Malamalama - It's root and meaning to Polynesian Migration.

An extract from: "Ulu Lau - Searching for connection"

3. Celestial Fox

According to William Sullivan, who wrote extensively about the ancient South American cultures, Andean astronomers referred to a constellation that is seen in the southern sky as a Fox. He wrote that the "black-cloud constellation, the celestial Fox. The Fox extends eastward into Sagittarius from the hindquarters of the Llama. As a contemporary Aymara-speaker from Bolivia said in commenting on a folktale about Fox 'The fox is in the sky, in the river, he always follows the llama'..." (Sullivan, p.41)

The Polynesians probably used the same knowledge of the sky as their ancestors. In the case of the dark constellation visible in the southern sky, it remained an important object to the voyaging people. There is a similarity between the words for dog in Samoan ("uli") and Mayan ("tzul"). The Samoan word "uli" translates to three words - "steering" or "guiding", "black", and "dog"? I've wondered why the Samoan word "uli" has so many meanings. This in my view is a deliberate adaptation of the Andean myth in Polynesia, which refers to the dark sections of the Milky Way galaxy visually animated as a fox chasing a llama. I think this is a strong proof of the connection between the two societies.

The South American words for the color purple (royal color in the Andes) is "k'ulli" in the Aymara language, and "kulli" in the Quechua language. We find in Samoan traditions concepts that are tied to the dark celestial myth, but are rehashed differently. However, the basic Andean astronomical idea remains intact. Being that the fox follows the celestial llama, we can deduce that ancient Polynesians knew of the Andean story.

The Samoan word "tuli" (chase) also illustrates this connection to the celestial fox and llama myth of the Andes. In the Samoan myths, "Tuli" is the name of Tagaloa's bird.

4. Grammar - "ma" & "la"

I don't profess any linguistic expertise in Polynesian and Native American languages, but the little information I came across shows some interesting similarities that are shown in some words and grammatical rules between these languages. These like-words (Appendix A) and grammatical rules strongly suggest a connection between the Polynesians and Native Americans.

i. La

"'La' is the particle denoting totality." (Alfred M. Tozzer, A Maya Grammar, p.98)

This rule also exists in the Samoan language and is exemplified by the following words.

a. "laau" - tree ("au" is a tree branch)

b. "lai'titi" - smallness ("i'titi" is little)

c. "lala'i" - come as a group ("la'i" - come)

ii. Ma

"The adverbial particles are very numerous in Maya. No attempt has been made to exhaust the list. The most important are as follows: NEGATION: This is shown by the particle ma, which precedes the nominal pronoun and comes immediately before the verb when the verbal pronoun is used." (Alfred M. Tozzer, A Maya Grammar, p.104)

Interestingly, this Mayan grammatical rule is found in the Samoan language. The Samoan "ma" as it exists today isn't the same as the Mayan word. The Samoan "ma" is the conjunction "and". However, there are several Samoan words which appear to confirm a common expect of the two languages in respect to grammatical "ma".

The Samoan language uses "ma" the same way to create opposite words. This is exemplified in the following words.

a. "malosi" - strong ("losi" is untidy, unorganized)

b. "masina" - moon ("sina" is white, gray-hair, brightness of sun)

c. "mafua - origin ("fua" is fruit)

d. "malala - charcoal ("lala" is tree branch)

e. "manino" - clear ("nino" is a variant of "nimo" which means disappear)

f. "maulu" - falling ("ulu" is head or upper)

There are two Samoan words for 'falling' - "pa'u" and "maulu".

iii. Malamalama

Another interesting application of the grammatical rule "ma" is found in the word "malamalama". The word "lama" in Samoan means entrapment; "lamalama" is the verb form. Lama is also fishing at night using lamps. Lama is also the name of a plant that is used by Samoans to make "vaiuli" - the dark ink used in tattooing. I think "lama" in "malamalama" (enlighten, brightness, or light) is a root word that's meaningful only when taking into context the Andean Llama and Fox myth. If the Polynesians used the same celestial objects as the ancient Andean people, the Llama and the fox were common concepts to both people. A myth based on an animal that grazed the Andes became a concept in Polynesia.

"Holguin lists 'Haullpayhuana or "ninanina." The diligent worker, ardent and animated like fire.' The synonym "ninanina" comes from the Quechua word for fire, "nina." It is not easy to combine the characteristics of "fieriness," and diligence, but this has always been understood as the function of Saturn, bringer of fire, but also a god systematically sweeping through the ecliptic plane every thirty years, meting out the arts of civilization - or castigation - as the situation merits." (Sallivan, p.100)

There are words in the Samoan language that indicate root ideas from both pre-Columbian priests and Hindu priests from the west. From the east on the American side are the Samoan words "ninia" (intense brightness) and "sina" (whiteness). These words fit the description of "nina" in the quote above. From the west are the Samoan words "afi" (fire) and "afiafi" (evening), which in my opinion were adopted from the Hindu god Angi (god of fire).

There were other lesser gods in the Samoan pantheon besides "Tagaloa" which were represented by animals just like in pre-Columbian America.

"Each chief and almost every man...had his god, or "aitu", the representations of which he would consider sacred, and treat...with the utmost respect. These aitu, which were commonly incarnate in some bird, fish, reptile, or insect, were looked upon, however, as inferior deities..." (Freeman, p.176)

If the Samoan word "lama" is rooted in the dark celestial object, known in South America as the Celestial Llama, then a reasonable conclusion would be that they came from the same mind. Since there are no Llamas in the Pacific, the root idea containing the Llama must originated from the priest-astronomers of pre-Columbia America.

I'm sure there are many examples of Samoan words that fit these grammatical rules.

Tattoo, Pe'a, Tatau

Kirch observed: "Furthermore, the dominant or central motif throughout the corpus of early Far Western ceramics is the human face, originally in a highly recognizable synthetic figurative style, and later transformed to a more conventionalized, geometric figurative style. We are compelled to ask: were these cylinder stands and pedestalled-bowls more than mere utilitarian objects? Were they in fact representations of human being, living or dead, real or mythical?" (Kirch, p.143)

The Samoan "tatau" is probably the source of the English word tattoo. The Samoan legend says that two Fijian women, Taema & Silifaiga, taught tattooing to the Samoans. They taught the art as well as the traditions surrounding it.

Is there a parallel between pottery making and tattooing? Were they vessels of spirits? Do tattoos protect warriors from evil spirits? Do tattoos provide connections to the spirit world? This was something that was readily adopted by the Polynesians. In Samoa, the tatau for women is known as the "malu" - to cover or to protect. The tattoos would have provided warriors with added confidence and they became an initiation for them into the warrior-world.

A Samoan song explains that a man's whole body should be tattooed. We can find many similar elements in various myths of eastern Melanesia and western Polynesia. The adaptation of the tattoo and its tradition gave birth to a new and unique culture in the central Pacific.

ULU LAU - Searching For Common Roots

A personal view on a possible connection between Polynesia and Pre-Columbian America.

Tattoo, Pe'a, Tatau