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LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE
IN PALAU
ROLAND W. FORCE
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 50
Published by
CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
FEBRUARY 19, 1960
THEUBRARYGFM 1960
UK!VCRSITV?3Ff?!INfllS
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY
A Continuation of the
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES
of
FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
VOLUME 50
CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
CHICAGO, U.S.A.
1960
Edited by Lillian A. Ross
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE
IN PALAU
'U
3.t-;
AN ABAI (CLUBHOUSE) IN IBUKL VILLAGE OF NGERECHELONG
MUNICIPALITY
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE
IN PALAU
ROLAND W. FORCE
Curator, Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY
VOLUME 50
Published by
CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
FEBRUARY 19, 1960
PRINTED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
The Edward E. Ayer Lecture Foundation Fund
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60-9518
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS
V <56
Preface
This study is directed mainly to two groups: (1) Professional anthro- pologists whose interests pertain to problems of cultural dynamics and problems of applied anthropology. (2) Administrative personnel who are faced with the task of dealing directly with non-self-governing peoples who are striving for self-determination, assimilating new concepts of government, and struggling generally to co-ordinate the old with the new.
Because published materials on Palau and Palauan culture are in languages other than English or are relatively inaccessible, I have in- cluded considerable detail relating to the people of Palau, their tradi- tional culture configuration, their habitat, and their history of contact and administration. In so doing, I had the hope that the study would be more meaningful to both groups mentioned above than would other- wise have been the case.
The field research upon which this study is based was conducted from December 1954 to April 1956 under the auspices of the Tri-Institutional Pacific Program^ (Yale University, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, and the University of Hawaii, participating institutions). TRIPP is supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. My research was but a part of the broad program of scientific investigation being con- ducted by TRIPP. The program is directed toward the solution of prob- lems of cultural change, with particular reference to the Malayo-Poly- nesian-speaking peoples of Oceania.
This study is the first of several stemming from my field work in Palau. Currently I have in preparation monographs devoted to studies of Palauan social structure and political change. Later I hope to pub- lish material relating to the exchange system and native currency.
I wish to acknowledge the many helpful suggestions and the en- couragement ofTered by members of the TRIPP Executive Committee. I owe a very special debt of gratitude to Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Chairman of the TRIPP Executive Committee and Director of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, for his sustaining guidance and inspiration. Special thanks are also due several Executive Committee members.
1 Designated in abbreviated form as TRIPP.
7
8 PREFACE
Professor George P. Murdock of Yale University and Professor Leonard Mason of the University of Hawaii each offered the benefit of his experi- ence in Pacific ethnology. The late President of the University of Hawaii, Paul S. Bachman, kindly extended housing accommodations at the Uni- versity as I was en route to the field. I also want to thank Dr. Norman Meller of the University of Hawaii for his helpful comments concerning political change.
Anthropological field work and the reports which result from it are possible only through the assistance and co-operation of many individuals. So it has been with this study and the investigations upon which it is based. My greatest indebtedness is to my wife, Maryanne, who served as research associate in the field and who shared the obligations, the disappointments, and the satisfactions of scientific investigation with me.
So many Palauans have earned my gratitude that any short list of names would be incomplete. However, special thanks should be given to Charley Gibbon (Beches, Rechucher era Techeki), who served as guide and interpreter, at times under great duress. Many others provided the information upon which this study is based and — much more im- portant— provided their friendship. For them, I wish to delegate two individuals to accept my general gratitude, one for the women and one for the men. They are respectively Ebil era Aimei (Dilubch) and Ngirayobei (Rechucher).
Members of the American administration in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to whom I am especially obligated are High Com- missioner Delmas H. Nucker, then Deputy High Commissioner; former Staff Anthropologist Allan H. Smith and Mrs. Smith; present Staff Anthropologist John deVoung; former District Administrator of the Palau District Donald Heron and Mrs. Heron; former Assistant District Administrator of the Palau District and now District Administrator Francis B. Mahoney and Mrs. Mahoney; Mr. Harry Uyehara, Mr. John Martin, Dr. William Conover, and Mr. Ian MacKenzie. For their gracious hospitality and the provision of research facilities, thanks are due Staff Entomologist Robert P. Owen and Mrs. Owen. Former Director of Education in the Palau District Daniel Peacock and Mrs. Peacock assisted in many ways. Father Edwin McManus, S.J., of the Catholic mission in Palau was most helpful. He lent personal materials on the Palauan language and made certain mission records available. Mr. Sidney Seid and Mr. Willem Henderickx, then members of the American community in Koror, each provided assistance for which I am grateful.
