Lehi's pig named Demo

Pigs were traditionally raised for tusks as well as food; after the pigs were hand fed for a number of years (and thus protected from foraging), the tusk would grow into a circle (or sometimes a double circle), sometimes going right through the jaw bone. In traditional times, a tusk growing through the bone meant the pig couldn't forage without breaking these valuable things. Thus, women are said to have hand fed these boars with food they pre-chewed. These tusks were symbols of prosperity, increasingly valuable the more times they circled. At present they may be worn as pendants or bracelets, usually by ni-Vanuatu men. Lehi, the pig's owner, named this pig 'Demonstrashun' (Demonstration) because he was given to her at the large Lamango Plantation demonstration just prior to Independence. This event helped catalyze the independence movement.

• July 1981

• Larcom, Joan

• Skinner-Jones, Ann

• Women at Work

• Melanesia
• Oceania
• Pacific Islands
• South West Bay (Malakula, Vanuatu)
• Wintua (Malekula, Vanuatu)

• Lehi

• Manners and customs
• Pigs
• Tusks
• Women

• image

• No linguistic content; Not applicable

• Skinner-Jones, Ann

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2021-11-16