On Skin and Bone: Samoan Coconut Oil in Indigenous Practice

Repackaging Tradition in Tahiti?: Mono'i and Labels of Origin in French Polynesia

“…In Society Islands traditions, mono'i was used to anoint the dead, helping preserve the body. On ceremonial occasions, the oil was applied to the bones of the ancestors and altars of the marae (open-air places of worship) (Oliver 1974, 155, 498-499, 935;Albonico and Milledrogues 2009, 15-19; also compare Alefosio and Henderson 2017). Coconut oil also played an important role in Tahitian pharmacopeia.…”

Coconut Oil Reflects: A Comparative Commodity Ethnography In Two Sites

“…It also denies Christianity its ability to adapt to indigenous values (Carroll, 2004). Additionally, while the articulation of Christianity has significantly impacted access to precolonial ontological knowledge, it's clear that certain spiritual practices with pre-Christian roots are maintained and attributed new meaning through the church (Alefosio & Henderson, 2018). In some cases, the church and indigenous spiritual frameworks even strengthen the other's validity and power through opposition (Ho, 2018;Soker, 1972).…”

“…For example, the fact that the word for 'land' and the word for 'placenta' are homonyms in te reo Māori-'whenua'-indicates a strong conceptual bond between the two. Additionally, in the Pacific, burials which ritualistically place a person into the Earth either in part (if just their placenta) or entirely (upon or well-after death), 27 aim to situate this person in relation to their geographic, spiritual, even political realms (Alefosio & Henderson, 2018;DeLisle, 2015;Powell, 2021).…”

“…Naputi Lascado doesn't know why her grandmother was focusing on massaging her neck; she was too young at the time to remember. But if the practice reflects those of other traditional Pacific healers, it's possible that it was used to treat some sort of ailment, whether the problem was physical, social or spiritual in nature, as indigenous Pacific medicine tends to engage with health holistically (Alefosio & Henderson, 2018;McMakin, 1978). As Toaga Alefosio and April Henderson (2018) discuss in their work, part of the recent marketing strategy of coconut oil has been gesturing to its purported medicinal properties linked to indigenous Pacific cultures, but these gestures are rarely accompanied by substantive ethnographic information to contextualize its use.…”

“…The entire event lasted from ten in the morning until six at night and neither her or her cousin were allowed any breaks. The event concluded with a samaga ceremony in which her Aucklandbased tufuga tā tatau (master tattoo artist) ritualistically bathed Savelio and her cousin's legs in sama (turmeric mixed with coconut oil) and cracked an egg on their heads lifting the tapu tatau initiates are bound by (Alefosio & Henderson, 2018;Galliot, 2015;Va'a, 2006).…”