What is Naming in Kanak Societies? Naming and personal Identity of the Paicî Kanak People (Ponérihouen, New Caledonia)

Qu’est-ce que la nomination dans les sociétés kanak ? Noms et identité personnelle des Kanak paicî (Ponérihouen, Nouvelle-Calédonie)

Isabelle Leblic (1)

1 LACITO - Langues et civilisations à tradition orale

First I'll present briefly the methodology frame of my researches about Naming, in general [see the presentation which Bertrand Masquelier and myself made for our LACITO operation of research "Names, naming and terminology of relationship" (http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/themes/ nomination.htm)] and in particular, about Kanak societies. Then, from inquiries led in the paicî region of Ponérihouen, I'll show what are the various registers of names, their contexts of use, their transmission, in contact with the terminologies of relationship. We can be indeed named, except for his(her) various names, first names Kanak and Christians and nicknames, by a whole series of elaborate names: according to his(her) place of residence, its situation in its relationship (father of, grandfather of), of nicknames for certain categories of relatives whose names we cannot pronounce (i.e. « pot », « earth », « spirit » for the aunt on father's side for example who, except this very precise custom, are rather of the register of the insults), etc. "Why" and "how" as it is crossed from a register to the other one will be the object of this paper. From genealogical examples, we shall see how names are passed on as well by the paternal as maternal relatives and how they allow the transmission of the local history of clans and individuals. We shall also see how they are an integral part of the constitution of the persons. And to conclude, I'll highlight the importance of Kanak Naming systems for the social relations and the local history, what we can see above all in the genealogies with the repetition of the names from the ancestors until now, in both patrilineal and matrilineal lines, and in the alliances. Methodology frame of this research 1 There are various ways for dealing with naming and several books already gave an account of it 2. One of them is to see naming of person linked to social domains or contexts: for example, 1 I resume here partially the presentation which Bertrand Masquelier and myself made for our LACITO operation of research Names, naming and terminology of relationship (http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/themes/ nomination.htm).

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Isabelle Leblic. What is Naming in Kanak Societies? Naming and personal Identity of the Paicî Kanak People (Ponérihouen, New Caledonia): Paper for ASAO 2013 session: Naming Systems and Naming Relations in Austronesia/ Oceania Organizers: Ku Kun-hui (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan) and Lamont Lindstrom (University of Tulsa, USA). ASAO 2013 session: Naming Systems and Naming Relations in Austronesia/ Oceania, ASAO, Feb 2013, San Antonio, United States. pp.54-79. ⟨hal-02380419⟩