Full text of "Leadership and cultural change in Palau"

See other formats

L I E) R.A FLY

OF THE

UN IVERSITY

or ILLI NOI5

572.05
FA

V 49-52

CENTRAL CIRCULATION BOOKSTACKS

The person charging this material is re-
sponsible for its renewal or its return to
the library from which it was borrowed
on or before the Latest Date stamped
below. You may be charged a minimum
fee of $75.00 for eacli lost boolc.

Thaft, inwtilatiMi, and undarllnlns of books oro raotont
for dUclpllnory action and may result in dismissal from
the University.
TO RENEW CALL TELEPHONE CENTER, 333^400

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

EC 1 0 1998

^6 0 4 An

When renewing by phone, write new due date below
previous due date. L162

O-1096

)

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE

IN PALAU

ROLAND W. FORCE

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY
VOLUME 50

Published by

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

FEBRUARY 19, 1960

THEUBRARYGFM
1960

UK!VCRSITV?3Ff?!INfllS

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

A Continuation of the

ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES

FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

VOLUME 50

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

CHICAGO, U.S.A.

1960

Edited by Lillian A. Ross

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE

IN PALAU

3.t-;

AN ABAI (CLUBHOUSE) IN IBUKL VILLAGE OF NGERECHELONG

MUNICIPALITY

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE

IN PALAU

ROLAND W. FORCE

Curator, Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

VOLUME 50

Published by

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

FEBRUARY 19, 1960

PRINTED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF

The Edward E. Ayer Lecture Foundation Fund

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60-9518

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

V <56

Preface

This study is directed mainly to two groups: (1) Professional anthro-
pologists whose interests pertain to problems of cultural dynamics and
problems of applied anthropology. (2) Administrative personnel who are
faced with the task of dealing directly with non-self-governing peoples
who are striving for self-determination, assimilating new concepts of
government, and struggling generally to co-ordinate the old with the new.

Because published materials on Palau and Palauan culture are in
languages other than English or are relatively inaccessible, I have in-
cluded considerable detail relating to the people of Palau, their tradi-
tional culture configuration, their habitat, and their history of contact
and administration. In so doing, I had the hope that the study would
be more meaningful to both groups mentioned above than would other-
wise have been the case.

The field research upon which this study is based was conducted from
December 1954 to April 1956 under the auspices of the Tri-Institutional
Pacific Program^ (Yale University, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, and the
University of Hawaii, participating institutions). TRIPP is supported
by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. My research
was but a part of the broad program of scientific investigation being con-
ducted by TRIPP. The program is directed toward the solution of prob-
lems of cultural change, with particular reference to the Malayo-Poly-
nesian-speaking peoples of Oceania.

This study is the first of several stemming from my field work in
Palau. Currently I have in preparation monographs devoted to studies
of Palauan social structure and political change. Later I hope to pub-
lish material relating to the exchange system and native currency.

I wish to acknowledge the many helpful suggestions and the en-
couragement ofTered by members of the TRIPP Executive Committee.
I owe a very special debt of gratitude to Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Chairman
of the TRIPP Executive Committee and Director of the Bernice P.
Bishop Museum in Honolulu, for his sustaining guidance and inspiration.
Special thanks are also due several Executive Committee members.

1 Designated in abbreviated form as TRIPP.

8 PREFACE

Professor George P. Murdock of Yale University and Professor Leonard
Mason of the University of Hawaii each offered the benefit of his experi-
ence in Pacific ethnology. The late President of the University of Hawaii,
Paul S. Bachman, kindly extended housing accommodations at the Uni-
versity as I was en route to the field. I also want to thank Dr. Norman
Meller of the University of Hawaii for his helpful comments concerning
political change.

Anthropological field work and the reports which result from it are
possible only through the assistance and co-operation of many individuals.
So it has been with this study and the investigations upon which it is
based. My greatest indebtedness is to my wife, Maryanne, who served
as research associate in the field and who shared the obligations, the
disappointments, and the satisfactions of scientific investigation with
me.

So many Palauans have earned my gratitude that any short list of
names would be incomplete. However, special thanks should be given
to Charley Gibbon (Beches, Rechucher era Techeki), who served as
guide and interpreter, at times under great duress. Many others provided
the information upon which this study is based and — much more im-
portant— provided their friendship. For them, I wish to delegate two
individuals to accept my general gratitude, one for the women and one
for the men. They are respectively Ebil era Aimei (Dilubch) and
Ngirayobei (Rechucher).

Members of the American administration in the Trust Territory
of the Pacific Islands to whom I am especially obligated are High Com-
missioner Delmas H. Nucker, then Deputy High Commissioner; former
Staff Anthropologist Allan H. Smith and Mrs. Smith; present Staff
Anthropologist John deVoung; former District Administrator of the
Palau District Donald Heron and Mrs. Heron; former Assistant District
Administrator of the Palau District and now District Administrator
Francis B. Mahoney and Mrs. Mahoney; Mr. Harry Uyehara, Mr.
John Martin, Dr. William Conover, and Mr. Ian MacKenzie. For
their gracious hospitality and the provision of research facilities, thanks
are due Staff Entomologist Robert P. Owen and Mrs. Owen. Former
Director of Education in the Palau District Daniel Peacock and Mrs.
Peacock assisted in many ways. Father Edwin McManus, S.J., of the
Catholic mission in Palau was most helpful. He lent personal materials
on the Palauan language and made certain mission records available.
Mr. Sidney Seid and Mr. Willem Henderickx, then members of the
American community in Koror, each provided assistance for which I
am grateful.

PREFACE 9

A very special word of gratitude must be extended to former Land
and Claims Officer Donald Le Goullon and Mrs. Le GouUon for the
sincere and warm hospitality they extended and for the assistance they
rendered in countless ways.

For special assistance and the loan of field equipment I am indebted
to Dr. Harold J. Coolidge (also a member of the TRIPP Executive
Committee), Executive Director of the Pacific Science Board. I am
grateful, too, for the assistance of the late Miss Ernestine Akers, formerly
of the Honolulu office of the Pacific Science Board.

I wish also to thank Dr. Homer Barnett and Dr. Douglas Osborne,
each of whom off"ered many helpful suggestions and comments on Palau
prior to my departure for the field. Professor Samuel Elbert provided
useful comments on the Palauan language, and Dr. Saul Riesenberg
lent personal materials on the Trust Territory and later read the manu-
script of this study and contributed important suggestions for improvement.

Others who read drafts of the manuscript and provided many useful
comments and suggestions were Professors Felix M. Keesing, Bernard
J. Siegel, and Alan Beals. To Dr. Paul S. Martin and to Professors
Richard T. LaPiere, Claude A. Buss, Bert A. Gerow, Douglas Oliver,
Sol Tax, and Alfred G. Smith I owe additional thanks for their thought-
ful reading of the manuscript.

Grateful acknowledgment is also due Mr. Stanley Field, President
of the Board of Trustees of Chicago Natural History Museum, Dr.
Cliff'ord C. Gregg, Director of the Museum, and Dr. Paul S. Martin,
Chief Curator, Department of Anthropology, who have shown enduring
interest in my research. Many other members of the Museum staff
deserve my thanks, but especially deserving is Miss Lillian Ross, Editor
of Scientific Publications, who supplied numerous helpful suggestions for
the improvement of this monograph.

April 30, 1958 Roland W. Force

Contents

PAGE

List of Illustrations 13

Introduction 15

Contemporary Leadership in Palau 16

I. Palau and the Palauans: The Land and Its People 18

The Land 18

The People 22

The Relationship of the People to the Land 28

II. The Context of Traditional Leadership in Palau 32

Territorial and Political Alignments 32

Village Organization 34

Age-Grading 40

Kin Groups 43

Hereditary Sanctions of Leadership: Characteristics and Expectations 54

Supernatural Sanctions of Leadership : Spirits and Shamans 56

Age and Respect Sanctions of Leadership: Rjtbaks and Respect ... 58

Patterns of Social Dominance and Power 59

III. The Contact CoNTiNtruM : The Succession of Superordinates .... 66

Early Contacts 66

Domination by Foreign Powers 70

IV. Stimuli for Change 76

The Decline of Traditional Leadership 76

Souls and Salvation 77

Peace and Prosperity 80

Philosophies of Administration 86

\^ The Nature of Emergent Leadership: The Product of Cultural

Change 88

Problems and Panaceas 89

Administrators and Assistants 89

Specialists 91

Emergent Political Leadership and Political Change 91

Municipal Government 93

Contemporary Agencies of Political Power 99

Non-Political Emergent Leadership 101

VI. Coexistence and Conflict: Dysfunctional Accompaniments of

Cultural Change 108

The Composite Contemporary Scene 108

Coexisting Sanctions of Power 108

12 CONTENTS

PAGE

Coexisting and Rival Agencies of Political Power Ill

Coexisting Symbols of Prestige and Status 112

Coexisting Modes of Leader Selection 113

Coexisting Canons of Respect 114

Dysfunctions Resulting from Leadership Change 117

Outlook 122

Vn. The Dynamics of Acculturational Change 123

Cultural Dynamics and Directed Cultural Change 124

The Integrational Processes of Acculturational Change 128

Behavioral Responses in Acculturational Change 129

Alterations in Form and Meaning 132

Supersedure and Functional Equivalents 134

\^in. The Chains of Custom: Partial Adoption and Partial Retention . 137

Retention and Prestige \'alues 1 39

Retention and Dysfunctional Leadership Behavior 142

Retention and Stability: Universals or Fortuitous Cultural

Congruences? 144

Stability and Non-Change in Leadership Role Behavior 145

IX. Leadership and Cultural Change in Broader Perspective 154

General Understandings and Other Case Data 154

The Imperative Quality of Directed Change 161

Dominance toward Self-Determination 164

Dominant Culture Resistance to Change 166

Rate of Change: Attitudes, Policies, and Implications for the Future . 167

Appendix I: Methodology 171

The Plan of the Study 171

Study Methods and Techniques 179

Appendix II: Orthography 182

Appendix III: Glossary of Palauan Terms 184

Appendix IV: Documents 187

Palau Congress Charter 187

Palau District Order 3-48 191

Palau District Order 4-48 192

Palau District Order 1-49 194

Bibliography 198

Index 208

List of Illustrations
Text Figures

PAGE

An abai (clubhouse) in Ibukl village of Ngerechelong municipality . . Frontispiece

1. The land; a place of sun and shadow 19

2. Map showing the location of the Palau Islands 20

3. Map of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands facing p. 22

4A. Uchulech, wife of Siabang 24

4B. Siabang, husband of Uchulech 25

5. Map showing municipalities of the Palau Islands 27

6. Exploitation of the sea and soil 29

7. View of Koror village in 1783 (after Keate) 33

8. Map showing major territorial division of aboriginal Palau Islands ... 35

9. Diagram portraying the integration of territorial (political) organization

and kinship system in the Palau Islands 38, 39

10. Village age-grade society alignment 41

11. Age-grade society membership progression in Koror village, Delui laoch . . 41

12. Schematic diagram showing overlap in kin group terminology 47

13A. Diraked (Sebelau), a venerated elder 60

13B. Ngirokebai (Mochesar), an old chief 61

14. Old and new housing 63

15. Landing place at Koror village in 1783 (after Keate) 67

16. Abba Thule (Aibedul), high chief of Youldaob in 1783 (after Keate) . . 69

17. Sacred structures 79

18. Schematic diagram of authority in the government of the Trust Territory

of the Pacific Islands 95

19. Local officials in Mengellang village of Ngerechelong municipality ... 96

20. Diagram showing the relationship of local representative government to the 97

Palau District administration

21. Diagram showing levels of authority and power in Palau 99

22. Emergent specialist leaders in medicine 103

23. Emergent specialist leaders in education 105

24A. The congress; a young leader speaks 110

24B. The congress; the old chiefs listen Ill

25 A. A traditional leader, aged Ngirokebou 114

25B. An emergent leader, Rudimch 115

26. Age diflferences and cultural orientations 141

27. Emergent economic leaders 163

Introduction

This monograph is a study of leadership and cukural change in the
Palau Islands of Micronesia. It focuses on a situation wherein aHen
concepts of leadership have been and are being introduced by a super-
ordinate culture to a subordinate one. Under the conditions of culture
contact in Palau, the study of leadership provides an excellent means
for the examination of certain features of culture change, utilizing data
from a limited, yet highly significant area of human behavior. The nature,
varieties, and characteristics of leadership and the attendant stresses
and strains observable under such conditions are quite amenable to
description and analysis.

In this study the basic concentration is on changes from traditional
modes and patterns of leadership to new and emergent ones. The prin-
cipal emphasis centers on the interrelationship of leadership and cultural
change. Within this area of emphasis are considered the effect of cultural
change on traditional leadership behavior and statuses, changing leader-
ship roles and sanctions, leadership characteristics, the nature of emergent
leadership, and the conflicts and stresses engendered by the conditions
of cultural change.

Today many Pacific island communities present opportunities for
the study of emergent leadership. New leaders are rising to focal positions
of power as different modes of political organization and activity emerge
through the development of indigenous self-government according to
standards derived from the Western world. New leadership roles also
are introduced as new concepts of education, public health, and economic
development take hold.

Because there is in Palau a general receptivity to change from alien
cultures, the situation is especially favorable for the investigation of
cultural change in general. Of all areas of Palauan culture which might
be chosen to demonstrate the processes and effects of cultural change,
that of leadership and leadership behavior offers perhaps the richest
rewards. It was for this reason that I chose to investigate the changing
patterns of leadership, the mechanisms and means of exercising authority,
and the agents and agencies of power in Palau, and to contrast the tradi-
tional ones with the emergent.

16 INTRODUCTION

Because this is a case study of leadership and leadership change
under conditions of acculturative stress, certain general understandings
about the processes of cultural change and the nature of leadership
have been used as guides for the selection and interpretation of Palauan
field data. The extent to which data from Palau either validate, in-
validate, or modify these general understandings is indicated in the con-
cluding chapters.

In this study the term "leadership" designates role behavior of a domi-
nant, influencing, and directing character. It is provided by an individ-
ual who stands in a superordinate status-position to one or more indi-
viduals who, by virtue of their interaction, comprise a social group whose
collective behavior is more or less goal-directed.

A leader is taken to be an individual who stands in a superordinate
relationship to one or more other individuals. By virtue of authority,
either vested in him willingly or maintained by him through coercion,
he exercises powers of influence, decision, origination and/or facilitation
of action, and policy formulation with respect to the other individual (s)
in the relationship.

The behavior a leader exhibits is directing, organizing, and con-
trolling. For the purposes of this study the stipulation is not made, as
it sometimes is, that the influence, direction, and control exerted by a
leader over the led must be voluntarily vouchsafed him by the led (Fair-
child, 1944, p. 174; Gardner, 1956, p. 493; and Gibb, 1947, p. 272).
This distinction is sometimes used to distinguish "democratic" leadership
from "dominance," which is assumed to be autocratic (Roucek, 1947,
p. 279).

CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP IN PALAU

Today in Palau individuals who provide leadership are more broadly
recruited than was true under the traditional system. Leaders are not
derived solely from upper strata of the social structure, as was formerly
true. The present system allows access to positions of respect and power
to more categories of individuals than in aboriginal times. The basic
change is from a closed system, in which leadership positions were by and
large ascribed, to a relativ^ely open one, in which leadership positions
also may be achieved.

Leadership roles are much more diffuse and varied today than
formerly. In proportion to total population many more persons serve
as leaders. Power is broadly distributed, and its exercise is diffused along
with new leadership roles. Formerly a relatively compact and definable
socio-political elite existed in Palau. What now exists is a series of "elite"

INTRODUCTION 17

groups whose membership is determined by criteria which are far more
diversified than was the case under the autochthonous system.

Social mobility is possible, since today one may attain social prom-
inence without having been born to rank. The old criteria for elevated
social status still operate, but new criteria also have come into being.
Performance based on special skills and recognized competence enables
individuals from any stratum of society to achieve leadership status.

In sum, then, these are the characteristics of contemporary leadership
in Palau: the existence of multiple criteria for determining who shall
provide it; a diflfuse quality; widespread participation in leadership
behavior by individuals who are recruited from the culture at large
without reference to traditional social statuses based on kinship; com-
peting sanctions for power; and the existence of a series of elite groups.

L Palau and the Palauans: The Land and Its People

Most studies of acculturation include background information about
the culture under examination. Some of this information is historical
and some is of a general context-setting nature. Hardly a better justifica-
tion for its inclusion can be cited than by quoting some of the conclusions
of a group of eminent students of acculturation in a recent survey. Any
comprehensive study of acculturation, the symposium concludes, must
incorporate an assessment of "those noncultural and nonsocial phenomena
that provide the contact setting and establish certain limits of cultural
adaptation." Among the most important of these, we are told, are the
ecological context and the demographic characteristics of the respective
peoples (Social Science Research Council Summer Seminar on Accultura-
tion, 1953, 1954, p. 979). Though the importance of some such descriptive
and factual information may not be immediately apparent, it is essential
to an accurate understanding of the dynamics of change.

At first glance, for example, the inclusion of a brief comment on the
climate in Palau would seem to be insignificant in a study of leadership.
However, if we observe that under the prevailing high temperature
and excessive humidity in Palau a magistrate will nonetheless array
himself in Western style necktie and woolen sport-coat and slacks for an
elementary school graduation ceremony, then the behavior he exhibits
has significance for this study. In this case, the emergent leader is
engaging in leadership behavior which he considers appropriate. His
interpretation of what a leader should wear on a special occasion ob-
viously seems out of keeping in the tropical climate of Palau.

THE LAND

The Palau Islands^ are situated in the western Carolines (7° 30' N. Lat.
and 134° 30' E. Long.; see fig. 2). They are located approximately 435
nautical miles due east of Mindanao in the Philippines, about 470 nautical

1 Also called Arrecifos (sic), Fannog, Isles de Pellew, Le Groupe Pallay, Les Palos,
Palaoa, Palao Inseln, Palaos Islands, Palaos Isles, Palau group, Palau-Inseln, Paleu,
Pallay, Pallou Islands, Pally, Paloc, Panlog, Pannog, Parao-Jima, Parao-shoto, Parao
Syoto, Paulogue, Peeloo Islands, Pelau-Inseln, Pelelew Island, Peleu, Pelew Group,
Pelew-Inseln, Pelew Island, Pelew Islands, Pelew Isles, Pellew, Pellewinseln, Pelli,
Pellow, Punlac, Punlog, and Walau (Decisions on names in the Trust Territory
of the Pacific Islands and Guam, Part I, 1955, p. 79).

Fig. 1. The land; a place of sun and shadow. Upper: Looking down on the for-
ested fringe of Ngerechelong municipality from a sun-drenched elevation. Lower:
Looking upward from the floor of a lowland coconut grove. The climber is collecting
coconut flower juices that make a molasses-like substance used in cooking.

PALAU AND THE PALAUANS 21

miles due north of Geelvink Bay in Dutch New Guinea, and about 706
nautical miles southwest of Guam in the Mariana Islands. Yap lies
258 nautical miles northeastward. The nearest inhabited islands to the
north of Palau are the Ngulu Islands, 168 nautical miles in an east-
northeasterly direction. Sonsorol, the nearest inhabited island in the
opposite direction, is 180 nautical miles southwest of Palau.

The Palau District of the American-administered Trust Territory
of the Pacific Islands (see fig. 3) is formed by the Palau Islands, the
inhal)ited coral islands of Sonsorol, Merir, Pulo Anna, and Tobi, and
the uninhabited atoll of Helen Reef. This district comprises the extreme
southwestern portion of the Trust Territory. The four inhabited islands
southwest of the Palaus (Sonsorol, Merir, Pulo Anna, and Tobi) are
linguistically and culturally quite separate from Palau.

The Palau archipelago is approximately 125 miles long and about
25 miles wide. Within it are clustered approximately 243 islands, of
which only eight are of significant size. The total land area of the Palaus
is somewhere in the neighborhood of 185 square miles, most of it con-
centrated on the big island of Babeldaob, which is 23 miles long and
has a maximum width of eight miles. This island, the largest in Mi-
cronesia, contains about 143 square miles of relatively rugged land
surface with elevations of more than 700 feet. All of the islands in the
chain are forested. The larger islands in the north are volcanic in origin
and those to the south are coral limestone. These latter are very heavily
wooded and rise up with steeply sloping sides from bases undercut by
wave and chemical action (Gressitt, 1954, p. 69). Northernmost Ngei-
angl (Kayangel) atoll and the coral island of Ngaur (Angaur) in the ex-
treme south are each outside the protective reef system which encloses
the intervening islands.

The Palaus are topographically and geologically the most complex
and diversified of all Micronesian island groups. Included are high
volcanic islands, low coral atoll islands, raised coral atoll (phosphate)
islands, and both high and low single coral islands. The encircling and
detached reefs which cluster about the chain likewise include a diverse
representation of reef types. There are fringing reefs, barrier reefs,
and shoal reefs. The longest connected reef is about 77 miles in length.
Several of these reefs support potential or incipient atolls, but Ngeiangl,
in the far north of the chain, is the only bona fide atoll. Ngeruangl atoll,
farther north and west, consists of but a single small island and is un-
inhabited.

Palau has a tropical oceanic climate in which mean annual rainfall
is around 150 inches. The rainiest months are those of the summer

22 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

and the driest those of the winter. Mean annual temperature is high
(81° F.) and relatively uniform. The mean diurnal range is only 9.6° F.
The most humid months are January and July and average relative
humidity is 81 per cent (Civil Affairs Handbook, 1944, pp. 4-6). Strong
northeast trade winds temper the humidity from October to about May
or June. The southwest monsoons occupy the remainder of the yfear.
Light and variable winds interspersed with periods of calm are common
during this period. Heavy rains are brought by the monsoons in mid-
summer.

THE PEOPLE

The range of racial characteristics found among Palauans is a broad
one. Skin color varies from light to dark brown with reddish tendencies.
Hair color is invariably dark brown to black with decided reddish pig-
ments. Hair form may be frizzly, wavy, or straight. Lip form ranges
from slight to moderate eversion. Stature is generally short, and con-
siderable muscular development is common. While weight increases
with age in some individuals, corpulence is not general. The epicanthic
fold so characteristic of other Micronesian groups is not pronounced,
though it may be found in some individuals.

Certain Palauans so closely correspond to the basic racial types found
in other parts of the Pacific that if they were to be transported to these
regions they would be indistinguishable from the native populations.
Some women, for example, possess the straight hair and high forehead
of Javanese and Balinese women. Other individuals display character-
istics which attest to Melanesian antecedents. Still others possess the
stature, weight, straight hair, and skin color ordinarily thought to char-
acterize the Polynesians.

It is not illogical that the range of physical characteristics found
among Palauans should be extremely broad. The Palau Islands rest
on the very threshold of the Pacific. Countless waves of migration must
have ebbed and flowed through this aperture to the farther reaches of
Oceania. A long history of racial admixture is attested to by Palauan
folktales, which provide evidence for contact with Yap, the Philippines,
the central Carolines, and Melanesia. Undoubtedly many more such
contacts are unreported. A useful and authoritative survey of Micro-
nesian somatology and serology, including materials on Palau, has been
provided by Hunt (1950).