PREFACE 9
A very special word of gratitude must be extended to former Land and Claims Officer Donald Le Goullon and Mrs. Le GouUon for the sincere and warm hospitality they extended and for the assistance they rendered in countless ways.
For special assistance and the loan of field equipment I am indebted to Dr. Harold J. Coolidge (also a member of the TRIPP Executive Committee), Executive Director of the Pacific Science Board. I am grateful, too, for the assistance of the late Miss Ernestine Akers, formerly of the Honolulu office of the Pacific Science Board.
I wish also to thank Dr. Homer Barnett and Dr. Douglas Osborne, each of whom off"ered many helpful suggestions and comments on Palau prior to my departure for the field. Professor Samuel Elbert provided useful comments on the Palauan language, and Dr. Saul Riesenberg lent personal materials on the Trust Territory and later read the manu- script of this study and contributed important suggestions for improvement.
Others who read drafts of the manuscript and provided many useful comments and suggestions were Professors Felix M. Keesing, Bernard J. Siegel, and Alan Beals. To Dr. Paul S. Martin and to Professors Richard T. LaPiere, Claude A. Buss, Bert A. Gerow, Douglas Oliver, Sol Tax, and Alfred G. Smith I owe additional thanks for their thought- ful reading of the manuscript.
Grateful acknowledgment is also due Mr. Stanley Field, President of the Board of Trustees of Chicago Natural History Museum, Dr. Cliff'ord C. Gregg, Director of the Museum, and Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator, Department of Anthropology, who have shown enduring interest in my research. Many other members of the Museum staff deserve my thanks, but especially deserving is Miss Lillian Ross, Editor of Scientific Publications, who supplied numerous helpful suggestions for the improvement of this monograph.
April 30, 1958 Roland W. Force
Contents
PAGE
List of Illustrations 13
Introduction 15
Contemporary Leadership in Palau 16
I. Palau and the Palauans: The Land and Its People 18
The Land 18
The People 22
The Relationship of the People to the Land 28
II. The Context of Traditional Leadership in Palau 32
Territorial and Political Alignments 32
Village Organization 34
Age-Grading 40
Kin Groups 43
Hereditary Sanctions of Leadership: Characteristics and Expectations 54
Supernatural Sanctions of Leadership : Spirits and Shamans 56
Age and Respect Sanctions of Leadership: Rjtbaks and Respect ... 58
Patterns of Social Dominance and Power 59
III. The Contact CoNTiNtruM : The Succession of Superordinates .... 66
Early Contacts 66
Domination by Foreign Powers 70
IV. Stimuli for Change 76
The Decline of Traditional Leadership 76
Souls and Salvation 77
Peace and Prosperity 80
Philosophies of Administration 86
\^ The Nature of Emergent Leadership: The Product of Cultural
Change 88
Problems and Panaceas 89
Administrators and Assistants 89
Specialists 91
Emergent Political Leadership and Political Change 91
Municipal Government 93
Contemporary Agencies of Political Power 99
Non-Political Emergent Leadership 101
VI. Coexistence and Conflict: Dysfunctional Accompaniments of
Cultural Change 108
The Composite Contemporary Scene 108
Coexisting Sanctions of Power 108
11
12 CONTENTS
PAGE
Coexisting and Rival Agencies of Political Power Ill
Coexisting Symbols of Prestige and Status 112
Coexisting Modes of Leader Selection 113
Coexisting Canons of Respect 114
Dysfunctions Resulting from Leadership Change 117
Outlook 122
Vn. The Dynamics of Acculturational Change 123
Cultural Dynamics and Directed Cultural Change 124
The Integrational Processes of Acculturational Change 128
Behavioral Responses in Acculturational Change 129
Alterations in Form and Meaning 132
Supersedure and Functional Equivalents 134
\^in. The Chains of Custom: Partial Adoption and Partial Retention . 137
Retention and Prestige \'alues 1 39
Retention and Dysfunctional Leadership Behavior 142
Retention and Stability: Universals or Fortuitous Cultural
Congruences? 144
Stability and Non-Change in Leadership Role Behavior 145
IX. Leadership and Cultural Change in Broader Perspective 154
General Understandings and Other Case Data 154
The Imperative Quality of Directed Change 161
Dominance toward Self-Determination 164
Dominant Culture Resistance to Change 166
Rate of Change: Attitudes, Policies, and Implications for the Future . 167
Appendix I: Methodology 171
The Plan of the Study 171
