Melanesian mythology
It was then accepted practice to blend together mythological traditions from different regions of the South Pacific as if they were examples of a single "Melanesian" culture.
[N 4][2] According to Dixon, the material on the mythology of Melanesia, though incomplete and fragmentary, "appears rather clearly to prove" the existence of two distinct strata, one of which he called "Papuan", the other "Melanesian" [sic].
His so-called "Melanesian"[N 4] stratum, on the other hand, was mostly found in Remote Oceania (which he named "eastern Melanesia"), but also throughout parts of New Guinea, among the coast tribes of northern New Britain, and in the Admiralty Islands.
Another origin myth entails a man and a woman floating in the sea on a piece of driftwood until the waters retreated, upon which they began to reside on dry land.
In New Britain, among the coastal tribes of the Gazelle Peninsula, the two culture hero brothers, To-Kabinana and To-Karvuvu fished dry land from the bottom of the sea.
The concept of a primeval sea is found widely in central Polynesia, Micronesia, and Indonesia, but appears only in the northern parts of Melanesia, where contact with non-Melanesian peoples would theoretically be expected.
While Dixon did not focus on the beginning of the world in his "Melanesian" area, he found considerable and widely varying material on the creation of mankind.
In the Admiralty Islands, one myth exists about a lonely man who longed for a wife and so commanded a carved wooden figure of a woman to come to life.
In the Banks Islands, the deity Qat is described as the first to make humans, cutting wood out of the dracaena tree and forming it into six figures, three men and three women.
According to another version from the same area, while the first man was made of red clay by Qat, he created the first woman of rods and rings of twigs covered with the spathes of sago palms, which are used to make the tall hats used in sacred dances.
A myth from the Admiralty Islands places the origin of men as having hatched from eggs that arose from the spilled blood of a woman named Hi-asa.
At several regions in northern Papua New Guinea, Dixon seemed to find similar tales of children originating from clots of blood.
An origin of the human race from plants is unique to the Solomon Islands, where it is said that two knots began to sprout on a stalk of sugar-cane, from which came a man and a woman.
An origin of the first woman from a tree and of the first man from the ground is given by the Papuan tribes of Elema in southern Papua New Guinea; in the New Hebrides, the first female being is said to have been transformed from a cowrie-shell.
Although Dixon's "Melanesia" lacks myths of the origin of the world, a tale recounting the source of the sea is quite widely spread.
As told by the Baining in New Britain, the story runs as follows: In the beginning the sea was only a tiny water-hole from which an old woman got the saltwater to flavor her food, which she kept concealed under a cover of tapa cloth.
In anger at his action, the old woman seized what was left of her fire, divided it into two parts, and threw them into the sky, the larger portion becoming the sun, and the smaller the moon.
Before he left, Dudugera warned his mother and relatives to take refuge under a great rock, for soon, he said, he would climb into a pandanus-tree and go into the sky as the sun and destroy everything with his heat.
To prevent their total annihilation, the mother took a lime-calabash and cast the lime into his face as he came up, causing the sun to shut his eyes and decrease the amount of heat.
According to a version told by the Motu, the ancestors of the present people had no fire, and ate their food raw until one day they saw smoke rising out at sea.
[citation needed] Some of the Massim tribes of south-eastern Papua New Guinea give a different origin: Before the discovery of fire, an old woman called Goga made uncooked food for many people.
[citation needed] According to another form of myth told in the Banks Islands, in the beginning men did not die but could shed their skins to restore their youth.
In the Banks Islands, the myths also went that in the beginning men lived forever and shed their skins, but that the permanence of property in the same hands led to much trouble.
[citation needed] Of deluge-myths from the Melanesian area, only a few have been reported which do not bear the marks of missionary influence, such as references to the great flood in Christianity.
[citation needed] Dixon believes that from the tales he collected, the origin-myths of Melanesia show clear evidence of composite origins.
A sort of dualism is developed which stands in contrast to Indonesian mythology, while showing points of contact with Polynesian and Micronesian ideas.
Tales of a similar type have been collected at one or two points on the shore of northern Papua New Guinea, but appear to be much less common than among the coast population of New Britain.
By contrast, stories of wise and foolish brothers are very prevalent in the Solomons and Vanuatu; in the latter cases, tales of the second type (i.e. concerning a group of ten or twelve) are more common.
A common theme in Melanesian tales is the risk for humans to be eaten alive by non-humans: either ghosts, spirits, or dangerous animals.
A common story plot in Melanesia is for villagers to be threatened by a grave danger (monster, giant animal, volcano...) and to leave en masse their island – except for one person, usually a pregnant woman, who is left there alone.