The native population of Palau is 7,783 (census figures, 1956). Slighdy
less than half (48 per cent) of the total number of Palauans live on
Babeldaob Island. Another block of the population (35 per cent) resides
on Koror Island, most of it in the administrative "urban" village of

' ■ ' ' lll ' ' ' ] I I I I I I

TRUST TERRITORY

of the
PACIFIC ISLANDS

RN MARIANA, CAROLINE AND MARSHALL ISLANDS

f I

»o y»

- ^^=^

NAUTICAL MILES
0 OlSrniCT AOMIIIISTRATOR
X UHINHABITEO

MARSHALL ISLANDS
(MARSHALL IS. DISTRICT)
Population 13,984

TAONOI ATOI.Ll£V

BIKAR ATOLL '•>

UTiRIK ATOLL
X ENIWETOK ATOLL X BIKINI ATOLL TAKA ATOLLj**
O O >-RONGE LAP ATOLL

AILINGINAE ATOLL '

fS"^ RONyERIK ATOLL

AILUK ATOLL ^ .^MEJIT ATOLL

* WOTHO ATOLL ^ X JEMO I. '

UJAE ATOLL «v-A O'""^'^''* WOT J£ ATOLL

^^ ATOLL I

ICWAJALEIN ATOLL ^ J<5 ERIKUB ATOLL

^ MALOELAP ATOLL

LAE ATOLL

«MOKILI.

» PIMGELAF I.

^t^NAMU ATOLL AUR ATOLL

AILINGLAPALAP ATOLL ^

fjABWOTI *«NOATOLLVl
* >-; MAJURO ATOLL •

JALUIT ATOLL MILI ATOLL*

NAMRIK V ^. .... J

ATOLL o jgo^ ^jQLI

■ ■ I ' ■ I ' I — r

' I ' I ' T

t to the United Nations, 1956). Broken

TRUST TERRITORY

of the
PACIFIC ISLANDS

NORTHERN MARIANA, CAROLINE AND MARSHALL ISLANDS

NORTHERN UtRltKA ISUkHDS
(SAIPAN DISTRICT)

MARSHALL ISLANDS

(MARSHALL IS. DISTRICT)

Papulallont3,')e4

/
/

/PALAU ISLANDS

/•KAYANGELI.
^•BABELTHUAf

/pELEUUI^f'^3„p^ll

fAP iSLAhW

iVLITHI A

lYAP DISTRICT)
Pvvl'lo 5.251 »1C«FE«UT1
„f*RAUL£P ATOLL
.ATOLL 11 WFATU ATOLL
•OLEAI ATOLL „ 1 .lfl«LOI
.^ |„LlK.o'OLI«A«»0 ATOLL

^ atoll lo*«)trek atoli
"eauripikl^ oSATAWAL

WESTERN CAROLINE ISLANDS

IPALAU DISTRICT)

Popvlatien T.l^'*

C TOBl I.

sPONAPE r

d K APING AMAfiANGI ATOLL

UTIR1K ATOLL

■K ATOLL IBIKIHIATOLL TAKA ATOLLX**

O ^BONGELAP ATOLL

^"^ 80HGER1IC ATOLL
A1LINGINAE ATOLL ■

, AILUK ATOLL p

"'WOTHO ATOLL ^1 JEW

ATOLL KWAJALEIN ATOLL

^.AJURO
IT.T^LL J.

^ WLOELAP A
^ AUfi ATOLL

III I I I 3:

■I I I I I I I I I

Fig. 3. Map of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (from tlie Nintli Annual Report to the United Nations, 1956). Broken
lines indicate territorial area and districts of jurisdiction.

PALAU AND THE PALAUANS 23

Koror. The remaining 17 per cent is divided among the relatively
remote islands of Ngeiangl, Pelilyou, and Ngaur. Because of a relatively
high birth rate and improved medical care, the population of Palau
is rapidly expanding.

POPULATION OF PALAU BY MUNICIPALITY!

Aiiinicipality Population

Koror 2,723

Ngarard 700

Pelilyou 687

Ngerechelong 511

Ngaur 459

Airai 454

Nghesar 432

Aimelik 399

Ngiwal 334

Ngeremlengui 323

Melekeok 295

Ngardmau 206

Ngeiangl 161

Ngatpang 99

Total 7,783

1 Statistics taken from Annual Statistical Report of Palau District (fiscal year 1956).

In 1956 the ratio of males to females in the population was very
slightly in favor of males: 3,952 to 3,831 (Statistical Report of the Palau
District, 1956). The difference is so small as to be negligible. The
ratio shifts in favor of one se.x over another from year to year; for example,
in 1951 the ratio was slightly in favor of males: 3,295 to 3,283 (Quarterly
Report, Civil Administration Unit, Palau District, April-June, 1951,
p. 9). In 1952 the ratio was in favor of females: 3,526 to 3,456 (Quarterly
Report, Palau District, January-March, 1952, p. 8).

POPULATION OF KOROR MUNICIPALITY!

(June, 1948-May, 1956)

Population
Date Population increase or decrease

1948 1,120

1949 1,255 135

1950 1,225 -30

1951 1,282 57

1952 1,970 688

1953 2,050 80

1954 2,231 181

1955 2,209 -22

1956 2,723 514

1 Compiled from Palau District Annual Reports (1948-56).

Fig. 4A. Uchulech, wife of Siabang, of Ngabei village in Ngerechelong munici-
pality. Her Western garb stands in sharp contrast to the pierced ear lobes and the
old style tattooing.

Fig. 4B. Siabang, husband of Uchulech, of Ngabei village in Ngerechelong mu-
nicipality. His traditional garb, old style wrist tattooing, and wooden betel-nut mortar
stand in sharp contrast to the tack hammer, the betel-nut pestle and the modern upper

arm tattooms

26 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Government population statistical tabulations for Palau do not include
Ijirth or mortality rates. Hence, no ratios are presented here. Population
density is by far the greatest on the island of Koror. Because of greater
opportunities for employment and other positive values which relate to
the administrative and port center, immigration to Koror has i:)een
accelerated in the past few years. Features of life in Koror which are
attractive to Palauans are electric power, a movie, a hospital, motor
vehicles, and the traditional prestige of Koror village.

The growth of population in Koror has resulted in overpopulation
in one municipality and a corresponding depopulation in others. Out-
lying municipalities are being drained of valuable members of their
populations. The majority of the emigrants have been in the younger
age ranges. Emigration has resulted in shortages of man-power and social
participants as well as in tax income in many municipalities.

ISLANDS OF THE PALAU ARCHIPELAGO

The principal islands of the Palau archipelago are listed below in the order of
arrangement from north to south (Decisions on Names in the Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands and Guam, Part I). In this study I have used my own transcription
of native place names as it more closely corresponds to correct phonemic laws of the
Palauan language than that employed by the Board on Geographic Names. The
one exception to this rule is that according to my transcription "Koror" should be
"Choreor." It is, however, left "Koror," because of the current common usage of
that form. Board transcriptions appear at times in parentheses throughout this study
and are used in the following enumeration of the member islands in the Palaus.

Kayangel (8° 04' N., 134° 43' E.): an atoll consisting of four low, sandy motus; only
the largest is inhabited.

Babelthuap (7° 30' N., 134° 36' E.) : a volcanic island (uplifted coral in southeast);
the largest in the chain.

Arakabesan (7°21'N., 134° 27' E.): a small volcanic island; inhabited.

Koror (7° 20' N., 134° 30' E.) : a volcanic and raised coral island; seat of administra-
tive government, urban center.

Malakal (7° 20' N., 134° 28' E.): a small, partly volcanic and partly coral limestone
island, with a harbor and dock area; inhabited by Chamorro family.

Auluptagel (7° 19' N., 134° 29' E.) : an uninhabited coral limestone island.

Urukthapel (7° 15' N., 134° 24' E.) : the largest limestone island in Micronesia in
terms of coral volume, and the second largest island in Palau; uninhabited.

Eil Malk (7° 09' N., 134° 22' E.) : a high coral island, proper name Mecherchar;
uninhabited.

Peleliu (7°01'N., 134° 15' E.): a raised atoll, the third largest island in Palau; in-
habited.

Angaur (6° 54' N., 134°09'E.): a raised atoll; inhabited.

134- 20'

I34«4Q-

9 I

N6EIANGL

NGERECHELONG

NGARDMAU

NGARARD

NGEREMLENGUI

NGIWAL

MELEKEOK

AIMELIK

N GAT PANG

NGHESAR

1 1

AIRAI

KOROR

PELILYOU

NGAUR

g>00

7'40

7»20'

■r-oo-

20 MILES

14P

I34»20' 134*40'

Fig. 5. Map showing municipalities of the Palau Islands.

28 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

At the same time, the increase in the population of Koror has created
problems of a different order. Koror, like many other growing com-
munities, has a shortage of housing, its schools are crowded, the labor
supply exceeds opportunities for employment, and there are relatively
high delinquency and crime rates. A basic problem is that of food
supply. Koror Island is small, and much of the existing arable land sup-
ports native housing and administration facilities. As a consequence
of these factors, good land for subsistence-crop planting is at a premium.

Many families find it necessary to travel to neighboring islands to
farm plots of land to which they have rights. Most families also depend
on relatives in outlying communities to send food to them periodically.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE PEOPLE TO THE LAND

Traditionally, and continuing to the present time, the source of
subsistence in Palau has been the cultivation of root and other crops,
combined with the exploitation of reef and lagoon marine life. Mega-
podes, pigeons, and fruit bats were at times also taken for food in pre-
contact times. No domesticated animals were kept for food. Chickens
ran wild in the bush and not only were not domesticated, but were
not eaten (Keate, 1788, p. 300). Surprisingly, at the time of their presumed
initial contact with Europeans in 1783, Palauans apparently had no
knowledge of the pig or the dog. However difficult it may be to believe
that any group of islands so close to the Asiatic mainland and in the
paths of numerous eastward migrations would not have had either dogs
or pigs introduced until comparatively recent times, it is nevertheless
reported that there were "no quadrupeds of any species on these islands,
except a very few grey rats in the woods." (Keate, 1788, p. 31.)

The primary vegetable food staple was wet-farmed taro, which was
grown in swampy, paddy-like enclosures. Cassava and sweet potatoes,
which were grown in dry hillside gardens, may have been introduced
in historic times, but of this there is no record. Various other food plants
also were cultivated or gathered and augmented the basically starchy
diet.^ Coconut trees were plentiful in most of the villages, and nuts
and flower juices were utilized in the diet.

1 Plants which are either intensively cultivated or are cultivated to some extent
today include taro (Colocasia), giant swamp taro (Cyrtosperma), wild taro (Alocasia),
yams (Dioscorea), manioc or cassava (Manihot), sweet potato (Ipomoea), corn (^ea),
turmeric (Curcuma), squash {Cucurbita), pineapple {Ananas), green onions {Allium), and
watermelon {Citrullus). Citrus (Citrus), banana (Musa), papaya (Carica), soursop
(Anona), and breadfruit (Artocarpus) trees provide a portion of the native diet, but do
not require much attention. A more complete inventory of plant life may be found
in Kanehira (1935), Mayo (1954), and Fosberg (1947).

.^a

Fig. 6. Exploitation of the sea and soil. Upper: Men returning from lagoon
fishing. Lower: Women at work in the taro fields.

30 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

The protein staple was provided by fish and shellfish. There was a
strict division of labor; women cared for the gardens and men secured
the fish. Women and children violated the division in that it was their
recognized right and duty to scour the lagoon and shore region in search
of small shellfish and sea slugs. Men occasionally secured deep-water
species of fish or rarely a dugong, but most of their efforts were confined
to the reef and the lagoon areas. Palauan implements for exploitation of
the sea — nets, traps, spears, and auxiliary gear — were well adapted
to the habitat. The supply of fish and shellfish has remained fairly con-
stant and, in the main, methods employed in securing marine products
have not been altered sufficiently to exhaust these resources.

The Palauan diet has been well balanced within the limitations
imposed on most island populations, and the result has been favorable
from the standpoint of health. Today the population of Palau is growing,
but there are indications that the aboriginal population was much
larger and was supported by the same resources that now maintain a
smaller one.

In general, the native fauna and flora of Palau make for an environ-
ment which is considerably richer than that usually found on Pacific
islands. This relative richness is due to Palau's proximity to Asiatic
continental land masses, which have a remarkably similar biota.

The forest vegetation of the Palau Islands consists of numerous
species of hardwood trees, including hibiscus and breadfruit. Also abun-
dant are coconut, betel, sago, and oil palms; bamboo; vines; shrubs; and
pandanus trees.

The loom has never been a part of Palauan technology, but woven
goods formed by hand-plaiting native fibers such as pandanus served
many purposes. Hibiscus bast and coconut-husk fibers provided materials
for the manufacture of cordage. Very little bark-cloth was made, but
the techniques required for its production from breadfruit bark were
known and used to a limited extent.

A coarse, heavy, brittle, and relatively simple variety of pottery was
made by women from native clays. Coiling and paddle-and-anvil tech-
niques were used in its manufacture. Pottery vessels were used for cooking
and storage.

Palauan technological development in pre-contact times was com-
parable to that in other island areas of the Pacific. A limited number
of tools and implements were used. Principal among these was the
tridacna-shell adze. Knives of shell and bamboo also were used in the
manufacture of goods and in the preparation of food. Volcanic out-
croppings on the large island of Babeldaob and on Koror Island pro-

PALAU AND THE PALAUANS 31

vided materials for ground-stone pounders. Points for arrows and blow-
gun darts were made of wood or sting-ray spines.

Palauan resources are today much as they were in pre-contact times.
There have, of course, been some changes, such as the planting of coconut
plantations in German times and the depredations of the coconut beetle
in more recent years, ^ but in general the reef, the lagoon, and the forests
are little changed. All in all, the resources at the disposal of Palauans
have allowed a relatively comfortable adaptation to island life.

Regardless of the modifying impact of culture contact on their culture,
Palauans remain essentially subsistence farmers and gatherers. Imple-
ments utilized in the exploitation of the soil and sea and in everyday
life have been altered through the years, but the exploitation to subsist
has continued. The steel knife has replaced the knife of shell or bamboo;
the iron adze blade, the blade of tridacna; the metal fishhook, the hook
of turtle shell. Pottery is no longer made. Iron pots are used today,
and china containers now have replaced the wooden food bowls of old.
But in spite of these alterations, the relationship of the Palauans to their
land has always been a close one and it remains so today.

1 The coconut rhinoceros beetle {Oryctes) has destroyed many coconut palms on
Babeldaob and all of those on Ngaur, Pelilyou, Koror, and many smaller islands. The
destruction of this essential subsistence and economically important tree is being
combated by an extensive beetle control project.

IL The Context of Traditional Leadership in Palau

In this study traditional leadership refers to the kind of leadership
which was exercised in aboriginal times, prior to contact with repre-
sentatives of relatively technologically advanced cultures. The sanctions
for it, its modes of expression, and the values relating to it are all keyed
to the aboriginal culture in which it was institutionalized and main-
tained. For the most part, traditional leadership in Palau was pro-
vided by the individuals whose statuses were ascribed — hereditary chiefs
and their close kin.

Palauans have a term for ''leader." It is merreder. The senior male
chief in the village is the merreder of the village. The eldest male member
of the senior lineage in a sib will be spoken of as the merreder of both
the lineage and the sib. A ranking chief in a confederation will be
called the merreder of the affiliated villages. In extension, the American
District Administrator in the Palaus is referred to by Palauans today
as the merreder of their district in the Trust Territory. A child will gird
himself for battle if a peer taunts him by saying that he, the teaser, is
the merreder of their relationship. Once, when making some suggestions
with respect to distribution of food in the Palauan household in which
I lived, I was good-naturedly but firmly told by the mother of the family
that she, not I, was the merreder of the food, and consequently her decision
as to its distribution, which was at variance with mine, stood.

The various uses to which the term "leader" has been put in Palauan
culture indicate widespread recognition that leadership carries with it
elevated status and special reponsibilities as well as rights. As with
all societies, Palauan society was organized in the pre-contact period
in such a way as to provide a framework within which leadership statuses,
responsibilities, and rights were contained. Typical of aboriginal Palau
was its so-called dual organization. The dichotomized system pervaded
the village organization, age-grading, and the kinship system. It was
carried to its ultimate in the territorial and political division of the
island chain into two parts.

TERRITORIAL AND POLITICAL ALIGNMENTS

In pre-contact times, because of its military strength, a large village
exercised political domination over neighboring smaller villages. A

34 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

powerful village could call on the villages under its immediate hege-
mony to assist it in maintaining control of other villages within a larger
territory. In this way Palau was split into two major confederations
at the time of contact with the Western world. The evidence suggests
that this division was a development of the simultaneous rise to power
of two villages, each of which became dominant within a rather ex-
tensive area.

The northern portion of the Palau Islands was called Bab el Daob: tab
("up"); el (untranslatable connective); daob ("ocean"). The southern
portion was called Tou el Daob (sometimes elided to Touldaob) : you
("down"); el (connective); daob ("ocean") (see fig. 8). This geographic
distinction corresponded roughly to the major political division of the
islands. In terms of the affiliation of contiguous territories, the two
major areas were referred to as bital eiyanged ma bital eiyanged ("other
heaven or sky and other heaven or sky").

Babeldaob consisted of territory north of a diagonal line which bi-
sected the island of Babeldaob from Pkul a Chelid (middle peninsula)
on the west coast in the present-day municipality of Ngeremlengui to
Tap era Ngesang peninsula on the east coast in the municipality of
Nghesar. Included in Babeldaob were the sub-territories (now inunici-
palities) of Ngeiangl, Ngerechelong, Ngarard, Ngardmau, Melekeok,
and Ngiwal. Youldaob consisted of the sub-territories of Ngeremlengui,
Nghesar, Airai, Aimelik, Ngatpang, Koror, Pelilyou, and Ngaur. This
is the alignment which existed at the time of contact with the outside
world and it has been preserved to the present time. Current municipal
territorial divisions (see fig. 5) correspond for the most part with pre-
contact sub-territorial boundaries.

VILLAGE ORGANIZATION

Ideally a village was bisected with a road or a stream as the dividing
line. This division was termed metiud a belu ("split of the village"). The
"right" and "left" sides of a village were referred to as bital belu ma bital
belu ("other village and other village") or merely as bitang ma bitang
("other and other"). All land on one's left as he faced the lagoon from
the village mid-line was considered the left (katur) side of the village
and all land on his right, the right (kedikem) side.

Within the village halves there were semi-stable alignments of affilia-
ted kin groups (sibs). In this study I have followed the suggestions of
Lowie (1920, chapter \T)'^and Murdock (1949b, p. 47) in the use of the
term "sib" in preference to "clan" for the designation of a unilateral
kin group; or, in Murdock's terminology, a "unilinear consanguineal
kin group."

134*20'

l34*4Qr

kayangel'
(ngeiangl)

e^oa

PELEUU
{ PELILYOU )

"r> AN6AUR
(NGAUR)

7»40'

TTff

YOU EL DAOB

TOO

0 5 10

20 MILES

134*20' 134*40'

Fig. 8. Map showing major territorial division of aboriginal Palau Islands.

36 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Village sib alignments in Palau have been termed exogamous moieties,
but they were not necessarily exogamous. There was, however, a tend-
ency for the two senior-ranking sibs within the village (one from each
alignment) to maintain a pattern of mutual inter-marriage for economic
and prestige reasons. The moieties were extremely competitive. In
actuality today, there may be only more or less correspondence to this
normative scheme of village organization. Disruptions have been caused
by a great reduction in population size; competition between large, strong
sibs for the loyalty of smaller and weaker ones; and the absorption of
the land of these weaker groups. The custom of death payments between
families, which includes the transfer of land from a sib in one alignment
to one in the other, has also been a very potent disruptive factor.

Political Leadership: The Village Council

The system of ranked sibs in a village was reflected in the arrange-
ment of the village political hierarchy. Each village possessed a council of
chiefs comprised of the senior-ranking male title-holders from each of
the major village sibs. Since these chiefs were leaders of kin groups,
political leadership in Palau was inherited. The council of chiefs, com-
prised of these kin group leaders, was called the klobak.

In linguistic terms the morpheme klobak seems to be a combination
of a bound and a free form. The term obak is generic for "older brother."
My older brother, for example, is obakuk; your older brother, obakum;
his older brother, obakul. A chief or other adult male of senior-age
status is called rubak. The prefix which denotes plurality with respect
to persons is ar or r. "Man," for example, is chad; "men," archad. Through
progressive linguistic change it has evidently become possible to refer to
a single male elder by a term which most correctly refers to the plural.
Hence, we use the term rubak to refer to one or more persons who are
chiefs or elders.

The prefix kl often means plurality in the sense that we might say
"the roster of." An example of this is seen in the use of the prefix with
respect to a series of individuals who have held a title over a long period
of time. A senior male title in one village is Aibedul. If we wish to refer
to all the men who have held the title collectively, we say klibedul. In
this manner, apparently the term klobak refers to the "roster of chiefs
[ruba}i\ who comprise the village council;" hence A;/o^aA; = "village council."
The r in rubak either is elided out or, what seems to be more correct
morphologically, obak is combined with the prefix kl.

The dual organization of Palauan society is clearly demonstrated
by the over-all arrangement of the village council and the distribution

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 37

of power positions. The council was divided into two sections. One of
the sections was headed by the hereditary leader of the senior village
sib, the other by a counterpart from the second-ranking sib. Ideally
a system of alternating ranks required the chiefs of the first-, third-,
fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-ranking sibs to form one section and the chiefs
of the second-, fourth-, sixth-, eighth-, and tenth-ranking sibs the other.
The first, second, third, and fourth sibs were termed the kloal saos ("four
posts") of the village. These sibs were compared to the four corner-
posts of a house which support the structure. The topmost four titles
in the council likewise supported the village structure.

In many villages there were originally only seven major sibs. Other
sibs within the village were considered of little importance and were not
represented on the council of chiefs. Later the council membership
was increased to ten. The inclusion of more chiefs on a council per-
mitted a reduction of the individual amounts of money the original
seven had to pay when money was being collected. Money was regu-
larly collected for a number of reasons — to assist a neighboring village in
its purchase of a new clubhouse, to underwrite the expenses of a feast,
or to pay fines imposed by stronger villages. The earlier inclusion of
but seven members in village councils is evident if the listing of titles
in some ten-member village klobak is examined. There are only titles
for the first seven positions. The positions which follow have titles
which are merely terms meaning "eighth," "ninth," and "tenth."

In the two largest villages in Palau (Koror and Melekeok), the
village councils were expanded even further to accommodate twenty
members. The second group of ten was considered less prestigeful than
the first and was called the iiriul klobak ("after council").

