To Kabinana

To Kabinana is the elder and wiser of the two creator brothers of Tolai tradition, the benevolent shaper to whom the useful and well-formed things of the world are traced. In the myths recorded on the Gazelle Peninsula he draws or carves the first human beings, brings forth the good coconut and the edible fish, and lays down the proper order of society; he divides humankind into the two intermarrying matrilineal moieties and establishes right marriage. His works are consistently set against the blunders of his younger brother, whose folly spoils or inverts each of his creations. To Kabinana withdrew from the world once his making was done and receives no cult, yet he remains the measure of order, skill, and good sense in Tolai thought. Sources differ on whether the two brothers were self-existent or were made by a prior being, whom most accounts leave unnamed.

Domains

• creation
• social order
• kinship and marriage

Powers

• shape the first human beings
• ordain the right order of society

Relations

• twin: To KarvuvuRoland B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (1916), pp. 110-113 (secondary)
• sibling: To PurgoThe brother named To Purgo in the Duke of York and outer-Gazelle traditions is widely held to be the same figure as To Karvuvu.George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians: Their Life-Histories Described and Compared (1910) (primary)

Sources

• To Kabinana is the wise elder of the two Tolai creator twins, the benevolent maker who fashioned humankind and the beneficial order of the world.: Josef Meier, Mythen und Erzaehlungen der Kuestenbewohner der Gazelle-Halbinsel (1909) (primary); Richard Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Suedsee (1907) (primary); Roland B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (1916), pp. 110-113 (secondary)
• He is credited with instituting the two exogamous matrilineal moieties by making the first women.: Richard Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Suedsee (1907) (primary); A. L. Epstein, Matupit (1969) (secondary)