Lifting the Tapu of Sex, A Tulou Reading of the Song of Songs

Abstract

The tulou hermeneutic meets the need to negotiate problematic texts. Such problematic texts had been dealt with in a manner that compromised the integrity of the text, as readers traditionally overlooked the issues and problems in the text in favor of passive (mostly allegorical) interpretations. As I have argued, there is a need to deal with these texts more carefully, and I have proposed a tulou hermeneutic that brings the text down (lou) from the high points of allegory and spiritualized readings, down to a humanistic reading that allows the reader to formulate questions of the text from his or her standpoint (tu). I use the Song of Songs, littered with sexual imagery and erotic language, to illustrate how the tulou hermeneutic may work. I lou(er) the text from the high point represented by spiritualized readings in light of God’s covenant with Israel and the church. I lou(er) the text to the reader’s tu, representing the reader’s human standpoint, where I make meaning in light of my human experiences as an Australian Samoan who perceives sex in the Song as a celebration of human life. As a result, the text is given its integrity and the fa‘aaloalo that it had lost through tapu.