The rank-arrangement of council membership may be seen in the
seating arrangement inside the abai ("village council house"). Each
title had its place, and its holder had rights to that place. The moiety
system of the village was reflected in the seating arrangement, which in
turn reflected the hierarchical system of sib ranking. Ideally, a ten-
member council was seated as follows:

Ngelong (front side of abai) Rebai (back side of abai)

Rank number of sib : Rank number of sib :

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10

o< <::>

no<]

40 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Even-numbered sibs had seats on the back side of the abai and uneven
numbered ones on the front. The alignment shown (p. 37) was identical
with the alignment of sibs in village organization. Those sibs in the
ngelong owed their allegiance to sib number one. Those in the rebai
owed theirs to sib number two.

For each male title-holder there was a female counterpart whose
claim to her title was determined in the same manner as were those of
the males. She was the senior-ranking female within her sib. The
group of female chiefs corresponded in number and relative rank to the
vdllage council of male chiefs and was called klohak el dil ("council of
women"). Appropriate respect was accorded these female chiefs, but
their political power was considerably more restricted than that of the
male chiefs who made up the main village council. At times, however,
their voices were heard, and they were by no means without a say in
many policy formulations. On certain occasions women were included
in the klobak temporarily, when no male representatives from their sib
were available. In a few cases a woman even held a male title and
had a permanent place on the klobak.

Whether male or female in membership, the council of chiefs in-
corporated the competition and rivalry which was characteristic of village
organization in general. The faction headed by the number-two-ranking
chief was always interested in wresting any power possible from the
faction headed by the number-one-ranking chief. In many cases it is
possible to trace the ascent of the number two sib on the council to the
number one position. In such cases, the traditional alignment of sibs
was disturbed and the organizational pattern in villages where this had
happened was quite at deviance with the normative pattern.

AGE-GRADING

Corresponding to the scheme of village division in the Palau of
old was an institutionalized division of village age-grade societies. Ideally
there were three men's clubhouses in each half of a village. Theoretically
each half also had its own taoch ("channel"), which was used by water-
craft from that moiety. Large villages had many more channels, but
there was one main taoch for each moiety. The division of the age-grade
societies into two groups was conceived of analogically. Each group
of three clubhouses was called a taoch. Just as the village was divided
into bital belu ma bital belu, age-grade societies were divided into bital
taoch ma bital taoch ("other channel and other channel") (see fig. 10).

Age-grading was universal in Palau. Named age-grade societies ex-
isted in all villages and ideally there were six for men and six for women.

LAGOON AREA

SHORE LINE

I
TAOCH I

BITAL TAOCH
(OTHER CHANNEL)

Fig. 10. Village age-grade society alignment. This diagram shows the ideal
arrangement of age-grade society clubhouses and their relation to the village mid-line
and to the channels which connected the village with the lagoon. Actually there was
a good bit of variation from this ideal pattern.

NGARAIBARS
(o kind of fish)

NGARAMETAL
(shark)

•^ ^^ ^^ Village

Households

NGARATEKANGL
(unceasing work )

oldest club

youngest club

■• regular progression of personnel

■• routes of younger men when a new club was

established and membership recruited

Fig. 11. Age-grade society membership progression in Koror village, Delui taoch.

42 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

These societies were called cheldebechel. Each of the male societies had a
named clubhouse, but women's clubs had no houses. Though their basic
functions have changed through time and the number of cheldebechel
has greatly diminished, they still exist.

Membership in clubs was by in\itation and members could be drawn
from any part of the village. Once an individual had become a member
of a club in one of the taoch, his mobility was restricted to the three
clubs within that taoch. There was one exception — the members of
the senior sib were able to move about in clubs from one taoch to the
other. Prospective members for clubs were solicited in early infancy.
Members of a club would visit the parents of an infant and indicate
that they wished the child to affiliate with their society when he had
reached the proper age. Age-grade society mobility for males in one
taoch of Koror village is shown in figure 1 1 .

Even age-grade societies composed of the elder males contained some
younger members. Young men might first be taken into an older-
age society and later transfer to a younger one which was in need
of new members (see fig. 11). The oldest cheldebechel could be disbanded
if the members simply declared en masse that they were too old for
further duties. The elders would then retire and be replaced by members
of the next younger club, who would move to the clubhouse which the
elders formerly had occupied. The name of the disbanded society was
retired. Since the clubhouse of the next younger club was vacated in this
case, the youngest age-grade society moved into it, taking its name with it,
and a new club was formed to occupy the youngest society's clubhouse.
This new society was given a new club name.

Age-Grade Society Leadership

In each village the leaders of the age-grade societies were members
of the senior-ranking sib. The leader of the eldest male society was
the ranking sib leader — in other words, the village chief. Leaders of
other age-grade clubs were younger sib-mates of the village chief. In
each club the second in command was a member of the second-ranking
sib in the village. Ideally there was a representative in each club from
each of the sibs represented on the village council, and the relative ranks
of these individuals in the leadership hierarchy of the club to which
they belonged corresponded to the rank of their respective sib in the
village organization. The organizational scheme of leadership in women's
clubs was identical.

The ever-present "warp thread" of competition, so typical of Palauan
culture and so much a part of patterned leadership behavior in the

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 43

village council and within kin group relations, also was woven into the
fabric of age-grade society organization.

KIN GROUPS

Duality also was present within Palauan kin groups. Within a
lineage, sib, or super-sib, for example, there were often groups of people
who were assumed to be related by virtue of the fact that they were
descendants of the members of certain ancient migrations. When there
were two groups of people thus related, they were referred to as bital
wa ma bital wa ("other leg and other leg")- This term also was applicable
to two branches of a kin group when they were differentiated for other
reasons.

Segments of a kin group could be differentiated historically on the
basis of different times of arrival in the locality or because the members
of the segments were considered to be descendants of individuals who
stood in close connection; for example, sisters by adoption. Two small
kin groups which had been fused into a larger one also were called
bital wa ma bital wa.

Many times I asked questions to check Barnett's statement that the
members of a bital wa and bital wa relationship were in fact the children
of sisters (Barnett, 1949, p. 22). Nowhere did I find confirmation. All
informants denied that this was so. One chief phrased his response this
way: ''Ngelekir a tend udos a bital delach ma bital delach — di tal chad'' ("Chil-
dren of two sisters are other stomach and other stomach — just one per-
son"). Bital wa and bital wa are farther apart. They are like Milong and
Olngobang talungalek (lineages and sub-sibs) of Aikelau keblU of Koror
village according to this informant. Traditional accounts do not in-
dicate that these two kin groups are derived from descendants of sis-
ters.

Within the framework of the traditional village moiety system the
senior sib within one moiety and the senior sib in the other were termed
bital blai ma bital blai ("other house and other house"). Sub-sibs or line-
ages within sibs sometimes were dual in their alignment. This relation-
ship may be seen if we examine Aidid keblil of Koror village. The
ordering of the kin groups within the sib is shown below.

Aidid keblil (sib)
Bital wa ("other leg") Bital wa ("other leg")

^. f Techeboiet Omtilou

Kin group Ngerusubluk Aitunglbai

^^"^^^ [ Choteloiech Yecherang

44 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Under the ideal settlement pattern, bital wa members tended to live
in relatively close proximity to each other and there was a certain amount
of wa autonomy; for example, there was competition between two wa
in the business of food and money exchange. It is said of such groups,
""Diak a boldak a udoiidir'' ("Their money is not together"). If there was a
need for the leader of one of the wa to amass some native bead money,
the members of his own wa helped him with great zeal. The members
of the other wa provided only limited assistance.

Another example of the division which traditionally existed at this
level is seen in the assumption of the senior title of the keblil by a member
of one of the wa. A feast was customarily given at the time. At such a
feast the wa to which the individual assuming the title belonged had to
undertake the major share of the expenses and could depend very little
on the other wa.

The findings of this study in the area of kin group terminology do
do not entirely agree with those of several recent reports (Barnett, 1949,
pp. 21 ff.; Useem, 1949, pp. 65 ff.; and Vidich, 1949, p. 22). The chief
difference has to do with the ways in which the Palauan terms for various
kin groups have been defined. A factor which may have contributed
to the differences in definitions of kin group terms may be the high
degree of overlap which exists in Palauan kin group terminology and
its usage; for instance, in some reports the term talungalek has been iden-
tified as meaning "maternal lineage" while the term keblil has been said
to mean "maternal clan." The findings of this study indicate that the
indigenous meanings (and hence the applications) of these terms are
actually much broader. Moreover, the proper application of the term
blai appears never to have been adequately delineated. Because an
understanding of kin group leadership is important to this study, a few
additional comments on the subject of kin group terminology from the
standpoint of meaning and application seem necessary.

The basic unit of Palauan societal organization was the household.
The term for "house" was blai. Variations of this Malayo-Polynesian
term for "house" are found widely distributed in Oceania. The members
of a single household were designated as di emol blai ("just one house")
or artal ulaol ("people of one floor").

As they are employed by Palauans today, there is considerable over-
lap in the meanings of native terms for kin groups. In one utterance an
informant will refer to his named, exogamous, totemic, consanguineal
kin group as his keblil and in the next will say that the same kin group is his
talungalek. He may later refer to the same group as his blai. He will
call his household his blai on one occasion and speak of it as his oungalek

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 45

or his talungalek on another. Keblil and kleblil frequently are used inter-
changeably.

If the native terms are analyzed according to their etymology some
clarification emerges. Oungalek, for example, is often used to refer to
the nuclear family. The word for "child" is ngalek. The prefix ou carries
the meaning at times of "making," "having," or "doing;" for example,
one may say Ak oungalek erangi, which means "I make a child of him."
Such a statement is made with reference to one's biological child and
to an adopted child for whom one has assumed parental responsibilities.
The logic of the term's use with respect to the nuclear family is clear.
Talungalek is probably derived from tal ("one") and oungalek ("nuclear
family"). It is used, however, not only to refer to the nuclear family
but also to larger kin groups (from the extended family through the
sib), to denote close consanguineal relationship. Moreover, it is not
necessarily applied only to one's maternal lineage.

The term keblil appears to be a combination of the third person
singular possessive form of the word for "house" {blil; blai is the generic
term) and the prefix ke, which connotes mutuality. It refers to mutually
related houses. The relatedness stems from the kinship of the occupants.
The term may be applied to the extended family (or portions thereof),
the lineage, the sub-sib, the sib, and on occasion even to the super-sib.

My investigation of the present-day use of the terms talungalek and
keblil in Palau reveals that they are often interchangeable and that
talungalek does not necessarily mean "lineage" and only lineage, as
has been previously reported, any more than keblil means "clan" and
only clan.

Super-sibs whose component groups are recognized as being distantly
related but whose relationship is only occasionally demonstrable — and
frequently only through recourse to folklore — are referred to as kleblil.
The infix / is not easily explainable in terms of any morphological law
of the Palauan language which has been demonstrated by linguists, but
it may mean, as it does in other contexts, "the full roster of components"
— in this case, component keblil. A confusing thing is that the terms
keblil and kleblil are used interchangeably in conversation today. When
asked why, an informant will say that they mean the same thing. The
term blai is used to refer to any of the definable kin groups mentioned
above.

In figure 12 the lines designated "A" enclose oungalek or talungalek,
i.e., nuclear families. The lineage designated by the solid black symbols
is also a talungalek, since all the members may be traced to a single com-
mon maternal ancestor. Here the term is used to denote a maternal

46 CULTURAL CHANGE LN PALAU

lineage. In house 6 the allegiance of the children is divided. This is
today, and seems formerly to have been, a fairly common occurrence in
Palau. As shown in the figure, the male child followed the lineage of his
father and the daughter that of her mother. When the male child became
an adult he married and established a new household on land inherited
from his father. His children, in turn, followed their paternal lineage
and paternal sib affiliation was accordingly emphasized.

Houses shown in figure 12 with the same pattern on the roofs stand
in keblil relationship to each other. In some cases it is possible to trace
the relationship between members of a keblil and, if so, the keblil is, in
fact, a lineage. When the relationship is merely assumed and cannot
be demonstrated (as with houses 3 and 4) then the requirements for
being considered a sib are met.

Some keblil are very small today, numljering only slightly more than
a dozen persons. The relationship of each one to all the others is easily
traced and is common knowledge. These keblil are more accurately
lineages or merely extended families, rather than sibs. Reduction of
keblil size due to a general decrease in population has rendered it possible
to trace relationships today which in earlier times would have been
impossible to ascertain. Hence, what might have qualified as a sib in
yesteryear is today merely a lineage. It is, nonetheless, still called a
keblil, which is confusing only if we accept keblil to mean "sib" alone. It
is still a kin group, albeit shrunken in size, which lives in houses which
are recognized as being mutually related.

Since residence in Palau was virilocal (Adam, 1947), a female lived
apart from her sib-mates after marriage, ordinarily in a house on land
inherited by her husband from his mother's sib. Traditionally land was
owned in severalty by the keblil ("sib"). A house bore the same name
as the land upon which it stood. By virtue of their position on sib land
and the relationship of their occupants, houses were related to a series
of other houses which were occupied by kinsmen. Inheritance of land
usufruct was not always through the female line. Some individuals
inherited land and house from their father's sib.

There is a growing tendency today for inheritance to follow the male
line. This may be in part a result of acculturation influences. However,
there is a long tradition of this kind of inheritance prior to present-day
trends.

Since one always had membership (or at least membership potential)
in both the lineage of his father and the lineage of his mother, and hence
membership in their respective sibs, he might elect or be forced by cir-
cumstances (age, value and quality of remaining keblil land, inheritance

48 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

of a title, numljer of other relations having a claim on the limited amount
of land and so forth) to accept active membership in his father's lineage
and sib. Paternal and maternal relations competed for the allegiance
of an individual. If a man did follow his paternal lineage he then brought
his wife to live \vith him on land inherited from his father's kehlil.

A Palauan traces his descent through his father as well as his mother.
Descent through one's father, i.e., connection to father's sib, is termed
ulechel. Descent through one's mother, i.e., connection to mother's sib,
is termed ochel. The ochel connection is without question the stronger
of the two. A title inherited from one's mother's kin group holds prece-
dence over one inherited from one's father's group, though one may
elect to accept the latter.

If a sib is unable to discover an ochel adult who is acceptable and a
title vacancy must be filled, the members will seek an individual who
traces his descent to the group through his father. One who holds a
title inherited through maternal connection is considered to have a more
authentic claim to the title, but the recipients of titles inherited through
paternal connection are respected and accorded all due rights and
privileges. They are expected to undertake all the duties and obligations
of the title irrespective of their basis of title assumption.

Lineages may properly be termed maternal, but membership is
possible in such lineages through one's paternal line. Various exchange
obligations frequently are undertaken by a person because of such mem-
bership. Generally obligations are considered more binding and stronger
within the ochel category.

As we customarily think of them, lineages are not named. However,
if we follow the definition that a sib is a named, exogamous, sometimes
totemic unilinear consanguineal kin group in which a traditional bond
of common descent is assumed but cannot always be demonstrated
(Murdock, 19491d, pp. 47 ff.), we expect sibs to be named. In Palau,
since a group of affiliated houses was ordinarily arranged in some sort
of ranked order about a senior house (perhaps the house of the earliest
direct lineal antecedent), they were all subsidiary to the senior house
and were referred to as a keblil. The keblil bore the name of the senior
house. Such house groups often contained a relatively small number
of individuals whose kin relationships to each other were clearly demon-
strable. This, then, offers one explanation as to why one finds named
lineages in Palau.

Palauan society has been characterized as matrilineal by some earlier
writers, but there is considerable evidence to challenge this characteriza-
tion (Barnett, 1949, pp. 21-34). There is no doubt that there is an

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 49

important bias toward emphasis of the maternal Une, but certain of the
requirements of a true matrilineate are absent. A significant absence is
that of the special cousin terminology which generally accompanies
unilateral organization (Murdock, 1949b, p. 223). Cousin terminology
in Palau is Hawaiian in type.

Palauan kinship terminology is broadly classificatory — a recognized
characteristic of bilateral organization. A special term does exist for
mother's brother, and the mother's eldest living brother (or other senior
male member of her lineage) does stand in a special relationship to his
sister's children. The maternal uncle is called upon for financial assistance
and in general is sought as a source of aid of various kinds throughout
Ego's life; for example, even if one becomes a pariah within his kin
group and suff^ers discrimination by his relations, he may never be turned
away completely by his mother's brother.

The interesting thing about the mother's brother is that the term
which is employed for him referentially {oktemelek) is also applicable
to all senior males whose membership in the maternal lineage is based
upon the fact that their mothers were members of the lineage. Females
who stand in a similar relationship to the lineage, and hence the sib,
likewise are called by a common term (ourot) both collectively and
individually. This is especially true of high-ranking sib females.

Ordinarily we think of sibs as exogamous. If keblil is defined solely
as a sib (clan), as it has been in some of the literature on Palau, then
the character of Aikelau keblil of Koror village is very peculiar in that
marriage between the constituent talungalek which comprise it was (and
still is) permitted. The fact is that the so-called talungalek are actually
less lineages of Aikelau sib than they are sub-sibs, i.e., named, exogamous,
and even, in the old days, totemic in their own right. The term talun-
galek, then, applies also to what is here called a sub-sib.

The kin group term blai deserves a final word of comment. Blai
is the generic term for house; that is, it is not declined to show possession.
A keblil (sib) is sometimes spoken of as a blai. As with the members of a
single household, persons from the same sib are said to be di emol blai
("just one house"). The blai which is being referred to is the senior
blai within the kin group. It is in this house that the leader of the kin
group lives. The keblil has the same name as the land and the house
of its leader. The term blai refers in extension to the house itself and
also to the kin group it represents. Oungalek and talungalek also may be
referred to by the term blai. The following table summarizes the overlap
in kin group terminology that exists in contemporary Palau and that
seems to have existed also in aboriginal times.

50 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

KIN GROUP TERMINOLOGY OVERLAP

Nuclear Extended Lineage Sub-Sib Sib Super-Sib
Family Family

oungalek x

talungalek x x x x x

keblil x X x x (x)i

kleblil x X

blai X X X X x x

1 Occasionally.

In my view the overlap in Palauan kin group terminology is not
simply an instance of the occurrence of a series of indirect references;
it is rather a case of multiple referents. Such a situation is highly remi-
niscent of Firth's findings with respect to kinship terminology and kin
group terminology in Tikopia (Firth, 1958, p. 235). In Tikopia the
word for "house" is paito. The term paito is obviously a variation of the
Indonesian root term for "house" {balay; Capell, 1943) and must be
assumed to stand in cognate relationship to the Palauan terms for houses
— blai and bai. According to Firth (op. cit., p. 346) the Tikopians "have
a predilection for using a word with a wide variation in meaning in
different contexts, a contrast between a general and a specific signi-
ficance being particularly common." Beyond signifying the actual dwell-
ing place of a number of individuals the term paito refers to the family
which lives in the house. It is also the recognized designation for the
kinship unit which is composed of a number of separate households
which live under several different roofs — in other words, for an extended
family. Paito are not necessarily localized residential groups; paito mem-
bers may be scattered throughout several villages. This pattern also
may be observed in Palau. There are a number of other similarities
between Tikopian paito and Palauan blai such as rank differentiation on
the basis of past history or wealth, relationship to supernatural beings,
inheritance patterns, perpetuation of "house" name, political and re-
ligious functions, ritual exchange arrangements, and so on. These sim-
ilarities deserve more intensive treatment than is possible in this study, ^
but mention of the basic similarity in the use of the term for "house" ■
and the existence of multiple referents in both Palau and Tikopia seemed
essential.

Inter-Kin Group Relations

In the Palau of old, social distinctions had their base in the system
of ranked sibs. As has been mentioned, the first four sibs of a village
were considered to be the most important. They were the most in-
fluential and the most prestigeful of the village sibs. The entire roster

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 51

of sibs for a village was ranked from highest to lowest. Within individual
sibs there was also a recognition that some lineages out-ranked others.
The senior-ranking sib was customarily the wealthiest. The emphasis
upon the possession of wealth is reflected in the term which was used
to refer to relatively low-ranking sibs. These groups comprised a category
termed ebul ("poor"). Wealthy sibs were called meteet. Sib wealth and
prestige were positively correlated.

Through the manipulation of nativ^e currency a lower-ranking sib
could increase its wealth and succeed in upward mobility, but ordinarily
such mobility was restricted in degree; for example, if the members
of an upper-ranking and wealthy keblil became aware of the fact that
a lower-ranking keblil possessed a large and valuable piece of Palauan
money, they would make plans to secure it. Perhaps they would contrive
a situation in which they could levy a fine and take the money. Fre-
quently they would instruct one of their female sib members to marry
into the sib which possessed the money. They would then bargain for
the specific piece in the transactions which required the groom's kin
to make money payments to the family of the bride. Such tactics made
it very difficult for a low-ranking keblil to amass sufficient wealth to raise
itself in the sib hierarchy.

Proscriptions with respect to upper-ranking keblil members "marrying-
down" were insufficiently strong to satisfy the requirements of caste,
but they were relatively effective. If, for example, a woman from a
high-ranking sib married a man from a low-ranking sib, the members
of the woman's sib would bring negative sanctions to bear; perhaps the
insistence would be so strong that the marriage would be broken. The
situation of a woman "marrying-down" was particularly undesirable
to the wife's sib because of the exchange pattern which dictated a flow
of wealth to her sib from the husband's. The exception to this rule has
been cited abov^e. If a woman's sib had instructed her to "marry-
down" to secure a particular piece of money from a lower-ranking sib,
naturally no negative sanctions would be imposed as a consequence
of the marriage.

The system of kin group ranking in aboriginal Palau was far from
uniform at the pan-Palau level, since there were villages of different
ranks. If a person of relatively low kin group affiliation from Koror
(a very high-ranking village) went to visit in a village which was lower-
ranking in the over-all village hierarchy, he was considered to be a
relatively high-ranking person with respect to the lower-ranking village.
Koror was considered a meteet el belu ("wealthy and high-ranking village").
The Kororites took advantage of their senior status-position and fre-

52 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

quently took what they desired (money, food, sexual privileges, and so on)
from the lower-ranking villages.

The term arbedcheduches was descriptive of relatively "low-ranking"
people; for example, it was used to refer to persons whose connections
with a sib were so tenuous as to preclude their assumption of leadership
titles. Such persons might be members of a segment of the sib which
was considered to have been a late arrival in the migration history of the
group. Such segments were termed digimes oil ("wet legs"). The term
was demonstrative of the fact that the segment had arrived so recently
(although it might have been generations previously) that the legs of
its members were still wet from wading ashore. To employ this term
to refer to an individual was considered thoroughly insulting.

Distinctions of this nature constantly were brought into play in re-
lations between kin groups. Any means which could be used to bolster
a kin group's prestige and status was relied upon. The stratification
which existed in pre-contact Palauan society should not be termed a
class system. Palauans do not and evidently did not conceive of broad
segments of society which might be termed classes. Stratification was
pertinent to specific village kin group structures which in turn fitted
into a pan-Palau structure of villages in which there was also stratification
based on relative ranks.

Relative wealth, numerical size, and traditional prestige were attri-
butes relied upon in the determination of kin group rank. Within rather
narrow limits upward mobility was possible. A senior-ranking sib was
supposed to be the wealthiest sib in the village. This was not always
true in fact and the alterations in village hierarchies from time to time
reflect the fact that some sibs declined in wealth, prestige, and power
while others advanced. Possession of wealth was one means which en-
abled a sib to maintain its social prestige. It could, for example, afford
costly feasts which advanced its prestige in comparison to other sibs
which could not afford such expenditures.

