Buka Island
British, Australian and American whaling ships visited the island in the nineteenth century for food, water and wood.
After holding out for years on poor supplies, the Japanese surrendered in 1945 when allied troops were approaching the Selau peninsula on nearby Bougainville.
The village sector is characterised by subsistence farming, primarily of sweet potato as a staple food, and the production of copra and cocoa as cash crops by family-sized units and small cooperative work groups.
Vanilla and tropical spice crops have made a halting progress, and remain very minor sources of income for villagers.
It is separated from Bougainville by the Buka Passage, a narrow, deep and very fast flowing tidal channel about 200 metres (660 feet) wide.
The east coast is the windward side for most of the year, and is characterised by a coastal cliff that rises close to the ocean, leaving only a narrow and often rocky beach.
This poses a problem for the island's residents, especially during the dry season, when water is collected by villagers from "kukubui" springs along the foot of the cliffs.
Coastal (or "tasi" – beach) villagers, namely the Haku, Halia and West Coast speakers, planted taro, kept chickens, fished and collected shellfish.
The Solos fished in Buka's rivers and traded forest products and taro with the Halia and West Coast islanders.
As in most Pacific Islands, pigs were, and still are, extremely important and are seldom eaten except in the course of rituals and formal feasts.
Buka kinship does not prescribe a post-marital residence, but it is generally preferred that a young couple live first with the husband's maternal relatives, and later move to the wife's land.
There are inherited positions of authority for men, or chieftainships called tsunono (in Halia, or close cognates in the other languages).
This is changing somewhat under the influence of NGOs and also because of women's leadership role in the peace movement during the Bougainville Civil War.
If a man is not a good speaker, or if his brother is an exceptional one, the body of tsunono can recognise him as a "mausman" (spokesman in Tok Pisin) or tsonpepeito (guardian in Halia).
Although the clan cannot (easily) remove a tsunono if he fails to do this, they can make it very difficult for him to mobilise the land and labour resources required to be an effective political agent.
Large wooden slit-gongs are kept there, and struck to call meetings, announce funerals, deaths and other village events.
Striking the post of a tsuhana in anger is said to be equivalent to assaulting the chief, and requires expiation by the sacrifice of a pig.
In general, tsunono and tsuhana have authority over a sub-clan, or hamlet sized territory encompassing between five and twenty nuclear families.
Traditionally, the latter carried out the prestige classes' dirty work; more recently these groups have become independent ('bruklus') and assert themselves as "clans in their own right".
During reconciliation ceremonies, the "opposite" moiety will make speeches setting conditions on the reconciling parties and will preside over sacrifices.
