The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume 2 (of 3) The Belief Among the Polynesians — Reading Notes

Maori Souls and the Reach of Taboo

Frazer's treatment of Maori belief distinguishes sharply between the soul of the living and the soul of the dead. He reports that the Maori conceived the soul as capable of leaving the body during sleep or trance, and that its absence could cause illness. The section on taboo is extensive: Frazer enumerates restrictions placed on chiefs, priests, and mourners, and notes that the violation of taboo was thought to bring supernatural punishment. He draws on sources such as Elsdon Best and John White to describe how the mana of a chief was protected by prohibitions on touching his person or possessions. The language here is taxonomic—Frazer lists and classifies taboos by type and context—but he does not attempt to synthesize a single Maori doctrine, acknowledging regional variation. The excerpts show that Frazer is more interested in the structure of belief than in narrative or individual experience.

Tongan Ghost Battles and Funeral Dirges

The Tongan chapter contains some of the most vivid descriptive passages in the volume. Frazer recounts a custom in which, after a death, young men from successive districts engage in mock battles to repel malevolent ghosts. The combatants are called aka-oa ('friends') and the collective body of fighters is termed mauri ('ghosts'). The ritual culminates in a feast near the corpse. Frazer notes that the practice was known as 'a younger brother of war.' He also describes four types of funeral games (eva): the eva tapara (dirge with blackened faces and shaved heads), the eva puruki (war dirge with brittle spears and chanted histories), the eva toki (axe dirge where performers strike the ground), and a fourth type. The war dirges, Frazer states, 'embodied the only histories of the past known to these islanders.' His reliance on missionary accounts (especially William Mariner) is evident, and he often reproduces their judgments, such as calling the eva tapara 'a most repulsive exhibition.'

Narrative Voice and the Pace of Evidence

Frazer's prose is measured and encyclopedic, but the pace varies markedly between chapters. The Maori section moves quickly through a series of discrete topics—soul concepts, burial rites, taboo—with each paragraph introducing a new custom or source. The Tongan chapter, by contrast, slows down to dwell on single rituals, such as the ghost battles or the construction of megalithic tombs. Frazer often interrupts his exposition to insert long quotations from his authorities, which can stall the argument. His own voice emerges most clearly in transitional phrases like 'we are told' or 'apparently,' signaling his distance from the material. The cumulative effect is that of a compiler who organizes evidence but rarely evaluates it. Readers should note that Frazer does not claim to have visited Polynesia; his conclusions are entirely secondhand. The volume thus offers a window into early twentieth-century anthropological method as much as into Polynesian religion.

Frazer's second volume is best approached as a compendium of reported beliefs rather than a synthetic argument. Readers interested in the texture of the sources—missionary narratives, early ethnographic sketches, and Frazer's own editorial asides—will find rich material. The work rewards selective reading: the Tongan funeral games and Maori taboo sections are particularly detailed. Because Frazer rarely resolves contradictions between his sources, the volume leaves many questions open about the coherence of Polynesian doctrine. Those seeking a unified theory of immortality will need to look to later scholarship.

There’s something tender in how Frazer’s Polynesians mourned—those mock battles against ghosts, dirges holding memory like breath. It made me think of another prophet’s passing, where grief also shaped a faith’s foundations. We keep the dead in rituals we barely understand, and Mahomet, Founder of Islam — Themes and Context lingers with the same quiet ache. I closed the book feeling the weight of how every people carries its own goodbye.