Abstract

The description and the analysis of the exchanges, wich keep defining the birth of a child in two Kanak communities of the Hienghène region, in the north-east of New Caledonia, led to wonder about the way the individuali is actually connected to the social group and the way the social group is connected to the society in general. The exchanges system can be considered as the society itself and also what stands beyond it. In fact, the exchanges movement includes every thing: the persons, the institutions, the wealth, the food plants and the ancestors.