Population Studies: A Journal of Demography

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The population of Tikopia, 1929 and

1952
W. D. Borrie , Raymond Firth & James Spillius
Published online: 09 Nov 2011.
To cite this article: W. D. Borrie , Raymond Firth & James Spillius (1957) The population of
Tikopia, 1929 and 1952, Population Studies: A Journal of Demography, 10:3, 229-252
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00324728.1957.10413222
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The Population of Tikopia, 1929 and 1952
By W. D. B 0 R R lE, RAY M 0 N D FIR T H and
JAMES SPILLIUS
Demographic statistics of the Pacific island peoples are notoriously inadequate.

Hence most investigators, whether economists, anthropologists or historians,
have either to compile their own population data from field surveys or to risk
broad generalizations on the basis of quite inadequate material. Nor is this
problem of inadequate population data likely to be overcome " officially" in
the near future in many of the Pacific islands. Thus it is of some importance to
consider what kinds of population data should be collected by social scientists
as part of their field work. In this article this question is considered particularly
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from the points of view of the anthropologist and the demographer.

For the demographer, the primary concern would be to provide reliable and
comprehensive statistics with which he can examine patterns of growth, levels
of reproduction, and trends in fertility and mortality. Not until he has established
his demographic trends and patterns can he proceed to comment upon the
implications of these for the social structure of the area under study-e.g., what
is the social significance of a given marriage age; of abortion, infanticide or
controlled fertility; of changes in the level of natural increase upon employment
opportunities or the pressure of numbers against limited resources.
For the anthropologist, on the other hand, full statistics are not usually so
urgent a requirement. He does naturally need some population statistics which
can throw further light upon the social and cultural patterns he is examining.
But how far should he go? The anthropologist's time available for field work
is usually a minimum for his own requirements, so that he is unlikely to be able
to collect all the data that the demographer would wish to have. But can he,
by going a little further than an accurate head-count, collect data useful to the
demographer and, at the same time, relevant to the anthropological questions
which must be the main concern? The sex composition, number of children
and numbers of single and married adults have clearly considerable significance
for most anthropological analyses. If to these can be added a reasonably accurate
estimate of the age composition of the population considerably more can be
revealed, particularly where age can be related to annual birth and death statistics.
But even where such vital records do not exist, an accurate record of ages can
frequently indicate when there have been sudden changes in the population
structure, for example through birth deficits, or abnormal mortality, or through
migration.
These were the types of questions raised at the first of the many discussions!
between demographer and anthropologist which culminated in this article.
1 The first of which were held at the Australian National University, Canberra, shortly before Firth
left for his second visit to Tikopia in 1952-. Firth wishes to record his indebtedness to the Australian
National Research Council which sponsored this first expedition; to the Australian National Unive.sity
which sponsored the second expedition, to the Carnegie Corporation which made the services of J.
Spillius available, and to the Behavioral Sciences Division of the Ford Foundation which, through part
of a grant-in-aid, facilitated the anthropological collaboration with the demographers.
229
230 W. D. BORRIE, RAYMOND FIRTH AND JAMES SPILLIUS
The first problem was to isolate the questions which should be answered in a
field census of a community such as Tikopia. Clearly these questions should
as far as possible be related to any earlier enumerations of the population. Two
summary censuses had been taken, in 19441 and 19332 but these classified each
sex only by the two broad divisions of " children" (under approximately 16)
and " adults" with the latter broken again into the sub-groups of " single",
" married" and" widowed". Fortunately much more detailed data had been
collected by Firth in 1929 during his first visit to Tikopia.s the unpublished
material of which was still available. In this case the age of every person was
recorded, together with sex and marital status, and every biological family as
well as "household" and kinship group could be identified from the census
books. It was clearly desirable that the census to be taken during the second
visit to the island in 1952 should be in a similar form so that some comparative
analyses could be made." These data could also be summarised to match the
material available from the enumerations of Crawfurd in 1933 and Barrow in
1944·
The end product of these discussions was agreed figures for the demographic
analyses of the 1929 and 1952 censuses. After careful re-checking the 1919
population was put at 1,1785, and that for 1952 at 1,7536 , The population by
sex in 1919, 1933, 1944 and 1952 was :
Firth Crawfurd Barrow Firth
19 29 1933 1944 1952
Males ... ... 68S 7 22 804 920
Females .,. .. , 593 601 7 13 833
TOTAL .. , 1,278 1,3 23 1,517 1,753
The analysis which follows will be limited essentially to the comparable data
derived from the censuses of 1929 and 1952.
1 By G. L. Barrow, then Assistant District Officer, Vanikoro,
2 By B. E. Crawfurd, formerly District Officer at Vanikoro (see R. Firth, We, the Tikopia (1936),
p. 600).
3 See R. Firth, We, the Tikopia. London (1936), pp. 408 ff. ; and cc Report on Research in Tikopia ",
Oceoma, vol. I, no. I, 1930, pp. 10S-1 I7.
4 The problems which Firth encountered in 1929 and the manner in which he dealt with them to
arrive at his estimates of age have already been published and require no further comment here. In
1952 similar methods were used for the population aged approximately under 23; while for those older
than this, stated age could be checked against the age recorded in 1929 plus 23 years. (Cf. ibid, and
R. Firth" Census and Sociology in a Primitive Island Community (Tikopia).", World Population
Conference, Rome, 1954. After Firth returned from Tikopia in August 1952, his census books of 1929
and 1952 were left with the Department of Demography of the Australian National University for the
extraction and analysis of the demographic data. (The extraction of these data from the books, which
contained a great deal of sociological as well as demographic data, was the patient work of Mr. D. R. G.
Packer and Miss K. JupP of the Department of Demography, Australian National University). In
the absence of the anthropologists who had recorded the material (Firth having returned to England
and Spillius being still in the field) this proved a laborious task. (The details of these problems are not
relevant. While the demographers made fundamental and unwarranted errors in their first counts
from the census books, they were at least able to retrieve some of their reputation in the end by rectifying
some double entries of individuals by the anthropologist. One point that emerged was the need for
the census to have a key clear to an outsider, even when intended originally to be used only by the
collector of the data). But most problems were finally ironed out as the result of further personal
discussions when Firth paid a second brief visit to Australia in August, 1953. In addition, Spillius
1'HE POPULATION OF TIKOPIA 1929 AND 1952 231
What is revealed to the demographer in the details of age, sex and marital
status collected from the census books of 1929 and 1952, together with the records
of pregnancies, births and deaths which accompanied each of these censuses?
In terms of total growth, the increase from 1,278 to 1,753 in 23 years implies
an average annual rate of increase of 1 ' 4 %, which is relatively high by " white"
standards but lower than known rates in many Asiatic countries as well as in
some Pacific Island territories, This rate can be interpreted essentially as natural
increase, for there was little known migration in the inter-censal period until
immediately before the census of 1952 when some 130 persons were" temporarily
absent" in the Solomons; but these were enumerated in the 1952 census,
The growth of population assuming an average annual increase of l ' 4 % is
illustrated in the graph below.
THE INTERCENSAL GROWTH OFTHE POPULATION OF TIKOPIA

1929-1952
- - ASSUMING CONSTANT ANNUAL RATE OF GROWTH 1929-52

---- ASSUMING CONSTANT ANNUAL INCREMENT WITHIN EACH
INTERCENSAL PERIOD,
z
o 1750 1952
, , "
J- ,,
<Cl: 1650 , I
, I
..J
,,,
:::> ,
Q,
, ,,
o
1550
,,
Q, ,/1944
, ,,
,,
1450
..J
,,
/
,,
/
<Cl: ,
l- ,,
,
o 1350
/1933
l-
1929
1250 I , I, I", I • , • , I I I ' , J , , I ' I
1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955

