Head — tapu/status locus
sacred restriction, identity, and attention
The head is shown as a high-status and spiritually consequential region in this comparative Pacific synthesis, while the source traditions remain island-specific. The point is an attention aid and not a claim that every Samoan or Tongan healer places tapu in one anatomical spot.
Point 1 of 5 in Samoan/Tongan Healing Body
Cross-tradition overlaps
- Head — tapu/status locus ↔ Head — tapu locus (distance 0.010)
Sources
Claire D. F. Parsons, ed., Healing Practices in the South Pacific (scholarly_modern)
The collection includes separate studies of Samoan medicine and Tongan healing practices; it is used here as a comparative source while preserving island-level variation.
Claire D. F. Parsons, Illness and Cure in Tonga: Traditional and Modern Medical Practice (scholarly_modern)
Ethnographic account of Tongan illness concepts, curers, cures, and case studies; the source supports a Tongan healing context but not a universal Samoan/Tongan body map.