Study Methods and Techniques 179
Appendix II: Orthography 182
Appendix III: Glossary of Palauan Terms 184
Appendix IV: Documents 187
Palau Congress Charter 187
Palau District Order 3-48 191
Palau District Order 4-48 192
Palau District Order 1-49 194
Bibliography 198
Index 208
List of Illustrations Text Figures
PAGE
An abai (clubhouse) in Ibukl village of Ngerechelong municipality . . Frontispiece
1. The land; a place of sun and shadow 19
2. Map showing the location of the Palau Islands 20
3. Map of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands facing p. 22
4A. Uchulech, wife of Siabang 24
4B. Siabang, husband of Uchulech 25
5. Map showing municipalities of the Palau Islands 27
6. Exploitation of the sea and soil 29
7. View of Koror village in 1783 (after Keate) 33
8. Map showing major territorial division of aboriginal Palau Islands ... 35
9. Diagram portraying the integration of territorial (political) organization
and kinship system in the Palau Islands 38, 39
10. Village age-grade society alignment 41
11. Age-grade society membership progression in Koror village, Delui laoch . . 41
12. Schematic diagram showing overlap in kin group terminology 47
13A. Diraked (Sebelau), a venerated elder 60
13B. Ngirokebai (Mochesar), an old chief 61
14. Old and new housing 63
15. Landing place at Koror village in 1783 (after Keate) 67
16. Abba Thule (Aibedul), high chief of Youldaob in 1783 (after Keate) . . 69
17. Sacred structures 79
18. Schematic diagram of authority in the government of the Trust Territory
of the Pacific Islands 95
19. Local officials in Mengellang village of Ngerechelong municipality ... 96
20. Diagram showing the relationship of local representative government to the 97
Palau District administration
21. Diagram showing levels of authority and power in Palau 99
22. Emergent specialist leaders in medicine 103
23. Emergent specialist leaders in education 105
24A. The congress; a young leader speaks 110
24B. The congress; the old chiefs listen Ill
25 A. A traditional leader, aged Ngirokebou 114
25B. An emergent leader, Rudimch 115
26. Age diflferences and cultural orientations 141
27. Emergent economic leaders 163
13
p
Introduction
This monograph is a study of leadership and cukural change in the Palau Islands of Micronesia. It focuses on a situation wherein aHen concepts of leadership have been and are being introduced by a super- ordinate culture to a subordinate one. Under the conditions of culture contact in Palau, the study of leadership provides an excellent means for the examination of certain features of culture change, utilizing data from a limited, yet highly significant area of human behavior. The nature, varieties, and characteristics of leadership and the attendant stresses and strains observable under such conditions are quite amenable to description and analysis.
In this study the basic concentration is on changes from traditional modes and patterns of leadership to new and emergent ones. The prin- cipal emphasis centers on the interrelationship of leadership and cultural change. Within this area of emphasis are considered the effect of cultural change on traditional leadership behavior and statuses, changing leader- ship roles and sanctions, leadership characteristics, the nature of emergent leadership, and the conflicts and stresses engendered by the conditions of cultural change.
Today many Pacific island communities present opportunities for the study of emergent leadership. New leaders are rising to focal positions of power as different modes of political organization and activity emerge through the development of indigenous self-government according to standards derived from the Western world. New leadership roles also are introduced as new concepts of education, public health, and economic development take hold.
Because there is in Palau a general receptivity to change from alien cultures, the situation is especially favorable for the investigation of cultural change in general. Of all areas of Palauan culture which might be chosen to demonstrate the processes and effects of cultural change, that of leadership and leadership behavior offers perhaps the richest rewards. It was for this reason that I chose to investigate the changing patterns of leadership, the mechanisms and means of exercising authority, and the agents and agencies of power in Palau, and to contrast the tradi- tional ones with the emergent.
