Culture
Pukapuka has its own language and customs that are different from the rest of the Cook Islands.
The entire population is said to be descended from seventeen men, two women and an unknown number of children who survived a catastrophic storm and seismic wave (tsunami) in the 17th century. The description of the tragedy, complete with thunder and lightning, is more in keeping with a cyclone, and the waves it generated swept most of the people away. A new estimate of the date of the calamity based on genealogical records suggests that it happened about 1700.
664 people inhabited the island as of the 2001 census, but since 2005 the population has declined to about 500.
The American writer Robert Dean Frisbie settled on Pukapuka in 1924 and immortalised the island in the books he wrote about it. He said at the time he was looking for a place beyond the reach of "the faintest echo from the noisy clamour of the civilised world". He found it, and to this day Pukapuka is one of the most untouched and secluded places in the Cook Islands.
Read more about this topic: Pukapuka
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“He was one whose glory was an inner glory, one who placed culture above prosperity, fairness above profit, generosity above possessions, hospitality above comfort, courtesy above triumph, courage above safety, kindness above personal welfare, honor above success.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 1 (1962)
“The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you’d never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)