Tom's Tambu house: Spacing, status and sacredness in South Malakula, Vanuatu

This paper is based on video footage I filmed in South Malakula in April 19 96. It explores the case of Tom Moses, a man who claims to speak with God. He has constructed a house on the outskirts of Milip village which he has d eclared tambu, or taboo/sacred Around it he envisions a new living space, f ollowing directions given to him from God. I argue that Tom's enterprise ca n be understood in terms of a spacing-status-sacredness nexus. This nexus i s grounded in a pre-Christian Malakulan sociality revolving around men's ho uses, ancestral worship and grade-taking rituals. This takes place with a l ived Christianity which in many contexts is expressed as a departure from k astom. As such, I argue that this 'spatial' analysis can help us understand dimensions of local human relationships which purely discursive analyses s ometimes eclipse.