15
16 INTRODUCTION
Because this is a case study of leadership and leadership change under conditions of acculturative stress, certain general understandings about the processes of cultural change and the nature of leadership have been used as guides for the selection and interpretation of Palauan field data. The extent to which data from Palau either validate, in- validate, or modify these general understandings is indicated in the con- cluding chapters.
In this study the term "leadership" designates role behavior of a domi- nant, influencing, and directing character. It is provided by an individ- ual who stands in a superordinate status-position to one or more indi- viduals who, by virtue of their interaction, comprise a social group whose collective behavior is more or less goal-directed.
A leader is taken to be an individual who stands in a superordinate relationship to one or more other individuals. By virtue of authority, either vested in him willingly or maintained by him through coercion, he exercises powers of influence, decision, origination and/or facilitation of action, and policy formulation with respect to the other individual (s) in the relationship.
The behavior a leader exhibits is directing, organizing, and con- trolling. For the purposes of this study the stipulation is not made, as it sometimes is, that the influence, direction, and control exerted by a leader over the led must be voluntarily vouchsafed him by the led (Fair- child, 1944, p. 174; Gardner, 1956, p. 493; and Gibb, 1947, p. 272). This distinction is sometimes used to distinguish "democratic" leadership from "dominance," which is assumed to be autocratic (Roucek, 1947, p. 279).
CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP IN PALAU
Today in Palau individuals who provide leadership are more broadly recruited than was true under the traditional system. Leaders are not derived solely from upper strata of the social structure, as was formerly true. The present system allows access to positions of respect and power to more categories of individuals than in aboriginal times. The basic change is from a closed system, in which leadership positions were by and large ascribed, to a relativ^ely open one, in which leadership positions also may be achieved.
Leadership roles are much more diffuse and varied today than formerly. In proportion to total population many more persons serve as leaders. Power is broadly distributed, and its exercise is diffused along with new leadership roles. Formerly a relatively compact and definable socio-political elite existed in Palau. What now exists is a series of "elite"
INTRODUCTION 17
groups whose membership is determined by criteria which are far more diversified than was the case under the autochthonous system.
Social mobility is possible, since today one may attain social prom- inence without having been born to rank. The old criteria for elevated social status still operate, but new criteria also have come into being. Performance based on special skills and recognized competence enables individuals from any stratum of society to achieve leadership status.
In sum, then, these are the characteristics of contemporary leadership in Palau: the existence of multiple criteria for determining who shall provide it; a diflfuse quality; widespread participation in leadership behavior by individuals who are recruited from the culture at large without reference to traditional social statuses based on kinship; com- peting sanctions for power; and the existence of a series of elite groups.
L Palau and the Palauans: The Land and Its People
Most studies of acculturation include background information about the culture under examination. Some of this information is historical and some is of a general context-setting nature. Hardly a better justifica- tion for its inclusion can be cited than by quoting some of the conclusions of a group of eminent students of acculturation in a recent survey. Any comprehensive study of acculturation, the symposium concludes, must incorporate an assessment of "those noncultural and nonsocial phenomena that provide the contact setting and establish certain limits of cultural adaptation." Among the most important of these, we are told, are the ecological context and the demographic characteristics of the respective peoples (Social Science Research Council Summer Seminar on Accultura- tion, 1953, 1954, p. 979). Though the importance of some such descriptive and factual information may not be immediately apparent, it is essential to an accurate understanding of the dynamics of change.
At first glance, for example, the inclusion of a brief comment on the climate in Palau would seem to be insignificant in a study of leadership. However, if we observe that under the prevailing high temperature and excessive humidity in Palau a magistrate will nonetheless array himself in Western style necktie and woolen sport-coat and slacks for an elementary school graduation ceremony, then the behavior he exhibits has significance for this study. In this case, the emergent leader is engaging in leadership behavior which he considers appropriate. His interpretation of what a leader should wear on a special occasion ob- viously seems out of keeping in the tropical climate of Palau.
