La'aka
La'aka is the most prominent of the adalo, the ancestral spirits at the centre of Kwaio religion in east-central Malaita. Unlike the ordinary adalo, who are the remembered dead of a particular descent group, La'aka belongs to a class of ancient and powerful beings who were never ordinary mortals and who are venerated across many groups. She is bound up with the system of abu, the ramifying taboos that divide the sacred from the polluting, men from women, and the shrine (fera) from the menstrual and childbirth seclusion of the bisi. Worshippers secure her favour, and the fertility of pigs and the success in feasting that flow from it, through sacrifice, while neglect or transgression of the taboos she guards brings sickness and misfortune. Sources describe La'aka as female, though her attributes are rendered differently in different local traditions.
Domains
- taboo and pollution
- ancestral blessing and prosperity
- pig sacrifice
Powers
- enforce sacred taboo
- afflict transgressors with sickness
- grant fertility of pigs and success in feasting
- receive sacrificial pigs
Sources
- La'aka is a prominent and widely worshipped adalo of the Kwaio, belonging to the class of powerful ancient beings rather than to the ordinary remembered dead of a single descent group.: Keesing, Roger M. 1982. Kwaio Religion: The Living and the Dead in a Solomon Island Society. New York: Columbia University Press. (primary)
- Kwaio religion centres on adalo (ancestral spirits), pig sacrifice, and an elaborate system of abu (taboo) governing pollution and the separation of the sexes.: Keesing, Roger M. 1982. Kwaio Religion. New York: Columbia University Press. (primary); Akin, David W. 2013. Colonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. (secondary)