Ureparapara: An Ethnographic Study of Kastom, Spirits, and Everyday Life on the Island of Ureparapara, Vanuatu.

This ethnographic thesis is based on six months of fieldwork on the island of Ureparapara in 2017. This island is located in the Pacific Ocean and is part of the Banks group, north in Vanuatu. A minimal amount of ethnographic literature is available from this island, so the purpose of this thesis is to embrace as many interesting topics as possible. The everyday life on Ureparapara will be demonstrated through various topics, such as kastom, religion, beliefs and life cycles, amongst others. This thesis provides general information concerning climate, language and economy. It explores how the system of kinship on this island can be a matrilineal puzzle, due to its virilocal residence patterns and matrilineal descent. Descriptions of different life cycles such as birth, marriage and death, and descriptions of the various relationships serves as examples of the intricate system of kinship. Religion as an eminently collective experience will be explored by describing the various Christian denominations that were present on Ureparapara during the time of my fieldwork, and how they manage the collective dissociation or association in everyday life. In this thesis, I will discuss how healing water and holy water affect the people who believe in its powers. I argue that this belief, together with the belief in magic and the presence of spirits and certain kastom rituals, is part of the construction of the person on Ureparapara. The term and concept kastom will be explained in relation to gender, female grade taking, tourism, and how it might be changing. I argue that this change is due to an increase in tourism, which leaves the people on Ureparapara in a Catch-22 paradox, as their desire for technological development conflicts with the financial rewards of tourism centred on traditional lifestyle