Draft Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Management Plan and Environmental Assessment Members of Inetnon Gef Pa’go preserve tradition and share the Chamorro culture. Photo: Guam Visitors Bureau Chapter 4. Cultural and Socioeconomic Resources 4.1 Introduction Cultural perspectives, sense of place, values about natural resources, and views about connections between humans and the environment influence how groups of people in diverse communities resolve resource management issues. The Mariana Islands are politically divided between the U.S. Territory of Guam and the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Home to two indigenous people, the Chamorro and Carolinians, the CNMI and Guam host a rich diversity of heritage today. Because the Monument area and its marine ecosystems hold a longstanding place in the culture of archipelago residents, the region’s history and cultural composite are important elements to integrate into resource management efforts. The creation of the Mariana Islands is taught in different ways, one of which is in geological terms. Another explanation is provided in the origin story of the Mariana Archipelago and its people as documented by Bo Flood, author of Marianas Island Legends, Myths and Magic.1 As the story goes, the universe began with emptiness. The caretakers of the deep emptiness were a brother and sister named Puntan and Fu’uña. Puntan saw his own life drawing to an end, but did not want to leave his sister alone in the emptiness. He devised a plan, shared it with Fu’uña, and asked that she promise to fulfill his wishes. Dr. Flood describes the first moments of creation on the following page. Chapter 4. Cultural and Socioeconimic Resources 153 Draft Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Management Plan and Environmental Assessment Chamorro Creation Legend As Puntan’s last breath left his body, Fu’uña held her brother and wailed woman’s first birth song. She lifted his head upward and let life flow into the emptiness. Then Fu’uña plucked out her brother’s eyes and flung them high above her. Their brightness became the sun and moon. Up, up she pushed his heavy breast until it arched across the heavens and became the sky. The drumming of his heart continued to beat the rhythm of night following day, turning, season turning – day following night. Fu’uña laid Puntan’s back along the emptiness to form the earth. She prepared and tilled his back so out of it, taro and other essential plants could grow. Coconut trees spouted, vegetation grew plentiful, and the ocean expanded. Fu’uña cast Puntan’s eyebrows into the sky, refracting the sun’s bright light into a colorful rainbow. She [Fu’uña] swam with the sharks and followed the whales until she reached a string of lovely islands. She walked their beaches chasing ghost crabs, collecting shells, watching tropic birds soar between clouds. She laughed as hermit crabs scampered sideways and sea cucumbers spat out sand. She watched as fish nibbled on coral, amazed at their colors and shapes. Her brother had planned well. The earth was a beautiful place. But still she was lonely. Fu’uña stood where the surf rolled back into the sea and thought, “I need people.” Then Fu’uña walked into the sea, and there near the southern part of Guahan she became a rock. As the sea crashed over her, she broke into many pieces. Each new stone held her spirit. Each new stone was transformed into a new kind of people. As the great rock of Fu’uña dissolved, the grains of sand were carried throughout the world, giving birth to all humankind.2 154 Chapter 4. Cultural and Socioeconimic Resources Draft Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Management Plan and Environmental Assessment 4.2 Archeological Record and Maritime Zone Archeologic accounts establish that the Chamorro people traveled to the Marianas from Southeast Asia 3,500 years ago. Chamorro are most closely related to other Austronesian-speaking peoples to the west in the Philippines and Taiwan, as well as the Carolines to the south. They were expert seafarers and skilled craftspeople familiar with intricate weaving and detailed pottery-making. Early Chamorro were in contact with one another across the archipelago and engaged in commerce with far reaching islands across Oceania. All of the Mariana Islanders share cultural and linguistic characteristics and archeologic findings show continuity in ceramic production on the different islands until the Latte Period (900-1700 CE). Similarity in early ceramic styles, decoration, and technique are indicative of areas with “strong inter-community and inter-island ties.”3 Ceramic remnants suggest that people on Agrihan, a northern island, were in contact with people on Guam, the southernmost island. Clay and ceramic pots were moving between settlements, as