Dream Space and Spaces Dreamed. A Topology of Dreams in 'Uvea (Wallis, Western Polynesia)

Not everyone can be a dreamer. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in 'Uvea, French Polynesia, this paper focuses on the experience, articulation and reception of dreams. Dream experiences do not come from the unshackled fantasies of the subject freed from the burden of social constraints of waking life. Quite the contrary. Dreams have no tangible existence unless they are put into words and framed in narratives that follow the main components of language socialization. Their social significance depends on the relationships between the space of the dream and the spaces dreamed, namely the place where the dreamer slept and the spaces where the dream took place. Dream narratives and experiences are practices of space and help to orient and place the action. Their decoding elucidates past, present and future events. Integrated into local history, the circulation of dreams can bear a significant corroborative effect on reality and social organization in a way that upends and belies them until they become the object of innovations, inspirations and premonitions.