YEA R
returned to Canberra from the field in October of the same year when additional useful discussions
were held, particularly in relation to data he had collected for the year ending March, 1953, on preg-
nancies, births and morbidity.
5 Le, three fewer than the figure of 1,281 in We, the Tikopia, in which two, or more probably three,
persons were double-counted.
• Because of our inability to get together for a final check of a few cases, there is still a small difference
in the totals derived by the demographers (1,753) and the anthropologists (1,760), but there is every
reason for believing that these are minimum and maximum estimates, and the difference (approximately
0·4 % of the population) is slight enough to involve no serious margin of error in the analyses which
follow.
132 W. O. BORRIE, RAYMOND FIRTH AND JAMES SPILLIUS
In the absence of accurate annual data of births and deaths between the censuses
we do not know what were the short-term variations from this annual average
rate of growth of 1 . 4%. But comparing the population counts of Crawfurd
in 19B and Barrow in 1944 with a graph based on an average rate of 1 '4%,
it seems that after 1929 the increase fell below this rate for the next fifteen years.
(See graph). Given an increase of 1 '4% a year the population in 19B would
have been 1,351, whereas Crawfurd's figure was only 1,323' Barrow's 1944
count was likewise only 1,517, compared with 1,574 on the estimated 1 '4%
mcrease.
AGE COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF

TIKOPIA
1929
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Given these data, slight as they are, the demographer would next wish to
explain them in terms of changes in fertility, the age composition of the popula-
tion, abnormal mortality, or some similar index or combination of indices.
With annual vital data available the explanation of the deviations from the
" 1 . 4 % trend" would be relatively simple. (Both these totals may in fact have
been due to underenumeration, their censuses having been taken by simple
head-counts and not by house-to-house visits). But in the circumstances we
have few other available data than the careful and thorough censuses at the
terminal points of 1929 and 1952, plus a careful count of births and deaths for
the years ending July 1929 and March 1953. These data can take demographic
explanation some, if not an entirely satisfactory distance.
Consider first the situation in 1929. For the year ending July 1929 Firth
recorded 55 live births! and 21 deaths. This implies a crude birth rate of
43'0 per thousand, a crude death rate of 16'4 and a rate of natural increase of
2.6·6. Such a birth rate is by no means exceptional in communities in which
1 We, the Tikopia, p. 410. Five children recorded as "stillborn" are excluded from" live births".
THE POPULATION OF TIKOPIA 1929 AND 19S1 133
there is known to be little practice of family limitation 1 ; but a death rate of

16'4 is low by these standards." Had the 1929 rate of natural increase (i.e. 26·6)
been the annual average until 1952 the population would have grown to approxi-
mately 2,600, whereas the recorded population was only 1,753.
Thus 1929 appears to have been a year in which either the birth rate was
abnormally high, or the death rate abnormally low compared with the post-1929
period. How the rates compared with pre-1929 we do not know, for as Firth
indicates" we have only the most rudimentary knowledge of the population
before this date; but there is fairly clear evidence that some controls had been
traditionally exercised to restrict the size of the family. Rivers- states on the
basis of hearsay material from 1908 that" a Tikopian family is usually limited
to four children, any in excess of this number being killed by burying them
alive in the house or just outside it; occasionally five or six may be kept alive,
but never more". He comments further that where the first four children were
all girls one or more of those might be killed in the hope that later births would
be boys. He also alleged that in the case of twins one or both were usually
killed. Firth" also referred in 1929 to the practice of infanticide and implies
that the practice may have been more common for female than male children.
He further alludes to the injunctions by the heads of households, especiallywhere
these are not rich in land, to young males to remain single and to the practice
of coitus interruptus by married as well as unmarried people to restrict
births.
On the evidence quoted above most of the practices, except coitus interruptus,
would affect rather the number of children surviving than the number of births
and probably restricted the survival of females more than males, although on
the other hand any surplus of males resulting from greater female mortality
from infanticide would tend to be offset at higher ages by the practice of men,
especially amongst the young and unmarried, of setting out on overseas voyages
in which many were lost." But the evidence suggests that the general pattern
of population control in Tikopia before 1929 was probably one of relatively
high birth rates with mortality (particularly of infants) controlled to some extent
according to economic needs.
Thus so far the evidence suggests that the level of births recorded in 1929
may not have been excessively high, but that the 21 deaths recorded were below
average. This was not because the Tikopia were exempt from the " killing"
diseasescommon to many other PacificIslands', but because in that year deliberate
controls, such as infanticide, had not been resorted to. In turn that may have
been due either to favourable economic circumstances or perhaps because they
1 For example, birth rates ofover 40 per 1,000 are found in many parts of India, in Ceylonand in Brazil.
• Cf. the average 1925-29 for India (24'3), Japan (23'0) and the Cook Islands (23'1). In India
particularly deaths were also probably underestimated.
• We, the Tikopia, pp. 408-9.
• W. H. R. Rivers, The History ofMe/anesian Society, London (1914), vol. I, p. 313.
6 Op. eit., pp. 414-5.
• Ibid. This question of" overseas voyages" is examined in greater detail below.
7 Firth (p. 41I) noted in 1929 that the " health of the islanders is remarkable" and that " there was
no malaria, hardly any frarnbcesia, and the appearance of very little endemic disease".
c
234 w. D. BORRIE, RAYMOND FIRTH AND JAMES SPILLIUS
were frowned upon by the missionaries. Moreover, there was no epidemic,

as the Tikopia had feared, during Firth's stay in 1928-9.
Such conclusions, based as they are upon vital records for a single year for a
small population, in which there would be wide annual variations due to chance,
are highly speculative. But there is at least further evidence from the census
data of age collected in 1929 which strongly suggests that immediately prior
to 1929 mortality had been heavy amongst young children and more particularly
amongst females than males.
In the 1929 census the age of every individual was estimated in the manner
already indicated. While age was perhaps reasonably accurate at single years
for young children, higher ages were deliberately recorded to the nearest fifth
and tenth years. Consequently, in the present study, analysis for single years
of age was not attempted except for children aged 7 and under, and for higher
ages the traditional demographic quinquennial grouping (10-14, 15-19 ...

etc.) was abandoned in favour of 8-12, 13-19 . . . etc. The pattern which
emerged for 1929is presented in Table I and the age pyramid given in Diagram I.
Table I. Recorded Age Composition, Tikopia, 1929