THE LAND
The Palau Islands^ are situated in the western Carolines (7° 30' N. Lat. and 134° 30' E. Long.; see fig. 2). They are located approximately 435 nautical miles due east of Mindanao in the Philippines, about 470 nautical
1 Also called Arrecifos (sic), Fannog, Isles de Pellew, Le Groupe Pallay, Les Palos, Palaoa, Palao Inseln, Palaos Islands, Palaos Isles, Palau group, Palau-Inseln, Paleu, Pallay, Pallou Islands, Pally, Paloc, Panlog, Pannog, Parao-Jima, Parao-shoto, Parao Syoto, Paulogue, Peeloo Islands, Pelau-Inseln, Pelelew Island, Peleu, Pelew Group, Pelew-Inseln, Pelew Island, Pelew Islands, Pelew Isles, Pellew, Pellewinseln, Pelli, Pellow, Punlac, Punlog, and Walau (Decisions on names in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and Guam, Part I, 1955, p. 79).
Fig. 1. The land; a place of sun and shadow. Upper: Looking down on the for- ested fringe of Ngerechelong municipality from a sun-drenched elevation. Lower: Looking upward from the floor of a lowland coconut grove. The climber is collecting coconut flower juices that make a molasses-like substance used in cooking.
19
20
PALAU AND THE PALAUANS 21
miles due north of Geelvink Bay in Dutch New Guinea, and about 706 nautical miles southwest of Guam in the Mariana Islands. Yap lies 258 nautical miles northeastward. The nearest inhabited islands to the north of Palau are the Ngulu Islands, 168 nautical miles in an east- northeasterly direction. Sonsorol, the nearest inhabited island in the opposite direction, is 180 nautical miles southwest of Palau.
The Palau District of the American-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (see fig. 3) is formed by the Palau Islands, the inhal)ited coral islands of Sonsorol, Merir, Pulo Anna, and Tobi, and the uninhabited atoll of Helen Reef. This district comprises the extreme southwestern portion of the Trust Territory. The four inhabited islands southwest of the Palaus (Sonsorol, Merir, Pulo Anna, and Tobi) are linguistically and culturally quite separate from Palau.
The Palau archipelago is approximately 125 miles long and about 25 miles wide. Within it are clustered approximately 243 islands, of which only eight are of significant size. The total land area of the Palaus is somewhere in the neighborhood of 185 square miles, most of it con- centrated on the big island of Babeldaob, which is 23 miles long and has a maximum width of eight miles. This island, the largest in Mi- cronesia, contains about 143 square miles of relatively rugged land surface with elevations of more than 700 feet. All of the islands in the chain are forested. The larger islands in the north are volcanic in origin and those to the south are coral limestone. These latter are very heavily wooded and rise up with steeply sloping sides from bases undercut by wave and chemical action (Gressitt, 1954, p. 69). Northernmost Ngei- angl (Kayangel) atoll and the coral island of Ngaur (Angaur) in the ex- treme south are each outside the protective reef system which encloses the intervening islands.
The Palaus are topographically and geologically the most complex and diversified of all Micronesian island groups. Included are high volcanic islands, low coral atoll islands, raised coral atoll (phosphate) islands, and both high and low single coral islands. The encircling and detached reefs which cluster about the chain likewise include a diverse representation of reef types. There are fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and shoal reefs. The longest connected reef is about 77 miles in length. Several of these reefs support potential or incipient atolls, but Ngeiangl, in the far north of the chain, is the only bona fide atoll. Ngeruangl atoll, farther north and west, consists of but a single small island and is un- inhabited.
Palau has a tropical oceanic climate in which mean annual rainfall is around 150 inches. The rainiest months are those of the summer
22 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU
and the driest those of the winter. Mean annual temperature is high (81° F.) and relatively uniform. The mean diurnal range is only 9.6° F. The most humid months are January and July and average relative humidity is 81 per cent (Civil Affairs Handbook, 1944, pp. 4-6). Strong northeast trade winds temper the humidity from October to about May or June. The southwest monsoons occupy the remainder of the yfear. Light and variable winds interspersed with periods of calm are common during this period. Heavy rains are brought by the monsoons in mid- summer.
THE PEOPLE
The range of racial characteristics found among Palauans is a broad one. Skin color varies from light to dark brown with reddish tendencies. Hair color is invariably dark brown to black with decided reddish pig- ments. Hair form may be frizzly, wavy, or straight. Lip form ranges from slight to moderate eversion. Stature is generally short, and con- siderable muscular development is common. While weight increases with age in some individuals, corpulence is not general. The epicanthic fold so characteristic of other Micronesian groups is not pronounced, though it may be found in some individuals.
