J. A. Tobin, Land Tenure in the Marshall Islands
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PART I WID TENURE IN THE ~.ARSHALL ISLANDS By J. A. Tobin Formerly District Anthropologist Marshal)s District TA8L~ OF CONTENTS Preface • • • • • • • • . i Part I LAND T~URF; IN THE MARSHALL ISLANDS Preface . • . .. , . -1 Introduction: Land Tenure. • •••• 2 Indigenous Attitudes Toward the Land .••••••••• 3 Concepts of Land Ownership. • • • • • 4 Physical Description of the Land Holding. 8 Land Utilization. • • • • • • • • • • • • 11 Mechanics of Division of the Copra Proceeds 1) "" Deviations from the General-Pattern U Inheritance Pattern • • • • • • • • • • • • Ib Patrilineal Usufruct Rights • • • • • 16 Adopti ve Rights • • • • • • • . • • 21 Usufruct Rights Acquired by MarriaRe. 23 Wills - Kalimur • • . • • • 24 Alienation of Land by Sale, Lease or Rental . ..~. 25 Ca tegories of Land. • • • • • • • • .~. 26 Special Categories of Land .• 47 t:rlclaves. • • • • • •• •• • • 63 Marine Property Rights. • •••• 67 " Conclusion. • • • • • • • • 71 Footnotes • . • . 72 Literature Cited. 72 Glossary .••.•• . '. 73 Map Marshall District 76 Part II CONTBMPORARY PONAPE ISLAND LAND TlOOJRE Introduction. • • • • • . ... .- ~. 77 -", The Setting • • • • • • • 79 General Types of Land • • • • • • • • • • 79 Aboriginal System of Land Tenure •• tl2 Cont~nts and Significance of the German Land Certificates 87 Land Held Under German Deeds in the Japanese Times •••••• 96 Present Controls, Inheritance and Transfer of Land .••••• 100 Land and Parent-Child Relationships • • • • • • • • • • 107 Sources and Present Use of Government Land on Ponape .• 114 Riparian Property on Ponape • • • • • • • • • • • • 122 Ponapean Attitudes and Behavior in Land Disputes. 129 Use of Wills. • • • • • • • • • 133 Footnotes • • • • • • • • • 135 Glossary. • • • • • • • • 136 y tppendix A - Ponape' District Order No.5-57, Inheritance Footnotes 284 Law • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • . 141 Glossary. 285 Appendix B - Japanese Land Docwnents. • • • '. • • • . 143 Appendix C - U.S. Military Government Land Lease Form .. 157 ?art VI Appendix D - Ponape District Order No.9-57, Making of LAND TENURE IN THE PALAU ISLANDS Wills • . • • • . • . •....•... Physical Setting. • . 28, Part III Demography. 290 NATIVE LAND TE'.NURE IH THE TRUK DISTRICT Types of Land and,Land Names. 294 Aborlginal Land Tenure. 296 Introduction. • . • • . • • Ib1 The Setting • • • , • . • • • . Transfer of Land: Aboriginal and Contemporary. 301 162 History of Land Alienation in Palau • . • . • . .•.. 307 Recognized Sources of Interest in Land. 163 Contemporary Land Controls, Rights and Inheritance. 311 Major Types of Real Property .•.• 166 Contemporary Land Problems. 327 1~ha3e, Rent and Tranefer of Real Property .. 1MIJ Footno tes . • . 328 ~rukese Attit~des Toward Land • • • • . • 202 Literature Cited. • 329 Wills • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 206 Glossary. • . 330 Rights of Hereditary Village Chiefs to Land 208 Residence Patterns in Truk District • Appendix A - Palau District Order 6-56. 333 210 Appendix B - Olbiil era Ke1ulau Resolution 8-55 . 335 Literature Cited. • • . • • • • • • .•••• 212 Glossary'. • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • . 21u Appendix A - Residence Figures for Married Couples in INDEX . • • . • . • • . 337 Se19cted Communities. • • • • • • • • • • . • • • . 215 Part IV LAND TENUHE IN THE MlRI,wAS The Physical Setting. •• • • • • • • 217 Historical Bac~ground • 217 S&ipan. • • ••••• 219 Tinian •• 235 Rota. • . • . •.•. 2u2 Footnotes • • ••.•. 2u7 Sources • • • • • • 2u7 .ppendix A - Homestead Agreement, Tinian. • • • • • . 24M Part V LAND TENURE PA'l'TERNS ON YAP ISLAND Introduction. • 251 The Physical Setting. • • • • ..... 253 'nle Land Unit ••••• 254 Land Nalles. • • • • • • • • • 256 Ideas ot Property Ownership . 257 Land Inheritance and Forms of Transfer. 268 The Significance ot Da.lipebinau Land Census Figures in the Light of Native Custom. • • • • 276 Conclusion. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 281 yi rl1 This report is the result of research in the field while the author vas employed by the Government of the Trust Terri tory as Anthropologist for the l-Iarshalls D1~trict, froJll August 1950 to 1957. This paper was first issued in 1952 in som~hat briefer form as Paper No. 11 in the Atoll Research lhl.letin Series issued by the Pacific Science Board, National Research Council of Washington, D.C. It vas revised in 1956. The vri tar wishes to express sincere appreciation to Mr. Harold J. Coolidge, Executive Seoretary of the Pacific Science Board of the National Research Council for permission to utilize the original 4toll ltesearch Paper, to Mi.ss Ernestine Akers, and others of that body} to the Office of Naval Research; to Dr. Homer G. Barnett, former Staff Anthropologist, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islan'.