The ʻArioi Society of Tahiti

Record summary

The ʻArioi were an elite, mobile society associated with Tahitian temple worship, performance, sexuality, tattooing, and the god ʻOro. European observers, including James Cook’s expedition and the naturalists Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster, described them in ways that became central to later comparative studies of Polynesian ritual organization. Their activities may illuminate links between initiation, status, performance, and sacred authority. Interpretations are complicated by translation, missionary criticism, and the possibility that visitors generalized practices from particular districts or occasions.