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Tattoo on Tikopia

A. There are still debates about the origins of Polynesian culture, but one thing we can ensure is that Polynesia
is not a single tribe but a complex one. Polynesians which include Marquesans, Samoans, Niueans, Tongans,
Cook Islanders, Hawaiians, Tahitians, and Maori, are genetically linked to indigenous peoples of parts of
Southeast Asia. It’s a sub-region of Oceania, comprising of a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over
the central and southern Pacific Ocean, within a triangle that has New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island as its
corners.

B. Polynesian history has fascinated the western world since Pacific cultures were first contacted by European
explorers in the late 18th century. The small island of Tikopia, for many people – even for many Solomon
Islanders – is so far away that it seems like a mythical land; a place like Narnia, that magical land in C. S.
Lewis's classic, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia.’ Maybe because of it – Tikopia, its people, and their cultures have
long fascinated scholars, travelers, and casual observers. Like the pioneers' Peter Dillion, Dumont D’Urville and
John Coleridge Patterson who visit and write about the island in the 1800s, Raymond Firth is one of those
people captured by the alluring attraction of Tikopia. As a result, he had made a number of trips to the island
since the 1920s and recorded his experiences, observations, and reflections on Tikopia, its people, cultures and
the changes that have occurred.

C. While engaged in the study of the kinship and religious life of the people of Tikopia, Firth made a few
observations on their tattooing. Brief though these notes are they may be worth putting on record as an
indication of the sociological setting of the practice in this primitive Polynesian community. The origin of the
English word tattoo’ actually comes from the Tikopia word ‘tatau’. The word for tattoo marks, in general, is tau,
and the operation of tattooing is known as ta tau, ta being the generic term for the act of striking.

D. The technique of tattooing was similar through Polynesia. Traditional tattoo artists create their indelible
tattoos using pigment made from the candlenut or kukui nut. First, they burn the nut inside a bowl made of half
a coconut shell. They then scrape out the soot and use a pestle to mix it with liquid. Bluing is sometimes added
to counteract the reddish hue of the carbon-based pigment. It also makes the outline of the inscribed designs
bolder on the dark skin of tattooing subjects.

E. For the instruments used when tattooing, specialists used a range of chisels made from albatross wing bone
which were hafted onto a handle which was made from the heart wood of the bush and struck with a mallet. The
tattooer began by sketching with charcoal a design on the supine subject, whose skin at that location was
stretched taut by one or more apprentices. The tattooer then dipped the appropriate points – eighter a single one
or a whole comb – into the ink (usually contained in a coconut-shell cup) and tapped it into the subject’s skin,
holding the blade handle in one hand and tapping it with the other. The blood that usually trickled from the
punctures was wiped away either by the tattooer or his apprentice, the latter having also inevitably painful – a
test of fortitude that tattooers sought to shorten by working as fas as possible. In fact, tattoos nearly always
festered and often led to sickness – and in some cases death.

F. In ancient Polynesian society, nearly everyone was tattooed. It was an integral part of ancient culture and
was much more than a body ornament. Tattooing indicated ones' genealogy and/or rank in society. It was a sign
of wealth, of strength and of the ability to endure pain. Those who went without them were seen as persons of
lower social status. As such, chiefs and warriors generally had the most elaborate tattoos. Tattooing was
generally begun at adolescence, and would often not be completed for a number of years. Receiving tattoos
constituted an important milestone between childhood and adulthood, and was accompanied by many rites and
rituals. Apart from signaling status and rank, another reason for the practice in traditional times was to make a
person more attractive to the opposite sex.
G. The male facial tattoo is generally divided into eight sections of the face. The center of the forehead
designated a person’s general rank. The area around the brows designated his position. The area around the eyes
and the nose designated his hapu, or sub-tribe rank. The area around the temples served to details his signature.
This signature was once memorized by tribal chief's who used it when buying property, signing deeds, and
officiating orders. The cheek area designated the nature of the person’s work. The chin area showed the person’s
mana. Lastly, the jaw area designated a person’s birth status.

H. A person’s ancestry is indicated on each side of the face. The left side is generally the father’s side, and the
right side was the mother’s. the manutahi design is worked on the men’s back. It consists of two vertical lines
drawn down the spine, with short vertical lines between them. When a man had the manutahi on this back, he
took pride in himself. At gatherings of the people he could stand forth in their midst and display his tattoo
designs with songs. And rows of triangles design on the men’s chest indicate his bravery.

I. Tattoo was a way of delivering information about its owner. It’s also a traditional method to fetch spiritual
power, protection and strength. The Polynesians use this as a sign of character, position and levels in a
hierarchy. Polynesian people believe that a person’s mana, their spiritual power or life force, is displayed
through their tattoo.
QUESTIONS 10 - 14
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers on boxes 10-14 in your answer sheet.

