Tahaki myth. Therefore we can conclude that Maui and Tahaki are the opposite side of the same shield. The principal themes of the Tahaki myth are generally, (1) conflict between same-age relatives, (2) expedition to rescue a father, and (3) love story of the hero, although in the Tahaki myth the model of the chief takes various forms in Eastern Polynesia. From [M_1] New Zealand to [M_2] Tahiti, the transformation of the myth bears on the semantic level. From [M_1] New Zealand to [M_4] Mangareva and from [M_2] Tahiti to [M_3] Tuamotu, the transformations bear on the semantic level and the syntagnratic level. According to this transformation, the power of the hero becomes weak and therefore he is unsuccessful in the third theme. In [M_5] Hawaii, the hero did not solve the second and third themes because he was killed by the enemy, but Rata, who is the hero's grandchild, succeeds later. According to the changes of the themes, that is the killed-hero and the delayed solution by the grandchild, the transformations have a bearing on the framework and the content. What happened to Tahaki? Has he been killed? We can meet Tahaki again who is transformed into the female in the [M_6] Pele myth which develops exceptionally widely in Hawaii. This transformation from the Tahaki myth to the Pele myth changes the syntagmatic code and the theme is reversed, but still the hero is younger and the origin of the hero's mana descending from the female does not change.
- 1981-03-30