---
Age Males Females Total
0-2 62 60 122
3-7 127 87 214
8-12 100 65 165
13- 17 50 33 83
18-22 63 65 128
23- 27 53 40 93.
28-32 43 48 91
33-37 47 42 89
38-4 2 43 59 102
43-47 29 32 61
48-52 15 13 28
53-57 20 Il 31
58 + 33 38 71
685 593 1~278
Considering first the children aged 7 and under it will be noted that the sexes
are almost evenly balanced at ages 0-2, but that there is a substantial excess
of 40 males aged 3-7. When considered in single years of age, virtually the
whole of this excess occurs after the age of 5 years and continues at ages higher
than eight years. For example, re-grouped, there were 102 males and 103 females
aged 0-4 and 140 males and 86 females aged 5-9-an excess of 54 males.
Admitting the possibility of imbalance in the sexes due to chance in a small
population, the discrepancy is yet consistent from age 5 and great enough for
the demographer to be interested in its cause. Could it be that infanticide was
not practised for the four years before 1929, but that it was practised, particularly
against female infants, between approximately 1920 and 1925; and if so, why
was it so practised? Or was there some other mortality factor causing this
apparent differential death rate?
THE'. POPULATION OIl TIKOPIA 192.9 ANn 19S 1 .2.3S
Turning to the higher age groups, a substantial surplus of males continues

to age 18, after which there is a fairly consistent trend for the surplus of males
to be reduced and to give way to a surplus of females from age 38 until age 47.
This shift in the balance may be explained by the loss already referred to of some
young males through sea voyaging."
The census data on age structure and vital data for only the year ending July
192.9 will not permit the demographer to go much beyond this point, though
some further very general questions may be raised from an examination of the
age pyramid (Diagram I) which may be relevant to anthropological explanation.
To a demographer, for example, the irregularities in the age structure, as revealed
in the pyramid, imply either wide variations in the level of births in earlier years,
or substantial variations in levels of mortality. Why, for example, the very
severe "undercutting" of the group aged 1 3-1 7, again especially for females?
Was this associated with heavy mortality amongst young children during the
influenza epidemic of 1918? Firth also estimates that about 1918 there was
an epidemic of what was dearly dysentery, and this may have caused heavy
mortality amongst young children. These factors, however, would still not
explain the higher mortality amongst females compared with males. In the
absence of any adequate literary record the demographer, examining post hoc
the age structure revealed by the 1929 census, cannot provide satisfactory answers
to these questions; but they are posed here to illustrate the kinds of questions
that can be asked of such data which, if available to the anthropologist while he is
in the field, might prove a valuable aid to his own enquiries into social structure.
We will turn now to the vital data and age structure of the population collected
during the field investigations of 1952-53 and compare these with 1928-29.
We have suggested that the rate of increase implied in the vital data of 1928-29
was considerably above the annual average of 1 . 4 % calculated from the census
counts of 1929 and 1952. By contrast, the reverse situation held in 1952-53.
For the twelve months ending March 1953 2 Spillius recorded 49 live births
(21 males and 28 females), 5 still-births and 5 infanticides". During the same
period there were 88 deaths, eleven of which were of infants under the age of
one month. These figures imply a crude birth rate of only 22' 3 and a death
rate of 50 .2, giving a rate of natural decrease of 27' 9 per thousand of population,
compared with a natural increase of 26·6 in 1929. What light can be thrown on
this situation in 1952 from our demographic data?
1 The masculinity ratio (males per 100 females) summarised in re-year age groups after age 7, is as
follows:
0- 7: 12.8·6
8-17: 1 53 ' 1
18- 27: 1I0' 4
28-37 : 100'0
38-47: 79'1
48-57 : 145. 8
58+ : 86·8
2 Spillius's data cover a period only two days short of a full year.
3 In addition there were at least three abortions and perhaps five or six more, according to Spillius,
which may not have come to his attention. As some of these were induced by the application of hot
stones immediately before birth they should perhaps be classified as stillbirths.
First consider the question of births, which were below the 1928-29 level,
even though the number of women in the important childbearing age groups
18-37 had increased from 195 in 1929 to 249 in 1952. To a considerable extent
the relatively low number of live births recorded for the year ending March,
1953 appears to have been due to high pregnancy wastage". Firth's figures for
1928-29 imply 60 pregnancies from which there were 55 live births. In 1952-53
Spillius recorded 62 pregnancies (one case of twins). Of these at least fourteen
failed to result in a live birth. Precisely how many of these should be attributed
to abortions} stillbirths or infanticides is difficult to determine and less important
than Spillius's observation that most of the observed cases imply deliberate
termination of life.
Spillius states that as abortions were a matter of public scandal they were
difficult to record. However, he tracked down three definite cases of abortion.
Careful investigation of other allegations proved some of them to be false; but

Spillius is of the opinion that perhaps five or six abortions occurred which were
not public knowledge and which escaped his attention. In regard to infanticides
and stillbirths, some cases referred to bythe informants as stillbirths were probably
thus classified to avoid scandal. What at least appears certain is that there were a
number of cases of the application of hot stones on the belly immediately before
the expected birth, which achieved the objective of preventing a live birth. There
was also at least one definite case of an infant being destroyed after birth. In
addition, there appear to have been three genuine cases of stillbirths, that is
without deliberate interference immediately prior to birth.
It would thus seem that in at least eleven cases the life of the child was
deliberately terminated at or prior to birth, and that there were three genuine
stillbirths. But even amongst the 49 children born alive, mortality was excessively
high, 11 dying within a month of birth. This heavy pre-natal and neo-natal
mortality may be attributed very largely to the famine conditions then prevailing.s
The threat of "overpopulation" in relation to available food supplies was
expressed as a conscious fear by the Tikopia, and the policy of limiting families
and temporary restraint from marriage during the period of the food shortage
had been publicly enunciated by the chiefs at the fono. But it is impossible to
assess from the evidence how successful was this advocacy of birth control and
Malthusian " moral restraint" from marriage. In addition to the high pregnancy
wastage already referred to, an additional factor limiting the number of preg-
nancies in 1952-53 was probably the absence of some II6 young males in the
Solomons for most of the period under observation.
The heavy infant mortality observed during the year ending March 1953
almost certainly carried back into 1951, for the census taken in April-June 1952
1 Spillius gives evidence to indicate that the figure of 49 live births was correct, for he back-checked
his data carefully every month of his sojourn in Tikopia.
2 Spillius attributes some pre-natal deaths to abortions amongst unmarried women who had become
pregnant to males who were recruited in 1952 to work in the Solomons, but the evidence is not at all
clear concerning the number of such cases. During the time under observation abortions may have
been more common to married than to unmarried women, because Spillius records that the recruitment
of males in June 1952 for the Solomons was known as cc le joraHnga pure" (CC the voyage of the married
men "),
THE POPULATION OF TIKOPIA 1929 AND 1952 237
recorded only 28 infants under the age of one year. The figures for infants and
young children aged 0-4 enumerated at the census were:
Age
I Males Females Total
0 16 12 28
1 23 22 45
2 24 15 39
3 22 24 46
4 36 26 62
0-4 121 99 220

These imply a considerably higher level of births in the years preceding 19521,
but whether the higher number of surviving children at ages I, 2, 3 and 4 were
the result of less pregnancy wastage or lower mortality after birth cannot be
ascertained with any certainty. Some further close questioning in the field to
throw light on such points would have been welcomed by the demographer.
However, Spillius did record from informants' statements that there seemed
no evidence of infanticide for some five years before 1952, which suggests that
this measure of population control was resorted to primarily during famine
periods. (It was of course known to be reprobated by both Government and
the mission.)
If births were at a minimum during the year ending March 1953, deaths
appeared to be at a maximum. Before considering causes of death, consider the
ages in which the incidence of mortality was heaviest. Reference has already
been made to the eleven children recorded as dying from natural causes within
the first month of life. To these should be added at least four cases which appear
clearly the result of infanticide (i.e., including the use of hot stones immediately
before birth). Spillius's records show an additional 4 deaths of infants under
one year of age during the year ending March 13, 1953. Thus total deaths of
infants under one year were at least 19, or 64% of the infants aged 0 at the
census of April-June 1952. On the basis of these figures infant mortality in
1952-53 was as high as 286 per 1,000 live births. A further 16 deaths were
recorded to children aged 1-7. Thus 35 or over 39% of the total of 89 deaths
recorded in the year ending March 1953 occurred to children under eight years
of age. This is probably a minimum estimate of child deaths because in this
year of famine conditions and high mortality full burial rites were not always
observed, particularly in the case of infants. On the evidence there is no clear
suggestion that infanticide was practised against females rather than males, and
amongst the eleven infants dying in the first month of life the mortality was
much greater amongst males than females (8 males and 3 females).
1 Discussion of fertility ratios based on the experience of five-year periods and differences in family
size between 1929 and 1952 is continued below.
The mortality of this year was much heavier amongst young children than
amongst higher age groups. The record of deaths by ages for the year ending
March 1953 was:
Number dying Total population

