University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2018 Got Breadfruit? Marshallese Foodways and Culture in Springdale, Arkansas Diana Kay Chen University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Chen, Diana Kay, "Got Breadfruit? Marshallese Foodways and Culture in Springdale, Arkansas" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 2825. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2825 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Got Breadfruit? Marshallese Foodways and Culture in Springdale, Arkansas A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Dynamics by Diana Chen Colorado State University Bachelor of Science in BioAgricultural Sciences and Pest Management, 2002 University of Arkansas Master of Science in Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, 2009 May 2018 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ______________________________ Justin Nolan, Ph.D. Dissertation Director ______________________________ ________________________________ Jamie Baum, Ph.D. Peter Ungar, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member ABSTRACT Understanding human food choices is essential in the examination of cultural knowledge and decision-making among members of any ethnic group. Ethnographic and cognitive anthropology methods, including a novel calculation of cognitive salience, were used in this study to explore the domain of traditional Marshallese foods in Springdale, Arkansas. Springdale is home to the highest population of Marshallese people outside of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI); the population is expected to rise as people continue to migrate from the RMI because of global climate change and other factors such as family ties. Studies of traditional foodways are increasingly crucial in social science because they offer a relevant lens for examining beliefs, behaviors, and other biocultural elements binding people together. This study is the first to examine traditional Marshallese foods in the diasporic context. It is also significant from health and nutritional perspectives because Marshallese people are at high risk for diet related diseases, such as type II diabetes. Breadfruit, long a standard starchy staple of Marshallese cuisine, was discovered to be the most important and socially shared traditional Marshallese food. Although breadfruit is gaining popularity in Western markets as a healthy superfood on par with kale and açaí, it is not yet readily available for purchase in Springdale. The practice of substituting higher-Glycemic Index (GI) white rice for lower-GI breadfruit began in the RMI during the 1930s and has carried over to the Springdale community today, where 46.5% of Marshallese adults have type II diabetes (a disease associated with higher dietary GI). The fact that breadfruit has such high cultural value and salience, despite infrequent consumption, represents Marshallese concepts of dietary change and constancy. Ultimately, the results of this work serve to illustrate how human diasporic groups adapt and respond to dramatic socio-ecological changes and challenges through culturally-constructed food beliefs, preferences, and consumption patterns. ©2018 by Diana Chen All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the product of years of hard work. I did some of it, but there were many wonderful people who consistently supported me, working equally hard at editing, babysitting, guiding, encouraging, teaching, and translating for me. Primarily, I thank my advisor, Dr. Justin Nolan. Boss, you are the greatest example of a leader and instructor whom I have ever had the pleasure to encounter. You must be my fairy godfather because you have made my dream come true. I also wish to thank my committee members, Dr. Jamie Baum and Dr. Peter Ungar, for their patience and support, and for being excellent spiritual and academic role models. Todah raba, Dr. Baum, for the dissertation topic. Dr. Ungar, todah raba to you for encouraging me during my time as a graduate student in the Environmental Dynamics program. I would like to thank Dr. Mike Robbins as well for teaching me about cognitive salience. I also owe a great debt to Jo Ann Kvamme for her help and friendship. My family and friends have been my invaluable support network. I especially thank my husband, David Chen, and our parents, Julie Chen, Hseuh-Hsin Chen, Nina Storch, and Daniel Storch, for the hours of childcare they provided. This project was only possible with the great support of the Marshallese community in Springdale and beyond. Koᶆᶆool tata ri-Majol. Finally, I am honored to thank the Society of Ethnobiology for the 2016 Urban Ethnobiology award that helped fund this project. DEDICATION To Violet – My light, my hope, my heart. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1: SETTING 15 Chapter 2: BIO-CULTURAL AND TRADITIONAL ASPECTS OF FOOD 84 Chapter 3: MARSHALLESE FOODWAYS 131 Chapter 4: METHODS AND THEORY 152 Chapter 5: SOME MARSHALLESE FOODS 176 Chapter 6: FREE-LISTS 210 Chapter 7: CLUSTERING 225 Chapter 8: SURVEYS 244 Chapter 9: BREADFRUIT SYMBOLISM 257 CONCLUSION 267 REFERENCES 271 Appendix A. IRB APPROVAL 287 Appendix B. SURVEY 290 Appendix C. GLOSSARY OF SELECTED TERMS 291 INTRODUCTION “Our food is our culture. We have our own food, and we are carrying that from the Islands to America.” Thirty year old man from Namdik Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands ‘Please, not another study of food and identity!’ Sutton (2001:163) Across the Ocean By all accounts the Marshall Islands appear suddenly just as one’s plane descends toward the blue expanse of the Northern Pacific Ocean. The country’s less developed “Outer Islands” shine like jewels, they say, although I have yet to visit the Islands myself. In overexposed photos taken before the 1990s, the Marshall Islands look unappealingly gray. North American visitors repeatedly wrote scathing critiques of their crowded, garbage-strewn “Urban Centers”, Mājro and Ebeye (Kluge, 1991; Nakano, 1983). The Islands seemed like a far cry from the idyllic image of the Pacific painted by Gaugin (b.1848-d.1903) in the southernly islands of French Polynesia. For two decades the Marshall Islands were part of a US territory, designated specifically as a nuclear weapons test site. Henry Kissinger explained in 1969, “There are only 90,000 people out there [in the entire US Micronesian Territory]. Who gives a damn?” However, modern GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and high resolution photographic imagery and post-colonial writings reveal both the beauty and the complexity of the RMI (Republic of the Marshall Islands). Global climate change, rising sea levels, loss of biodiversity, extreme food insecurity, and other factors are motivating increasing numbers of Marshallese people to migrate to America - to Springdale, AR in particular. As the Earth heats up, the Marshall Islands are 1 becoming a hot topic. And the sociocultural consequences of these changes are even more salient to anthropologists and human geographers (Davis, 2014). My first glimpse of the true colors of the RMI, when I finally understood why my friends described it as the most beautiful place they have ever been, was in a Marshallese language and culture class in Springdale. One evening my class watched Jack Niedenthal’s short film, Zori (Microwave Films, 2013), about a boy on Mājro Atoll who loses a flipflop. The colors in the film were vivid jungle green and sky blue – breathtaking! I could see what a special place the RMI is. The tropical sun illuminates the islands like a spotlight, the language bubbles up from the throat, and the people are fiercely loving of their extended families. Of course. In Springdale there is a different kind of landscape, language, and culture – which includes different foods and foodways – than in the RMI. Yet various factors have worked to make the town of Springdale, AR home to the largest Marshallese population (over 10,000 people) outside of the RMI. a) b) Figure 0.1. a) Photo by Melinda Berge from National Geographic Magazine vol.170(4):474, 1986. b) Promotional Poster for Zori. Note the striking differences in color and composition, symbolic of the changing view of the RMI. 2 Of all the towns along I-49, the main artery through Northwest Arkansas (NWA), Springdale is the most industrialized, the most diverse, and the least gentrified. Its historic downtown main street, Emma Avenue, is lined with a mix of buildings. Some are vacant, some house hip and hopeful small businesses, or community organizations, or representations of the past. The latter include antique stores, a few enduring eateries (a cake shop, a grill, a taco stand), and the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. The streets branching away from Emma are more commercialized, yet just as utilitarian as those downtown. Springdale is one of the largest towns in NWA. It’s total population of almost 80,000 is about 30% greater than that of the entire RMI. Although many Euro-Americans cannot tell them apart from Latinos (Springdale’s largest ethnic group at over a third of its total population), Marshallese residents are slowly assimilating into the broader community and molding it in various ways, in much the same way they have molded their island environments. Pacific Islanders make up about 10% of Springdale’s relatively diverse total population. The Marshallese community in Springdale, which some estimate numbers as high as 14,000 people, began with a single Islander named John Moody. His story is semi-shrouded in legendry. In the 1980s, Moody ended up in NWA after a brief visit to neighboring Oklahoma. He found work at the Tyson poultry plant and sent word back to his friends and family in the Islands to join him in Springdale.