4.3 The Social Customs
Niue is characterized by a lack of hereditary rulers, a very flexible social hierarchy, an individualistic achievement orientation, and a strong work ethic. More than by speech patterns, dress styles, comportment, or social interaction, differentiation into fluid socioeconomic strata depends on personal charisma or accomplishment and material wealth, such as ownership of aluminum fishing dinghies or outboard motors.
Basic social welfare programs exist. For example, free nutrition supplements are available to ensure the health and well-being of young children, and older people receive a modest pension.
ニウエは伝統的規則がなく、とても変わりやすい社会階層、個人的な業績に重きをおく態度、強い労働倫理を持っていることが特徴的である。不安定な社会階級における言葉遣いやドレススタイル、振る舞い、社会的相互作用、そして社会的分化以上に、個人のカリスマ性や業績、またはアルミニウムでできた釣り用の小型ヨットや船外機の所有といった物質的な豊かさに左右される。社会的基本生活保護プログラムがあり、例えば、幼児の健康や十分な生活を保証するために無料の栄養補強品が受給されたり、高齢者は少額の年金を受け取ったりすることができる。
ニウエは先祖代々の統治者、非常に柔軟な階層型組織、個人の業績ばかりを気にすること、確固とした労働倫理の欠如が特徴的である。それは、話し方、着ている物、ふるまいもしくは、社会的交流、個人的なカリスマ性ないし、達成感や、アルミニウムの魚釣りボートや船外機付きモーターボートのような物質的な富に依存する流動的な社会経済階層の中の差別化よりもある。
基本的な社会福祉は存在する。例えば、無料の栄養サプリメントは幼い子供の健康や幸福を保証する為に利用でき、また、高齢者はささやかだが、年金も受け取る。
Girls in school uniforms walk along the street. Schooling is compulsory, secular, and free for all children ages 5 to 14. In the past, villages were endogamous, somewhat matrifocal units. The mixing of youth from all villages at the high school has caused the breakdown of this tradition, and that of the Motu-Tafiti rivalry.
People live in extended family groups called magafaoa , which oversee land ownership and use. Villages are composed of related magafaoa. Households within a magafaoa occupy clusters of nearby dwellings. The head of a household is usually a married man ( patu ) who represents his domestic unit in church and village politics.
magafaoaと呼ばれる拡大家族グループに住む人々は、土地の所有権や使用を監視する。村は親戚関係のmagafaoaで構成されており、1つのmagafaoa内の世帯は、近隣住居に集まり住居する。通常、世帯の長は既婚男性(patu)が務め、教会や村の政治において自身の世帯を代表する。
人々は、土地所有と使用を監督するmagafaoaと呼ばれる拡大家族グループごとに暮らしている。 村は、親族のmagafaoaで構成されている。 magafaoa内の世帯は近くの住居群を占めている。 世帯主は、通常、教会や村の政治において自国の部隊を代表する結婚した男（パツ）である。
Also living in his household are his wife and unmarried children, any recently married children and their spouses, and some grandchildren. Frequently, a household includes a sibling of the patu or of his spouse, a widowed older relative, or a niece or nephew who goes to a nearby school. To varying degrees, most Niueans still embrace older religious ideas, believing in a supernatural world inhabited by aitu , spirits of dead ancestors or ghosts. Aitu keep a close eye on behavior and punish with misfortune, illness, or even death upon individuals who transgress social norms or flout cultural conventions.
Death implies movement from this world to a parallel supernatural world inhabited by ghosts and ancestral spirits. Death is not necessarily instantaneous but rather a gradual transition, as implied by use of the same word, mate , to denote states distinguished in other cultures as delirious, unconscious, dying, and dead.
Any location at which an unexpected or violent death occurs will have a fono or prohibition placed on it, distancing the living from the revenge of ancestral sprits. Until the appropriate time for a pastor to lift this tapu (supernatural edict), people will not visit or will behave there in a very circumspect fashion.
突発的または暴力的な死が発生した場所には、祖先の霊による復讐から生きている人々を遠ざけるために、fonoまたは立入禁止が設置されます。 牧師がこのtapu（超自然勅令）を持ち上げる時が来るまで、人々はそこを訪れたりせず、非常に慎重に行動します。
Social Welfare and Change Programs
A small police force consisting of a chief and a constable assigned to each village maintains law and order. Most criminal acts are relatively minor misdemeanors (petty theft, unsafe driving, allowing pigs to wander) and are dealt with locally by warnings or small fines. More serious crimes, such as assault, are prosecuted in the magistrate's court and may result in large frees or imprisonment.Various voluntary associations include a trade union for government employees, women's groups, sports teams, church choirs, dance groups, and youth groups.