Age March 19P-March 1953 enumerated in
Group Males Females Total each age group
0-7 ... ... 19 16 35 395

8-17 ... ... 3 4 7 396
18-27 ... ... 4 I 5 279
28-37 ... ... I 2 3 252
38-47 ... ... I 2 3 147
4 8-57 ... ... I 3 4 139
58+ ... ... 12 20 32 145
TOTAL ... 41 48 89 1,753
While from the demographic point of view there is no satisfactory evidence of

the precise cause of many of these deaths, a large number can be attributed directly
to the lack of food in the period. Spillius's records of deaths indicate that at
least 17 deaths may be attributed to this factor, ten of them occurring to children
aged 0-7 and five to children aged 8-17. In other words some 29% of deaths
under the age of 18 appear to have been due to famine conditions. Dysentery
was prevalent in Tikopia after the arrival of a relief ship with rice, and Spillius
attributes nine deaths to this cause.
The difficult problem is, however, to isolate deaths directly attributable to
famine conditions from those which would have occurred under " normal"
conditions. Undoubtedly famine increased the number of deaths, but it is also
clear that compared with 1 929 there was a greater variety of disease in the island
which may have been undermining the health of the population. A medical
officer diagnosed one certain and two suspected cases of leprosy; malaria, a
basic factor undermining the general health of a primitive population, had reached
Tikopia; infant diarrhcea appears to have been very widespread and dysentery
1.0t uncommon; and influenza and the common cold plagued the island. From
June 1952 until March 1953 nine ships called at Tikopia and without exception
their visit was followed by a wave of colds which affected virtually the whole
population. As measles were endemic at this time there was probably a consider-
able degree of immunity to this disease except amongst young children. Spillius,
with the assistance of the native dresser, listed no fewer than 34 identifiable
diseases, and while few of them were" killers" in themselves, many would tend
to lower resistance and so increase the incidence of death during a famine period.
On the other hand, given a reasonably nutritious diet, many of these diseases
could be checked by the improved medical services, antibiotics, etc., then
available to the population.
In the absence of annual death statistics no detailed comparison can be made
between the mortality record of 1952-53 and earlier years. While in the
field in 1952-53, however, Firth compiled a careful record of deaths which
had occurred since 1928-29. A test was made of the approximate accuracy of
THE POPULATION OF TIKOIJIA 1929 AND 1952 239
these records by matching at selected age groups the " expected" population
(i.e., 1929 population less deaths) against the population actually enumerated
in 1952. For example, the recorded population aged 0-22 in 1929 less deaths
to this age group 1929-1952 should have approximately coincided with the
population aged 23-45 enumerated in 1952. The result of such an analysis
is given below in Table 2.
Table 2. Survivors at specific ages in 1952 of persons enumerated in 1929

-
Males Females Total
-
Recorded population 0-22 in 1929 ... ... ... ... 4°2 31O 7 12
... ... ...
Deaths from this age group by 19F... 12 3 61 184
Survivors from this age group by 1952 ... ... ... 279 249 528
Population 23-45 enumerated in 19F ... ... ... ... 28 3 257 54°
Recorded population 23-45 in 1929 ... ... ... ... 214 220 434
Deaths from this age group by 19F... ... ... ... 80 75 155
Survivors from this age group by 19F ... ... ... 134 145 279
Population 46-68 enumerated in 1952 ... ... ... ... 12 3 139 262
The total deaths of the enumerated 1929 population of 1,278 by 1952 were
462. Of these 339 occurred to persons who were aged 45 and under in 1929. Of
these 339 deaths, 184 had occurred to the group aged 0-22 in 1929. The 528
"expected" survivors in 1952 (i.e., 712-184) are actually 12 fewer than the
population aged 23-45 enumerated in 1952. The degree of coincidence in these
two figures is reasonably satisfactory, and the difference might be explained by
the lack of precision in the estimates of age l as well as to the inclusion in 1952
of a few persons not enumerated in 1929. For the group aged 23-45 in 1929
and 46-68 in 1952, the differencebetween" expected" survivors and enumerated
population in 1 952 is 1 7, again a reasonably satisfactory result, but as in this
case the enumerated population is fewer by 1 7 than the " expected " population
the difference may be due to some unrecorded deaths. Combining the age groups
there is a close coincidence between the " expected" and enumerated population
aged 23-68 in 1952 (i.e., the survivors of those aged 0-45 in 1929), the
" expected" population being 807 and the " enumerated" population 802.
The feature of these death statistics as incorporated in Table 2 which immedi-
ately attracts attention is the marked discrepancy between the sexes of those aged
0-22 in 1929, i.e. 123 male compared with only 61 female deaths, and the main
reason for this becomes immediately apparent from the information compiled
by Firth while taking the 1952 census. The following is a summary of his data
1 In 1952 ages of survivors of the 1929 census were estimated from the age recorded in 1929 plus
the intervening years. Some persons born in the calendar year 1929 but after the census of that year
may have been recorded in 19F as age 22.
concerning the cause of death of those alive in 1929 but dying by

1952 :
Cause of death Males Females Total

Sickness (including senility) ... ... ... ... ... 185 171 356
Accident ... ... ... ... ... .., ... ." 3 ° 3
Suicide: Hanging ... ... ... ... ... ... 6 I 7
Swimming to sea ... ... ... ... ... ° 12 12
Attempts at overseas voyaging ... ... ... ... 81 3 84
All causes ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I 275 187 462
The most striking feature of this table is the loss of 8 I males through attempts
at overseas voyaging, which appears to explain the whittling away of the surplus
of males after the age of 18 years recorded in 1952, and may have been the ex-
planation of a similar phenomenon in the 1929 age structure. The practice of
overseas voyaging went on throughout the whole period 1929-1952, but
appears to have been particularly prevalent in 1944 and 1948 and to have increased
during the period.' The age groups of males most greatly affected were those
aged 20-30, with 37 of the 55 "classified" cases",
The 356 deaths from natural causes were fairly evenly distributed between
the sexes (185 males and 171 females); but the deaths recorded from "unnatural"
causes, and particularly from " overseas voyaging", are of sufficient magnitude
to have had a serious effect on the sex balance of the population and thus upon
its reproductive performance. To the anthropologist" overseas voyaging"
and the incidence of suicide have important sociological implications, and while
the demographer may legitimately wish to pry a little into such sociological
factors, his first concern is to analyse further the implications of such differential
mortality-as well as the low birth record in 1952-53 which was earlier examined
1 Firth provides the following statistical evidence collected in 1952 of the number of cases of males
distribution approximate only) :
192~35: I
1935-4°: 5
1941-45 : 19
1946-5°: 3°
19p: °
Unclassified: 26
Total 81
I The age composition of the 81 cases was estimated by Firth as :

Classified cases All cases
Under 20 4 4
20-2 5 27 29
26-3 0 10 13
31-35 3 8
36-40 5 15
Over 40 6 I2
55 81
The right-hand column includes 26 cases for whom the year of death could not be ascertained in 1952,
and deaths in these cases have been allocated to the maximum age, i.e. (age in 1929) +23.
-upon the age and sex composition of the population and upon the level of
fertility which may derive for example, from changes in the proportions marrying.
An obvious question is: Did the high mortality of young males leave a surplus
of females in the reproductive age groups who, in an almost entirely monogamous
society could not marry and bear children, and was this a factor additional to
the very high infant mortality of 1952-53 which helped to account for the low
level of births in this year?
Before examining such questions it is necessary to look at the total age structure
derived from the 1952 census enumeration and to compare this with the position
in 1929. The 1952 age structure is shown in Table 3 and the comparison
between 1929 and 1952 is illustrated in Diagrams I and n.
Table 3. Recorded age composition} Tikopia} 1952

0-2 ... ...