Location on the body: Significance

- 10 of male face: general

rank

- 11 of male
face: prestige

- Female’s right side of the face: 12

Location on the body: Geometric

patterns

- Male back: 13

- Male chest: 14
 Undersea Movement
A
The underwater world holds many challenges. The most basic of these is movement. The density
of water makes it difficult for animals to move. Forward movement is a complex interaction of
underwater forces. Additionally, water itself has movement. Strong currents carry incredible
power that can easily sweep creatures away. The challenges to aquatic movement result in a
variety of swimming methods, used by a wide range of animals. The result is a dazzling
underwater ballet.
B
Fish rely on their skeleton, fins, and muscles to move. The primary function of the skeleton is to
aid movement of other parts. Their skull acts as a fulcrum and their vertebrae act as levers. The
vertebral column consists of a series of vertebrae held together by ligaments, but not so tightly
as to prevent slight sideways movement between each pair of vertebrae. The whole spine is,
therefore, flexible. The skull is the only truly fixed part of a fish. It does not move in and off
itself but acts as a point of stability for other bones. These other bones act as levers that cause
movement of the fish’s body.
C
While the bones provide the movement, the muscles supply the power. A typical fish has
hundreds of muscles running in all directions around its body. This is why a fish can turn and
twist and change directions quickly. The muscles on each side of the spine contract in a series
from head to tail and down each side alternately, causing a wave-like movement to pass down
the body. Such a movement may be very pronounced in fish such as eels, but hardly perceptible
in others, e.g. mackerel. The frequency of the waves varies from about 50/min in the dogfish to
170/min in the mackerel. The sideways and backward thrust of the head and body against the
water results in the resistance of the water pushing the fish sideways and forwards in a direction
opposed to the thrust. When the corresponding set of muscles on the other side contracts, the fish
experiences a similar force from the water on that side. The two sideways forces are equal and
opposite unless the fish is making a turn, so they cancel out, leaving the sum of the two forward
forces
D
The muscles involved in swimming are of two main types. The bulk of a fish’s body is
composed of the so-called white muscle, while the much smaller areas at the roots of the fins
and in a strip along the centre of each flank comprise red muscle. The red muscle receives a
good supply of blood and contains ampler quantities of fat and glycogen, the storage form of
glucose, which is used for most day-to-day swimming movements. In contrast, the white muscle
has a poor blood supply and few energy stores, and it is used largely for short-term, fast
swimming. It might seem odd that the body of an animal which adapts adapted so efficiently to
its environment should be composed almost entirely of a type of muscle it rarely uses. However,
this huge auxiliary power pack carried by a fish is of crucial significance if the life of the fish is
threatened-by a predator, for instance-because it enables the fish to swim rapidly away from
danger.
E
The fins are the most distinctive features of a fish, composed of bony spines protruding from the
body with skin covering them and joining them together, either in a webbed fashion, as seen in
most bony fish, or more similar to a flipper, as seen in sharks. These usually serve as a means for
the fish to swim. But it must be emphasized that the swimming movements are produced by the
whole of the muscular body, and in only a few fish do the fins contribute any propulsive force!
Their main function is to control the stability and direction of the fish: as water passes over its
body, a fish uses its fins to thrust in the direction it wishes to go.
F
Fins located in different places on a fish serve different purposes, such as moving forward,
turning, and keeping an upright position. The tail fin, in its final lash may contribute as much as
40 per cent of the forward thrust. The median fins, that is, the dorsal, anal and ventral fins,
control the rolling and yawing movements of the fish by increasing the vertical surface area
presented to the water. The paired fins, pectoral and pelvic act as hydroplanes and control the
pitch of the ash, causing it to swim downwards or upwards according to the angle to the water at
which they are held by their muscles. The pectoral fins lie in front of the centre of gravity and,
being readily mobile, are chiefly responsible for sending the ash up or down. The paired ins are
also the means by which the fish slows down and stops.
G
The swimming speed of fish is not so fast as one would expect from watching their rapid
movements in aquaria or ponds. Tuna seems to be the fastest at 44 mph, trout are recorded as
doing 23 mph, pike 20 mph for short bursts and roach about 10 mph, while the majority of small
fish probably do not exceed 2 or 3 mph. Many people have attempted to make accurate
measurements of the speed at which various fish swim, either by timing them over known
distances in their natural environment or by determining their performance in man-made
swimming channels. From these studies, we can broadly categorise fish into four groups:
“sneakers”, such as eels that are only capable of slow speeds but possess some staying power;
“stayers”, that can swim quite fast over long periods; “sprinters” that can generate fast bursts of
speed (e.g. pike); and “crawlers” that are sluggish swimmers, although they can accelerate
slightly (bream, for example).
H
One type of sailfish is considered to be the fastest species of fish over short distances, achieving
68 mph over a three-second period, and anglers have recorded speeds in excess of 40 mph over
longer periods for several species of tuna. One is likely to consider a fish’s swimming
capabilities in relation to its size. However, it is generally true that a small fish is a more able
swimmer than a much larger one. On the other hand in terms of speed in miles per hour, a big
fish will, all other things being equal, be able to swim faster than a smaller
Questions 11-13
Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each blank.
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