In large part the fortunes of a sib were a function of the relative
number of females it possessed and the extent to which these females
entered into lucrative marital relations with males from sibs of wealth. To
the extent that infelicitous marital agreements were negotiated with respect
to female sib members and to the extent that the sib's own males were
required to make payments of money to other sibs (because they claimed
wives from them) in excess of the income derived from the marriages
of their sisters, an unfavorable balance of trade came about which spelled
disaster for the sib treasury. A sib in this state of financial imbalance
was prey to the village nearest-lower-ranking siljs which aspired to
higher positions.

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 53

The exchange system was a primary integrating force in Palauan
culture. The successful manipulation of wealth resulted in limited up-
ward mobility for individuals as well as for kin groups. It is true that
a man might never entirely escape his hereditary ascribed status (though
he might be fortunate enough to be adopted by a high-ranking family
and ultimately benefit), but at the same time he might become a re-
spected individual as a result of his success in accumulating wealth. The
Palauan language distinguishes between the person of high-ranking social
status {meteet) and the wealthy person {merau).

High-ranking kin groups were ordinarily wealthy, but the distinction
between mere wealth and wealth plus social position was never over-
looked. The common denominator involved in the exchange system
and the general manipulation for wealth and social advantage is "com-
petition." This is the sine qua non of Palauan culture. Competition
between kin groups for positions of prestige was (and is) a primary focus
of Palauan culture. The custom of kauchocharo ("mutual enemies") was
a potent feature of inter-kin group relations. The second-ranking kin
group in a village did its best to outdo the senior-ranking one in all
activities. The allegiance of the subsidiary sibs within each of the two
village divisions was relied upon in this competition.

Kin Group Leadership

Leadership in kin groups was not limited to men. As has been
mentioned, the dual nature of Palauan culture provided a system of
ranking with respect to women which was identical with that for men.
Every lineage had both a male and a female leader. Each was con-
sidered a merreder of the lineage. Ideally these individuals were most
closely related to female antecedents within the lineage. Relative age
was a crucial factor in the determination of which of two identically
related individuals was to hold the ranking position in the lineage;
for example, of two siblings who were related identically to a woman
who stood in the closest maternal connection to lineage antecedents,
the elder was considered senior. The eldest male and female children
of such a woman would head the lineage following the deaths of the
woman and the holder of the ranking male title.

Persons holding the highest-ranking positions in the highest-ranking
lineage of a sib were considered to be the leaders of the sib. Likewise,
the leaders of the senior sib in the village were considered the paramount
male and female chiefs of the village. An exceptionally aberrant feature
of only a few villages in Palau is that the wives of male title-holders held
the female titles from their husbands' sibs. Such persons were actually
not even members of the sib from which their titles were derived.

54 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

The male head of a household was considered the leader of the house-
hold, but his wife shared leadership honors with him. As has been ex-
plained earlier, even today each house in Palau is named after the land
on which it stands. A man and his wife who occupy a given house are
designated as leaders of the household by the use of special prefixes
to the house-name, which, together with the house-name, provide a
house-title for the man and his wife. When addressing a person in public
it is proper to use these house-titles in preference to his or her name.
A sib title, however, takes precedence. An example of a house-title
is as follows: A house in one of the villages in Ngerechelong munici-
pality on Babeldaob is called Tobei. The prefix for male household heads
is Ngira-; that for female household heads, Dira-. The house-titles for
the man and his wife who occupy the house called Tobei are consequently
Ngirayobei and Dirayobei respectively.

HEREDITARY SANCTIONS OF LEADERSHIP:
CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPECTATIONS

The relative eminence of traditional Palauan leaders was determined
by their membership and position in kin groups whose wealth, numerical
size, and traditional prestige were generally recognized. However, in-
dividual status, prestige, and power frequently depended upon personal
characteristics. If these were at variance with the cultural expectations
as to the characteristics of leadership, then hereditary rights to eminence
were contradicted and the consequence was a negative response to the
individual on the part of persons under his leadership. Obviously such
responses effectively reduced the leader's powers of control. At times
responses were carried to such extremes that a chief was deposed and
exiled. His life might even be taken.

The possession of the headship of a large and prestigeful sib elevated
a person to social eminence and leadership status. Membership in such
a kin group was highly desirable and to possess the hereditary right to
the assumption of titled rank in the group was even more desirable.
There were, however, certain basic expectations which governed tradi-
tional leadership behavior. Along with the assumption of a chiefly
title came the corollary assumption of a relatively well-defined role,
with its expectations in terms of duties and behavioral characteristics;
for instance, a chief was expected to be knowledgeable. He was expected
to know custom, so as to be able to settle disputes over customary social
usages. A certain maturity was expected of a person before he was
assumed to have had time to assimilate the knowledge which he should
have as chief. The assumption of an important title by a relatively

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 55

young person who was considered ill-prepared for chiefly roles was
deplored by Palauans, but if hereditary right had been established there
w^as little recourse but to accept the heir to the title, regardless of his
inexperience, ineptitude, or lack of knowledge. It was possible in aborig-
inal days, however, for the village council of chiefs to veto the right of
certain heirs presumptive to the senior title and select another person
from the ranking sib whose hereditary claim was less strong. This was
not a frequent occurrence, but when it did happen it was called omotk
oiyang ("jumping over")-

Most important in a listing of the characteristics of traditional leader-
ship is that a chief was expected to behave like a chief. He was not to
speak unnecessarily. He seldom spoke in council meetings, but when
he did, usually through an intermediary, his words held authority.
Physical labor was not consistent with chiefly behavior in the traditional
sense. Traditionally, a chief was supposed to spend a good bit of his
time seated. He was not supposed to engage in physical labor such as
climbing for betel-nuts or lifting or carrying, and a symbol of this tradi-
tion was a dugong vertebra bracelet which was worn only by chiefs.
Its cumbersome presence prevented many activities which are necessary
to vigorous work. Early writers on Palau noted the wearing of these
bracelets by elite males and made reference in their writings to the
Palauan "order of the bone" (Keate, 1788). This symbol of status
served as a constant reminder of differential social statuses. However,
even though a chief was not supposed to engage in demeaning labor,
he was expected to possess the skills necessary for the accomplishment
of work. He might even demonstrate them on occasion, but he was not
expected to prolong the demonstration.

A chief was supposed to be generous. However, he also was supposed
to be wealthy, which means that he was expected to be a capable manipu-
lator of native currency.

In the pre-contact period a Palauan chief could greatly expand his
prestige by proposing or leading a successful war party against an enemy
village. If conquered, the enemy village sometimes became a satellite
of the victorious village and was joined with it in alliance in future wars.
Furthermore, tribute could be demanded of a defeated village. In this
fashion political confederations were established and the prestige of
leadership in the victorious village was heightened. Personal political
power was determined in part by a chief's village affiliation and in part
by the relative status of the village in a confederation of villages. Upward
mobility in terms of personal prestige was possible under the system of
inter- villasce warfare.

56 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

It was a chief's duty to lead in commonplace situations as well as in
more spectacular events such as war expeditions against enemy v^illages.
An example of this is seen in the custom whereby the chiefs in the council
house were all required to wait until the senior chief gav'c the signal to
eat. When he did so, but not before, the others might begin.

Rights which were granted hereditary chiefs were numerous. At
feasts chiefs were awarded larger and more choice portions of the feast
fare. They also possessed the right to receive certain first fruits and
special foods; for example, in one village, if turtles were captured they
had to be brought to the chief. If he wished to keep the entire catch
for distribution to his own kin group, he might do so. He might also
take only a small share and allow the captors to keep the remainder.

It should be noted that while the right to usurp all of a particular
catch or crop was his, a good chief recognized the aspect of his role
which demanded that he be generous and conscious of his people's
welfare and he was accordingly careful not to misuse his rights. We are
speaking here of ideals. In actual practice there was a good bit of varia-
tion in chiefly behavior. In folklore accounts of their lives, some chiefs
are noted for their avarice. Others more closely approximate the norma-
tive conception of what a chief should be like.

SUPERNATURAL SANCTIONS OF LEADERSHIP:
SPIRITS AND SHAMANS

Supernatural sanctions for leadership developed from the congeries
of beliefs relating to nature deities (chelid) and ancestral spirits {bladek).
There was an aura about hereditary chieftainship that hearkened back
to primordial Palau, when chiefs were half god and half man {chelid el
chad); when sea slugs spawned humans; when giants lived; and when
spirits flitted through the air unseen. Palauan folk tales are rich re-
positories of ideas about the supernatural and its complement of rare
and mysterious qualities.

It is to be expected that any claim which could be laid to this rich
source of power would be exercised. A chief who demonstrated his
ability to secure support from any one of a number of deities within the
Palauan pantheon was accorded respect. A chief either secured his
support from the gods through a shaman or took on shamanlike qualities
himself. The fact that he was a chief was, in itself, awesome because
of the connection between chiefs and the chelid.

Totemism was a strong feature of Palauan kinship belief, and many
houses had totemic shrines either in the house or on the stone platform
before it. Deities were importuned in prayer; they dominated the folk

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 57

tales; and they were feared. Deities inhabited the sea, the bush, the lakes,
the streams, certain stones, some plants, and various animals. A great
deal of malevolence on the part of these beings was involved. Some
appeared to sleeping men as fearful amorphous black blobs. Some
could show their powers by moving bouquets at funerals. Others could
prevent a good catch on the reef. Some, too, could cause sickness or
even death.

Supernatural beings were not without their agents. Representatives
of gods were communicated with by supernatural whistles. Only the
representative could understand the true meanings of the whistles and
he interpreted for less gifted humans. There were in most pre-contact
villages shamans who provided this link with the supernatural world.
Since shamans were considered to be possessed at times with the spirit
of the supernatural deity they represented, they were referred to by the
name of the deity they embodied. Such individuals were treated with
great respect, and they possessed considerable power in the village, in
some cases completely dominating the senior chief and his council. Some
shamans became chiefs, though they had no hereditary claim to the title.
They simply usurped chiefly office and were not resisted. Descendants
of such persons who today hold titles formerly held by the shamans are
in some remote villages still able to coerce behavior on the parts of their
peers because of the supernatural connection sustained by their ancestor
in the dim past.

A shaman was the recipient of the will of a god. A person could not
become a shaman without being chosen as a repository or vehicle of
supernatural power by the god. It was, therefore, possible for anyone to
become a shaman. Not a few opportunists, noting the obvious values
in l^eing a shaman, may have feigned possession in order to secure per-
sonal advantage. Shamans received tribute, were exempt from onerous
tasks, and were granted money payments for healing services.

According to elder informants, possession states were achieved rapidly
by plying the shaman with successiv^e betel-nut quids for twenty or
thirty minutes. Apparently the effect was conducive to hallucinations
and behavior which was bizarre enough to be termed supernatural.

Shamans definitely shared in the distribution of power in aboriginal
Palau. They also served as channels for the claiming of supernatural
power by chiefs. A chief would seek the blessing of a shaman before
embarking on a war party or would call on him to intercede in the
granting of some special power. Supernaturally sanctioned leadership
behavior had the great advantage that it was irresistible — unchallenge-
able. Coupled with hereditary sanctions, supernatural ones provided
a particularly effective power potential for traditional leaders.

58 CULTURAL CHANGE LN PALAU

AGE AND RESPECT SANCTIONS OF LEADERSHIP:
RUBAKS AND RESPECT

Individual social status, as has been seen, was primarily determined
by a person's hereditary position in a ranked kin group. However, a
factor to be considered in all social relations was that of age. Advanced
age was accorded universal respect in Palau. All men and women
were called by special terms when they attained elderly status. All
social relationships took age differences into account and customarily
the elder person in any relationship had rank on his side.

Age-status considerations are evident in the use of kinship terms
even today. Ego has one set of terms for persons older than himself
and another for persons younger. For each relationship category at
the sibling level, for example, one has special terms for designating those
senior in years to him and those junior. Age distinctions even pervade
the play groups of children.

It was possible for a young man to inherit a high-ranking title because
there was no elder person available to receive it, but in this case he was
assumed to have rubak ("elder") status. Nevertheless, his relative youth
was recognized by all parties. In spite of this recognition, if the title
held by the young man was a high one, the patterned age-respect system
was to some extent inverted in his relations with relatively low-prestige
elders who possessed no titles.

Elder women, like their male contemporaries, were also accorded
great respect. These elder women were called by the term mechas,
the counterpart of the male term rubak.

A series of honorific usages was employed in the exercise of age-
respect. W'hen a high-ranking person met a lower-ranking one on a
roadway, or when an elder person met a younger, the junior of the
relationship engaged in patterned behavior which exhibited honor and
respect. Similar deferential behavior was expected of age-inferiors at
public gatherings. A person of lower status was required to assume
certain postural positions when seated in the company of chiefs or elders.
His back was never to be presented to his superiors in rank and/or age.

Special care had to be exercised in moving among individuals of
high rank, since their persons were not to be violated. The head of such
a person was not to be touched, nor was his bag in which his possessions
were kept and which he carried with him at all times. In passing back
and forth in a building or a gathering place, a lower-ranking person
was required to bend forward at the waist, walk softly, and avert his eyes.

Folk tales assert that the reason the beams of Palauan houses are
placed so that a person walking the length of the house will have to stoop

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 59

forward in order to pass under them, is that one will thus be reminded of
his obligation to show respect. Their term for conventionalized respect
behavior is osus. To show respect in this fashion is called mengesus. Since
title-holders were for the most part persons of advanced years, the respect
accorded hereditary leaders coincided to a great degree with that accorded
elders in general.

PATTERNS OF SOCIAL DOMINANCE AND POWER

Traditionally the "haves" dominated the "have nots" in Palau. The
older dominated the younger. The more remotely arrived dominated
the more recently arrived. And the larger villages had their way with
the smaller ones, which could not defend themselves effectively.

Dominance was reflected in certain characteristic behaviors. If, for
example, a lower-ranking woman was suspected of usurping the affections
of the husband of a high-ranking woman, the latter could with impunity
exercise rights of abuse over her less fortunate sister. She was allowed
the right to maim and publicly castigate her.

In everyday social interaction a lower-ranking person deferred to a
higher-ranking one. If a lower-ranking man met a higher-ranking one
on a village pathway, he stepped aside, removed his comb from his
hair and replaced it in another position, and even averted his eyes. Special
postural responses were made to high-ranking individuals. Low-ranking
individuals were often obligated to pay fines to the chiefs for minor
infractions of social codes. A village chief was often awarded the prize
catch from a fishing expedition or given the greater share for his own
use. Tribute was exacted of certain villages by others which were
more powerful and wealthy.

The various restrictions placed upon one's behavior as a result of
his membership in a rank-conscious society made for rigid control of the
individual. Expected behavior was demanded and secured. Deviants
were effectively punished. Power resided in the hands of hereditary
chiefs whose social position and political position were correlated. Social
prestige and political authority coincided to a great degree.

Because social dominance depended to such a great degree upon
the possession of power, the principal sources and sanctions of traditional
power have been noted. Among these I have mentioned the possession
of wealth as a sanction of power, and the ways in which the successful
manipulation of native currency established and maintained eminence
within the confines of the village and sib hierarchy. Within the inter-
village hierarchy of socio-political dominance it was much the same.

Fig. 13A. Diraked (Sebelau), a venerated elder of Ngril village in Ngerechelong
municipality.

Fig. 1 3B. Ngirokebai (Mochesar), an old chief of Mengellang village of Ngereche-
long municipality.

62 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Dominant villages were powerful ones and a principal sanction of their
power was wealth.

Political power in aboriginal Palau was well institutionalized. As
has been shown, its locus was in the hereditary chiefs. However, because
of the hierarchical ranking system already described, there was a good
bit of variation in the amount of power an individual chief possessed.
The higher a chief's rank, the more power he might be expected to wield.
Personal factors entered into the matter, however. Any given title
which has been held by various men at different periods in Palauan
history has had some holders who are considered to have been very
powerful and others who were relatively impotent.

The council of chiefs (klobak) had something to do with whether or
not a senior village chief was powerful, since it had power of veto over
the senior sib's nomination of heir to the title. If, under the leadership
of a competing chief of the number two sib, the council refused to accept
a particularly strong-willed member of the senior sib who stood in line
to receive the village headship and in his stead accepted another heir
who was less disposed to exert his own will, then the power of the new
chief would probably have been restricted throughout his tenure.

On the other hand, as was once the case in Koror village, if an in-
dividual were actively importuned to accept the position of supreme
village leadership and declined, but after frequent urging finally accepted,
he was in a position to demand considerable power.

The klobak could effectively restrict the power of the village chief
in ways other than in his selection. In council meetings most topics
were discussed at great length. Rhetoric and debate are the forte of
most Palauans, so much so, in fact, that oral expression is not far from
being a Palauan cultural focus. In council discussions it was possible
for power to be shared. When an agreement as to policy finally had
been reached, the subject under discussion had been so thoroughly
treated that each member who wished to contribute had been able
to do so. In this manner coercion by the ranking hereditary chief was
mitigated, and amelioration of supreme power on his part was brought
about.

The opportunity for free expression in discussion and even outright
disagreement with one's superior-ranked council-mates made it possible
for strong and persuasive persons, irrespective of their individual socio-
political rank, to wield power over their fellows. Of course, there were
limits to just how far a person of relatively low klobak position might go
within the bounds of council decorum, but today, as was true in the past,
Palauan custom allows a means for disagreeing politely. One first

Fig. 14. Old and new housing; Ngerechelong municipality. Upper: Old style
house in village of Ngarabao. Lower: Newer frame construction house in Ngabei
village.

64 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

indicates thai he agrees with the poHcy proposed by his senior fellow.
After this testimonial he then proceeds to disagree categorically with
the main points. While doing so, however, he stresses that he is in essen-
tial agreement and that his objections are but minor ones.

Consensus was usually achiev-ed in most matters taken up by the
councils. A personality characteristic of Palauans is that they do not
enjoy being held individually responsible and they actively avoid that
possibility. There is a marked tendency for individuals to seek verifi-
cation from others — to show reluctance in taking a stand on an issue
of even minor importance. The term melingmes covers this generalized
timorousness and reluctance to be committed. There is little doubt
that this tendency pervaded the klobak.

The Power Fyr.amid

The formal power pyramid in Palau had as its base the individual
households within a lineage; next were lineages, followed by sub-sibs
where they existed, then sibs. The super-sibs {kleblil) were not very
powerful politically, though, as with other levels of the social structure,
there was a system of ranking, and power depended on relative rank
within a finite system. This arrangement held, whether the system was
one composed of households within a lineage, lineages within a sib, or
sibs within a super-sib (see fig. 9).

Beyond kin group power entities there were village hierarchies and
confederations. Power ultimately devolved from the two competing
supreme confederations which separated Palau into two coexisting groups
of rival villages within which there were still smaller confederations and
rivalries.

The ability to vanquish by force assured compliance with demands
made by a village on other villages. Sheer force of numbers and strategy
in warfare contributed to the assumption of military eminence and its
consequences in inter-village relations. By forming alliances with other
villages and assuming a dominant role in the alliance, a village might
develop considerable power.

Traditional leadership in Palau was recruited from a relatively narrow
range of the population. The sanctions for leadership tended to concen-
trate on the same individuals. Hereditary chiefs had on their side the
sanctions of heredity, age, and the supernatural. Power was restricted
to a relatively small percentage of the population, and the members
of this group held their positions of power for the most part through
ascription (shamans being an exception) and formed what, for all prac-
tical purposes, was a gerontocracy. Agents of social control were effective

THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP 65

and, therefore, power could be enforced. Except for infrequent and
sporadic contacts with other island cultures in the western Pacific when
a canoe was cast ashore, Palauan culture remained isolated and sufficient
within itself and unmindful of the existence of the world beyond the
reef within which it was contained.

Palauan society of yesteryear may be summarized briefly as having
been dual, highly stratified, and extremely competitive. Its political
organization was coincident with its social order, and its adaptation to
its island environment allowed it to sustain a subsistence economy. It
was this society which came finally into contact with the Western world.

IIL The Contact Continuum:
The Succession of Superordinates

EARLY CONTACTS

Early accounts of contact between representatives of the Western
world and Palauan culture are few. The discovery of the Palau Islands
is credited to Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, a Spanish explorer. On his
way westward through Micronesia in 1543 he sighted Palau but did
not stop there. J. Gaetan, his pilot, comments only that the "island"
which they sighted was "about 25 leagues in circuit, and inhabited"
(Burney, 1803, p. 231). The "island" was named De los Arrecifes
because of the extensive surrounding reef system. Rediscovery of Palau
in 1710 is credited to Francisco Padilla, a Spaniard.

The first account we have of the natives of the Palaus is found in
Keate's narrative of the shipwreck of the East India Company's packet,
the Antelope, on a reef in south-central Palau in the year 1783 (Keate,
1788). The Antelope, under the command of Captain Henry Wilson,
went aground and was lost, but the crew as well as much of the gear
and stores aboard were saved. Contacts with the Palauans were cordial
from the first. During a stay of several months, with the aid of the
Palauans, the castaways built a small craft and finally put to sea and
returned in it to China whence they had begun their voyage. While
they were engaged in the task of building their escape vessel the members
of the Antelope^s crew had opportunity for contact chiefly with Palauans
from the island of Koror.

The shipwreck of the Antelope provided the first real contact between
Palauans and the Western world for which there is any written record.
Palauan folklore includes accounts of contacts with unidentified whites
at some undetermined time in history, but there is every reason to believe
that these persons were not the members of Captain Wilson's crew.
For one thing, the whites mentioned in folklore are supposed to have
come to Palau from the northwest and not the southwest. The vernacular
for "white man" is chad era ngebard, literally "man of the west." They
are supposed to have stayed in Palau and to have become chiefs. Palauan
accounts identify them as Portuguese, but there is no evidence to support

68 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

this claim. The possibility that these early arrivals were Arab traders
should not be ruled out.

Wilson's stay resulted in acquainting the natives with many new
cultural elements, among which were firearms. \Vilson presented some
of these weapons to the natives when he departed, ^\^hile there, his
crew' accompanied Koror village warriors on a sortie against the enemy
village of Melekeok on Babeldaob Island. When Wilson's party left
Palau, one member of the crew stayed on in the islands and a member
of the chief's family accompanied Wilson to England where he died a
short time later of smallpox (Anon., 1832). Before he left, Wilson pro-
claimed British sovereignty over the Palaus.

The contact between Palauans and Wilson and his party was a
friendly one in which mutual hospitality and respect were prominent.
Keate included in his account some ethnographic data on Palau — the
first of their kind to have been published. Among other things, he
discussed property, political organization, structures, weapons and im-
plements, marriage and funeral customs, and the general mode of native
life. He also provided a brief vocabulary of the Palauan language, with
English equivalents. Since he was not a trained ethnologist, Keate's
account is far from expert. Furthermore, the account covers a very
limited period of residence in the islands, during which intercourse with
the Palauans was restricted, since the crew stayed on a small, uninhabited
island. Nonetheless, the account supplies us with our first documentation
of Palauan culture and village chiefs.