were production techniques. Burial practices, rock art, archeological remains, and evidence of resource propagation, in addition to the Chamorro villages that populated Guam, Tinian, and Rota prior to Spanish arrival, indicate that islands across the Mariana Archipelago were used for various reasons. Archeological research indicates that caves on Asuncion may have been used as mortuary areas.4 It is likely that support from the larger, resource- rich islands to the south was needed to sustain intermittent settlements on the remote northern islands of Maug, Asuncion, and Farallon de Pajaros. All three islands are seabird nesting areas and people harvested, salted, and distributed seabirds from the northern islands to people living on the other islands.5 Archaeologic structures found on many of the Mariana Islands have similar features. Latte stones, or simply “Lattes” are the pillars and capstones used in building designs during the Latte period. The 1565 Legaspi expedition report provides a description of these structures in the Marianas: “Their houses are high, well kept, and well made. They stand at the height of a man off the ground, atop large stone pillars, upon which they lay the flooring.”5 Wood and thatched Artistic rendering of Lattes with wood and thatch structure. coconut leaves were lashed together with coconut Source: NPS, drawing from Morgan ('88) in Rogers (1995) fiber to form a vaulted roof house supported by the pillar and capstone Lattes. The megalithic Latte architecture was capable of withstanding the tropical climate and seismic activity that produce typhoons, high winds, flooding, and landslides in the Pacific region. Researchers have suggested that the Latte design is a direct adaptation to these physical phenomena. The oldest forms of this architectural concept can be traced to various parts of Insular Southeast Asia.6 Chapter 4. Cultural and Socioeconimic Resources 155 Draft Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Management Plan and Environmental Assessment Latte structures are depicted in the far left corner of bas relief stone panel from the Borobudur Temple in Central Java, Indonesia, built during the 8th-9th centuries. Similarities in architectural developments between the Pacific and Southeast Asia provide evidence for cultural encounters across the region over the centuries. Source: Laguana et al 2012. Lattes are considered important links for the Chamorro to their ancestors and rich history. Kurashina explains: “According to many Chamorro, the taotaomona (the Ancient Ones) have never departed, but remain close to their places of origin, in order to keep an eye on their descendants and on their properties. Taotaomona might reside near banyan trees, or even in the vicinity of ancient villages, where the presence of latte stones may be the only above-ground sign of a village of long ago.”5 Additional archeological and archival research is needed to determine the potential for Latte structures and other physical records of human habitation on the northern islands abutting the Islands Unit of the Monument. The islands of Maug, Farallon de Pajaros (Uracas), Asuncion, and Guguan were set aside in 1978 under the CNMI Constitution to be maintained as uninhabited places and used only for the preservation and protection of natural resources. No people live there today. Shared architectural and agricultural techniques in the Western Pacific and Insular Southeast Asia provide evidence for a longstanding maritime zone that facilitated interisland connections between Micronesia and Southeast Asia. Advanced navigational skills provided Austronesian people with the means to traverse the Western Pacific and develop the earliest settlements in Micronesia. Those maritime skills evolved in local contexts over time and constitute what is now a rich navigational legacy in the Mariana Archipelago. Maintaining ancient maritime skill sets, including navigation by the stars, has become a source of pride amongst Pacific Islanders everywhere and has spurred Epeli Hau’ofa’s theories about the great ocean networks that bridge the Pacific.7 Last Latte stone standing in the House of Taga, on the Island of Tinian. Photo: Laura Beauregard/ USFWS . 156 Chapter 4. Cultural and Socioeconimic Resources Draft Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Management Plan and Environmental Assessment 4.3 Global Encounters Encounters between the Chamorro people and other islanders across Oceania, in particular the people of the Philippines, Yap, Palau, the Caroline Islands, and Southeast Asia precede interaction with the Spanish by many centuries. The first documented interaction between Chamorro and Spaniards took place in the 16th century. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer employed by the King of Spain, arrived