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The 1988 population census found a total of about 190,000 people in French Polynesia. However the criteria used for defining the racial groups can only approximate a breakdown of: 70% Polynesian, 12% European, 10% Polynesian/European, five per-cent Chinese, and three percent Polynesian/Chinese. All are French citizens.

The 1988 population figures for the five administrative subdivisions are Windward Islands 140,341, Leeward Islands 22,232, Austral Islands 6,500, Tuamotu/Gambier Islands 12,374, Marquesas Islands 7,358. About 70% of the total population lives on Tahiti.

The indigenous people of Tahiti-Polynesia are the maori or Eastern Polynesians (as opposed to the Western Polynesians in Samoa and Tonga).

Racial intermarriages are common and many Tahitians can claim French, Chinese, American and Polynesian ancestry. This accounts for the physical beauty of the inhabitants and the total abscence of racial prejudice, either from the Europeans or the Tahitians.

Formal education is mandatory in Tahiti for every child to the age of 14. Primary education begins at age five, and continues to the age of 12, when children begin secondary education.
There are several technical and vocational schools in Tahiti, as well as a large adult education program. Vocational training includes hotel, restaurant, nursing and teaching programs.

As weaving was unknown in the old days, tapa cloth was made by women from the bark of the paper mulberry, breadfruit, and banyan trees.

The boughs were soaked in a river for several days, the outer bark then stripped off and the inner bark separated from it. The softened inner bark was placed on a block of wood and beaten with a mallet. When the tapa was of a uniform thickness it was dried in the sun and dyed. Floral or geometric patterns were printed or painted on.

Early missionaries introduced the Tahitians to quilting, and two-layer patchwork tifaifai have now taken the place of tapa (bark cloth). Used as bed covers and pillows by tourists, Tahitians still use tifaifai to cloak newlyweds and cover coffins.

To be wrapped in a tifaifai is the highest honor. Each woman has individual quilt patterns, which are her trademarks. Bold floral designs are popular, with contrasting colors draw from nature. A good titaifai can take up to six months to complete and cost US$1000.

The French artist Henri Matisse, who in 1930 spent several weeks at the now-demolished Stuart Hotel on Papeete's boulevard Pomare, was so impressed by the Tahitian tifaifai that he applied the same technique and adopted many designs for his "gouaches decoupees."

Music is a big part of Tahitian life. It has gone beyond the traditional styles, while singers and musicians continue to compose music for the masses on subjects they have always written about - love and the sea - while enriching their songs with reggae and Latin rhythms.

A good place to listen to traditional Tahitian music and songs is in the upstairs restaurant area of the main Papeete Market. They have a band that plays there every day at lunchtime.

Though the missionaries banned dancing completely in the 1820s and the French colonial administration only allowed performances which didn't disturb Victorian decorum, traditional Tahitian dancing is back in a big way. During major festivals troupes of 20-50 dancers and 6-10 musicians participate in thrilling competitions. The big hotels on Tahiti and Bora Bora offer exciting dance shows several nights a week which you may attend for the price of a drink.

The Tahitian tamure is a fast, provocative, erotic dance done by rapidly shifting the weight from one foot to the other, somewhat similar to belly dancing.

The grass skirts are low slung on the hips, enhancing the girating motion, while the torso remains perfectly level. The rubber-legged men are almost acrobatic, though their movements tend to follow those of the women, mostly with scissor-like motion of their bent legs.

Tahitian love flowers and need no excuse to wear them, either behind their ears, in their hair , around their neck or expertly braided with palm fronds and other greenery into floral crowns. This is one of the great charms of the Tahitians people.

Tradition has it that if a woman or man tucks the flower behind the left ear she or he is taken; a flower placed behind the right ear means the person is available.

The official languages of French Polynesia are French and Tahitian, with each group of islands also having its own language. These languages belong to the great Austronesian or Malayo European language family.

Once exclusively the language of Tahiti and its neighbors, Tahitian is now spoken on about 100 islands of French Polynesia. The language gained prominence because Tahiti was the most populous island and the chief language chosen for missionary work. As the written word and Christianity were spread by native pastors, the printed Tahitian word more or less superseded other local dialects and languages.

Although English is spoken by many shopkeepers, hotel personnel and students, it would help to have some command of French.

Sex & the Tahitian Myth

Since the days of Wallis and Bougainville, Tahitian women have had a reputation for a willingness to share their amorous favors with foreigners.

This seem to come from the fact that after some early encounter with muskets and cannons, the Polynesian got smart and quickly figured that to appease the foreigners, nothing worked better than providing accommodating women, which to them was not a big deal.

The European explorers did have a good time as Tahitian women actually relished lovemaking and they came back with tales of exotic and willing women. Well, for better or worse, this is largely a thing of the past.

As a short-term visitor, your liaisons with Tahitians are likely to remain just friendly. Westerners' obsession with the sexuality of Polynesians usually reflects their own frustrations or misplaced fantasies.

There are many gorgeous Tahitian girls, but they are proud, smart and sophisticated and are not too impressed by men who see themselves as God's gift to women.

As for the self-righteous who hold the view that Tahitian morality is loose, this is rather ironic considering that Polynesians have always shared whatever they have, cared for their old and young, and refrained from ostracizing unwed mothers or attaching stigma to their offspring.

Polynesia's mahus, or third sex, bear little of the stigma attached to female impersonators in the West.

A young boy may adopt the female role by his own choice or that of his parents, performing female tasks at home and eventually finding a job usually performed by women such as serving in a restaurant or hotel.

Usually only one mahu exists in each village or community, proof that this type of individual serves a certain sociological function. George Mortimer of the British ship Mercury recorded an encounter with a mahu in 1789. Though Tahitians may poke fun at mahus they're fully accepted in society.

Many, but not all, mahus are also homosexuals. Today, with money all-important, some transvestites have involved themselves in male prostitution and the term raerae has been coined for this.

"Text from Moon Handbooks: Tahiti
http://www.southpacific.org/tahiti.html by David Stanley (used with permission)."

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