After the departure of Wilson's party from the Palaus intermittent
contacts occurred in the following few years. In the next available
account, Delano, who visited the Palaus in 1791 and again in 1793
as a member of a British mission sent to establish friendly relations,
tells of increasing contact and trade with the natives of Palau by traders
operating out of China (Delano, 1817). The British ships Endeavour
and Panther brought gifts of livestock, ammunition, and tools to the
Palauans during the two visits described by Delano.

The ships were under the command of Commodore John McClure,
who liked the islands so well that he decided to stay in Palau and set
up a kingdom of his own. He relinquished his command and stayed
on with an entourage of servants brought from Indonesia and with
\-arious plants and livestock he had brought with him. He, like Wilson,
raised the British flag. Within a few months, however, he gave over
the project and left Palau, but during his stay he provided a good deal
of contact with the native populace.

THE CONTACT CONTINUUM

Delano's account is much less extensive than that of Keate. He does
comment, however, on native warfare, chieftainship, social customs of
various kinds, Palauan character, songs and chants, technology, and
religion.

There is a record of a visit to Palau in 1797 by the missionary ship
Duff, under command of Captain James Wilson (J. Wilson, 1799). The
ship, on its way to Canton from Polynesia, sailed to the east coast of
Babeldaob Island from the central Carolines. Here the ship anchored.

Fig. 16. Abba Thule (Aibedul), high chief of Youldaob in 1783 (after Keate).

70 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

but no one went ashore. Several hundred natives came to the ship in
their canoes, but contact was extremely brief. The following day the
Duff resumed her course.

Other early accounts of contact between Palauan culture and the
culture of the Western world are provided by Cheyne (1852) and Holden
(1836). The latter tells of another shipwreck in the Palaus and the
nature of the reception of the survivors by the natives in 1832. Dumont
D'Urville visited Palau briefly in 1839 on his voyage through Oceania
to the South Pole, but contact with natives was very limited (Dumont
D'Urville, 1843).

The most intensive early contacts were with representativ^es of British
and American culture. Throughout the nineteenth century, trading
became accelerated throughout Micronesia. During the first thirty years
of the century, Spanish trepang traders frequented Palauan waters.
Spanish efforts to encourage trade diminished during the middle and late
century, and traders of other nations dominated the scene as Tetens,
Cheyne, and O'Keefe carried out extensive mercantile enterprises in the
Palaus. There was not as much whaling in the western Carolines as
there was in the eastern islands; hence contacts were mostly with traders.

DOMINATION BY FOREIGN POWERS

Political control by external powers in Palau dates from late 1885,
when the pope confirmed Spain's claim to sovereignty and specified that
she was to maintain order, carry forward economic development, guaran-
tee trading rights to Great Britain and Germany, protect traders, and
establish coaling stations. Of course Spain was also to bring the faith
to the "heathen." Over the 73-year period from this confirmation to
the present time Palau has been governed by four major world powers
in the following order: Spain, 1886-1899; Germany, 1899-1914; Japan,
1914-1944; United States, 1944-.

Spain

Spanish control was beyond doubt the least potent of the four in
effecting cultural change. Spain had as her aim the salvation of souls
rather than the development of trade. The Spanish had made abortive
attempts to missionize various parts of Micronesia as early as the eight-
eenth century, but it was not until near the end of the nineteenth that
they met with success in Palau. In spite of growing interest in sovereignty
by Germany and England, who were interested in trade, Spain maintained
tacit control of the western Carolines from the early days of Spanish
exploration onward. In 1886, Pope Leo XIII commissioned Capuchin

THE CONTACT CONTINUUM 71

monks to carry the gospel to the islands and in 1891 a mission was estab-
lished in Palau.^

On some Micronesian islands Spain concentrated on the establish-
ment of garrisons and the building of forts to house them. She did not do
this in Palau. Missionary endeavor was her principal preoccupation
and there is every indication that in Palau this was not productive of
great social change. The priests did their best to dissuade natives from
the aboriginal religious beliefs and practices, and they opened schools.
The indications are that over the years the fathers did supplant much of
the native religious lore, but just how much of the supplanting took
place in Spanish times is difficult to determine, since Spanish fathers
also staffed the mission in Palau through the Japanese occupation.
During the German period, the mission was staffed with German priests.

Germany

In 1899, with the end of the Spanish-American War, Germany realized
her aspirations toward acquiring an island empire when she purchased the
Caroline Islands along with the Marianas (excluding Guam) from Spain.
Within but a few years German control resulted in changes which far sur-
passed those made by the Spanish. For Palau the changes were significant
ones. The over-all German program of pacification put an end to tradi-
tional inter-village warfare. External political control was maintained
through a resident governor who exercised powers which allowed him to
fine violators of administration regulations. Fines were paid in native
currency. Because of the focal character of money in the social system,
its control was especially valuable to the administration.

The changes wrought by the German administration were varied; for
example, institutionalized concubinage- in men's clubhouses was abol-
ished. Also, natives were conscripted for service in the constabulary force
which was garrisoned and trained on Yap. During the course of their
service many of the conscripts traveled to other parts of Micronesia and

1 One of the first priests to arrive in the Palaus was Friar Antonio de Valencia, CO.
He came to the islands in April, 1891, and remained there until 1892. In a very long
report which he wrote to a superior while he was in Palau, de Valencia recorded a
number of observations on Palauans and their culture. In 1940 another Spanish
priest, who was then a member of the Catholic mission stafT, discovered the letter
and made his own annotations. The present mission staff is American and the Jesuit
priest in charge is sympathetic to scientific inquiry. He kindly allowed me to copy
and translate the de Valencia report. It reveals much interesting insight into Palauan
culture of the period in which it was written as well as the attitude and policy of the
mission toward native institutions and behavior.

- This cultural complex was one in which members of female age-grade societies
stayed in men's clubhouses as "hostesses" for a period of several months. At the end
of this time, club members paid the village council of the girls' village and the fathers
of the girls for their services.

72 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

to New Guinea. This mobility allowed opportunities for exposure to cul-
tures other than German and a consequent expansion of the range of
stimuli for change.

German rule was indirect and relied on traditional native authority.
Supreme authority was external to Palauan society, but administrative
governors dealt through hereditary chiefs when they wished to enforce
their edicts. German control was quite effective and the first major altera-
tions of autochthonous culture were set under way.

The German administration encouraged practical projects such as the
planting of coconut plantations and the building of roads. It carried out
programs of map-making and made surveys of economic potential. The
administration was primarily concerned with the development of trade
and it achieved its goal in what has been described as a "moderate, en-
lightened, and efficient" manner (Civil Affairs Handbook, 1944, p. 25).

Japan

Japanese rule in Palau began with the assumption of military control
of the Caroline Islands by Japan in 1914. The Japanese Naval Military
Government controlled the area for the next four years. At that time a
civil administration was set up to replace the navy. A year earlier, Great
Britain, France, and Russia had recognized Japanese claims to former
German possessions in Micronesia. With this recognition, Japan became
the mandatory power for the islands under the mandate system of the
League of Nations. She was awarded a Class C mandate over the territory.

In 1935 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations, but kept the
mandate as a part of the Japanese Empire. After 1938 the islands became
a closed military area. In late 1944, with the L^nited States Marine and
Army assaults on Pelilyou and Ngaur in the southern Palaus, Japanese
control came to an end and the United States assumed responsibility for
the administration of the islands.

The emphases of the various governing powers in Palau have been
quite different. The Spanish were interested in religious proselytization
and the Germans in economic exploitation, trade, and commercial devel-
opment; the Japanese wanted colonial expansion room, economic advan-
tage, and military bases. The most far-reaching alterations in Palauan
culture came about under the Japanese regime. Political leadership and
authority at the indigenous level were emasculated to a point where they
virtually did not exist. Hereditary chiefs became leaders in name only.
The body of senior chiefs from each of the districts in Palau became known
as the waisei ("yes") congress because of its inability to do more than simply
agree with whatever policy was suggested by the Japanese administration.

THE CONTACT CONTINUUM 73

Because of restrictions which were imposed by the administration with
respect to travel in the mandate by aUens, contact with nations other than
Japan was extremely limited. The restrictions increased through the years
immediately preceding World War II.

The Japanese arranged a series of very effective "culture tours" of
Japan for native leaders. These individuals returned to their homeland
thoroughly impressed with the technological accomplishments of their
dominators and every effort was made to emulate them; for example,
after one such tour by one of the senior chiefs in Palau, he decreed that
henceforth all men must wear their hair short, in keeping with the Japa-
nese custom.

Styles of dress, cooking techniques, architectural design, and even vil-
lage organization felt the impact of Japanese culture. A village chief from
Babeldaob Island returned from his visit to Japan and set forth a plan for
rearranging all of the dwellings in the village in orderly rows along a main
roadway. The roadway is still referred to as the Ginza.

Japanese colonial policy submerged the native population both cul-
turally and numerically. In 1921 the government of the mandated terri-
tory was shifted from its headquarters under naval administration in Truk
to Koror in Palau. From this date to 1942, when the exigencies of war
resulted in increased military control, the islands were under civilian rule
by the South Seas Government {Nanyo-Cho). The net effects of this
20-year span of administration were increased direct rule and extensive
colonial and economic expansion. During this period more and more
Japanese colonists immigrated to Palau until there were far more Jap-
anese than there were Palauans.

The establishment of small Japanese cities, plantations, and other eco-
nomic establishments resulted in widespread displacement of natives.
Their land was expropriated in one way or another, and the traditional
system of land inheritance was disturbed so extensively that in some local-
ities, particularly Koror, it has never entirely recovered.

The Japanese language was mandatory in the public schools, where
attendance was compulsory and teachers were primarily Japanese. As a
result, most Palauans of middle age speak and read Japanese today. Some
members of the native society went to Japan to study agriculture or educa-
tion. Others simply went there to work.

Within the islands themselves, in addition to free public schools, spe-
cial schools were set up to train Palauans in mechanics and other voca-
tional skills. New occupations resulted when Japanese entrepreneurs
hired native labor to work on pineapple plantations and in tuna-packing
plants. Without question, the stimuli for change were much more numer-

74 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

ous and more intense as well as of longer duration during the Japanese
period than in either the German or Spanish administrations. The Japa-
nese effectively discredited many aboriginal customs and practices and
substituted others more congenial to their own ends.

The United States

The guiding philosophy of the American administration of Micronesia
is a fourth major variant in the contact history of Palau. On Novem-
ber 6, 1946, with the strong conviction that Micronesia constituted a
major strategic area and with a consciousness of the bloody cost of win-
ning the islands from Japan, the United States announced its readiness to
place the islands under United Nations trusteeship. The agreement to
undertake the administration of the former Japanese-mandated islands
of the Carolines, Marshalls, and Marianas (exclusive of Guam) as a
trusteeship for the United Nations became effective six months later.

During the first five years following the cessation of hostilities in the
Pacific, the newly formed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was ad-
ministered first by military government teams and later by civil adminis-
tration units of the United States Navy. In 1951 the administration of
the territory was taken over by the Department of the Interior, and ad-
ministrative responsibility has been maintained by this division of the
federal government since that time.

The chief value of the area contained within the Trust Territory of
the Pacific Islands is a strategic one. It provides a great "buffer zone"
which is controlled by the United States. While the region has not been
fortified by the United States as it was during Japanese times, control of
the area does not permit the establishment of military installations by any
other nation. Neither the resources of the islands nor their populations
are exploited. Economic enterprises by non-Micronesians are rigidly
proscribed and Westerners are not allowed to settle there. The testing
of atomic weapons is carried out in a corner of the Marshall Islands and
portions of the Marianas are under Navy control, but basically, beyond
strategic importance, Micronesia is more a liability to the United States
than it is an asset.

Trusteeship has guaranteed to residents of the Trust Territory human
rights which are almost identical with those enjoyed by the citizens of the
United States. Native welfare is the prime concern of trusteeship, and
programs of development along medical, economic, educational, social,
and political lines are paramount in the governing philosophy of the cur-
rent administration. Islanders are encouraged to help themselves, with
guidance and supervision provided by a relatively small American admin-

THE CONTACT CONTINUUM 75

istrative staff with limited budgetary resources. Self-sufficiency and self-
direction are actively promoted in the various aspects of local culture.
As a portion of the Trust Territory, Palau is, of course, subject to the pre-
vailing philosophy of the administration.

The Palauans share with the peoples of the rest of the Trust Territory
in programs of technical assistance which are undertaken by the adminis-
tration. Such assistance is offered in the fields of public health, economic
development and conservation, assessment and proper utilization of avail-
able natural resources, and planning for general social and political devel-
opment. The guiding philosophy of the American administration differs
markedly from the philosophies of its predecessors, since, beyond recog-
nizing the strategic importance of the islands and the surrounding
waters, no personal advantage or political, economic, or other variety of
self-aggrandizement is a motivating factor.

IV. Stimuli for Change

Palauan power structure today is a blend of the old and the new. It
is actually more two structures than one. The aboriginal or traditional
structure has been retained to some extent, particularly in the more re-
mote areas, and has even experienced some revitalization since the end of
World War II. This has been a result of the policies of the American
administration, which has respected traditional cultural emphases. At
the same time, current policies of directed cultural change in the area of
self-government have created a new political elite with its own power
structure. The two coexisting power structures are in competition with
each other.

THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP

Some of the avenues of access to positions of traditional leadership are
still open in Palau. In some cases traditional leadership has been vitiated
and is only nominal; in others it is functional and relatively effective.
Through the years of foreign domination there has been a consistent
tendency for the power of traditional leaders to be superseded or rescinded.
To some extent hereditary chiefs have become supernumeraries, but they
have continued to function as leaders, subject to the restrictions which
have been imposed upon them.

The principal factors which have governed this decline of traditional
Palauan leadership may be subsumed under several headings: religion,
economics, and political organization. In each of these aspects of native
culture the imposition of extra-cultural controls by alien governing ad-
ministrations stimulated the decline of traditional leadership.

In the following list, subsidiary factors are grouped under the aspect
of culture which they affected and a discussion of each follows. Factors 2
and 3 under no. HI are discussed in chapter V.

The outline is arranged, with minor exceptions, in general order of
occurrence from Spanish times through the present American adminis-
tration. All of the factors listed resulted in the usurpation of some chiefly
powers and/or the reduction, emasculation, or outright prohibition of
others.

STIMULI FOR CHANGE 77

I. Religion:

1. Missionary activity.

II. Economics:

1. Prohibition of channels whereby a chief could enhance and secure his
prestige through the acquisition of wealth.

(a) Prohibition of the levying of fines.

(b) Prohibition of institutionalized concubinage.

2. Prohibition of channels whereby a chief could enhance and secure his
prestige through the expenditure of wealth.

(a) Prohibition of feasts.

(b) Prohibition of collective house- or canoe-buying ceremonies.

3. Creation of new channels whereby a per.son of non-chiefly rank could
achieve economic success and concomitant prestige as a result.

4. Alienation of land.

III. Political Organization:

1 . Proscription of inter-village warfare.

2. Establishment of a group of administrative officials with actual political
power, and the development of a body of native administration employees.

3. Active introduction of concepts of representative government.

SOULS AND SALVATION

The Catholic mission begun by the Spanish priests and lay brothers of
the Capuchin Order in 1891 has been maintained to the present time.
Today it claims a greater membership than either the Protestant Lutheran
mission or the Se\^enth-Day Adventist mission. Through the years it has
provided numerous stimuli for change. The early Spanish missionaries
concentrated on discouraging native religious beliefs and practices and
thereby eradicated supernatural sanctions for power and leadership.
Protestant missionaries later followed the same course.

Through derision and edict the early missionaries obliterated the major
features of indigenous religion in Palau. A quotation from an account by
an early Spanish missionary demonstrates one technique which was em-
ployed in altering aboriginal beliefs and practices (de Valencia, 1891,
p. 21).

Any sickness is attributed to the chelid [gods] . If they [the natives] have a pain in
the side or stomach, or if a leg or an arm should swell, they believe a chelid has entered
their bodies and is tormenting them. When any one of these things happens they make
a little house and beg the chelid to move to the house and leave the patient in peace.
I once spoke to a woman who had a pain in her back and who was making a little house
for the chelid who was tormenting her. "Hurry up," I said, "and finish the house, but
if you do not make it beautiful, the chelid won't want to live in it." At another house,
they had made another of these little houses for a chelid who was tormenting a small
child. "But woman," I said in a joking manner, "how is it you think the chelid will
leave your son, if you have made such a poor house? Surely when it rains, he is going
to get wet in that house." With saying these things, I make their superstitions ridicu-
lous.

78 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

The missionaries also were able to alter indigenous custom by decree.
A case in point is their insistence that certain forms of sculpture be dis-
continued. Usually the forms objected to were architectural elements of
community structures such as men's clubhouses and canoe sheds. Objec-
tionable elements were ones whose sexual symbols left little to the imagi-
nation. An ethnographer who was describing a clubhouse in Koror village
commented (Matsumura, 1918, pp. 149-150):

On either gable ... a nude figure of a young woman with her legs wide apart is
carved. The upper half of the figure is gone, as the result, it is said, of the order of a
missionary stationed in Palau while it was a Spanish possession, to destroy the carving
as injurious to morals.

The German missionaries, the first of whom came to the Catholic mis-
sion in 1906, continued the practices begun by their Spanish predecessors.
The mission school was expanded during the German period and was
operated later by Spanish priests during the Japanese occupation.

The Protestant Lutheran mission was established by German mission-
aries around 1930. The philosophy of the mission was a stern one and
many strictures were imposed by a mission staff oriented essentially toward
fundamentalism. One of the effects of the boys' school begun by this
mission was that the work roles of males were altered. Boys were taught
agriculture and culinary arts such as baking. They were schooled in the
care of livestock as well. Traditionally, boys had little or nothing to do
with cooking, animal husbandry, or the cultivation of plants.

In addition to practical training, the students of the mission school
learned basic elementary school skills. Bible study emphasized that only
Christian beliefs held validity. Hence, aboriginal beliefs were shunned.

The Seventh-Day Adventist mission was begun in Japanese times and
has the shortest history of any of the three missions in Palau. It has, how-
ever, succeeded in proselyting a number of the members of the other
mission congregations in a relatively short span of years. The proscrip-
tions imposed by the Adventist missionaries are more stringent than those
of the other missions.

Wherever possible, missionaries attempted to convert chiefs and their
relatives, for in this way several victories could be won at once. As a
member of the respected elite, a chief was likely to be emulated by his
followers; thereby salvation was expanded. By convincing him that his
deities were inferior to a Christian God, some of his power resources were
cut off. Traditional sacerdotal functionaries were replaced by the mis-
sionaries. Palauan leaders who became converts were obliged to play
new roles as followers in a congregation.

Fig. 17. Sacred structures. Upper: The Lutheran mission church in Ngabei
village of Ngerechelong municipality. Lower : The last god-house (ulengang) remaining
in Palau. It is in Ngeiangl municipality.

80 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

PEACE AND PROSPERITY

The German policy of pacification and economic development had
far-reaching consequences in changing Palauan culture and in promoting
the decline of traditional leadership. In aboriginal Palau there were insti-
tutionalized means whereby a chief could secure personal wealth — a prime
requisite for leadership under the autochthonous system. When these
channels were cut off, indigenous leadership suffered a blow from which
it is still reeling. Because the exchange system in which personal wealth
figured was so well integrated into Palauan culture and because adminis-
trative dicta were so imperfectly enforced in some areas, the impact was
debilitating rather than cleanly decisive and final. As a result, it seems
highly probable that the features of Palauan culture which relate to per-
sonal afl3uence and which are supportive of traditional leadership will
continue in existence for some time; but it also seems probable that
through the passing of generations they will diminish in strength.

Warfare

Legislative fiat put an end to inter-village warfare in the early years of
the German administration. Warfare was simply interdicted. Punitive
fines in native currency were imposed on chiefs who conducted military
expeditions to enemy villages. Sometimes habitual offenders were con-
scripted into the native military garrison which was established by the
administration on the island of Yap.

When a leader could no longer claim distinction as a result of his mili-
tary prowess, his prestige and power declined. Furthermore, when it
became no longer possible for a chief to increase his personal wealth or
the general wealth of his village through the exacting of tribute from con-
quered villages, his position as a leader was weakened through the weaken-
ing of one of the principal "props" supportive of leadership status, namely,
the possession of wealth. This elimination of sources of income went
beyond tribute-taking at the village level and extended to the custom of
fining at the level of the individual.

Fines

One of the principal means by which a chief was able to secure per-
sonal wealth was by sharing in the income derived through fining individ-
uals who violated some aspect of native social custom. Fines were levied
for offenses such as violating periods of relative quiet in the village on the
occasion of the death of a high-ranking person. Depending upon the
social rank of the deceased and the village involved, the period of time
during which relative quiet was maintained varied from several days to

STIMULI FOR CHANGE 81

several months. During the stipulated period, boisterous behavior of any
kind — shouting, or even loud talking, chopping wood, or any other noisy
task — was forbidden. Those individuals held in violation of the restriction
were required to pay a fine to the village council.

In similar fashion any person who failed to demonstrate the proper
respect for chiefly rank and elder status ran the risk of being fined. Most
younger persons made the necessary behavioral concessions to their elders,
but if they were lax they were fined. Needless to say, the system of fining
was sometimes abused by chiefs who coveted a piece of native money
known to be in the possession of a particular individual. Close watch
would be kept over him. The slightest inappropriate behavior on his
part brought from the chiefs loud cries of righteous indignation and a fine.
The obvious injustices which the system of fining allowed were among the
reasons why the German administration took steps to discourage it.
Whatever the reasons behind the administration's policy, the effect was
detrimental to leadership status under the traditional system.

Institutionalized Concubinage

Another source of income for chiefs was the payment by members of
men's clubs in other villages for the services of "hostesses" supplied by
families from the chiefs' village. The custom of blolobl ("institutionalized
concubinage") was abolished on moral grounds by edict of the German
administration. Previously the Spanish fathers had made every attempt
to discourage the practice. The German administration's order effec-
tively accomplished what the priests had begun. The abolition of the
custom of blolobl effectively eliminated still another means by which a
Palauan leader increased his personal wealth and enhanced his personal
prestige.

Feasts

At the same time the channels by which leaders gained prestige through
the accumulation of wealth were being choked off, strictures were placed
on the means by which a leader could elevate himself prestigewise through
ostentatious expenditures of wealth. The practice of validating one's
social prestige through displays of personal wealth in the form of lavish
feasts is far from being an exclusively Oceanic phenomenon, but it is
typical of many Pacific cultures. Palauan custom allowed ample oppor-
tunity for such demonstrations of a leader's wealth.

