I. Origins

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One of the key aspects of the Tongan creation story is its genealogical character. This genealogy reveals the structure of the va, and becomes the basis for understanding and justifying later relational hierarchies (such as the first Tu'i Tonga Ahoeitu justifying his rule through his relation to Tangaloa, as explored in Chapter 3.) But the genealogy laid out by the creation story may also encode information about the social changes and phases that the original inhabitants of the Moana underwent as they journeyed and settled across the ocean. 

The Cycle of Hierarchy and Egalitarianism

In the beginning, there was Pulotu, the ancestral homeland and place to which chiefly spirits return, and Vahanoa, the vast and empty expanse of open ocean. The founding dichotomy of the Tongan creation story is that of the established, hierarchical ancestral structure on one hand, and on the other hand, the unwritten potential of the open ocean and exodus into it. Pulotu is understood across the Moana to commonly refer to Fiji, the place where the Lapita people (the earliest inhabitants of Tonga) settled before their continuing eastward voyage into Tonga. Mahina describes this duality as representative of a transitional cycle that occurs as people migrate from their ancestral homeland to a new place: the new land appears at first as an opportunity to escape from the old heirarchy, and thus the social structure of the new home is often more egalitarian until a new hierarchy is established over time.  He writes: "As far as hierarchy is concerned, the antagonistic transition from the Lapita Culture complex to the Polynesian culture, while undergoing some intermediary egalitarian stages, appears to have been a transformation from one type of hierarchy to another... In the course of experiencing their alien environment first hand, of becoming initially at one with their new surrounding, people tend to experience an initial state of egalitarianism. But while the old order is at risk through action, the actual practice of migration, as migrants become acquainted with their adopted homeland, gradually (re)structures a new order, where the social coordinates of people are antagonized, fixing some and altering others in the process." [2]

Within this transitional cycle, there are distinct phases which are undergone that map onto the metaphorical representations within the genealogy of the Talatupu'a: Mahina identifies these three phases as "naturalistic", (forces such as Limu/seaweed and Kele/soil), "humanistic" (the male and female twin pairs), and "theistic" (the emergence of the Tangaloa, Maui, and Hikuleo gods). 

The Naturalistic Phase

The naturalistic phase deals primarily with entities and forces in nature. One might might consider the naturalistic phase to begin with another duality, that given by Limu (seaweed) and Kele (soil). Mahina identifies the naturalistic phase as describing the early phase of the society which is primarily concerned with land and sea-based production of the goods necessary for survival and growth. Outside of the ancestral homeland of Pulotu and within the expanse of Vahanoa float Limu and Kele, representative of the potentiality of the natural forces and resources of the land and sea. Limu and Kele form the volcanic rock Tou'ia-'a-Futuna, whose violent shaking gives birth to four pairs which include various animals such as turtles and pigeons (crucial sources of food), as well as entities whose names describe skilled mastery of the forces of production (such as tokilangafonua, or "stone adze builder of society"). During this period of social formation, the most important forces were natural ones, and similarly important were the skills and abilities to use these natural materials and forces for sustenance and for the building-up of society.

This part of the Tongan creation story also echoes and reinforces the reciprocal relationship between nature and people, as the story positions the male-female pairs of human twins that follow as being directly descended from forces of nature.

The Humanistic Phase

The humanistic phase is expressed through the male-female pairs of human twins that follow next in the sequence. This phase begins more egalitarian in nature, but eventually evolves into a form of society that is more hierarchical (culminating in the theistic phase). Mahina notes, "the term mahanga [sister-brother twin] is idiomatically used in Tonga referring to two people or more equally excelling in physical, mental, and social attributes such as strength or beauty, intelligence and status or power." Mahina also notes that such incest as a practice was not uncommon across the pacific especially for the purposes of preserving royal blood or mana within a family line, and may equally represent a physical reality especially during periods of early human settlement and procreation.

The Theistic Phase

Many of the figures that emerge later in the genealogy, especially the Tangaloa, Maui, and Hikuleo line, are deified ancestral figures wihin the Talatupu'a and represent the (re)establishment of a chiefly heirarchy within the origin story. Many of these deities (and others such as the goddesses Nafanua and Tafakula) are also shared across various Polynesian cultures. The figures of Tangaloa and Maui were likely introduced to Tonga via Samoa from Eastern Polynesia. While the original migrations into Eastern Polynesia began in Pulotu/Fiji and moved eastward through Tonga and Samoa, it was the return migrations from Eastern Polynesia back to Samoa and Tonga that brought a new social structures with many new heirarchical nuances, lineages, and dynasties (discussed in more detail in the next section).

The domain of the Tangaloa line was said to be Langi (or the sky, which also referred metaphorically to Samoa), whereas the domain of Hikule'o was the spirit world Pulotu (which referred metaphorically to Fiji), and Maui's domain was Maama (or Tonga). Within the oral tradition, Hikule'o's brothers bind her with kafa (rope) to Pulotu, which may refer to the diminishing political power of Fiji in the era of Samoan dominance. Tangaloa was considered supreme, which likely represented the rule of the Samoan Tu'i Manua empire until the rise of the first Tu'i Tonga Aho'eitu (which will be explored in detail in the section on Kings and Chiefs).