-
Age
...
-
... ...
Males Females Total
112
I
63 49
3-7··· ... ... ... ... 144 138 282 I
8-12 ... ... ... ... 129 100 229
13- 17 ... ... ... ... 91 76 167
18-22 .. , ... ... ... 70 56 126
'23- 27 ... ... ... ... 74 79 153
28-32 ... ... ... , .. 84 82 166
33-37 ... ... ... ... 54 32 86
38-42 ... ... ... .. . 41 41 82
43-41 ... ... ... ... 37 28 65 I
48-52 ... ... ... ... 42 32 74
53-57 ... ... ... .. . 26 39 65
58+ ... ... ... .. . 64 81 145
Unspecified ... ... ... I - I
920 833 1,753
As in 1929, there are again marked irregularities in this population pyramid,

suggesting considerable fluctuations from time to time in the level of births
or mortality, or in both these factors. Again, too, there are marked excesses
of males over female' for many age groups-e.g., 8-12, 13-17, 18-22 amongst
the younger groups; and particularly at ages 33-37 amongst the older groups
(this corresponding roughly with the severe sex imbalance of those aged 13-17
in 1929). The most striking feature of the pyramid of 1952 compared with
that in 1929 is, however, the comparative balance of the sexes on the age group
3-7 and the small proportion of those aged 0-2 to the 3-7 group.
A more precise comparison of the two census years is given below in Table
4 which includes the percentage distribution using ten-year "overlapping"
groups between the ages of 8 and 57.
This table shows the relative stability in 1929 and 1952 of children (0-17)
as a proportion of the total population, a decline in the proportion of adults
falling roughly within the reproductive age groups (18=47), and a marked
increase in the proportion aged 48 and over. Between the censuses the number
of males aged 48 and over increased from 68 to 132, or by 95%, and females
from 62 to 152, or by 145 %' compared with a total population increase of only
TABLE 4. Percentage distribution ofpopulation, Tikopia, 1929 and 1952
TOTAL POPULATION, 1929 TOTAL POPULATION, 1952

\I
Males Females Tot~l Males Females Total
I No. No, No. 0/
Age Groups No. % % % % No. % No, /0
0-7 .. , .. ' 189 27' 59 147 24'79 336 26'29 208 22'61 187 22'45 395 22'53
8-17 ,., .. , 150 21'9 0 98 16, 53 24 8 19'4 1 220 23'9 1 176 21'13 22' 59
I 396
18-27 .. , .. , II6 16'93 1°5 17' 7 1 221 17'29 I 144 15'65 135 16'21 279 15' 9 2
28-37 ' ,., 13' 14
I 15'18 180 14'08 13 8 15 '00 114 13 ,69 252
.. 90 90 14' 37
38-47 .. , ... 72 10' 5 I I 91 15' 34 16 3 12'75 78 8'48 69 8'28 147 8'39
.. , ! 4,62
4 8-57 .. ' 35 5' II 24 4'05 59 G8 7' 39 71 8'52 139 7'93
58 + .. , .. , 33 4' 82 I 38 6'4 1 71 5'5 6 64 6'9 6 81 9'7 2 145 8'27
All ages .. , ... 68 5 100'00 593 100'00 1,278 100'00 9 20 100'00 833 100'00 1,753 100'00
II
I
I
0-17 ,.. , .. I 339 49'49 245 4 1'32 584 45'7 0 4 28 4 6'52 363 43'5 8 79 1 45'12
18-47 .. ' .. , 27 8 40' 58 286 4 8'23 564 44'13 360 39'13 318 ,8, 18 67 8 38'68
48 + .. , '" 68 9'93 I 62 10'45 I 130 10'17 13 2 14' 35 15 2 i8'24 284 16'20
All ages .. , .. ' 68 5 100'00 I 593 100'00 I 1,278 100'00 9 20 100'00 833 100'00 1,753 100'00
! I
Steps are now being taken to improve the educational level of the police force.
38%. But in the absence of intercensal mortality statistics it cannot readily

be concluded from these data that there was an increase over the period in
the expectation of life at higher ages. The relatively low proportion of "aged"
in 1929 may reflect the depredations of influenza epidemics which are known to
have occurred around 1918. It has also been observed from our analysis of
mortality in 1952-53 that deaths in that year affected the very young rather
than the middle and upper age groups, and this high child mortality is reflected
in the marked fall in the proportion of children aged 0-7 between 1929 and 1952.
The numerical increase in this 0-7 group was less than 18%, but on the other
hand children 0-17 increased by 37%, or almost as rapidly as the total
population, which again suggests that the birth rate observed in 1952 was much
lower than in preceding years.
Another feature immediately apparent from a comparison of the age composi-
tion of the populations of 1929 and 1952 as presented in Tables I, 3 and 4

and in Diagrams I and II, is the marked changes in the sex ratios of some of the
age groups. These may be summarized more clearly by the sex-ratio table
given below (Table 5). Although considerably reduced, the puzzling surplus
of male children remains clearly apparent in 1952, and in the absence of annual
vital data no adequate explanation can be offered. Quite clearly this is no chance
phenomenon, for Crawfurd's census of 1933 records 384 male and 286 female
children aged 0- I 6 (i.e., a sex ratio of M:F = 133: 100) and the corresponding
figures in Barrow's 1944 census were 288 males and only 191 females (sex ratio
of almost 151: 100). The precise causes of that differential mortality remain
unknown. 1
Table 5. Masculinity ratio by age of the population of Tikopia, 1929 and 1952.
(Males per 100 females).
19 29 195 2
0-7 ... ... 128· 6 11I' 2

8-17 .. , ... 153' 1 12 5' 0
18-27 ... ... 110'4 106'7
28-37 ... , .. 100'0 121' 1
38- 47 ... ... 79' 1 113'0
48- 57 .. , .. , 145'8 95'8
58+·.. ,.. I 86·8 79'0
Total Population 115' 5 110'4
This persistent imbalance amongst children strongly suggests that some