Certain Palauans so closely correspond to the basic racial types found in other parts of the Pacific that if they were to be transported to these regions they would be indistinguishable from the native populations. Some women, for example, possess the straight hair and high forehead of Javanese and Balinese women. Other individuals display character- istics which attest to Melanesian antecedents. Still others possess the stature, weight, straight hair, and skin color ordinarily thought to char- acterize the Polynesians.
It is not illogical that the range of physical characteristics found among Palauans should be extremely broad. The Palau Islands rest on the very threshold of the Pacific. Countless waves of migration must have ebbed and flowed through this aperture to the farther reaches of Oceania. A long history of racial admixture is attested to by Palauan folktales, which provide evidence for contact with Yap, the Philippines, the central Carolines, and Melanesia. Undoubtedly many more such contacts are unreported. A useful and authoritative survey of Micro- nesian somatology and serology, including materials on Palau, has been provided by Hunt (1950).
The native population of Palau is 7,783 (census figures, 1956). Slighdy less than half (48 per cent) of the total number of Palauans live on Babeldaob Island. Another block of the population (35 per cent) resides on Koror Island, most of it in the administrative "urban" village of
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PALAU AND THE PALAUANS 23
Koror. The remaining 17 per cent is divided among the relatively remote islands of Ngeiangl, Pelilyou, and Ngaur. Because of a relatively high birth rate and improved medical care, the population of Palau is rapidly expanding.
POPULATION OF PALAU BY MUNICIPALITY!
Aiiinicipality Population
Koror 2,723
Ngarard 700
Pelilyou 687
Ngerechelong 511
Ngaur 459
Airai 454
Nghesar 432
Aimelik 399
Ngiwal 334
Ngeremlengui 323
Melekeok 295
Ngardmau 206
Ngeiangl 161
Ngatpang 99
Total 7,783
1 Statistics taken from Annual Statistical Report of Palau District (fiscal year 1956).
In 1956 the ratio of males to females in the population was very slightly in favor of males: 3,952 to 3,831 (Statistical Report of the Palau District, 1956). The difference is so small as to be negligible. The ratio shifts in favor of one se.x over another from year to year; for example, in 1951 the ratio was slightly in favor of males: 3,295 to 3,283 (Quarterly Report, Civil Administration Unit, Palau District, April-June, 1951, p. 9). In 1952 the ratio was in favor of females: 3,526 to 3,456 (Quarterly Report, Palau District, January-March, 1952, p. 8).
POPULATION OF KOROR MUNICIPALITY!
(June, 1948-May, 1956)
Population Date Population increase or decrease
1948 1,120
1949 1,255 135
1950 1,225 -30
1951 1,282 57
1952 1,970 688
1953 2,050 80
1954 2,231 181
1955 2,209 -22
1956 2,723 514
1 Compiled from Palau District Annual Reports (1948-56).
Fig. 4A. Uchulech, wife of Siabang, of Ngabei village in Ngerechelong munici- pality. Her Western garb stands in sharp contrast to the pierced ear lobes and the old style tattooing.
24
Fig. 4B. Siabang, husband of Uchulech, of Ngabei village in Ngerechelong mu- nicipality. His traditional garb, old style wrist tattooing, and wooden betel-nut mortar stand in sharp contrast to the tack hammer, the betel-nut pestle and the modern upper
arm tattooms
25
26 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU
Government population statistical tabulations for Palau do not include Ijirth or mortality rates. Hence, no ratios are presented here. Population density is by far the greatest on the island of Koror. Because of greater opportunities for employment and other positive values which relate to the administrative and port center, immigration to Koror has i:)een accelerated in the past few years. Features of life in Koror which are attractive to Palauans are electric power, a movie, a hospital, motor vehicles, and the traditional prestige of Koror village.
The growth of population in Koror has resulted in overpopulation in one municipality and a corresponding depopulation in others. Out- lying municipalities are being drained of valuable members of their populations. The majority of the emigrants have been in the younger age ranges. Emigration has resulted in shortages of man-power and social participants as well as in tax income in many municipalities.
