Transnational Migration and Group Cohesion in Five Pohnpeian Communities
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Transnational Migration and Group Cohesion in Five Pohnpeian Communities By Charles A. Hubbard Submitted to the graduate degree program in Anthropology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. F. Allan Hanson, Chairperson Majid Hannoum Brent E. Metz Lizette Peter Glenn Petersen Date Defended: May 7, 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Charles A. Hubbard certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Transnational Migration and Group Cohesion in Five Pohnpeian Communities F. Allan Hanson, Chairperson Date Approved: May 7, 2018 ii Abstract Long spared direct incursions by the global economy and colonial occupation, residents of the central Micronesian island of Pohnpei have shifted from being members of a regional center of influence to marginal players on the world stage. From the late-1820s through the mid- 1980s, successive waves of traders, whalers, missionaries, and colonial occupiers altered the form of Pohnpeian social institutions, economy, and culture. Historically a place which drew people in, seeking its abundant natural resources, Pohnpei increasingly grows and exports human capital in the form of its own people to the United States as laborers in the global economy. These economic migrants bring with them a culture which, despite many changes in form, retains much of its substance and salience in the lives of individuals. In no small part, Pohnpeians’ commitments to family and their desire for social recognition spur their movement throughout the U.S. sphere. This dissertation focuses on five groups of Pohnpeians in Pohnpei and the U.S., comparing the ways in which these social units generate group cohesion. The process of both community formation and maintenance this research identifies has deep roots in Pohnpeian history and repeats through time, regardless of specific circumstances. Communities on Pohnpei are found in local-level chiefdoms known as sections, groups of 100- 200 persons linked to a place-based chiefdom, headed by a chief who awards titles to participants in his section—the majority of whom are often family members. A linked set of factors entailing leadership-family-place-production-chiefdom-titles inheres in community formation and function. These factors repeat in modified forms in the several groups studied: a traditional Pohnpeian chiefdom on Pohnpei, Kolonia (the sole town on Pohnpei), communities of Pohnpeian migrants in Kansas City and separately in Cincinnati, and a group in the U.S. without specific location based on native membership in the Madolenihmw paramount chiefdom of Pohnpei. iii Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 The Focus .........................................................................................................................................1 From Whence This Work Comes .....................................................................................................3 Methods............................................................................................................................................6 Academic Framing .........................................................................................................................14 Overview of Subsequent Chapters .................................................................................................24 CHAPTER TWO: BACKGROUND .............................................................................................28 Roots of Pohnpeian Communities: Pre-Western Contact Period (1000 BCE – 1828 CE) ............28 Post-Western Contact Period (1828 – 1886) ..................................................................................30 Pre-World War II Colonial Period (1886 – 1945) ..........................................................................32 Post-World War II Period: The American Era (Part I) (1945 – 1986) ...........................................35 Post-Compact Period: The American Era (Part II) (1986 – Present) .............................................36 CHAPTER THREE: POHNPEIAN CHIEFTAINSHIP AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION .........39 Pohnpeian Chieftainship ................................................................................................................39 Paramount Chiefdom-level Titles ..................................................................................................39 Section-level Titles.........................................................................................................................44 Pohnpeian Social Organization in General ....................................................................................51 The Six Linked Factors: Leadership-Family-Place-Production-Chiefdom-Titles .........................53 Overview of Pohnpeian Social Organization .................................................................................57 iv CHAPTER FOUR: FIVE POHNPEIAN POPULATION AGGREGATES—AN OVERVIEW ..59 Introduction—The Five Groups .....................................................................................................59 Pohrasapw, Kitti .............................................................................................................................59 Kolonia, Pohnpei............................................................................................................................61 Cincinnati Metropolitan Area ........................................................................................................64 Kansas City Metropolitan Area ......................................................................................................66 Mehn Madolenihmw Nan Midwest (The Madolenihmw Section of the Midwest) .......................69 Five Pohnpeian Social Configurations—A Summary ...................................................................71 Comparison of Observed Group Characteristics ...........................................................................79 CHAPTER FIVE: POHNPEIAN POPULATION UNITS IN ACTION .......................................82 Groups Cohere through Activities .................................................................................................82 Types of Activities by Group .........................................................................................................99 Population Unit Activities Summary ...........................................................................................106 Group Activities—Institutional Scaffolding ................................................................................107 CHAPTER SIX: LEADERSHIP, FAMILY, GROUP MEMBERSHIP, SOCIAL COHESION .. 112 Pohnpeian Social Groups—Basic Aspects................................................................................... 112 Leadership Abilities ..................................................................................................................... 112 Family Traits ................................................................................................................................ 114 Identity and Group Membership/Affiliation/Cohesion ................................................................ 118 Leadership, Family, Identity Categories, and Group Cohesion Traits .........................................125 Group Leadership, Family Residence, Identity Categories, and Group Cohesion ......................130 v CHAPTER SEVEN: PLACE, PRODUCTION, SECTION, SOCIAL RANK, FLEXIBILITY .132 Location, Place, and Chieftainship ..............................................................................................132 A Member of Our Place or a Member of Another Place..............................................................132 Cohesive Social Groups Exist in Places ......................................................................................134 Group Activities, Production, and Tribute ...................................................................................136 Section as Place/Participant-member Group ...............................................................................137 Rank Manifest in Titles ................................................................................................................139 Mobility and Flexibility ...............................................................................................................143 Place, Production/Redistribution, Section Status, Rank, and Flexibility .....................................145 Place Status, Resource Utilization, and Chiefdom Organization .................................................150 CHAPTER EIGHT: POPULATION UNIT COMPARISONS ....................................................152 The Core Relationship: Leadership-Family-Place-Production-Chiefdom-Titles ........................152 The Six-Factor Linkage Review ..................................................................................................156 The Five-Group Comparison Summary.......................................................................................156 Challenges to Social Organization and Group Cohesion .............................................................161 Mobility and Flexibility Generate, Rather Than Erode, Community Resilience.........................161 CHAPTER NINE: POPULATION UNIT ANALYSIS ...............................................................169