The term for "feast" in the Palauan language is mur, and on any num-
ber of occasions a chief might sponsor a mur to commemorate some signifi-
cant event. He might do so — in fact was expected to do so — at the time
he assumed his title. He might also collaborate with several other chiefs

82 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

in sponsoring a feast to honor visitors from other villages or to celebrate
the building of a new community house or other village enterprise. One
of the most outstanding things a Palauan leader could do was to honor
his wife with a feast. Such a feast was called murengel a bechil ("feast of
his wife"). Few chiefs could afford even one such feast in their lifetimes.
The restrictions upon mur were instituted by the Germans, but feasts were
not effectively stopped until Japanese times.

New Sources of Income

The German administration created new channels whereby a person
not of chiefly rank could achieve economic success, and, as a result, per-
sonal wealth and the associated positive prestige values. The effects of
this creation were not felt in some instances for years, but the seeds had
been sewn and the impetus provided.

Germany was interested in the economic development of her island
empire. The tropical Pacific offered lucrative markets for the trade goods
manufactured in her factories at home. Moreover, she saw the possibility
of an extremely profitable foreign trade as a result of the exploitation of
island products, principally copra. On the one hand natives had to have
money to buy goods, and on the other, marketable products had to be
produced by native labor.

The Gestalt was perfect — pay native labor for products which could be
fed into the hopper of world trade, and at the same time create a market
composed of island peoples who have funds for the purchasing of trade
goods as a result of their labor. In each case the profits went to Germany.
The system was foolproof and it undoubtedly would have been further
developed had it not been for World War I and the assumption of political
control in Micronesia by the Japanese.

The German administration made it possible for Palauans (along with
other Micronesians) to earn money through the production of copra.
In many cases coconut plantations were developed on village land. A
person also was able to plant coconut trees on sib land whose usufruct
he had inherited. The leader of a sib conceivably might have usurped
most of the sib land for his own benefit, but two factors militated against
this possibility. One was that a chief ordinarily was supposed to bear the
welfare of his people in mind. To deny his followers access to the new
channels for income would have run counter to normative traditional
leadership behavior. Moreover, even if a chief had managed to claim
for his own use all or most of the sib land under his control, he was not,
as a chief, able to perform the necessary labor to initiate or maintain a
large coconut plantation. It is important to remember, too, that his

STIMULI FOR CHANGE 83

"subjects" were his sib-mates, all of whom, by virtue of their kinship with
him, he was obliged to assist.

When plantations were established on village land, any member of
the village could share in the making of copra and the resultant profits.
One result of the German administration's encouragement of copra pro-
duction was a disruption of the traditional patterns which controlled the
securing of personal wealth.

The Germans did not enjoy the same measure of success with the pro-
duction of copra in Palau that they achieved in the Marshall Islands,
where the government-sponsored Jaluit Company held a virtual monop-
oly on trading. Undoubtedly this was a result of German policy, which
was designed to keep operating costs low in Palau by granting concessions
to private trading companies. Most of the copra produced in Palau was
sold in Hong Kong through such companies (Mayo, 1954, p. 4). Had the
German development of a copra industry in Palau been comparable to
that in the Marshalls the detrimental effects on Palauan traditional lead-
ership doubtless would have been far greater.

Money

Another factor in the decline of traditional leadership was, of course,
the introduction of a medium of exchange which was in competition with
native currency. German marks were considered as coin of the realm,
and this currency made it possible for individuals to secure material goods
of foreign origin.

The use of both Japanese and American currency has followed under
their respective administrations. Recognition of the existence of native
currency and its use in native institutions has been maintained by all
foreign administrations in Palau. This recognition has been far from
tacit and each administration has assumed a different attitude toward it;
for example, the German administration capitalized on the indigenous
system of fining, and fined Palauan leaders in native currency for various
violations of administrative orders. The money was then used to purchase
land for government use and to reward co-operative leaders by payments
of native currency.

The Japanese administration actively attempted to discourage native
customs relating to money exchanges by curtailing or restricting certain
institutionalized exchange patterns; for example, customs surrounding
money exchanges made at the birth of a child (sengk, from the German
Geschenk: "gift"), house-buying {oheraol), prenatal divining ceremonies {bul
dil), and others — all were affected by Japanese strictures. If a custom was
not simply outlawed, it was curtailed by the setting of limits on the amount

84 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

of alien currency which might be exchanged on a given occasion; for ex-
ample, death payments {chelebechil) to a wife's family at the time of either
her husband's death or her own were restricted to 100 yen for commoners
and 200 yen for elites. No limits were set on amounts which could be
contributed at house- or canoe-buying ceremonies (oheraol), but the num-
ber of such ceremonies a man might initiate was limited. The restrictions
imposed by the Japanese were never wholly successful, and with the advent
of the American administration there was a renewed interest in money
exchange ceremonies.

Both native currency and American currency are used in exchange
transactions today. Palau District Order Number 2-48, dated May 6,
1948, issued by the American Naval Administration, pertains to legal
tender. In part it reads: "The use of any monies or currency other
than legal tender in payment, in offer of payment, in barter, or in ex-
change, except as provided below, is prohibited. . . . Existing customs
... of the indigenous social order will not be affected by this order."

Traditionally, quality goods were possessed almost exclusively by
members of the Palauan socio-political elite — high-ranking chiefs and
their families. In post-contact times a person of relatively humble
social status has been able to earn money and acquire sufficient buying
power to enable him to secure items previously possessed exclusively
by his social superiors, and this has tended to broaden the social range
of prestige values and reduce the prestige of traditional leaders. Native
bead currency is still valued, but so is the dollar.

Colonization and Alienation of Land

The Japanese colonial submersion of Palauan culture contributed
extensively to the decline of traditional leadership. Because of the nature
and duration of the contact situation, the effects were greater in many
instances than those previously provided by the Spanish and German
administrations.

Japanese policy advanced under the South Seas Government {Nanyo-
Cho) was clearly directed toward exploitation. Of paramount importance
to the administration was the development of natural resources so that
the expanding economy and population in Japan might be supplied
with needed raw materials. In order to stimulate and expedite this
development, the Japanese government made a concerted effort to en-
courage colonization by establishing a system of liberal subsidies. Espe-
cially desired as colonists were individuals with agricultural experience.
Transportation and shipping costs to the islands were reduced as much as
50 per cent in order to encourage colonists to come to the South Seas.

STIMULI FOR CHANGE 85

The Japanese conducted several land surveys in Palau and either
purchased or simply confiscated suitable agricultural land. When col-
onists arrived each received from the government five hectares (about
twelve acres) of arable land. In addition, certain areas were set aside
as potential agricultural land. These areas usually were overgrown
with vegetation and had to be cleared before they could be used for
agricultural purposes. A subsidy system allowed a colonist 50 yen for
each hectare of land he cleared, and he could secure an additional
subsidy — from 10 to 30 yen — for each hectare of this land which he
planted.

Colonists also received free housing until they had time to build a
house on their new land. Agricultural extension service, education for
children, medical care, police protection, and other services were pro-
vided free of charge. Colonists formed co-operative associations {kumiai)
to keep shipping and marketing costs minimal.

Commercial crops which colonists concentrated on growing were
coconuts, pineapples, cassava, cocoa, lemon grass, balsa wood, ramie,
and rice. Other commercial ventures included tuna-packing, phosphate-
and bauxite-mining, and service enterprises which were essential to the
maintenance of a large colonial population. Koror village became a
small city with the urban characteristics of cities in Japan. By 1938
there were more than 16,000 Japanese nationals living in Palau, and
the number increased during the war years with accelerated Japanese
military activity in Micronesia.

The native population of Palau was submerged. It became a min-
ority in its own homeland. The major share of the agricultural produce
grown in Palau by colonists was exported to Japan. For the most part,
profits went to Japanese farmers and entrepreneurs. Some Palauans
also were engaged in lucrative business pursuits, but mostly Palauans
provided labor for Japanese enterprises.

Cash wages paid for labor enabled many Palauans to purchase goods
which had never before been available to them. As has been mentioned
above, this expansion of personal wealth in the form of material possessions
and the general opportunity to amass personal monetary wealth con-
tributed greatly to a decline in the prestige of traditional Palauan leaders.

The great colonial development in Palau was dependent upon the
alienation of native lands. The resultant detrimental effects upon
Palauan leadership and leader prestige were extremely severe. A chief
might, for example, sell a portion of his sib's land to the Japanese govern-
ment or to a colonist. His control of the land eff"ectively stopped at the
time of the sale. The transaction was accomplished with Japanese

86 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

currency, which held values for the Palauan elite which were far different
from those relating to the native currency. Moreover, the proceeds from
such sales soon were expended in the purchase of goods from Japanese
storekeepers, and the Palauan chief was left bereft of both land and
money. Relative poverty was associated with low-ranking social position
in aboriginal Palau; hence, chiefs who suffered a diminution in wealth
suffered a comparable decline in prestige and power.

PHILOSOPHIES OF ADMINISTRATION

Each of the superordinate cultures which have been in contact with
Palauan culture possessed different philosophies of administration. These
differences were governed primarily by the individual goals sought by
each administration. The cultural changes brought about were for the most
part in direct ratio to the number of agents of contact and the amount of
displacement of native political power by the various administrations.

The Spanish administration exerted little or no control over native
political institutions. The business of salvation did not require the
complete destruction of the power of hereditary chiefs. Neither were
there many agents of contact under Spanish rule. Consequently there
were fewer new elements of culture which were available for borrowing
than under the other administrations.

German agents of contact interfered with Palauan culture far more
intensively than did the Spanish. In turn, the Japanese interference
with Palauan culture was even greater. Exclusive of the American
administration, there appears to have been a regular continuum of
amount of cultural change that occurred in Palau during the respective
administrations which correlates positively with the amount of active
cultural interference and the numerical size of the contact group. "Active
interference" here refers to systematic suppression or elimination of old
elements of aboriginal culture as well as the presentation or substitution
of new elements of superordinate culture. In some instances, such as
with the Spanish missionaries, something new was offered for what
was being suppressed. It was considered a superior equivalent by the
donors. But sometimes expediency was the motive involved rather than
superior equivalence; for example, during the Japanese period the power
of the hereditary chiefs was suppressed and in its stead was substituted
a system of power whose locus was in the agents of control.

Alternatives to interdictions in the form of newly presented or sub-
stituted elements from the superordinate culture were not always offered.
Cases in point are the German proscriptions on inter-village warfare
and institutionalized concubinage.

STIMULI FOR CHANGE 87

The only organized opposition to cultural change in Palau has been
the nativistic Modekngei religion (Useem, 1947b, p. 6). The movement
had its inception and heyday during the Japanese rule. The Japanese
administration saw the Modekngei as a threat and endeavored to suppress
it. Leaders were jailed and meeting places were razed. There is no
indication that the organization was ever very effective in resisting changes
instituted by the Japanese.

In general, the history of contact in Palau has been one in which
Palauans have been tractable rather than intractable — co-operative, re-
ceptive and submissive rather than contra-acculturative or resistant to
change in any organized or militant sense.

The various foreign administrations which have governed Palau have
possessed quite different philosophies of administration. The general
cultural changes and the specific effects upon Palauan leadership which
have resulted from the policies and practices of each foreign administration
are quite disparate. At the same time, each has contributed to the tran-
sition of Palauan culture from its pre-contact configuration to its present
conglomerate one and to the consistent decline of power among tra-
ditional leaders. In the area of political organization each adminis-
tration, of course, has assumed ultimate political authority. Through
the years each administration also has placed an increasing emphasis
upon political change.

V. The Nature of Emergent Leadership:
The Product of Cultural Change

As it is defined in this study, emergent leadership is the variety of
leadership which possesses sanctions, modes of expression, and related
values which are non-traditional and are inspired by a technologically
advanced culture or cultures as a result of culture contact. The nature
of emergent leadership is frequently at v^ariance with that of traditional
leadership, but it may correspond in some ways. In fact, emergent lead-
ership will probably always be tempered by patterns of traditional leader-
ship. To the extent that it is, it will lack correspondence to leadership
patterning in the culture from which the stimuli for emergent leader-
ship patterns are derived.

Patterns of traditional Palauan leadership have suffered considerable
alteration under the impact of culture contact. Old power resources hav^e
been cut off. Sanctions which once bulwarked indigenous leaders
have been weakened or have disappeared entirely, and new leaders have
arisen under the aegis of alien administrations and new power sources
and sanctions have developed which either have replaced the old or
exist simultaneously in competition with them.

The effects of the policies and practices of the various alien ad-
ministrations with respect to indigenous patterns of Palauan leadership
have been extremely far-reaching. A number of significant strictures on
traditional leadership which have occurred under the several foreign
administrations have been noted earlier in this study. Two other im-
portant features of administrative policy should be mentioned. One
of these transcends the various periods of administrative responsil:)ility.
It is the existence in each administration (excepting the Spanish) of a
group of resident alien administrative officials who possessed ultimate
political power and who relied upon a group of native administrative
assistants in the exercise of this power. These two groups — the corps
of alien administrators and the group of native aides — with each successive
administration, from German times onward, have claimed a greater share
of the authority of traditional Palauan leaders.

THE NATURE OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP 89

The other poUcy feature which is yet to be discussed, i.e., the active
introduction of concepts of representative government, is particularly
important for several reasons. For one thing, it represents the latest,
and in many ways the most intensive, intervention with native Palauan
political structure and leadership which has yet occurred. For another,
it is representative of the policies of governing powers which administer
non-self-governing territories today not only in Oceania but in many
other so-called underdeveloped areas of the world. For this reason, the
significance of this feature of administrative policy reaches far beyond the
bounds of Palauan culture.

PROBLEMS AND PANACEAS

The representatives of foreign administrations have provided models
for cultural change and have also actively introduced stimuli for change
in Palau. In each administration the models and stimuli provided have
been .different, both in kind and degree. At the same time, in all the
administrations there have been certain basic similarities that have re-
sulted from the fact that there are some universal problems which must
be solved by any administrator. There are also some universal means
of solving these problems, regardless of the administrative context. Be-
cause this is so, some remarks of general significance follow. Examples
from the history of administration in Palau are included to demonstrate
the universals and to point up the implications for the development of
emergent leadership within a specific context.

ADMINISTRATORS AND ASSISTANTS

The Administrator
The administrator who is confronted with the multifarious problems
of governing a native population must face two basic facts. One is that
he is expected, as a representative of his government, to exercise ultimate
authority. The other is that he must answer to his superiors in his own
country, rather than to the native population. His task is to accomplish
the ends dictated by his government. Native ends must be subsumed.
In order to expedite his country's programs he must come to grips with
the problem of the means he should employ to do so most expeditiously.
The burden of adaptation must be borne by the native population,
not by the administering power.

The administrator's choice is limited to two main approaches, and
his choice will probably be dictated by the nation he represents. Ad-
ministrative rule may be dichotomized into either direct or indirect

90 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU I

types. To the extent that rule is direct, the poUcies of the administration
probably will be relatively more peremptory or authoritarian and the
traumata experienced by the subordinate culture, especially in terms
of its political organization, will probably be greater than if indirect
rule were employed. Indirect rule allows — even requires — the main- |
tenance of the indigenous political structure to some extent, since it
must be depended upon to carry out administration policies.

The Assistants

Whether an administrator embarks upon a program of direct or
indirect rule he will, of necessity, have to rely upon a staff composed of
members of the native population. Among other persons, he will require
guides, translators, advisors, and other assistants to aid in the burden of
administrative paper work and detail. To the extent that the administer-
ing nation undertakes a program of responsible administration which is
devoted in some degree to native welfare, the administrator will find it
necessary to rely on native assistance in the provision of a constabulary ■
force, a court system, medical care, education, and so on. ~

The individuals who comprise this force of intermediaries will assume
roles which are external to the traditional culture. By virtue of their ■
association with a dominant foreign power they may share in the prestige
and power which often are accorded representatives of the administering
authority. The extent that they do will, of course, depend upon the
degree to which the subordinate society has conceded positive prestige
and power to the foreign administration.

In Palau the corps of nativ^e employees of the present American
administration enjoys enhanced status as a result of positive values which
are directed toward Americans in general. As a rule, the status of each
individual employee is a function of the position he holds in the hierarchy
of native employees; for example, a district judge or advisor to the
administration usually enjoys greater prestige in the eyes of his cultural
peers than a clerk-typist in the department of public works. Exceptions
to the rule exist, depending upon the extent to which an employee's
status-position allows him to wield influence with the administration
and the attitudes of his cultural peers toward this influence.

Government employees often enjoy heightened prestige as a result
of their association with the alien administrative staff, and under some
conditions they may even hold considerable power as a result of their
positions. Many times individuals may use this power to secure personal
advantage. Sometimes it is not even required that they actively seek to
exercise power. The very fact that they are known to be in a position
to exercise it may be sufllicient to assure them personal gain. If a native

THE NATURE OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP 91

assistant to the American Land and Claims officer, by simply not bringing
a particular point to the attention of his superior in a given claim, is at
base responsible for the awarding of the claim because of his silence,
the claimant may be disposed to reward him privately. Likewise, the
assistant may influence a decision on the part of the administration official
he assists by positive action of one kind or another.

Favor is often curried with native employees of the foreign admin-
istration because their influence potential is widely recognized. There
are three basic variables which relate to the amount of power a given
employee may possess: (1) the nature of the position held by the employee;
(2) the nature of the specific situations arising in the subordinate culture
which relate to the position held by the employee; and (3) the specific
personality configuration and motivation of the employee.

SPECIALISTS

Native government employees are not the only ones who share in
new distributions of power and prestige within a culture under foreign
administration. Also included are the categories of individuals whose
statuses derive from the enactment of some administration policy such
as the encouragement of programs of education, medical care, public
safety, or indigenous fiscal responsibility. The school teacher, the medical
practitioner or the nurse, the policeman, or the tax collector are not,
strictly speaking, employees of the administration. However, their posi-
tions exist, along with the individual statuses connected with them,
as a direct result of general administrative policies.

To the extent that the prestige and power of traditional leadership
are transferred to or simply eclipsed by the new status-positions, the
policies of the administering authority are responsible. Competition
between the holders of traditional power and prestige and the holders
of emergent power and prestige, and the conflicts which inevitably
result, are typical of acculturating groups throughout today's world. The
specific nature of this competition and conflict in Palau is discussed in
chapter VI.

EMERGENT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND
POLITICAL CHANGE

As has been noted earlier, traditional political leadership in Palau
suffered a steadily increasing enervation at the hands of foreign ad-
ministrators. Even greater changes are now occurring in indigenous
political organization and leadership as a result of the program of self-
government being advanced by the American administration.

92 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Trusteeship and Directed Political Change
The great world-wide surge of dependent peoples toward independ-
ence, which has occurred particularly since the end of World War II,
has the sanctions of the United Nations Charter behind it. The portion
of the charter which deals with trusteeship reads as follows:

DECLARATION REGARDING NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIES

Article 73. Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities
for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure
of self-government recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these
territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the
utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present
Charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories, and, to this end :

a. to ensure, with due respect for the culture of the peoples concerned, their politi-
cal, economic, social, and educational advancement, their just treatment, and
their protection against abuses;

b. to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of
the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free
political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each terri-
tory and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement; ....

As a part of the former Japanese-mandated territory in Micronesia,
the Palau Islands fall under one of the categories of territories to which
the trusteeship system applies.

Article 77. 1. The trusteeship system shall apply to such territories in the follow-
ing categories as may be placed thereunder by means of trusteeship agreements :

b. territories which may be detached from enemy states as a result of the Second
World War. . . .

American Administrative Rule

The cultures of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands have not
responded collectively or individually to internal pressures for nationalism
and independence similar to those that have reached a fever pitch in parts
of Africa, southeast Asia, and Indonesia following World War II. Pres-
sures which might have promoted vigorous militant movements toward
independence simply have not been present in Micronesia.

Because of the differences between the Japanese administration and
the United States Military Government and Civil Administration Units
of the United States Navy (which assumed administrative responsibility
immediately following cessation of hostilities and continued in operation
for several years thereafter), native populations were favorably disposed

THE NATURE OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP 93

toward the new agents of political control. Micronesians were con-
vinced that they had been liberated from Japanese domination. A
factor which contributed to their favorable attitude was the readily
appreciated improvement in their welfare which was brought about
by what seemed to them an unprecedented "give away" program.

The days following World War II in the Pacific were ones in which
the United States Navy administered to the needs of war-torn island
populations with great facility. The Navy was well conditioned to
patterns of expendibility which were associated with material goods
in island assault phases of combat. It had at its disposal vast stores of
military equipment and supplies, including food, clothing, and medicines.

A medical team would be established on an atoll to eradicate yaws.
A demolished native village would be re-established, using quonset huts
and other "surplus" materials. A hungry population, whose sub-
sistence economy had been upset by the chaos of modern warfare, would
be supplied with military rations until it could repair its taro patches
and re-establish its means of securing sustenance. In these, and in
countless other ways, the Navy Military Government administration
improved the welfare of Micronesian cultures. Such a context was
far from one which would have produced militant nationalism. More-
over, natives soon became aware of the fact that the American admin-
istration had no plans for exploiting the islands either in terms of re-
sources or man power.

Benevolence on the part of an administration does not always lead
to docile acceptance of its policies (Kennedy, 1944). However, the
widespread unrest and political agitation for freedom which plagued
many administrations during the postwar years did not develop in Mi-
cronesia under the United States Navy administration. The islanders'
previous experiences with less benevolent administrations and the rel-
atively short duration of the Navy administration, as well as its stated
policies, which were favorable from the standpoint of the dependent
populations in Micronesia, contributed to relatively smooth relations.

As early as 1947 the Navy administration began a program designed
to carry out its obligations to encourage self-government in non-self-
governing territories in accordance with the principles set forth in the
sections of the United Nations Charter which relate to trusteeship. A
first step was the establishment of municipal government.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

In 1948 political entities termed municipalities were established
throughout the Trust Territory. These entities were designed to corres-

94 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

pond as nearly as possible to indigenous political units. The relationship
of municipal government to the Trust Territory is shown in figure 18.

The basic unit of government in Palau, as with the Trust Territory
in general, is the municipality. It is the only indigenous governmental
agency invested with local political authority. The relationship of local
representative government to the Palau District administration is illus-
trated (fig. 20). Both the territorial and the population size of the
fourteen municipalities of Palau are variable.

The concept of a magistrate for each municipality accompanied the
introduction of the municipality system. As the term is employed in
the Trust Territory, a magistrate is an elected senior municipal official
who provides liaison between his municipality and the district adminis-
tration.

The magistrate is the chief executive of the municipality. He is
assisted by a clerk and a municipal council which he appoints. Fre-
quently he also relies upon advisors who are not council members but
who are respected and knowledgeable residents of the municipality.

The magistrate is elected by popular vote for a term of one year, i
He must be at least twenty-six years of age and a resident of the munici-
pality he represents. His salary is paid from local tax revenues.

The magistrate is charged with a number of responsibilities and
duties. According to a guide for magistrates, prepared by the Native
Aff"airs Office of the Palau District in July of 1955, they must assume
these responsibilities and duties:

1 . Collect taxes and inform the court of all cases of delinquent taxes.

2. Pay the wages of municipal employees such as teachers and clerks.

3. Supervise the municipal budget.

4. Maintain public facilities and property (roads, piers, buildings, etc.).

5. Supervise the school.

6. Serve as a member of congress.

7. Maintain all municipal records and report to the administration all vital sta-
tistics (births, deaths, divorces, changes of residence, etc.).

