'Elota

'Elota was a celebrated big-man, a leader who built standing through feast-giving and the management of shell valuables and pigs, in the east Kwaio country, whose life history was recorded by Roger Keesing. Renowned for the great mortuary and prestige feasts (maoma) he sponsored, he exemplified the secular ambition that Kwaio religion underwrites, for success in feasting rests on the support of the adalo and on the scrupulous observance of taboo. At his death he joined the ancestral adalo to whom his kin sacrifice.

Domains

• feasting and prestige
• valuables and exchange

Powers

• sponsor great mortuary and prestige feasts
• amass and deploy shell valuables and pigs

Sources

• 'Elota was a renowned Kwaio big-man of east Malaita, celebrated for the feasts he sponsored, whose life history was recorded by Roger Keesing.: Keesing, Roger M. 1978. 'Elota's Story: The Life and Times of a Solomon Islands Big Man. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press. (primary)
• Big-man ambition in Kwaio society is bound to religion, since feasting success depends on the favour of the adalo and on observance of taboo.: Keesing, Roger M. 1982. Kwaio Religion. New York: Columbia University Press. (primary)