Music of Vanuatu

Roots and traditions

Traditional religion

Before Christianity, the indigenous religion of Vanuatu was inherited from Oceanian and Melanesian traditions. Missionaries often called this pre-Christian religion “pagan” or “heathen” in English, and as “times of darkness” in the country's local languages, or in Bislama (taem blong tudak). The traditional religion, sometimes considered a form of animism, has been described by various authors, notably the Anglican missionary and anthropologist Robert Codrington in his famous 1891 monograph The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore (1891). He was followed by other scholars, including anthropologists and linguists. Concepts central to the traditional religion include mana, tabu, and the worship of ancestral spirits (tamate). Named deities or mythological figures included Qat and Qasavara in the Banks Is, Tagaro on Ambae, Lisepsep across the archipelago. Grade-taking ceremonies, which existed throughout Vanuatu, were associated with the indigenous religion, and with the transmission of mana.