ISLANDS OF THE PALAU ARCHIPELAGO
The principal islands of the Palau archipelago are listed below in the order of arrangement from north to south (Decisions on Names in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and Guam, Part I). In this study I have used my own transcription of native place names as it more closely corresponds to correct phonemic laws of the Palauan language than that employed by the Board on Geographic Names. The one exception to this rule is that according to my transcription "Koror" should be "Choreor." It is, however, left "Koror," because of the current common usage of that form. Board transcriptions appear at times in parentheses throughout this study and are used in the following enumeration of the member islands in the Palaus.
Kayangel (8° 04' N., 134° 43' E.): an atoll consisting of four low, sandy motus; only the largest is inhabited.
Babelthuap (7° 30' N., 134° 36' E.) : a volcanic island (uplifted coral in southeast); the largest in the chain.
Arakabesan (7°21'N., 134° 27' E.): a small volcanic island; inhabited.
Koror (7° 20' N., 134° 30' E.) : a volcanic and raised coral island; seat of administra- tive government, urban center.
Malakal (7° 20' N., 134° 28' E.): a small, partly volcanic and partly coral limestone island, with a harbor and dock area; inhabited by Chamorro family.
Auluptagel (7° 19' N., 134° 29' E.) : an uninhabited coral limestone island.
Urukthapel (7° 15' N., 134° 24' E.) : the largest limestone island in Micronesia in terms of coral volume, and the second largest island in Palau; uninhabited.
Eil Malk (7° 09' N., 134° 22' E.) : a high coral island, proper name Mecherchar; uninhabited.
Peleliu (7°01'N., 134° 15' E.): a raised atoll, the third largest island in Palau; in- habited.
Angaur (6° 54' N., 134°09'E.): a raised atoll; inhabited.
134- 20'
I34«4Q-
9 I
|
1 |
N6EIANGL |
|
2 |
NGERECHELONG |
|
3 |
NGARDMAU |
|
4 |
NGARARD |
|
5 |
NGEREMLENGUI |
|
6 |
NGIWAL |
|
7 |
MELEKEOK |
|
8 |
AIMELIK |
|
9 |
N GAT PANG |
|
10 |
NGHESAR |
|
1 1 |
AIRAI |
|
12 |
KOROR |
|
13 |
PELILYOU |
|
14 |
NGAUR |
V
g>00
7'40
7»20'
■r-oo-
20 MILES
14P
I34»20' 134*40'
Fig. 5. Map showing municipalities of the Palau Islands.
27
28 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU
At the same time, the increase in the population of Koror has created problems of a different order. Koror, like many other growing com- munities, has a shortage of housing, its schools are crowded, the labor supply exceeds opportunities for employment, and there are relatively high delinquency and crime rates. A basic problem is that of food supply. Koror Island is small, and much of the existing arable land sup- ports native housing and administration facilities. As a consequence of these factors, good land for subsistence-crop planting is at a premium.
Many families find it necessary to travel to neighboring islands to farm plots of land to which they have rights. Most families also depend on relatives in outlying communities to send food to them periodically.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE PEOPLE TO THE LAND
Traditionally, and continuing to the present time, the source of subsistence in Palau has been the cultivation of root and other crops, combined with the exploitation of reef and lagoon marine life. Mega- podes, pigeons, and fruit bats were at times also taken for food in pre- contact times. No domesticated animals were kept for food. Chickens ran wild in the bush and not only were not domesticated, but were not eaten (Keate, 1788, p. 300). Surprisingly, at the time of their presumed initial contact with Europeans in 1783, Palauans apparently had no knowledge of the pig or the dog. However difficult it may be to believe that any group of islands so close to the Asiatic mainland and in the paths of numerous eastward migrations would not have had either dogs or pigs introduced until comparatively recent times, it is nevertheless reported that there were "no quadrupeds of any species on these islands, except a very few grey rats in the woods." (Keate, 1788, p. 31.)
The primary vegetable food staple was wet-farmed taro, which was grown in swampy, paddy-like enclosures. Cassava and sweet potatoes, which were grown in dry hillside gardens, may have been introduced in historic times, but of this there is no record. Various other food plants also were cultivated or gathered and augmented the basically starchy diet.^ Coconut trees were plentiful in most of the villages, and nuts and flower juices were utilized in the diet.