\sJ t,(') Dr. Leonard Mason, Professor of Anthropology, UniTersi ty of Hawaii, and to the officials of the Civil Administra tive Statf of the M.arehall Islands; all of whose assistance and encouragement have made this research possible. Special appreciation is owedl Jowej, Dwight Heine, Lokrab, Raymond De Brum, Jetnil Felix, the late Lanmoj, Kabua Kabua, Litarjikit, Kondo S., and other Marshallese friends, without whose cooperation this paper could not have been written. Kom kanuij 1!! emol. - J. T., Majuro, 1956 1 land seized by the Japanese fo~ military installations will be made Drl'ROruCTION: LAND T!NURE available for the u~e of the Marshallese people on a homestead basis. I The total land area of the Marshall Islands District is quite Land in the Marshall Islands is placed in many categories, small, consisting of only about 74 square miles of dry land area each with its own descriptive name and rules of inheritance. The which is distributed over 29 low lying coral atolls and five low Marshallese system of land tenure has developed to meet the needs of coral islands which are widely scattered throughout 37.5,000 square this particular group of people and is the dominant factor in the miles of ocean. cultural confif,Uration. This limited'land area is inhabited by over 12,000 people. INDIGENOUS A'ITlTUDES TOWARD THE LAND Land is of paramount importance to the Marshallese people Because land, which is the source of their day-to-day exist whose agricultural economy is based on copra p~oduction and much of ence, is considered by the Marshallese to be their most valuable asset, land disputes have been and still are the cause of almost all whose rood comes directly fro~ their land. The Marshallese system of land tenure provides for all even family and lineage schisms. People are always plot.ting to obtain tualities and takes care of the needs of all of the members of the more land. Today this takes the form of marriage negotiationso In Marshallese society. It is, ir. effect, its social security. Under the past not only marriage was used but also the means of warfare nomal conditiono no one need go hungry for lack of land from which and black magic. to draw food. There are no poor houses or old people's homes in the Black ?-Iagic, or ekabel, was sometimes used to kill off the Harshall Islands. The system provides for &11 members of the older members of the lineage, particularly in the case of the ~shallese society, each of whom is born into land rights. chiefly lineages. This was referred to as "Rubrub non !:£ nejin" The Harshallese have a general attitude of security which is which means literally "destroy the obstacle to her children," i.e., undoubtedly due to a great degree to their system of land tenure. removing the obstacle (person) to· her children'S succession to land Despite the tact that they have seen thrAe foreign powers take over rights. A non-relative was always asked to make the magic. It was their lands--German, Japanese, and American, they still retain believed that. the illness or death sought for the enemy would possession of most of their land, unlike the unfortunate indieenes in "boomerang" and also afflict the person who performs the magical many other areas of the world. The present policy of the Administra rites if he or. she were related to the proposed victim of black tion forbids sale of land to non-indigenes. map,ic. Accorcing to informants, black magic is sometimes performed It is anticipated that former Japanese Government lands ana 3 2 today. The writer is personally cognizant of several recent cases lablab or iroij elap) that is the senior ranking member of the of l:iack magic being practiced. senior lineage of the ruling clan (jowi-Relik, ~-Radak) was the Imitative magic is often the mechanism 'used to destroy a acknowledged owner of all the land and all movable and fixed prop rival. Allegedly one of the most potent and'frequently used erty in his realm, in a socia-economic system roughly analogous to - methods is to wrap a live lizard in a leaf from the Ninn tree the feudal system of medieval Western Europe or, closer at hand, to (Morinda citrifolia), bury it alive to the accompaniment.of a the social system of pre-contact Polynesian cultures, ~th the magical chant· and wait for the reptile to rot away. It is believed reciprocal rights and obligations of all classes within the frame that unless counter magic is employed, this will cause the person work of the society. However, the subjects of the chief could not ·against whom the magic is directed to sicken and eventually die. be evicted from the land without "good reason,1I such as offenses Land is regarded as sacred, "something to fight and die, forll against the chief himself; and their rights were, as a rule, re and as far as may be ascertained,