High-quality (Western) biomedical care is available free of charge. Emergency services and in-patient care for surgical conditions are provided at Lord Liverpool Hospital in Alofi. Patients requiring specialist care are sent by air to nearby countries. Outpatient care is available at several clinics, including a mobile one that regularly visits each village. Public health surveillance and the prevention of disease are a key aspect of health service delivery. This is accomplished through sanitary disposal of wastes, provision of potable water, rodent and mosquito control, and well-baby clinics and childhood vaccination programs.
Herbalists and traditional healers ( taulaatua ) address psychosocial issues that do not always respond well to other therapies as well as diseases that are deemed to be uniquely Niuean in origin and manifestation. Despite an official ban, there is underground support for and provision of this kind of care.
Niueans do not have a strong interest in preserving their history by collecting artifacts or through oral storytelling or the recitation of genealogies. Traditional dances and songs are featured at important events such as weddings and official ceremonies.
A recent surge of interest in history has resulted in the establishment of a small museum in Alofi and the revival of several handicrafts, such as the building of canoes by hand and the making of hiapo , a mulberry bark cloth.
Some returned migrants make a living through the arts, such as sculpture, writing, painting, and composing music. Such endeavors, however, are aimed more at an overseas commercial art market than at the local community. Most funding for the arts comes from overseas; the New Zealand government is interested in fostering and maintaining traditional Pacific arts and crafts.
5. The Education System
5.1 The Background of Early Childhood Care & Development: An Educational Perspective
Niue have always put children’s rights at the forefront beginning firstly in the family home. Initially “Child Rights” was never really an issue because children have always been considered as treasures beginning from when mothers’ conceive. In reality due to the very low population every little child added is a national treasure. Niue have always had a very small population of approximately 6000 people in the 70s gradually declining to approximately 1600 people now.
Niueans are New Zealand citizens which is the main reason for the external migration to New Zealand and Australia for more opportunities.
5.1幼児ケア＆開発の背景：教育的視点
ニウエは、家庭の中で常に最前線に子どもの権利を置いてきました。 当初、「子供の権利」が問題になることは決してありませんでした。なぜなら、母親が妊娠すると、子どもたちはいつも宝物であると考えられていたからです。 実際、人口の少ないこの状況では、小さな子どもたちは皆、国宝なのです。 ニウエの人口は非常に少なく、70年代に約6,000人だったものが現在では約1600人に、徐々に減少傾向にあります。
ニウエ人はニュージーランド市民であり、ニュージーランドやオーストラリアへ移住する機会が多いというのが主な理由です。
5.1早期児童医療と発展の背景
ニウエの人々は、教育的観点から常に子どもの権利を家族の中で1番の存在と考える。
子供は母親がお腹に宿してからずっと大切なものと考えられてきたため、始めは「子どもの権利」が問題になることはなかった。しかし現実では人口がとても少なく、幼い子供を加え全ての子供が国の宝となる。70年代からニウエは約6000人の少ない人口を保ってきたが、徐々に減少し今では約1600人ほどとなった。
ニウエの人々は、より多くの機会を求めてニュージーランドやオーストラリアなど国外に移住するため、今や多くがニュージーランド市民となった。
5.1 初期教育と開発のバックグランド：教育の展望
ニウエでは、ファミリーホームの開始時から常に子供の権利を最優先しています。
元々、「子供の権利」は問題になったことがありません。その理由は、母親の懐妊時から子供は宝であるとみなされてきたからです。現実に、人口が少ないため、赤ん坊の誕生は国の宝です。同国の人口が少ないことは常態化しており、１９７０年代の人口は約６，０００人だったのですが、徐々に減少し現在は約１，６００人です。
同国の住人はニュージーランドの国民であり、これがより多くのチャンスを求めてニュージーランドやオーストラリアへ移民する主因です。
Every child who is a Niuean resident are entitled to free education, free healthcare with immunisation programmes following the New Zealand and World Health Organisation healthcare guidelines. There is also a quarterly child allowance entitlement from birth up to eighteen years of age.
Child rights became prominent when the Convention of the Rights of the Child started. Niue has always been a willing participant in global initiatives more so for United Nations programmes.
5.2 Educational Programmes and Systems
Department of Education
The overriding authority for all educational matters on Niue under leadership of the Minister for Education.