social and cultural factor (possibly female infanticide) rather than "natural"
mortality was traditionally being exercised.
Turning now to the sex ratios of the adult populations, there appears to be
little consistency between the ten-year age groups. At higher ages (48 and over)
the smallness of the numbers and the fact that the figures for 1929 and 1952
1 Firth commented on this male surplus in We, the Tikopia (p, 411) but was also unable to account
for it, except by the possibility of differential female infanticide-s-and that only as a suggestion.
244 W. D. BORRIE, RAYMOND FIRTH AND J AMES SPILLIUS
cannot be compared with the censuses of 1933 and 1944 (which did not record
adult age in detail) preclude any discussion of causes or trends, although the
male deficit in the group 48-57 in 1952 is almost certainly associated with the
heavy male losses through overseas voyaging. The same factor may also help
to explain the deficit of males aged 38-47 in 1929. The precise influence of
overseas voyaging on the sex ratios in best examined by reference to the age
cohort most likely to have been affected by this practice.
In examining the age composition of 1929 we observed that there was a marked
excess of males over females at ages up to 17-339 males and 245 females, or
a male surplus of 94. If the experience of 1952-3, with infant mortality higher
amongst males than females, was typical of the intervening period, 1929-1952,
this would have reduced some of this surplus in survivors aged 23 to 40 in 1952.
But there is no reason to believe that this differential infant mortality was typical:
for example, Crawfurd's census of 1933 still shows a surplus of 98 males in the
age group 0-16 (384 males and 286 females). By 1952 this imbalance had almost
disappeared for the total age group 23-40, although there was still some dis-
crepancy in the quinquennial group aged 31-35. The following figures summarise
the position.
1929 1952
-----
Age group Males Females Total Age group Males Females Total
----
0-2 62 60 122 23- 25 48 44 92
3-7 127 87 214 26-30 72 80 152
8-12 100 65 165 31-35 80 56 136
13- 17 5° 33 83 36-40 35 37 72
----
0-17 339 245 584 23~4° 235 217 452
Thus while, " overseas voyaging" had probably done much to whittle away
the male surplus which otherwise would have existed amongst the age groups
who would be fathering families of young children in 1952-53, it had merely
gone some way to restoring balance and had not left a surplus of females. Indeed,
as already observed in Table 5, at ages 28-47 there was still a greater male
surplus in 1952 than in 1929. We have already observed that the live birth rate
(per 1,000 of population) was only 22·3 in 1952 compared with 43.0 in 1929.
From the age and sex analysis just examined, there appear no grounds for
concluding that the low birth rate of 1952 can be attributed to changes in these
aspects of the population structure. Moreover, even if all pregnancies observed
in this year had resulted in a live birth, the rate would still have been only about
35 per 1,000 of population, i.e, 8 points below the 1929 level.
Does this then mean that there has been a change in reproductive habits in
1952 compared with 1929? Possibly the admonitions of the chiefs to the popula-
tion to excercise birth control or to refrain from marriage because of adverse
economic conditions in 1952 were to some extent heeded, but we cannot test
this proposition adequately because of the lack of intercensal vital data.
In the absence of accurate annual data on births, deaths and marriages it is
important that census data on age and sex be supplemented by data on marital
condition, for this permits some analysis of family size of women of reproductive
age, and may give some indication of changes which have occurred over time.
Fortunately such data were available from Firth's census books of 1929 and 1952
and the next section of this paper is designed to illustrate the demographic
analysis which may be made'of such material, as well as to consider the relevance
of such analysis to the anthropologist.
First consider the marriage data in conjunction with age and sex. Table 6
sets out the numerical position at each census. In Table 7 married are considered
as a proportion of the total persons in each age group and compared with the
sex ratios (males per 100 females) previously given in Table 5.
Table 6. Proportions married, Tikopia, 1929 and 19SZ

1929 1929
Males Females
---
Age groups Married Single Married Single
-
B-27 3° 60 35 70
B-37 ..
'"
,
'"
.. , 66 24 68 22
~-42 }
4 3-47
'"
...
,
..
..
,
8}66
328 ~}5
8}
426 74 II}
6 17
4 B-n ... ,.. 24 11 20 11
8+ .., .. , 31 2 29 9
-
Total married as %
Total married Total single of total population
All ages .. , ... 443 835 34"66
-
195 2 195 2
Males Females
-
Age groups Married Single Married Single
--------
18-27 .. ' .., 15 129 4° 95
.. ..,
28-37
38-42}
43-47
18-n ..
'
, ..,
74
6
3 }68
32
59
64
GIO
9
75
34}5 8
24
59
nIl
39
12
58+ .., .. , 58 6 67 14
._---
Total married as %
Total married Total single of total population
All ages n3 1,180 32,69
--_.
TABLE 7. Proportions (%) married in each age group in Tikopia 1929 and 1952
together with sex ratios.
Age Males Females Sex ratio

Group 1929 1952 1929 195 2 1929 1952
18-27
28-37
.. ,
.. ,
33'33
73'33
10'4 2
53,62
33'33
75' 56 I 29'63
65'79
110'4
100'0
106'7
121'1
38-47 .. , 93'00 87' 80 81'3 2 84'06 79'1 113'0
48-n .. , 68'n 86'7 6 64' 52 83'10 145'8 95'8
58+ .. , 93'93 90'63 76' 32 82'7 2 86'8 79'0
t- - ._._- . _ - ----------
246 W. D. BORRIE, RAYMOND FIR'rH AND J AMES SPILLIUS
One point of interest is the lack of any record at either census of males or
females under the age of 20 as married. Sexual intercourse is apparently fairly
widely practised amongst young people before the age of 20, but few
pregnancies appear to result from this practice. Where they do occur, the
pregnancies are frequently terminated by abortion. The question remains,
however, as to why so few "illegitimate" conceptions occur: do these
unmarried islanders practise some form of control (e.g. coitus interruptus) or is
there a long period of post-pubertal sterility amongst these people- and are
they aware of this?
Turning now to the age group 18-27, it will be observed that in 1929 one-
third of the males and one-third of the females were married. By comparison
only 10'4% of the males and 29.6% of the females in this age group were
married in 1952. The lower proportion of married males in the latter year does
not appear to be in any way associated with substantial changes in the sex ratio
which might leave a surplus of males or females not subject to the " risk" of
marriage. The explanation of the reduced proportions of males and females
aged 18-27 who were married in 1952 must lie rather in the bad economic and
social conditions. Famine conditions prevailed. There was a fear of over-
population, and it had become increasingly difficult for younger sons to acquire
sufficient land to meet the economic needs of a family, and the Tikopia may have
attempted to meet the problem by the Malthusian control of restraint from
marriage as well as by abstinence within marriage. But another probable and
significant factor was the temporary absence of a number of young males working
as labourers in the Solomons (and recorded in the census) which would tend to
affect the males at ages 28-37 as well as those aged 18-27.
Amongst older age groups again the proportion of males married tended to
be consistently higher in 1929 than in 1952, with the exception of the age group
48-57. From a comparison of the male-female sex ratios in 1929 and 1952,
it would seem that this was probably one significant factor in the variations in
male marriage ratios for the age groups 28 years and over. For example the
surplus of males over females for the group 28-37 was considerably less in
1929 than in 1952. Again at the earlier census there was a surplus of females
aged 38-47, compared with a surplus of males in 1952. In the case of the 48-57
age group, the rise in the proportion of males married in 1952, compared with
1929, is associated with a fall in the masculinity ratio from 146% in 1929 to
96% in 1952. (See Table 7).
Within the age groups 23-47, an additional factor affecting the proportions
of males who were married at the census of 1952 was the temporary absence for
work in the Solomons of 116 males! who are included in the census figures
presented in the tables given above, and of whom 108 were single. Of these
108, 75 were between the ages of 23 and 46. The absence of these men, besides
reducing the proportions of married males, would, of course, also reduce the
1 Coitus interruptus is traditionally practised by the Tikopia (ibid, p. 414). For a discussion of post-
pubertal sterility, see M. F. Ashley Montagu, Adolescent Sterility (Illinois, 1946).
, Excluding three married men, their wives and eight children who were permanently resident in
the Solomons.
THE POPULATION OF TIKOPIA 19 29 AND 195 2 247
proportions of married females, if the sexes were evenly balanced. In fact the
proportion of males per 100 females was considerably greater in 1952 than in
1929 in both the age groups 28-37 and 38-47, which would normally have tended
to increase the proportion of women who were" exposed to the risk" of marriage.
The proportion of women married did increase from 8 I ' 3% to 84' I % in the
case of the age group 38-47, but with younger women aged 28- 37, it fell
from 75 ,6 % to 65 . 8 %. The reasonable explanation for this fall thus appears
to be the lack of opportunity of marriage as the result of the recruitment of
males to work in the Solomons, although here again land shortages and famine
followed by restraint from marriage may also have played a significant part-and
indeed, were part of the reason for temporary emigration to the Solomons.
This fall in the proportion of young women who were married could thus
be one of the factors accounting for the low birth rate of 1952, but such an effect
would probably be temporary unless it was associated with changes in the fertility
patterns of married women. If this did not apply, births would tend to be
"made up" after the return of the males temporarily absent in 1952 in the
Solomons. Had there then been a change in fertility or in " family-building"
habits? From the information recorded by Firth in the census books some
analysis can be made of the family composition of married women in 1929 and
1952 •
Because of the smallness of the population, the lack of annual birth statistics
and a degree of uncertainty concerning the precise age of adults, no refined
index of fertility or reproduction could be calculated." Indeed refined indices
can seldom be satisfactorily used for small populations subjected to anthropolo-
gical study. But from the detailed data on households in the census books it was
possible to estimate the number of children born (and still living at the time of
the census) to women within fairly broad age groups. The details of these
calculations are set out in Tables 8 and 9. In these tables adopted children
have been related to the biological families.
TABLE 8. Children per 100 women aged 18-47

