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The Tahitians (; ) are the Indigenous Polynesians of Tahiti and thirteen other Society Islands in French Polynesia. The numbers may also include the modern population in these islands of mixed Polynesian and French ancestry (). Indigenous Tahitians are one of the largest Polynesian ethnic groups, behind the Māori, Samoans and Hawaiians. Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1976), vol. 25, p. 208
The original Tahitians cleared land for cultivation on the fertile volcanic soils and built fishing .Ben R. Finney. Tahiti: Polynesian Peasants and Proletarians, Transaction Publishers, 2007, p. 11 The tools of the Tahitians when first discovered were made of stone, bone, shell or wood.
The Tahitians were divided into three major classes (or ): ari,Tahitian has no "l" while Hawaiian has no "r", otherwise, the Tahitian arii and Hawaiian alii have similar connotation. raatira and manahune. Arii were relatively few in number while manahune constituted the bulk of population and included some members who played essential roles in the society.Douglas L. Oliver. Polynesia in early historic times, Bess Press, 2002, p. 212 It is estimated that by the first contact with Europeans in 1767 the population of Tahiti was most probably around 110,000 or even reached 180,000. Other Society Islands held probably 15,000-20,000 people.Finney, p. 13
Tahitians divided the day into the periods of daylight ( ao) and darkness ( pō).Robert I. Levy, Pierre Heyman. Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands, University of Chicago Press, 1975, p. 149 There was also a concept of irrational fear called mehameha, translated as uncanny feelings.Levy, Heyman, p. 151 The healers, familiar with herbal remedies, were called taata rāau or taata rapaau. In the 19th century Tahitians added the European medicine to their practice. The most famous Tahitian healer Tiurai, of arii, died at age 83 during the influenza outbreak on Tahiti in 1918.
In the 1790s European whalers arrived, bringing alcohol, prostitution, and religious missionaries along with them. In the 1820s Protestantism became the main religion on Tahiti. The European ships brought such diseases for which Tahitians had little or no acquired immunity, such as dysentery, smallpox, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, venereal disease and tuberculosis.Finney, p. 18 As a result of these changes, by 1830 the population of Tahiti decreased to 15,300 from estimated 110,000 in 1767, when the ship HMS Dolphin touched on the island. The 1881 census enumerated about 5,960 indigenous Tahitians. The recovery continued in spite of more epidemics. The Pōmare Dynasty rose to prominence in the early 1790s from a ruling Tahitian family aided by protection from British mercenaries from the mutineers on the Bounty. On 29 June 1880, King Pōmare V agreed to a treaty of annexation with the French. On 9 September 1842, there was a protectorate treaty signed between Tahitians and the French. The agreement was for the "protection of indigenous property and the maintenance of a traditional judicial system."
In 1958 the islands in the area including Tahiti were "reconstituted as a French Overseas Territory and renamed French Polynesia".
In 2013 the United Nations relisted French Polynesia as a territory to be decolonised.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Tahitian poets Henri Hiro, Charles Manutahi, Vaitiare and Turo Raapoto spearheaded the anticolonial writing in Tahiti. Hiro's God of Culture implores Oihanu, the Tahitian god of culture and husbandry, to empower the "new generation". Three women writers - Michou Chaze, Chantal Spitz and Vaitiare explore the problems of Tahitian identification in contemporary French Polynesia. Tahitian peasants and workers call themselves the "true Tahitians" ( Taata Tahiti Mau) to distinguish from part-Europeans ( Taata afa Popaa).Finney, p. 22 At the same time demis quite frequently identify themselves as indigenous people in terms of culture and political affiliation. Such Tahitian activists as Pouvanaa a Oopa, Francis Sanford and Charlie Ching and Catholic bishops Michel-Gaspard Coppenrath and Hubert Coppenrath are of demi ancestry.
Many natives were painted from life by Paul Gauguin, who gave Tahitian titles to his works. In Ea haere ia oe ( Where Are You Going?), for example, a pensive young girl wears the white flower tiare behind her left ear, signifying readiness to take a lover.
Tahitians are French citizens and are represented by three elected deputies to the French National Assembly and two representatives in the French Senate.Victoria S. Lockwood. Tahitian transformation, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993, p. 73 Tahitians vote by universal adult suffrage in all major French elections.
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