Majuro, a village in the Marshall Islands / Alexander Spoehr

Abstract

Conclusions Regarding Kinship SystemKinship and Customs Relating to Life Cycle IX.Introduced Institutions in Village LifePAGE 5. Household I. Ground plan of house-group 6. Household II.Ground plan of house-group 7. Household III.Ground plan of house-group 8. Household IV.Ground plan of house-group 9. Area of taro patches in the interior of Majuro Island, in Lobat District .10. Two taro patches, showing individual plots into which they are divided .11. Islands of Majuro Atoll i:°N-...Ujclang 8°N-Map I. counts, have not been fulfilled.There is every indication that the Marshallese will continue to be a healthy people.For the field work that provided the factual material in this report I selected a single Marshallese village-that of Majuro on the atoll of the same name-for examination as a type community.This study is limited to an outline of the formal social organization of Majuro village.I have further emphasized two aspects of this formal social organization : the local or territorial groupings within the community, and the kinship system and the related features of social structure based on kinship and its extensions.There is admittedly much that is omitted, but I hope that the picture that follows of a Marshallese village will serve future investigators as a basis of comparison.The Marshall Islands are a fruitful field for anthro- pological research.The relation of the Marshalls to the Carolines and to the Gilberts needs further elucidation, which in turn should throw light on the historical problems of the larger Micronesian and Polynesian areas.A second series of more general comparative common characteristic is a marked lateral prominence of the zygo- matic arches.Since 1885 the Marshalls have come successively under the rule of Germany, Japan, and the United States.Even before 1885, contact with westerners was not infrequent, for whaling ships, traders, and missionaries all operated in the Marshalls prior to that date.A certain number of Europeans, Americans, Chinese, and Japanese settled in the Marshalls and married island women, with the result that today there is a small but racially and socially signi- ficant group of individuals of recent mixed ancestry.This gi'oup MAJURO will be discussed further in the consideration of the population of Majuro village.The Marshallese are essentially homogeneous in language and culture.In former times, dialectic and cultural differences existed between the Ratak and Ralik chains, but today these differences are not sufficiently marked to serve as social barriers.There are some cultural differences between individual atolls.However, except for Likiep, where the descendants of two Europeans who settled there in the nineteenth century have assumed a considerable measure of social authority and control over land resources and hence created a somewhat atypical situation, the inter-atoll differences appear to be differences of emphasis, such as the relative power of paramount chiefs and nobles in the social order, rather than basic qualitative differences in culture.III. MAJURO ATOLL PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICSMajiiro, also formerly known as Arrowsmith, is a typical low- lying coral atoll, approximately twenty-one miles long and from three to six miles wide (map 2).^It contains one very long island -Majuro Island-and about sixty small ones.Figures for the total dry land area of the atoll vary from 3.14 to 3.54 square miles (Bryan, 1947, p. 9).As in the case of coral atolls generally, the islands that ring the lagoon are very narrow with the principal exception of the west end of Majuro Island.This island terminates in an enlarged triangular-shaped mass that forms the most extensive single land area on the atoll and that offers a sharp contrast to the remaining narrow stretch of island to which it is attached.A vertical aerial photograph of the western part of Majuro Island is shown in figure 2. The photograph shows clearly the contrast in land area between the long, string-like form that comprises most of the length of the island and the terminal enlargement at its west end.It is on this relatively large area on the west end of the island that Majuro village is located.Majuro lagoon is approximately 100 square miles in extent.The east half is virtually free of coral heads and receives more protection from the prevailing northeast trade winds than the west half of the lagoon.In consequence, it provides splendid anchorage and is also one of the best natural seadromes in the Pacific.The west half of the lagoon, however, is studded with coral heads and the water is usually rougher than the eastern part, so that, except for restricted local areas, such as the lee of Rongrong Island, it does not provide a large anchorage area.There is only one entrance into the lagoon.This passage is Calalin Channel, on the northern side of the atoll, between Iroij and Calalin Islands.Marshallese outriggers, quite as much as modern ships, use this channel in inter-atoll voyages.In departing from Majuro for another atoll, outrigger canoe crews usually camp

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