8. Appoint a municipal council.

9. See that the laws of the municipality and the Trust Territory are abided by
and seek the advice of the municipal council and other advisors concerning
questions of law and law enforcement.

10. Forward each month to the district administration a financial statement of
municipal expenditures.

1 1 . Maintain regulations pertaining to sanitation and public health.

1 2. Oversee local elections and prepare rosters of voters.

13. Care for Trust Territory property.

14. Establish tax rates in consultation with the municipal council.

15. Issue business, vehicle, and other licenses.

16. Maintain the cemetery.

zz </>

° *

(/)

, <

o -*

Z liJ

o or

E **

1—

<
a a:

[Z o

(/)

liJ

III

2
o

iij

(/^

o
o

Fig. 19. Local officials in Mengellang village of Ngerechelong municipality.
Upper: Ngiraibiochel, the magistrate, at his desk. Lower: Former magistrate, Sal-
bador, explains the organization of municipal government to the municipal council.

2
<

98 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Numerous stimuli for cultural change have been provided by the
institution of the magistrate system. Power and authority have been
vested in an office which previously did not exist. The duties and
responsibilities a magistrate is obligated to fulfill require the exercise
of this power and authority. The administration conceives of the magis-
trate as a leader of his municipality in the sense that his duties and re-
sponsibilities are those connected with new features of native culture
such as taxation, sanitation, education, and law enforcement.

Chiefs, on the other hand, are supposed to serve as leaders in their
municipalities in matters involving traditional features of Palauan cul-
ture. In theory their duties and responsibilities are geared to traditional
patterns, but in fact their roles are very loosely defined. The functional
operation of self-government as it has been introduced by the American
administration does not depend upon the exercise of authority and
power by hereditary chiefs. It does depend on the exercise of authority
and power by magistrates. Lev^els of authority and power in Palau
are shown graphically (fig. 21).

Municipal Ch.^rters

The introduction of concepts of local representative government and
the attendant recruitment of native leadership to implement this intro-
duction has proceeded at a faster rate in Palau than in any other part of
the Trust Territory. Because of the recognition on the part of the Trust
Territory administration that the people of the Palau District were
more nearly ready for self-government than those of other districts, a
program designed to grant greater municipal autonomy was initiated
in 1956. This action was partially conditioned also by the insistence
of the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations, which urged more
immediate progress toward self-government in the Trust Territory.

Following the report to the Council by the United Nations \^isiting
Mission, which toured the Trust Territory in February and March of
1956, the Council reaffirmed its interest in the granting of municipal
charters (United Nations Review, 1956, p. 51). As a result of the admin-
istration's recognition of readiness and the Trusteeship Council's en-
couragement, a charter for Trust Territory municipalities was developed
and brought into operation.

The charter clarifies the relative positions of municipal officials and
councils, both with respect to each other and with respect to the district
government. The charter is sufficiently general to allow native leaders
the opportunity to exercise their own initiative in the development
of local government and thereby it enables municipalities to achieve
even greater autonomy. Under the impetus of developing municipal

THE NATURE OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP

government, more and more new leaders are finding strengthened sanc-
tions for political power, while traditional leaders are increasingly less
able to rely on the power sanctions that were effective in former times.

DISTRICT JUDGES

UNITED NATIONS
ORGANIZATION

TRUSTEESHIP
COUNCIL

UNITED STATES GOVT
( CONGRESS)

DERftRTMENT
OF INTERIOR

TRUST TERRITORY
HEADQUARTERS

PALAU DISTRICT
ADMINISTRATION

IMJMCIPAL
GOVERNMENT

MUNICIPAL JUDGES

PALAU COUNCIL

PARAMOUNT
HEREDITARY CHIEFS

PALAU CONGWSS

HEREDITARY

MUNICIPALITY

CHIEFS

MUNICIPAL COUNCILS

Fig. 21. Diagram showing levels of authority and power in Palau. Solid lines
indicate the formal channels of authority and power; dotted lines indicate the informal
channels.

CONTEMPORARY AGENCIES OF POLITICAL POWER

The newly introduced agencies of political power are three in number.
At the local level the recognized formal agency of power is the municipal
council, the members of which are appointed by the magistrate. In
most cases, some hereditary chiefs are included in the council. Council
membership changes to some extent as newly elected magistrates make
new appointments. The municipal council serves the magistrate as an
advisory body. Ordinarily, meetings are held monthly.

100 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

At the pan-Palau level there are two formal agencies of political
power. One is the Palau Council (Tebechelel Olhil) and the other is the
Palau Congress (Olbil era Kelulau).

The Palau Council

The Palau Council is an advisory body composed of approximately
twenty individuals, some of whom are also members of the congress.
The members of the council are appointed by the President of the Congress
and the District Administrator. Council members are prestigeful persons
whose opinions and advice are generally respected. I

The principal functions of the Palau Council are to assist the President
of the Congress in his duties and to serve as an advisory liaison between
the administration and the people of Palau. Council meetings are held
monthly or more often when necessary. Though it possesses no powers
of legislation, the council does facilitate legislation by formulating resolu
tions for consideration by the congress.

The Congress

The Palau Congress was inaugurated on July 4, 1947. It was estab-
lished under the authority of the Military Government of the United
States and was to act in an advisory capacity to the District Adminis-
trator. On July 18, 1947, the United States Congress ratified the Trustee-
ship Agreement between the United States and the United Nations
Security Council to promote the development of the inhabitants of the
Trust Territory toward self-government. The first regular session of
the Palau Congress was held during the same month.

The congress is a unicameral legislative body, which was granted
a charter by the High Commissioner of the Trust Territory in January,
1955. The charter, which granted legislative power, was the first of
its kind to be issued within the Trust Territory (see Appendix IV).

In addition to elected congressmen, the congress is composed of
magistrates, senior hereditary chiefs from each municipality, and the
two high chiefs of Palau. Magistrates and chiefs are non-voting members,
but they participate in discussions and are members of special congres-
sional committees which formulate resolutions, prepare budgets, and
supervise activities.

Congressmen are elected from each municipality in the ratio of
one congressman for up to 199 population, two congressmen for 200
to 499 population, three congressmen for 500 population and above.

To be elected congressman a person must be twenty-six years of age \
and be a legal resident of the municipality he is to represent. Rules for
the election of congressmen are contained in Appendix IV in Article I

THE NATURE OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP 101

of District Order 1-49 and in the congress charter which supersedes the
order. The term of office is two years.

Each year the congress elects its presiding officer, or president, from
its membership. The duties of the President of the Congress are set
forth in Appendix IV in Article II of District Order 1-49. The body
meets in regular session twice annually for a period of one week per
session. The congress is empowered to formulate and transmit to the
High Commissioner resolutions which it has passed by a two-thirds
majority. Resolutions are formulated under the guidance of the District
Administrator and his staff. Unless the High Commissioner disapproves
a resolution within 180 days of its transmittal, it becomes law.

New leadership positions in political affairs — some of them law-
making— are being filled by individuals who conform to the requirements
of the program of directed change which is being advanced by the
present administration. In general, traditional leaders fill few elective
offices. There is, however, a tendency for members of high-ranking
families to assume some positions of political leadership under the new
system. In 1956, for example, two municipalities elected hereditary
chiefs to office as magistrates. Individuals who possess high hereditary
statuses sometimes also serve as congressmen or are members of the
Palau Council or municipal councils.

NON-POLITICAL EMERGENT LEADERSHIP

New leaders also are dev'eloping in areas of Palauan culture which
are not related to political affairs. The major areas involved are those
of religion, economic endeavor, and professional activities.

Religious Leaders

The mission congregations in Palau are variable in size and in some
cases militantly chauvinistic in their convictions and behavior. Each
of the three missions has encouraged capable individuals to undertake
responsibility in carrying on mission activities; for example, the Catholic
mission to some extent relies upon lay catechists to assist the priests in
carrying the gospel to outlying municipalities. Especially promising
young people are sent to parochial schools outside Palau, and thus
a small corps of trained persons is being developed. Several Palauan
girls recently have completed advanced training in the LInited States
and have returned to Palau as nuns. They teach in a new mission-
operated elementary school. There are now hopes among the mission
staff that one or two of their more promising male high school graduates
will enter the priesthood.

102 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

The Lutheran and Se\'enth-Day Adventist missions also depend upon
native members of their congregations to provide leadership. Each
has sent young people to school outside Palau and has integrated them
into its mission staff upon the completion of their studies. Because the
missions compete with each other for members, skilled Palauans are
pressed into service as teachers and lay ministers. In these capacities
they emerge as new leaders.

Economic Leaders

The traditional Palauan values which were placed on money and
the elaborate exchange system are to a high degree congruent with the
emphases of free enterprise current in the Western world. For this
reason it is not surprising that the models provided by foreign admin-
istrations (particularly the Japanese) have been emulated by Palauans.

Many Palauans today aspire to own a store. Outlying municipalities
have few stores, but in Koror village so many "stores" were being opened
in private homes that in 1955, in order to control excessive retail market-
ing, the administration required a storekeeper to maintain a certain
minimum inventory. Some incipient stores closed as a result of the
fact that entrepreneurs had insufficient capital to maintain a minimum
inventory.

A few Palauans in Koror village have developed very successful
businesses and enjoy considerable income as a result. Businesses include
wholesale and retail stores, restaurants, barber and beauty shops, bakeries,
sawmills, cabinet and handicraft shops, and small fishing enterprises.
Numerous surplus Navy jeeps supply the vehicles for a number of one-
man taxi companies which compete for fares along the streets in the
administrative center.

Successful businessmen whose wealth is common knowledge enjoy
high prestige. Many are looked to for leadership in areas other than
economic enterprise; for example, the most successful storekeepers in
several villages have been elected magistrates in their municipalities.
A number have been re-elected to office for several successive terms
in spite of their publicly stated wish to refrain from accepting responsi-
bilities of public office. The old values concerning the positive correlation
between the possession of wealth and relatively high prestige and social
status hav^e contributed to the esteem in which many successful business-
men are held.

Professional Leaders
Teachers, judges, nurses, medical practitioners, and dental technicians
supply some of the new leadership in Palau. They have become models

Fig. 22. l.irurgent specialist leaders in medicine. Upper: Maria Kawai, a nurse
at Koror hospital. Lower: Tomomi of Mengellang village has her tonsils inspected by
a visiting male nurse.

103

104 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU I

to emulate. In many cases they have traveled to other islands to pursue
their training and have later returned home to share in the general
positive prestige values which are associated with the life of the Western
world.

The roles professionally employed Palauans play are ones which
demand that they lead. A teacher must exercise authority in his class-
room. He scolds, cajoles, even threatens, in order to secure attention
and to communicate his thoughts to his audience. His followers are |
primarily his pupils, but he has leadership roles outside the classroom
as well. Teachers are frequently members of municipal councils. Some
become interested in politics and become leaders in a more formal sense
by representing their communities as congressmen or magistrates. j

The formal role of the medically trained individual requires the
exercise of some authority. A venerable hereditary chief who is ill
must accept the directions of the young, medically trained person who
treats him. As with new political leaders, the sanctions for the authority
of medical personnel are non-traditional.

Legal and judicial personnel in Palau may also be considered leaders
in the professional sense. The four district judges and the public defender
are appointed by the administration. A clerk of the court is employed to y,
assist the judges and to keep court and other records. One district judge
is a full-time employee; the other three (each of whom is a titled chief
in the Koror village klobak) are part-time employees, who sit only during
specific cases on a rotating basis. Municipal judges are appointed in
each municipality. They rule on local disputes. Their decisions are
subject to review by the district judges and, of course, by the adminis-
tration.

Rulings by district judges are, in turn, subject to review by the Amer-
ican Chief Justice or the Associate Justice of the Trust Territory. Ultimate
authority is, once again, claimed by the superordinate power; but, despite
this fact, native judges have considerable autonomy. Their decisions
may be appealed, but most of them are not. Native judicial authority
is generally accepted by Palauans. In terms of the relative amount of
authority which may be exercised, judicial authority is much less cir-
cumscribed than either legislative or executive authority. Executive
authority is the most circumscribed of the three.

Fig. 23. Emergent specialist leaders in education. Upper: Tarkong teaches a
history class in the Koror elementary school. Lower: Oikang, Principal of the Ngere-
chelong elementary school, helps the magistrate select handicraft to be sold at the
annual fair in Koror.

105

106 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Other Contemporary Leaders

There are other individuals who occupy statuses which enable them
to exercise authority. Among these are members of the constabulary
force and government employees whose job description rates them
above other employees in the same department of the administration.

The constabulary is headed by a sheriff who is the senior-ranking
member of the force, which includes sergeants, corporals, and other
recognized grades. Authority varies with rank.

Government employees are hired under a program patterned after
the United States Civil Service. Each employee has a rating, and
naturally some are higher than others; for example, a native foreman
in the public works garage will have a higher rating than a mechanic.
With his higher rating there are accompanying sanctions which not only
allow, but demand, that he exercise authority over those under him.
Individual case histories reveal the dysfunctions which resulted when
individuals of relatively low family-status were elevated to supervisory
positions over employees who were members of relatively high-ranking
families.

The leadership of social groups tends to be drawn from families
which would have supplied it in pre-contact times. The age-grade
societies which have been described earlier usually are headed by persons
of high family-status. Other social groups are relatively limited in num-
ber. A "leadership" club for young people was established as a part
of the South Pacific Commission's S-12 community center project in
Palau, but it was short-lived. About the same time, a 20-30 Club was
begun with serious political purposes in mind. Through the past several
years, however, the organization has developed into more of a social
club than one dedicated to purposive action. It meets in Koror munici-
pality and even though its membership is made up primarily of pro-
fessional individuals and other young government employees who may
be called emergent leaders, the club does not function as a potent power
entity.

Emergent leaders in Palau are, on the whole, relatively young persons
who possess certain skills. Most often they are literate, bilingual, and
trained or experienced in some specialty. The statuses they occupy
demand role behavior which is different in kind from the role behavior
formerly demanded of traditional leaders. Even with this difference
in kind, the exercise of authority and power necessary to emergent
leadership role behavior is at times in direct conflict with the exercise
of authority and power by traditional leaders. The policies of the
American administration are responsible; for example, the logical sep-

THE NATURE OF EMERGENT LEADERSHIP 107

aration of chiefly responsibility from the administrative responsibility
of the magistrate does not always work out in practice. There is duplica-
tion of authority systems.

Because sanctions are strongest on the side of emergent leadership,
the scales balance in its favor and traditional leadership is relegated to
an increasingly circumscribed sphere of influence in deciding policy
and in the exercise of authority in general. The imbalance in the dual
system of authority and power which exists today gives every indication
of continuing in favor of emergent leaders.

VL Coexistence and Conflict:
Dysfunctional Accompaniments of Cultural Change

THE COMPOSITE CONTEMPORARY SCENE

The cultural milieu which exists in contemporary Palau has resulted
from almost a century of relatively intensive contact between Palauans
and the representatives of foreign administrations. The product of this
history of contact is a mosaic of elements which have blended over an
underlying aboriginal foundation. Portions of the foundation are eroding
away while other parts are fusing with the overlay.

Leadership in contemporary Palauan society fits this analogy very
well. Traditional leadership stems from the aboriginal foundation while
emergent leadership has its source in the overlay provided by culture
contact and cultural change. The coexistence of two groups of leaders
has resulted in duplication of authority in some cases and widespread
uncertainty among leaders and followers alike as to the proper locus of
power and source of authority.

COEXISTING SANCTIONS OF POWER

Conflicting and mutually exclusive power sanctions furnish one of
the most significant of present-day problems for Palauan leadership.
The institution of the magistrate system, the initiation of municipal
councils, and the establishment of the pan-Palau agencies of power
have resulted in a duplication of political authority. The klobak, though
weakened through years of foreign domination, still enjoy considerable
prestige. Their power in former times rested on supernatural sanctions
as well as those of kinship. Moreover, prior to German times, when
some of their major functions were abolished, the men's age-grade
societies provided an organ of social control which was employed both
in threat and in deed to enforce the councils' dicta. Age-grade societies
still exist, but they no longer function as eff"ective agencies of social
control. By and large, supernatural sanctions have disintegrated while
those relating to kinship have been retained to some extent.

Without the sanctions formerly integrated into Palauan society and
with the existence of externally imposed sanctions favorable to the new

108

COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT 109

agencies of political control, the klobak are diminishing in power. This
is especially true in the parts of Palau which have been in more intimate
contact with the foreign administrations. It is noteworthy, however,
that in the more remote areas — in part due to a laissez faire philosophy
on the part of the present administration with respect to the activities
of the klobak — they have retained, and even strengthened, much of their
old power. Consequently, conflict between traditional agencies of power
and more recent administration-sponsored ones is more acute in such
areas.

We need not, however, look for examples demonstrative of acute
conflict of this nature only in the more remote parts of Palau. In Koror
village, where contact has been most intensive and continues to be so,
one also finds dysfunctional effects of coexisting power sanctions. The
following example is a case in point.

The Palauan constabulary force is recruited in Palau and is the
only body which is designated to enforce the laws of the Trust Territory
in the Palau District. In addition to the statutes included in the Legal
Code of the Trust Territory, there are district orders and municipal
ordinances which are in need of enforcement.

At times law enforcement is impeded because of traditional sanctions
which relate to behavior toward persons of high social status. These
sanctions tend to override newly introduced sanctions for the exercise
of authority; for example, in 1955, with the old mechanisms of social
control inoperative and after a particularly flagrant outburst of juvenile
crime, Palauan leaders in Koror municipality instituted a curfew. All
youths under eighteen years of age were required to be off the streets
by 10 P.M. The curfew was only partially successful, because some
violators received deferential treatment as a result of their high family-
statuses.

Under traditional Palauan custom persons of low family-status were
unauthorized to restrain or otherwise interfere with the behavior of
persons of high family-status. Because indigenous sanctions which relate
to kinship and social position are still strong, the policeman who is of
low-ranking family-status and serves as an agent of the American admin-
istration is rendered powerless in some cases. To the policeman, who
is a participant in the scheme of social organization extant in Palau, the
risk of reprimand from an American administrative official is the lesser
evil when compared with negative sanctions which might be brought
to bear by members of high families if he were to exercise his authority
in a case involving his social superior.

110

CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Fig. 24.\. The congress; a young leader speaks.

The policeman is realistic. In most cases the administration will
never learn of his lenience or laxity of performance in line of duty. But
even if the incident comes to light, chances are that the situation will
be less difficult for him to cope with than would have been the case had
he exercised his constabulary powers of authority without reserve. The
American who supervises him will soon be gone from Palau and will be
replaced by another who will have little awareness of the system and prob-
ably no specific knowledge of the incident, whereas the policeman's future
in Palau is one in which he must deal for the remainder of his life with
other members of a culture whose sanctions he has either recognized or
ignored.

From this example w^e may conclude that when traditional sanctions
relating to the exercise of authority by agents of power are sufficiently
strong and are at the same time in conflict with the sanctions which
govern the behavior of agents of power under the emergent system,
then the exercise of authority by these agents will not be wholly effective
and may be productive of dysfunctions. There also seems to be a positive
correlation between the nature and relative strength of sanctions sup-
portive of agents and agencies of power and the relative amount of
power which may be exercised by them. In the example just cited,
the supporting sanctions of authority under the emergent system ob-

COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT

111

Fig. 24B. The congress; the old chiefs listen.

viously were insufficiently strong to allow the exercise of optimum
authority by the policeman. The traditional sanctions were stronger
and they tended to negate the new sanctions of power.

One of the problems faced by emergent leaders is that they are
unable to assess the strength of the sanctions which support their be-
havior. This inability results in insecurity on the part of the agent
of power. In general, behavior which is supported by sanctions whose
strength can not be assessed readily is vacillating, inconclusive, and,
therefore, ineffective.

COEXISTING AND RIVAL AGENCIES
OF POLITICAL POWER

Traditionally the Palauan political elite was composed of hereditary
chiefs whose claim to leadership was based on kinship. Well-delineated
kin group hierarchies and individual age were the foundations of social
rank. Social prestige and political power were positively correlated.
Because kinship was formerly so intricately associated with political leader-
ship, social organization and political organization were inextricably
interrelated. Today new criteria for leadership are juxtaposed with the
old. Emergent leaders who transcend the kinship system in the assump-
tion of positions of political power constitute a threat to the klobak. As

112 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

a result, there is friction between the traditional concepts of social and
political power and new ideas of local government through elected
representatives.

Considerable functional distress has occurred in Palau as a result
of departures from tradition which enable youthful persons and in-
dividuals of relatively low-status kin affiliation to assume positions of
authority and power. Such individuals have not had occasion either
through benefit of inheritance or through a lifetime of shrewd manipula-
tion of native currency to amass the bulwark of personal wealth which
in former times was a prime qualification for leadership.

While there is a strong tendency for individuals who possess memljer-
ship in prestigeful kin groups and who are elected to public office to
operate with considerably greater efficacy than those with less prestigeful
affiliations, social prestige is no longer necessarily positively correlated
with the possession of political power. Since the old system of leadership
along hereditary lines exists contemporaneously with the new system and
is supported by sanctions of its own, conflicts are inevitable. ■

If we were to generalize from the evidence of this study as to the
effects of duplicating systems of authority on the behavior of the leaders
involved, we might phrase our generalizations in this way: If traditional
sanctions of authority are sufficiently strong, and are, at the same time,
in conflict with newly introduced sanctions of authority, then leadership
behavior will be fraught with frustration for both traditional and emergent
leaders. The existence of competing and overlapping systems of authority
will produce anxiety on the part of leaders from both categories of leader-
ship. They will be inconsistent in their behavioral responses — at times
deferring to the old sanctions, and at others respecting the new. The am-
bivalence resulting from the awareness of two sets of sanctions will make
for inconsistent behavioral responses or, possibly, will even inhibit any
action at all. To followers, the erratic behavior of a leader will not be
understood clearly and a consequence may well be a general loss of
confidence in his leadership. Anxiety and ambivalence, along with
inaction among followers, are logical developments of similar responses
on the part of leaders. Obviously, the total eff'ect of overlap in systems
of authority which possess competing sanctions is far from conducive to
felicity in leader-follower relations. It is equally inconducive to the
effective accomplishment of group goals.

COEXISTING SYMBOLS OF PRESTIGE AND STATUS

The conflict between emergent and traditional leaders involves per-
sonal prestige as well as the exercise of power. Symbols of status are

COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT 113

relative to the culture from which they stem. In Palau, where a cultural
blend exists, symbols of high status and prestige which are derived
from different cultures exist side by side. Symbols connected with
traditional elite status, such as possession of valuable pieces of native
money in quantity, the wearing of bone bracelets, modes of verbal
expression, and the following of certain ceremonial customs, have been
noted earlier in this study.

Symbols of status which derive from non-Palauan sources are sought
by many emergent leaders. Among these symbols are material ones:
Western dress, wrist watches, jeeps, Japanese-style houses, and Western
household furnishings such as curtains and household appliances. Certain
skills or abilities such as being literate or bilingual are also valued symbols
of personal status.