1952 as
1929 1952 % of 1929
-----
Children 0-4
To all women 18-47 ,.. 71'3 69'2 97'0
To married women 18-47 .. , 115' 3 127' 2 108,6
Children 0-7
To all women 18-47 ... 117' 5 124' 2 I05'7
To married women 18-47 ... 189' 8 228'3 120'3
These tables refer only to children living at the time of the census, and therefore
take no account of mortality. For the demographer, additional data giving the
number of pregnancies, or at least the number of live births together with cause
1 The classical indices of gross and net reproduction have been shown to be quite unreliable as indicators
of trends in fertility where there have been changes in such factors as proportions of women married
and durations of marriage, These reproduction rates only standardize for age,
and age of decease of children, would add greatly to the value of the data for
the analysis of family building and family composition. But it is recognised that
such data are very difficult to collect with any accuracy; and it is frequently
better for the anthropologist, who has limited time to put into the collection of
strictly demographic material, to gather a limited amount of data accurate!y
TABLE 9. Distribution of families of different sizes, 1929 and 1952 censuses by

age of mothers.
Size of family No. of married women % distribution
(living children) aged 28-37 of families
1929 19S 2 1929 19S 2

I child ... ... ... ... 2 I2 3'13 17·6S
2 children ... ... ." 6 I2 9' 37 17· 6S
3 ... ... ... 21 IS 32'81 22'06
4 " ... ... ... IS 13 23'44 19' I2
S " ... ... ... 13 8 20'3 1 11'76
6+ " ... ... ... 7 8 10'94 11'7 6
"
64 68 100'00 100'00
Average Issue ... ... ... 3'88 3'29

No. of married women % distribution
aged 38-47 of families
1929 19S 2 1929 1952

I child .. , ... ... ... 2 - 2'99 -
2 children ... ... ... 6 I 8'9 6 1·82
3 ... ... ... 12 16 17'9 1 29'09
4 " ... ... .. . IS 13 22' 39 23. 63
S
" ... ... ... 14 7 20'89 12'73
6+ "
"
... ... ... 18 18 26'86 32'73
67 SS 100'00 100'00
Average Issue ... ... .. , 4'43 4'7 8
N,B,-These figures exclude 4 married women in the 1929 census and 6 married women in the 19S2
census for whom the information was not complete.
rather than to aim at too much and to run the risk of inaccuracy. Where a
selection has to be made, living issue is more important, if only because of the
chances of greater accuracy, than pregnancy or live birth records. In the analysis
which follows, then, we are concerned with living issue at the time of the two
censuses.
Consider first the figures given in Table 8. Two age groups of children
(0-4 and 0-7) were related to women of childbearing age, 18-47. Using
children under 5 years of age as a percentage of all women (married and single)
18-47, the ratio falls from 71 '3% in 1929 to 69'2% in 1952. Taking children
aged 0-7, there is a rise in the ratio from I I 7· 5 to 124.2. The explanation of
the fall in the ratio using children aged 0-4 appears to lie in small numbers
'I'HE POPULATION OF TIKOPIA 1929 AND 19~ 1 249
of live births occurring in 19~2 and immediately preceding years. The children
aged less than 8 enumerated at each year of age in 1929 and 1952 were:
Age I9Z9 I95Z

0 ... ... 31 z8
I ... ... 45 45
z ... ... 46 39
3 ... ... 47 46
4 ... ... H 6z
5 ... ... z3 67
6 ... ... 60 59
7 ... ... 49 49
As already emphasized, estimates of age by single years must be accepted with

