bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Nick Squires

As the frenzy of post-Christmas consumerism sweeps cashed-up cities such as Hong Kong, a tiny country in the South Pacific is stubbornly forging a path in the opposite direction.
Vanuatu, in moves that spurn the global cash economy, is reviving ancient currencies such as pigs, pig tusks, grass mats and sea shells.
To support its cause, the government declared 2007 the Year of the Traditional Economy - kastom ekonomi in Vanuatu's brand of pidgin English - and has recently been so impressed by the experiment that  it extended the campaign into this year.
The initiative has been fuelled by fears that the harsh imperatives of global capitalism threaten Vanuatu's centuries-old way of life, which is based on subsistence farming and complicated cultural exchanges.
'The mantra of the World Bank and similar organisations is to make as much cash as you can, as fast as you can,' said Ralph Regenvanu,  an anthropologist from the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and a driving force behind the campaign.
'This is an alternative strategy for Vanuatu. The traditional economy has served us well for thousands of years. We're trying to preserve our cultural heritage in the face of development and we want to bring the focus back to valuing the things that are already here.'
As part of the renaissance, schools and clinics in Vanuatu are  allowing villagers to pay fees  in kind - for instance, with sacks of vegetables or bundles of kava, a peppery root which, when mashed and mixed with water, produces a narcotic drink.
The change has been partly driven by concern that a growing emphasis on development will lure islanders to shanty towns on the outskirts of the capital, Port Vila, where most will encounter unemployment, poverty and frustration. Hunger and homelessness are unheard of in rural areas.
Even the country's best schools - a French-language lycee and an English secondary college in Port Vila - have agreed to take payment in kind.
Traditional currency can also be used to pay tribal fines, in ceremonies and to resolve disputes.
Among the most prized of Vanuatu's traditional currencies are pigs with curly tusks - villagers knock out the animals' upper teeth in order to let the tusks grow unimpeded. The objective is for the tusk to loop around twice or, in rare instances, three times.
Even more esteemed are hairless pigs from the southern island of Tanna and, in the north of the country, a rare breed of hermaphrodite pig - animals with both male and female sexual organs.
'[The island of] Malo is the last remaining area where ... intersex  pigs are still being raised, and these pigs are much sought-after in other areas,' a 2005 Unesco report on traditional currencies found.
The Unesco study, by British anthropologist Kirk Huffman, called for 'the revitalisation of the production of traditional wealth items. This project should not target only tusked pigs, but also woven and dyed money mats and shell money and beads', the report said.
With the help of the UN agency, authorities are setting up 'banks' for traditional forms of wealth and studying ways of setting informal exchange rates with the national currency, the vatu.
Two years ago the National Council of Chiefs decreed that cash could no longer be used as 'bride price' for weddings and that young men wanting to get married should instead make payments in goods such as woven pandanus mats, pigs and yams.
Nearly 80 per cent of Vanuatu's 210,000 people are farmers, growing food in jungle 'gardens' blessed with rich soil, high rainfall and plentiful sunshine.
'It is easy to grow taro, sweet potato, banana and manioc,' said Toren Bong, a community leader on the island of Ambrym, where lush rainforest sweeps down from bare ash plains surrounding two live volcanoes. 'We use sling shots or bows and arrows to shoot flying foxes [fruit bats] and in the forest near the volcanoes we hunt wild pigs and wild cattle.'
The reliance on a modest but healthy subsistence diet was one reason why Vanuatu was nominated the world's happiest country in a 2006 Happy Planet Index, compiled by the New Economics Foundation alternative think-tank.
The index of 178 nations ranked China as the 31st happiest country.
The gloomiest was Zimbabwe, which has been ground down by strongman Robert Mugabe.
The index was based on consumption levels, environmental footprint, life expectancy and all-round contentedness, rather than conventional wealth measurements such as gross domestic product or annual income.
'We've realised that money isn't everything,' said Fred Toka, an authority on traditional customs from the island of Ambae, which was the inspiration for the mythical Bali Hai in James Michener's Pulitzer Award-winning book Tales of the South Pacific. 'Why buy canned fish when you can go out and catch fresh fish?'
It is not just in Vanuatu that traditional currencies are cherished. Neighbouring Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands also prize unique forms of wealth.
On the island of Malaita, in the Solomons, painstakingly made shell necklaces are used as payment for wives, canoes, land or pigs, and as compensation in disputes. Dolphin teeth are also highly prized, with men in canoes herding dolphins into bays and slaughtering them in the shallows for their meat and teeth.
Some traditional currencies are  considered too impractical to revive. On the island of Erromango, in Vanuatu, fossilised giant clam shells were once considered highly valuable. But  few remain after  western museums carted them off during the colonial period.
'The challenge is to raise awareness among politicians, government departments and businesses in Port Vila, where the cash economy is based,' Mr Regenvanu said.
'We need to recognise that the traditional economy is the main reason why we were voted the world's happiest country.'



Why Vanuatu should expect more aftershocks – and maybe another earthquake

Vanuatu earthquake death toll reaches 14, including 2 Chinese

Buildings ‘pancaked’ in Vanuatu as 7.4 magnitude earthquake rocks Pacific nation

US, Britain stress unity towards China as new strategic dialogue opens in London

Vanuatu

Islanders bank on tusks and  taro in pursuit of happiness