A tapere or sub-district is a low-level traditional land subdivision on five of the Southern Cook Islands (Rarotonga, Mangaia, Aitutaki, Atiu, and Mauke), comparable to the ahupua'a of the main Hawaiian Islands or to the kousapw of Pohnpei. Among the populated raised islands, only Mitiaro is not subdivided into tapere. The remaining Southern Cook Islands, Manuae, Palmerston and Takutea, are atolls and/or uninhabited, and therefore not subject to this type of traditional subdivision. The atolls of the Northern Cook Islands are subdivided into motu (populated atoll islets) instead.
A tapere is a subdivision of a district (the major island subdivision) or puna, which is headed by a district chief, or pava in the case of Mangaia. A tapere is normally headed by a mataiapo (a chief of a major lineage) or ariki (a high chief, the titular head of a tribe). It is occupied by the matakeinanga, the local group composed of the residential core of a major lineage, plus affines and other permitted members. Most of the tapere lands are subdivided among the minor lineages, each of which was headed by a rangatira or kōmono, or by the mataiapo himself. Below that level, there is the uanga, the extended family, the residential core of which occupied a household.
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