caution, but the margin of error was almost certainly smaller with young children
than with adults. The 19~2 figures at least suggest strongly that births occurring
from ~ to 8 years before the census of 19~ 2 had been considerably more numerous
than thereafter. Hence the ratio of issue, using children 0-4, represents years
of lower than average birth rates; but when the wider age range of children
is used this factor is offset by the children born in years of comparatively high
birth rates, and the fertility ratio rises from 117' ~ to 124' 2. Assuming that the
factors referred to by Firth and Spillius in 1952 (famine, influenza, etc.) were
temporary, it seems reasonable to take children aged 0-7, rather than 0-4,
as the basis of a ratio which could give the better figure of" average" fertility.
However, the apparent rise in average fertility implied in the ratio of children
aged 0-7 per 100 women needs further refining to exclude single women. As
already observed, there was a substantial fall between 1929 and 1952 in the
proportion of women aged 18-37 who were married. Consequently, when
the ratio of children aged 0-7 per 100 married women aged 18-47 is considered
the ratio rises from one census to the next from 189' 8 to 228· 3, or by 20%.
There is even a slight rise of 8·6% in the ratio of married women in relation to
children aged 0-4, which again suggests that changes in the proportion of
women married were a more significant factor than changes in fertility patterns
in the low birth rates of 1952.
In attempting to relate the pattern given in Table 8 to that in Table 9 it must
be remembered that married women without children are included in the former
but excluded from the latter. As far as childless married women are concerned,
the census data suggest a fall in the proportion between 1929 and 1952 for women
aged 28-47 - 5 . 1% of these women had borne no children by the census of
1929, compared with 3 . 2 %in 1952. But in the latter year there were no childless
married women aged 38-47, whereas ~ ·6% of this age group we.:e childless
in 1929. For the 28-37 age group the corresponding figures were 4' ~ % in
1929 and 5 ·6% in 1952. No valid conclusion can really be drawn from these
figures regarding trends in marital infertility, but they are low enough to suggest
that there has probably been little deliberate attempt of marriage partners to
avoid having at least one child, the level of infertility revealed in these figures
o
250 W. D. BORRIE, RAYMOND FIRTH AND JAMES SPILLIUS
implying rather physiological sterility.' Nor was there any evidence of venereal
or other disease which might spread sterility.
Returning to the family pattern of fertile married women as set out in Table 9
the most striking feature of the distribution of families by size in 1929 and 1952
is the apparent shift to families of smaller size in women aged 28-37. In 1929
the average issue of these women was 3 '88, compared with 3 '29 in 1952., and
only 45' 3% of all children in 192.9 belonged to families with three and fewer
children, compared with 57' 4% in 1952.. However, it must be remembered
that the average issue of living children in 1952 would have been reduced by
the high death rates which, as we have suggested, might have been the main
explanation of the comparatively small numbers of living children then enumerated
°
at the early ages, and particularly at ages and 2. Had deaths been less severe
in 192.9 than in 1952. amongst these young children-and the evidence given
previously certainly indicates this to have been so-this would have had the
effect of increasing the proportions of living children in 192.9 of higher parity.
A conclusion which seems warranted from the evidence is that the higher
proportion of small families in 1952., compared with 192.9 was the result of higher
infant and child mortality in and immediately preceding the census year, rather
than any deliberate policy of family limitation by married couples.
As for women aged 38-47, the average family size showed an increase between
192.9 and 1952.. In these families in 1952. children would be older than in those
of women aged 2.8-37, and consequently their issue would not have been subject
to the heavy mortality occurring around the 1952. census period. Again there
is no evidence of any tendency towards smaller family size-if anything, the
contrary is the case."
Summarizing, the evidence suggests first that between the census dates infertility
within marriage was probably basically the result of physiological sterility;
second, that any reduction of family size in incomplete families (i.e. of women
aged 2.8-37) was the result primarily of high mortality immediately before
1952. and not of deliberate family limitation; and third that amongst families
substantially completed by the date of each census (i.e., of women aged 38-47)
there was little apparent change, some 70% of these families containing four
and more children. These figures imply an average of 5-6 living children to
each married woman by the end of her reproductive period. The substantial
population increase 192.9-52. of 38%, or an average rate of 1 .4% a year, suggests
that throughout most of the period 1929-1952 the high average level of fertility
of at least seven or eight live births to each woman living between the ages of
2.0 and 50 was sustained without undue strain on food resources; but the excessive
mortality of 1952.-53, and probably of immediately preceding years as well
may indicate that in terms of local resources, Tikopia is near the Malthusian
limit of its population carrying capacity.
In the absence of annual vital statistics and of precise census data relating to
age, it is impossible to gauge how far waves of excessive mortality, similar to
1 For a discussion of Tikopia attitude towards barrenness and attempts to overcome it, see We,
the Tikopia, pp. 485-89.
2 This is the only reasonable conclusion from Firth's data.
'rHE POPULATION OF' T1KOP1A 1929 AND 1952 151
the experience of 1952, may have operated periodically to stop population growth,
and even to bring about an excess of deaths over births; but if they have so
operated, the checks have been, since 1929 at least, of very limited duration.
Nevertheless, it also appears from available evidence that mortality and not
birth control has been the major factor limiting the rate of population growth.
Birth control within marriage appears to have been relatively unimportant,
but it has probably operated indirectly to some extent through restraint from
marriage, for, as emphasized earlier, neither census had any record of Tikopia
women marrying by the age of 20, and at each census some two-thirds of the
women aged 18-27 were still single.
This collaborative analysis of the demographic data collected in 1928-29
has been undertaken primarily to indicate the way in which such material can
be arranged to assist anthropologists to seek answers to questions which are
of particular relevance to their work. A mere head-count is of little use. Nor does
a figure of natural increase (births less deaths) based on a single year's experience
of a small population have much meaning for either anthropologist or
demographer. Pregnancy and birth records should be collected rather to assist
in elucidating the incidence of such phenomena as abortion and infanticide
than to calculate a birth rate. If a fertility ratio is required, this must rather
be based on the ratio of young children to women (and preferably married women)
of reproductive age. Where ages can be reliably assessed, ratios may be calculated
for women by selected age groups (say ten-year groups); and where two censuses
are available, as in Tikopia, some comparison can then be made of the reproductive
performance of women of similar ages, as well as of family size of all women in
the reproductive age groups or at the end of the childbearing period (e.g.,
approximately age 50). The relative stability of the family size of married women
in Tikopia in 1929 and 1952, together with the marked contrast in the two years
in the levels of births and deaths, illustrates the importance of this kind of family
analysis as a corrective for any hasty generalization which may be suggested
by an examination of natural increase alone.
It is recognised that accurate age data will often be very difficult to collect,
because the informants will frequently have little knowledge of their chrono-
logical age. Ways and means of tackling this problem have been suggested
by Firth-. The field worker must assess by experience the groupings he can
make for family analysis; but the minimum to be aimed at should be
annual ages for young children, and ten-year groupings for the adult
population.
Reasonable accuracy of age within these broad groupings is important to the
anthropologist for other reasons than family analysis. The construction of a
population pyramid can suggest questions, such as sex imbalance and marked
fluctuations in proportions in various age groups, which are of considerable
importance to the anthropologist. Examples from this article are the marked
surplus of males over females in many of the age groups and particularly the
persistent surplus amongst young children.
1 Firth, We, the Tikopia pp. 4°9-10, 1. also Firth, Mala)' Fisbermen : their Peasant &onomy (1946),
pp. 71-4.
252 w. D. BORRIE, RAYMOND FIRTH AND JAMES SPILL IUS
While the nature of the demographic data to be collected will be determined

to some extent by purposes for which it is required as well as by limitations
imposed by the nature of the society in which the anthropologist is working,
the minimum requirements may be stated as :
(I) A record of births, and if possible pregnancies and pregnancy wastage,
with cross reference to ages of mothers ;
(2) age by sex; with single years of age for young children to approximately
10 years, and at least ten-year age groups thereafter to age 50 ;
(3) the marital composition of adult males and females, cross referenced
with age;
(4) records of migration by sex, age, and marital status, and whether such
migration is temporary or permanent.

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Arizona]

On: 19 April 2015, At: 09:59

Population Studies: A Journal of

The population of Tikopia, 1929 and

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00324728.1957.10413222

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Demographic statistics of the Pacific island peoples are notoriously inadequate.

from the points of view of the anthropologist and the demographer.

THE INTERCENSAL GROWTH OFTHE POPULATION OF TIKOPIA

- - ASSUMING CONSTANT ANNUAL RATE OF GROWTH 1929-52

1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955

AGE COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF

Diagra_I DiClg rail n

there is known to be little practice of family limitation 1 ; but a death rate of

were frowned upon by the missionaries. Moreover, there was no epidemic,

ages the traditional demographic quinquennial grouping (10-14, 15-19 ...

Table I. Recorded Age Composition, Tikopia, 1929

685 593 1~278

Turning to the higher age groups, a substantial surplus of males continues

Careful investigation of other allegations proved some of them to be false; but

0-4 121 99 220

Number dying Total population

0-7 ... ... 19 16 35 395

TOTAL ... 41 48 89 1,753

While from the demographic point of view there is no satisfactory evidence of

Table 2. Survivors at specific ages in 1952 of persons enumerated in 1929

Deaths from this age group by 19F... 12 3 61 184

concerning the cause of death of those alive in 1929 but dying by

Cause of death Males Females Total

I The age composition of the 81 cases was estimated by Firth as :

Table 3. Recorded age composition} Tikopia} 1952

0-2 ... ...

920 833 1,753

As in 1929, there are again marked irregularities in this population pyramid,

TABLE 4. Percentage distribution ofpopulation, Tikopia, 1929 and 1952

TOTAL POPULATION, 1929 TOTAL POPULATION, 1952

38%. But in the absence of intercensal mortality statistics it cannot readily

tion of the populations of 1929 and 1952 as presented in Tables I, 3 and 4

0-7 ... ... 128· 6 11I' 2

Total Population 115' 5 110'4

This persistent imbalance amongst children strongly suggests that some

Table 6. Proportions married, Tikopia, 1929 and 19SZ

Age Males Females Sex ratio

TABLE 8. Children per 100 women aged 18-47

TABLE 9. Distribution of families of different sizes, 1929 and 1952 censuses by

1929 19S 2 1929 19S 2

Average Issue ... ... ... 3'88 3'29

1929 19S 2 1929 1952

Age I9Z9 I95Z

As already emphasized, estimates of age by single years must be accepted with

While the nature of the demographic data to be collected will be determined

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