Utupua is an island in the

Santa Cruz Islands The Santa Cruz Islands form an archipelago in Temotu Province, Solomon Islands. They lie approximately to the southeast of the Solomon Islands (archipelago), Solomon Islands archipelago, just north of the archipelago of Vanuatu and are con ...

, located 66 km to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group, between

Vanikoro Vanikoro (sometimes wrongly named ''Vanikolo'') is an island in the Santa Cruz Islands, Santa Cruz group, located to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It is part of the Temotu Province of Solomon Islands. The name ''Vanikoro'' is alway ...

and Santa Cruz proper ( Nendö). This island belongs administratively to the

Temotu Province Temotu (or Te Motu, literally "the island" in Polynesian) is the easternmost province of Solomon Islands. The province was formerly known as Santa Cruz Islands Province. It consists, essentially, of two chains of islands which run parallel to ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

Geography

Utupua is a high u-shaped island surrounded by a coral reef. Its land surface is and its highest point . Utupua has a population of 848 inhabitants (1999 census) scattered in small villages. The main villages on the island are Avita, Malombo, Tanimbili, Apakho, and Nembao. Utupua has a forested path that leads to viewpoints overlooking the coral reef that encloses the island.

History

First sighting by Europeans was in September 1595 by the second Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña. More precisely it was sighted by Lorenzo Barreto while in command of one of the smaller vessels on a local voyage round the then called Santa Cruz, which is today's Nendö island.

Society

Social practices

According to some observers, the society of Utupua functions without

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...

: islanders share their property instead of using a

barter In trade, barter (derived from ''bareter'') is a system of exchange (economics), exchange in which participants in a financial transaction, transaction directly exchange good (economics), goods or service (economics), services for other goods ...

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: m ...

system. In fact, Utupua islanders used to have a system of traditional money, in the form of ''feather money'' made with feathers of '' Myzomela cardinalis'' birds. That ceremonial money was mostly used for payment of the

bride price Bride price, bride-dowry, bride-wealth, bride service or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dowry ...

. Since the 1980s, it has been replaced by cash.

Languages

Three

Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

are spoken on Utupua:Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002), p.885. * Amba, or ''Nembao'' * Asumboa, or ''Asubuo'' * Tanimbili, or ''Tanibili'' Each language is associated with a distinct community, on different points of the island.

Notes

References

* Islands of the Solomon Islands {{solomons-geo-stub