Two types of muscles are involved in fish swimming. The majority of a fish’s body comprises

the 11 , and the red muscle is found only at the roots of the fins and in a strip along the centre

of each flank. For most of its routine movements, the fish uses a lot of its 12 saved in body,

and white muscle is mostly used for short-term, fast swimming, such as escaping from 13 .
 Crows Can be Craftsmen too

A remarkable colony of inventors has emerged on an isolated Pacific island.They can fashion tools out of
materials scavenged from the rainforest. They can even customise a tool for a given job. Meet the crows of New
Caledonia.
Thinkers as diverse as Freud, Engels and Thomas Carlyle once pointed to the use of tools as being a defining
behaviour of human beings. Then it was found that many animals also used them, from the’fishing sticks’of
apes to the rocks dropped on ostrich eggs by Egyptian vultures. Crows are particularly crafty. Earlier studies
showed that they are almost human-like in their use of tools, with technological features that match the stone
and bone tool cultures that emerged among primitive humans between 2.5 million and 70,000 BC.
But only humans were thought to have the brain power required for cumulative technological evolution. This is
the skill for innovation that took our ancestors two million years ago from creating flakes of flint, for use in
cutting, to honing knives, blades, arrowheads and axeheads.
Now this ‘unique’ attribute of humans has also turned out to be a flattering delusion. A new study shows that the
crows of New Caledonia are inventive. With their evolving leaf tools, the birds have levered man off his
pedestal.
Dr Gavin Hunt and Dr Russell Gray of the University of Auckland have spent the past decade studying
feathered technology in New Caledonia, 900 miles north-east of Australia. After an intensive field survey of
local crow industry, the scientists found that the birds rip the leaves of the pandanus tree to fashion three distinct
types of tool for grub and insect extraction: wide, narrow and tapered.
Long ago, the birds discovered that they could rip the serrated edge off the leaves to make a wide tool. The skill
spread and the crows honed tools with finer working tips, by either narrowing tools or tapering them. (Because
the leaves are reinforced by tough parallel fibres, the tapered design is made in steps. The crow nips the leaf,
rips along the fibres, makes another cut and tears again, repeating until it has a tool with usually two, three or
four steps.)
Leaf tool manufacture is an example of culture: the birds leam through example and their tool-making wisdom
grows in sophistication down the generations. The crows appear to have the cognitive requirements for
cumulative, though rudimentary, technological evolution, said Dr Gray. Tool manufacture in New Caledonian
crows shows striking flexibility and innovation.’ The ability of the birds to innovate is further shown by their
making of other tools. They often strip a twig of leaves and cut it off just below a shortened offshoot to create a
hook to get bugs out. They also use simpler tools to extract grubs from the dead wood of trees.
Prof Alex Kacelnik, fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, praised the study as’extremely important’. It
complements his own research, with Dr Jackie Chappell and Alex Weir, which has turned Betty the New
Caledonian crow into a star by revealing her to be the first animal, other than man, to show a basic
understanding of cause and effect.
Betty began making tools after her partner snatched away a hook made for her by the researchers, forcing her to
make her own from garden wire to fish out morsels from a tube. She wedged the end of the wire into the base of
the food tube and turned her head to form the hook. What amazed the researchers is that she can even adapt her
hooks if they are not up to the job, something that even chimpanzees are unable to do. Although chimps use
sticks in experiments, they have not shown any human-like understanding of basic physical laws.’When she
starts bending the wire it is as if she has a clear objective, even correcting the angle of the hook if it is not right,’
said Prof Kacelnik.’Although many animals use tools, purposeful modification of objects to solve new
problems, without training or prior experience, is virtually unknown.’
‘While we have been emphasising the individual ability of animals like Betty to solve problems, the New
Zealand team has been emphasising tool manufacture, the cultural traditions and transmission of information in
the wild,’ said Prof Kacelnik. Both strands of research are related by how the crows are not genetically
programmed to use a tool, like a spider and his web. Instead, the birds creatively invent new kinds of tools to
solve problems and can share skills with others.
The crow family are the Einsteins of the avian world, though Prof Kacelnik added that, at least in terms of tool
making, the Pacific crows are smarter than their British cousins. We have not yet identified what it is that makes
these crows so special, though it is something to do with ecological circumstances,’said Prof Kacelnik.
Once scientists have got to the bottom of what makes Pacific crows master toolmakers, they may have to think
again about how this skill evolved in humans.
Questions 11-13
Complete the summary.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

It used to be thought that only human beings used tools. Even after we learned that many

other 10 also do so, it was still believed that only humans were intelligent enough to

gradually evolve better tools. A study of crows in 11 , however, shows that these birds
use a leaf tool which has been evolved over several generations. A crow in another study has shown the

humanlike ability to understand 12 in order to manufacture tools, which not

even 13 can do.

---End of the Test---