1 Plants which are either intensively cultivated or are cultivated to some extent today include taro (Colocasia), giant swamp taro (Cyrtosperma), wild taro (Alocasia), yams (Dioscorea), manioc or cassava (Manihot), sweet potato (Ipomoea), corn (^ea), turmeric (Curcuma), squash {Cucurbita), pineapple {Ananas), green onions {Allium), and watermelon {Citrullus). Citrus (Citrus), banana (Musa), papaya (Carica), soursop (Anona), and breadfruit (Artocarpus) trees provide a portion of the native diet, but do not require much attention. A more complete inventory of plant life may be found in Kanehira (1935), Mayo (1954), and Fosberg (1947).
.^a
Fig. 6. Exploitation of the sea and soil. Upper: Men returning from lagoon fishing. Lower: Women at work in the taro fields.
29
30 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU
The protein staple was provided by fish and shellfish. There was a strict division of labor; women cared for the gardens and men secured the fish. Women and children violated the division in that it was their recognized right and duty to scour the lagoon and shore region in search of small shellfish and sea slugs. Men occasionally secured deep-water species of fish or rarely a dugong, but most of their efforts were confined to the reef and the lagoon areas. Palauan implements for exploitation of the sea — nets, traps, spears, and auxiliary gear — were well adapted to the habitat. The supply of fish and shellfish has remained fairly con- stant and, in the main, methods employed in securing marine products have not been altered sufficiently to exhaust these resources.
The Palauan diet has been well balanced within the limitations imposed on most island populations, and the result has been favorable from the standpoint of health. Today the population of Palau is growing, but there are indications that the aboriginal population was much larger and was supported by the same resources that now maintain a smaller one.
In general, the native fauna and flora of Palau make for an environ- ment which is considerably richer than that usually found on Pacific islands. This relative richness is due to Palau's proximity to Asiatic continental land masses, which have a remarkably similar biota.
The forest vegetation of the Palau Islands consists of numerous species of hardwood trees, including hibiscus and breadfruit. Also abun- dant are coconut, betel, sago, and oil palms; bamboo; vines; shrubs; and pandanus trees.
The loom has never been a part of Palauan technology, but woven goods formed by hand-plaiting native fibers such as pandanus served many purposes. Hibiscus bast and coconut-husk fibers provided materials for the manufacture of cordage. Very little bark-cloth was made, but the techniques required for its production from breadfruit bark were known and used to a limited extent.
A coarse, heavy, brittle, and relatively simple variety of pottery was made by women from native clays. Coiling and paddle-and-anvil tech- niques were used in its manufacture. Pottery vessels were used for cooking and storage.
Palauan technological development in pre-contact times was com- parable to that in other island areas of the Pacific. A limited number of tools and implements were used. Principal among these was the tridacna-shell adze. Knives of shell and bamboo also were used in the manufacture of goods and in the preparation of food. Volcanic out- croppings on the large island of Babeldaob and on Koror Island pro-
PALAU AND THE PALAUANS 31
vided materials for ground-stone pounders. Points for arrows and blow- gun darts were made of wood or sting-ray spines.
Palauan resources are today much as they were in pre-contact times. There have, of course, been some changes, such as the planting of coconut plantations in German times and the depredations of the coconut beetle in more recent years, ^ but in general the reef, the lagoon, and the forests are little changed. All in all, the resources at the disposal of Palauans have allowed a relatively comfortable adaptation to island life.
Regardless of the modifying impact of culture contact on their culture, Palauans remain essentially subsistence farmers and gatherers. Imple- ments utilized in the exploitation of the soil and sea and in everyday life have been altered through the years, but the exploitation to subsist has continued. The steel knife has replaced the knife of shell or bamboo; the iron adze blade, the blade of tridacna; the metal fishhook, the hook of turtle shell. Pottery is no longer made. Iron pots are used today, and china containers now have replaced the wooden food bowls of old. But in spite of these alterations, the relationship of the Palauans to their land has always been a close one and it remains so today.
1 The coconut rhinoceros beetle {Oryctes) has destroyed many coconut palms on Babeldaob and all of those on Ngaur, Pelilyou, Koror, and many smaller islands. The destruction of this essential subsistence and economically important tree is being combated by an extensive beetle control project.
IL The Context of Traditional Leadership in Palau
In this study traditional leadership refers to the kind of leadership which was exercised in aboriginal times, prior to contact with repre-