This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 61-926 MCKNIGHT, Robert Kellogg. COMPETITION IN PALAU. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1960 Anthropology University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan COMPETITION IN PALAU DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University ROBERT KELLOGG MCKNIGHT, B, A., M. A, The Ohio State University i960 Approved by Adviser Department of Sociology and Anthropology PREFACE That part of Micronesia which is the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and is administered by the Department of Interior, United States Government, is cub-divided into six districts: Ponape, Truk, Rota, Tap, Palau, and the Marshalls» It has been the writer's rewarding experience to be stationed, as District Anthropologist with the American administration, in the Palau District for the two years preceding the writing of this study. The pressing function of the District Anthropologist, as I experienced it, is the interpretation of on-the-spot situations in the interaction of the American administration and the Palauan people. The position does not lend itself easily to basic studies of the society. However, the writer was enabled, or rather assigned, to undertake a number of studies both by the Office of the High Commissioner at Guam, and by the District Administration, The former assignments were, for the most part, in conjunction with the Trust Territory Government's publication, Anthropological Working Papers, and covered topics such as "naming practices" and "taro cultivation." Local district assignments covered, among others, "adoption practices" and "the traditional village club." Largely through the research undertaken toward the last named study, the writer assembled the materials for the following presen­ tation, and arrived at the conviction that the topic of competition ii iii in Palau deserved specific study. This conviction rests on theore­ tical and practical bases. The social significance of interpersonal and intergroup competition, it seems to the writer, has been under­ played to the point that an image of "spontaneous cooperation" colors much of our thinking about primitive societies. From the practical point of view, in so far as this image is expressed in the approach of the administrator in a society such as Palau, it can be quite misleading. Perhaps the need to attend to competitive forms is restricted to Palauan society, or to the general cultural eurea. Certainly many of the specific forms which competitive behavior has taken in Palau are distinctive. The wider, theoretical value of this study, then, would be in pointing out discrepancies in emy simple, or single image of primitive society. The materials on traditional structure derive from interviews with Palauan elders, generally fifty to sixty years of age, of vil­ lages throughout Palau. The descriptions of the contemporary scene derive from observation and interviews on a wide range of topics with Palauans of all ages. Interviewing with the elder group was con­ ducted through a mature Palauan, with whom the writer talked in fluent Japanese. The writer's knowledge of Palauan language is, of course, limited and specialized largely to a vocabulary of terms depicting social patterns. The study is intended to be descriptive first, and only inci­ dentally analytic. The process of depicting competition in the traditional society can be descriptive since competition is expressed iv in formalized segmentation* In the contemporary scene with the traditional structures no longer in clear focus the presence of coo^etition is* necessarily* a deduction based on described* but not necessarily overt or formalized* behaviors. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The foremost expression of thanks, in an anthropological field study, must go to those various persons, anonymously named as "sources," who shared their time and information to make possible the study. Particularly helpful in directing the wiriter’s attention to significant aspects of Palauan culture was Mr. Francis B. Mahoney, District Administrator in Palau and himself a Chicago University trained anthropologist. Ihe helpful guidance of Dr. Leo Estel of Ohio State University in the presentation of this study as a dis­ sertation is acknowledged. Appreciation is felt for the fact that the Trust Territory Government, in defining the position of District Anthropologist, has written his duties broad enough to encompass not only those matters of immediate concern to the Administration, but also those of basic concern to the serious student of Micronesian society. This appre­ ciation is particularly directed to Mr. John deYoung, Staff Anthro­ pologist with the Office of the High Commissioner, who has stressed the importance of basic research and has expressed particular in­ terest in the present study. The anthropologist's staff in Palau consisted of Mr. Adalbert Obak and, for nine months, the dedicated service of Mr. Msisaaki V vl Bnesiochl. Mr. Obak is a man with tremendous personal knowledge about his society, but with the modesty to insist that his infor­ mation always be checked with an older or more specialized authority. Mr. Emesiochl is a devoted young man who, judging by his diligence, will one day be recognized as a foremost authority on Palau. To both of these fine men, my sincere thanks. Appreciation is hardly the word for the affection that is mingled with my thanks to my wife who chose to enjoy life in Palau and *60 has had the chore of poring over my rough drafts and typing this manuscript. To the Administrative Staff in Palau, as a whole, for their tolerance of the writer in his first professional position as an anthropologist, and for their friendship, assistance, and coopera­ tion in the conduct of his various duties: — "Kmal mesaollV R. K. M. Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio October, I96O. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction. Psychology, Structure, and Competition. 6 Competition in Micronesia....... 8 I. Competition as a Theme......................... 17 Confirming the Theme................... 23 II. The Political and Economic Context............. 39 The Vertical Structure...................... 4l The Horizontal Structure .............. 6l Political Ideology......................... 86 Competition: Some Generalizations........... 98 III. The Village Club................................ 104 A Note on Origins......... 103 Within the Club............................ 10? Club Structure at the Village Level..... 117 Club Interaction at the Villsige Cluster Level........................... 126 The Ideologies of Success in the Club........ 128 IV. Competition in the Contemporary Scene........... 134 Contemporary Features of Palauan Competition......... 147 Competition, Some Generalizations and Conclusions................................163 Bibliography................ l80 Orthography and Index to Foreign Terms.......... l84 vii LIST OF CHARTS AND MAPS Chart Page I. Ideal-type Village Structure............ 4) II. The Ideal-type Side-house Structure 69 III. Side-house Structure Based on a Hamlet.. 69 Sketch-Map 1. Some Intervillage Friendship Bonds 77 2. Some Intervillage Feuding Patterns 80 viii INTBODÜCTION The Palaus, stretching some hundred miles from southernmost Angaur island to the northern atoll of Kayangel, and located about five hundred miles east of the Philippines, occupy a southwest position among the Western Carolines of Micronesia. A feature of the Palau group of Pacific islands is variety in physical milieu. Among the major inhabited islands Angaur and Peleliu, in the south, are low islands; the first partially sur­ rounded by a narrow fringing reef, the second situated on the southern tip of the barrier reef that circles sixty odd miles north to surround the central island group. Angaur and Peleliu are, for the most part, pancake flat with phosphate enriched soil. Moving north from Peleliu, within the barrier reef, are the limestone Rock Islands that reach suddenly out of the deep lagoon to be carpeted with clinging tropical verdure. At the northern fringe of the Rock Islands, some thirty miles from Peleliu, are the mixed islands of Koror, Malakal, and Arakabesang: part lime­ stone, part red clay, and pcurt volcanic black stone. Associated with the second (Malakal) is a protected deep harbor and the estab­ lished port of the islands. Koror is the administrative District Center of the Palau group. Across a short, deep channel from Koror is the large (150 sq. mile) island of Babelthaup, some thirty miles long and eight miles wide, with a central elevation of dOO feet. On its western shore Babelthaup faces a wide lagoon with the barrier reef just visible on the horizon; on the east coast the barrier reef often closes in to provide a fringing tidal shelf reaching away from the mangrove- lined shore. Except for a few Rock Islands in the southeast comer, Babelthaup is "aluminum" — in the form of low-grade bauxite over the elevated portion and with deposits of clay pocketed throughout lower areas. Over the entire island balding, grassy hills, with scattered pandanus groves, dip down to narrow, jungle-lined stream canyons. Small valleys near the coast, artificially leveled and widened, provide the marshy agricultural acreage with prestiginous crops of taro. North of Babelthaup are two or three very small low islands and a complicated reef stretching twenty miles to the circular atoll formation of Kayangel. Geographically, one can almost declare, if it can be found in the South