The possession of wealth in foreign currency has come to be associated
with high status. Because the native currency is still used and because
the exchange system in which it functions is still operative, traditional
values relating to its possession have remained potent.

One of the most difficult situations which face traditional leaders
in Palau today is that for various reasons many are not able to maintain
the bulwark of personal wealth which is considered appropriate to their
social station. Some are deficient in this respect because the size of
the kin group upon which they depend for financial aid has shrunk to
a size which will not allow adequate contributions. Moreover, as has
been noted earlier, many channels whereby a chief could formerly in-
crease his personal treasury, such as by imposing fines or receiving
payments for concubines, have long since been cut off by administrative
edict.

Furthermore, most chiefs do not serve in capacities which allow
them access to American currency, which is used today in conjunction
with native bead money. Younger people of working age are able
to earn money by their own efforts. Most chiefs claim that the labor
that is required to earn money (copra-making or trochus-shell-gathering)
is too arduous for them. What is more important, however, is that such
behavior does not become chiefly rank according to traditional con-
! ceptions.

i COEXISTING MODES OF LEADER SELECTION

I Leaders in present-day Palau are selected in different ways. Tradi-

i tional leaders still are determined according to customary hereditary

rules of title assumption. Some emergent political leaders, such as

magistrates and congressmen, are elected. Others, such as council mem-

114

CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Fig. 25A. A traditional leader, aged Ngirokcbon, head chief of Nghesar munici-
pality, fashions a new ax handle with an adze.

bers, are appointed by magistrates, the President of the Congress, or
members of the administration. Certain emergent leaders achieve leader-
ship status by virtue of specialized training, and still others are leaders
as a result of their success in business.

COEXISTING CANONS OF RESPECT

Traditional Palauan respect attitudes have been described earlier
in this study. An individual of rubak ("elder male") status was, and

COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT

115

Fig. 25B. An emergent leader, Rudimch, educated and highly acculturated magis-
trate of Koror municipality and store owner, speaks to the congress.

Still is, respected, partly because of his advanced age and partly because
with advanced age it is likely that he will possess a chiefly title. The
traditional respect connotations which this term carries are seen in its
application in mission usage. God is referred to in vernacular versions
of Biblical scripture as Rubak el Dios (the term for "God" is a Spanish
loan-word). Also, the male members of the administration are vocatively
termed riibak by Palauan employees under their supervision. In each
of the examples of the application of the term, the transfer of attitude
toward authority and respect is apparent. Respect behavior appropriate
to the attitude has accompanied the expanded use of the term rubak.

116 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Respect behavior has been expanded to include non-indigenous ad-
ministrators and some members of the emergent elite as well. However,
the behavioral manifestations of respect for either Americans or emergent
leaders do not have as great intensity as those directed toward a vener-
ated chief.

At the same time, emergent leaders command a new variety of respect
which is correlated with new values. For example, the successful business-
man or the skilled nurse will be respected for specialized competence.

The new canon of respect which directs verbal and behavioral ex-
pressions of deference toward emergent leaders operates negatively where
traditional leaders are concerned. Since most traditional leaders do
not fulfill the requirements for receiving respect under the new canon,
their total "respect quotient" is diminished. Whether the leader in
Palau is a chief or an emergent leader, if he is to lead effectively he must
command the respect of those he leads.

Respect may be akin to fear or awe, or it may be conditioned by
widespread recognition of special competence. It may be ascribed to
a leader or be earned by him. Even when respect is ascribed, personal
factors enter in. While respect accorded a leader may be unwarranted —
based on legend more than fact — more often the personal respect upon
which rests the power of those who exercise leadership through a power
structure is earned (LaPiere, 1954, p. 178).

Charismatic Leaders and Respect
Max Weber is credited with the introduction of the term "charisma"
(Greek: "a special gift or extraordinary power, genius, or outstanding
merit") into the literature of social science (Weber, 1922, pp. 140-148
and 753-778). The concept of charismatic leadership is particularly
relevant to a discussion of respect, since such leaders are viewed by their
followers with awe and veneration. These reactions are very closely
akin to respect. Shamans are true charismatic leaders since they are
considered to be persons who possess special gifts of intuition and super-
natural inspiration (Roucek, 1947, p. 527). Traditional Palauan leaders,
whether or not they qualified as true shamans, nevertheless were favored
in some cases with attitudes of respect which indicated that their followers
conceived of them in charismatic terms. A chief who was invincible in
war, whose judgments were consistently correct, whose general demeanor
brought forth expressions of awe, and whose status was semi-sacred
as a result of the relation his title bore to ancestors who were revered as
deities, would qualify as a charismatic leader.

Emergent leaders are not charismatic. Nor are traditional leaders
generally conceived of today in charismatic terms. The loss of attitudes

COEXISTEiNCE AND CONFLICT 117

relating to charisma which formerly resulted in heightened respect for
traditional leaders is a contributing factor in the declining respect which
is afforded them.

DYSFUNCTIONS RESULTING FROM LEADERSHIP CHANGE

Form and Meaning

It has been said that "most culture elements are transferred in terms
of objective form stripped of the meaning which is an integral part of
them in their original context" (Linton, 1940, p. 486). What needs
to be added is that elements (or complexes) denuded of meaning undergo
interpretations which result in the association of new meanings far
different from the original ones. The meanings that become attached
also may be so imperfectly understood that forinal applications are non-
purposive.

Because of imperfectly understood or misinterpreted meanings which
relate to their behavior, models for emergent leaders may contribute
to the transfer of forms of behavior which will have a constellation of
meanings quite at variance with those within the donor culture. The
following incident is an example of the way in which models for emergent
leaders may contribute to the transfer of forms of behavior whose associ-
ated meanings are distorted as a result of a lack of understanding on the
part of the leaders.

American counsel was provided for the defense during the recent
prosecution of two Palauan youths who were ultimately convicted on
charges which netted prison sentences of fifteen years for each defendant.
After sentence had been pronounced, the defense reminded the court
and the defendants that under the law, eligibility for parole would
accrue in only five years. Palauan spectators found the defense attorney's
behavior incomprehensible, since the crime had been so serious that con-
temporary traditional leaders were agreed that the youths should be
put to death.

The defendants had pleaded guilty and their guilt was clearly estab-
lished. Moreover, the crime had been committed against the person
of an American citizen. In the light of the seriousness of the crime and
the past histories of the defendants, the original sentences seemed light
to most Palauans. The behavior of the American defense attorney in
bringing up the issue of parole in only five years was productive of further
enigma. The meanings attached to the behavior in terms of individual
rights under the law were not clearly understood.

The Palauan public defender (an emergent leader) assisted in the
preparation of the defense. Members of the administration were con-

118 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

cerned over the possibility that the behavior of the American defense
attorney (the model) had been imperfectly understood. Through emula- ||
tion of the model, it was thought, the emergent leader's behavior might
impede, rather than facilitate, the transfer of proper meanings associated
with formal behavior on the part of the American defense attorney.
Without the transfer of the meanings associated with the behavior in
American culture, the purposes served by such behavior might well be
quite different.

Palauan legislative procedure furnishes an example of the misunder-
standing of a newly introduced element and the consequent random,
non-purposive, and dysfunctional formal behavior which has resulted.
V^oting is a newly introduced cultural clement which forms a part of
role behavior of emergent leadership in self-government. Votes are
taken in congress by the raising of hands and also by secret written
ballots. According to rules of procedure, hereditary chiefs may par-
ticipate in all discussions and may vote on all issues upon which votes
are taken excepting resolutions. What frequently happens, because dis-
tinctions between resolutions and other issues upon which votes are
taken are not clearly understood, is that chiefs sometimes vote on resolu-
tions as well as other issues. On occasion their votes are counted.

Another case in point involves the procedural rule which prescribes
that voting terminates the discussion of a given issue. Often a post-vote
discussion in the congress leads to a new vote. Sometimes the second
vote contradicts the first. The dysfunctions in terms of procedural
efficiency are obvious. We may conclude, then, that when the meanings
of a newly introduced element are not clearly understood, they may be
given interpretations which may result in formal applications which
are dysfunctional. _

Leader Insecurity T

One of the chief dysfunctions which has been brought about by the
changes in patterns of Palauan leadership is that of leader insecurity.
Both traditional and emergent leaders are insecure. Historically, tradi-
tional leadership has sustained such a series of setbacks that it anticipates
new strictures even now, despite the American administration's tendency
to encourage retention of "intrinsically valuable features of political
structure and organization" (Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1955,
p. 9).

Because of their personal stake in the old ways, traditional leaders try
to stabilize their position by maintaining the status quo. One technique
they employ in doing so is prorogation. During the tenth meeting of the
Palauan Congress, in October, 1955, one of the two high chiefs was asked

COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT 119

his opinion on an issue which dealt with the customary reef rights main-
tained by separate villages. A movement was afoot to "nationalize" the
reef system of the Palaus for the purpose of increasing the amount of
trochus shell which could be gathered in an annual two weeks' season dur-
ing which gathering is permitted. After voicing his objections to the plan,
the chief suggested that the whole issue be tabled until the next meeting
of the congress. The issue was tabled. On another occasion, when pressed
for an opinion which had to do with a change in custom which conceivably
could have challenged chiefly authority, his response was that he wished
to think about the matter for a while. He concluded that the thinking
would take about five years and that the question should be posed again
at that time. The matter was dropped.

Traditional leaders are not sure that their leadership will be followed
even when they attempt to lead. The result is often a reluctance to pro-
vide leadership or a tendency to provide only weak leadership. Timorous-
ness is conditioned by the anticipation of follower opposition, which, be-
cause he has no means of combating it, may cause loss of respect for a
leader and consequent lessening of his over-all power. The end result
of timorous leadership behavior which does not cause opposition is much
the same as behavior which causes immediate opposition. The process
simply takes a little longer.

Emergent leaders are insecure because they operate in a system where-
in there is no precedent for leadership such as they provide. The behavioral
roles they play are hardly charted, much less institutionalized. They are
not always sure of the extent to which their leader behavior will be sup-
ported by sanctions under the new system. They do not wish to rouse the
ire of the chiefs, yet they try to meet the expectations of the administra-
tion and of their followers as well. Often the result is leader behavior
which walks a tight rope and is fraught with insecurity, indecisiveness,
and vacillation.

A case in point may be cited from one Babeldaob municipality in
which public opinion was distinctly opposed to the use of the reef and
lagoon immediately adjacent to the municipality by fishermen from other
municipalities. As the regulations of the district stood, outsiders were
without rights in the adjacent waters, yet the municipality chief had, on
his own authority and without consultation with the magistrate, granted
permission to outsiders to hunt tridacna shells in the area. The situation
was further complicated by the fact that the outsiders had used dynamite
to take quantities of fish as well as shell. The use of explosives for such
purposes is against government regulations.

The magistrate in this case had to appease the incensed populace, com-
ply with administration directives, and avoid offending the senior chief.

120 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

He did not wish to countermand the decision of the chief and yet he was
forced to do something. The result was a very emotion-charged discussion
in a municipal meeting in which the chief was present. The magistrate
tried to maintain a middle-of-the-road position and the net result was an
inconclusive debate which decided nothing. The fishermen were gone,
the law had been broken, the populace was still disturbed, the chief felt
challenged and resentful, the magistrate's behavior was fence-straddling,
and no policy was established for the future.

The role behavior required of a magistrate tends to overlap that of
hereditary chiefs. Insecurity and dysfunction result. On the other hand,
role behavior of the teacher has no true traditional counterpart. There-
fore, insecurity and dysfunction are less likely to result. In general, new
leadership roles which have no traditional counterpart are productive of
less leader insecurity and contribute less to dysfunction than do new leader-
ship roles which have traditional counterparts. Furthermore, emergent
leaders to whom traditional leadership roles also accrue evince less inse-
curity and more effective leadership in general than new leaders who do
not qualify as traditional leaders.

A chief who is elected magistrate will be supported by whatever sanc-
tions are operative, whether they are traditional ones or those connected
with the donor culture. Even though he may not be able to assess their
relative strength, he knows that he embodies the total of sanctioned
power, whatever its source or strength. His leadership role may be pro-
ductive of some insecurity because of imperfect understandings of new
leader role behavior and its sanctions, but he can always fall back on tradi-
tional behavior and sanctions and in doing so he will not be in competition
with another individual who possesses some leadership responsibilities in
his municipality.

Follower Insecurity

Leaders are not alone in their insecurity. The residents of a munici-
pality frequently are unsure of whose leadership they should follow even
in such relatively mundane issues as community work. One of my in-
formants (a second-ranking municipality chief) described a situation ofl
conflict between the magistrate and the first-ranking chief during a road-
repairing project several years ago. Since he did not get along well with!
the senior chief and was competing with him for power, the informant hadi
sided with the magistrate. The road work had begun under the direction]
of the magistrate; then the senior chief directed the workers to another]
task. While the magistrate complained to the senior chief that he had'
been deprived of his labor force, the informant directed the people of the
village to return to the road building. As the result of the uncoordinated

COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT 121

dual authority system, the people were unhappy over being suddenly
shifted from one job to another and they lost interest in accomplishing
either task.

The question a Palauan frequently is forced to ask himself is, "To
whose leadership shall I respond?" The magistrate tells him that he must
pay his taxes. In order to do so he must produce copra. At the same
time the chief insists that he spend his time on some community work
project. If he follows the direction of the chief, he will not have time to
produce copra and will not be able to pay his taxes. If he follows the
leadership of the magistrate, he will pay his taxes but will fall prey to the
wrath of the chief. Usually some compromise is worked out, but what
most frequently happens is that both projects lag: taxes are not paid
promptly and community work is not accomplished with facility.

Communication

One of the greatest contributing factors to dysfunction in contempo-
rary Palau is poor communication. Small boats are the only means of
transportation between the administrative center and the outlying munici-
palities, and the boats are not always in operation due to mechanical
failure. Bad weather and rough water often interrupt schedules, even
when all boats are in operation.

District orders and information directed to the populace at large are
channeled through the magistrate, and he is then responsible for dissemi-
nating the official information to residents of his municipality. Much in-
formation is passed on to members of the community in municipal council
meetings. Sometimes chiefs and other council members carry back the
information to their respective villages following a council meeting. But
information is often inaccurate when it has been relayed in oral transmis-
sions. By the time it reaches the third or fourth individual it may have
suffered considerable alteration.

To avoid difficulties of this kind most municipalities have erected bulle-
tin boards upon which notices and administration communications are
posted. Because so few older Palauans are literate, even printed matter
in the vernacular is meaningless to most chiefs. The very legitimate plea
which so often emanates from the chiefs is that the young men, who can
read, should pass information along to them. Because they resent being
excluded and ignored, their behavior is sometimes aggressive. A senior
municipality chief made the following accusing remark at one municipal
council meeting: "You young men must help the chiefs because many of
us do not know what responsibilities we have. We have a bulletin board
in the village. It is the young men's responsibility to read the notices

122 CULTURAL CHANGE L\ PALAU

and tell the chiefs what they say, but they don't. What shall we do,
impose fines?"

Another area in w'hich communication constitutes a problem for lead-
ership is in the translation of government orders and instructions and in
the phrasing of resolutions formulated by the congress so that English and
Palauan meanings will correspond. Concepts such as "fiscal year," "in-
terest," "two-thirds majority," and the like are often difficult to express
in the native language. Likewise, certain Palauan concepts such as
melingmes ("institutionalized reluctance and self-derogation") are equally
difficult to express in English.

OUTLOOK

The conflict between traditional and emergent leaders and its dys-
functional accompaniments are certain to continue. Two mutually exclu-
siv^e systems of authority exist side by side. Each has its own sanctions.
Relatively youthful individuals whose family status would deny them
leadership under the old system will continue to achieve positions of polit-
ical and social eminence by virtue of special skills which are recognized
by their contemporaries. Such skills as the ability to understand and use
English, the ability to read and write the native language, and the al:)ility
to express themselves well orally, will commend these individuals. Such
persons will continue to adapt to new cultural stimuli introduced by repre-
sentatives of the administration. In terms of the burden of traditional
cultural values, they have considerably fewer deterrents to overcome than
is the case with their elders.

At the same time, kinship sanctions are sufficiently strong so that the
hereditary leaders will continue to maintain and in some cases to buttress
the political power and general prestige which tradition awards them.
Though theirs is a losing cause in a time of great change in which ultimate
executive authority resides in an administration which has actively in-
troduced antithetical ideas of leadership and political representation,
and in which traditional organs of social control have suffered disintegra-
tion, the indications are that the political power of the chiefs will continue
for some time.

VIL The Dynamics of Acculturational Change

As mentioned at the outset, the emphasis in this study is on the inter-
connection between leadership and cultural change. In keeping with this
emphasis, space has been devoted to characterizations of both traditional
and emergent leadership in Palau. The conditions of culture contact and
the stimuli for cultural change which have had implications for Palauan
leadership change also have been dealt with. Finally, some of the effects
of cultural change in the area of leadership which have been less than
felicitous have been spelled out and an attempt has been made to outline
the principal differences which serve to set apart traditional and emergent
leadership.

We can measure change only by comparing what is with what was.
When differences in kind and degree are ascertained in such a comparison,
we may assume that the conditions of cultural change were largely effec-
tive in bringing them about. The alternative explanation of changes
which have occurred following culture contact would be that they are
ones which would have developed through time anyway, regardless of
culture contact — in other words, as a result of independent evolution.
As far as the Palauan data on leadership are concerned, this explanation
is hardly defensible. Where differences occur which we can identify as
having resulted following stimulation by a donor culture, we may con-
clude that they are directly attributable to acculturational change. A
number of case studies which bear on acculturational change and leader-
ship have appeared in recent years. ^ This report also is such a case study.

A case study has its greatest significance when its findings are examined
in the light of theory. Its data may substantiate and reinforce features of
existing theory or may contradict them and point up needs for reformula-
tions or additions. In this study the documentation of leadership has
served as a means for viewing one aspect of more general cultural change
in Palau. In the preceding chapters I have noted some of the more out-
standing effects of change, but I have reserved my comments on the
dynamics of acculturational change and the relation of the data of the
study to theory for the final chapters.

1 To name but a few: Apter, 1955; Erasmus, 1952; Fallers, 1956; Gulick, 1955;
Keesing and Keesing, 1956; Mead, 1956; Oliver, 1955; Useem, 1952.

123

124 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

CULTURAL DYNAMICS AND DIRECTED CULTURAL

CHANGE

The field of cultural dynamics is a broadly defined one. Cultural
anthropologists are interested in endogenous cultural change, i.e., changes
which are brought about within a culture entirely independent of contact
with another culture, and exogenous change,^ i.e., changes resulting
directly from the coming together of representatives of two or more cul-
tures. It is this latter variety of change with which students of accultu-
ration are concerned, and it is this variety of change with which this study
is concerned.

The dynamics of exogenous or acculturational change centers about the
behavioral processes involved in the borrowing or transferring of elements
or complexes of elements from one culture to another. Ordinarily cul-
tural borrowing is a reciprocal rather than a unidirectional process.
Whether reciprocal or unilateral, however, the basic processes involved
may be narrowed down to those of exposure to, reaction to (selection or
rejection), and finally, integration of borrowed features.

The above terms are ones I have settled upon as being most meaning-
ful and least confusing following an extensive review of what students of
cultural change have concluded with respect to acculturational change.
Some comment should be made concerning these terms and those set forth
by Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits in the now classical outline for the
study of acculturation (Herskovits, 1938, pp. 135-136). In the outline
the final results of culture contacts are listed as A, Acceptance; B, Adapta-
tion (corresponding to what I have termed "blending"); and C, Reaction.
In the outline "reaction" means organized resistance to change such as
contra-acculturative movements. It refers to an effect, not a process. My
use of the term "reaction" is as a process, similar to the way in which the
term is conceived in the disciplines of physiology or psychology, e.g., ac-
tivity (behavior) aroused by a stimulus or stimuli; in other words, a
response. The outline, in speaking of "results [or effects] of culture con-
tacts" takes a total view. My own purview is much more restricted and
is oriented to the dynamics rather than the statics of change. The results
or effects of change are relatively static considerations. I have followed
the lead of Malinowski (1945, p. 64) in using "reaction" to refer to a cul-
ture's response to contact.

1 1 am indebted to the late Robert Redfield for the suggestion of the terms
"exogenous" and "endogenous" as convenient ones to distinguish between the two
basic varieties of cultural change. They seem to be much more convenient than the
rather clumsy "externally motivated change" and "internally motivated change."
Endogenous cultural change refers to what has often been termed "independent evolu-
tion" or "spontaneously derived" or "intra-cultural change." Exogenous change
refers to what has been termed acculturational change — which designation is also
employed in this study.

THE DYNAMICS OF ACCULTURATIONAL CHANGE 125

In the sense in which the term "integration" is used in this study it
means the over-all process of fitting the new and the old together. Sub-
sidiary processes are involved within this more general process. Murdock
{in Shapiro, 1956, p. 247) also uses the term "integration" as his fourth
major process of cultural change. To him it has to do with advanced
social selection and progressive adaptation. This is a more restricted
meaning than the term has for me. I tend to lump Murdock's "social
acceptance" and "selective elimination" under integration, also.

Under conditions of directed cultural change it is relatively less fruitful
to consider the first two levels of process noted above {exposure and reac-
tion) than it would be if change were occurring under less stringent condi-
tions, where free choice of the recipient culture's representatives entered in.
In this study the definition of directed cultural change offered by Linton
(1940, p. 502) is accepted: "Directed culture change will be taken to refer
to those situations in which one of the groups in contact interferes activ^ely
and purposefully with the culture of the other." Interference may consist
of the provision of stimuli for the acceptance of new cultural elements or
it may simply be the inhibition of pre-existing culture patterns. More
than likely it incorporates both the introduction of new elements and the
simultaneous interdiction of old ones.

Under directed change, even though the recipient culture may be ex-
posed to a great range of cultural elements, certain ones are actively intro-
duced and a subordinate recipient culture is forced to accept them; free
choice is ruled out and rejection is not permitted. To the extent that the
acceptance of certain other elements from the donor culture would impede
the transfer of elements which the donor culture wishes to have adopted,
and an awareness of these elements as impeding ones exists on the part of
the donor culture, they will be denied the recipient culture. The process
of exposure, then, under directed change, is not one in which complete
free choice is allowed. The process of reaction largely is obviated in the
cases where elements are actively introduced and acceptance is enforced.
Such elements may not be rejected overtly as they might be under less
stringent conditions of culture contact.

This generalization does not deny that under stringent conditions there
may be considerable dysphoria at the level of both the individual and
the collectivity. In the extreme, rebellious nativism may occur or, con-
versely, the apathetic "cultural death" which typified several nineteenth
century Pacific Island cultures may occur. If the individual wishes to
commit suicide or risk his life or other less dire but still serious conse-
quences such as imprisonment, in rebellion, he may certainly react. What
is being claimed, however, is simply that under enforced cultural change

126 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

negative reactions to introduced elements (rejection), except for extreme
behavior such as the varieties just mentioned, are customarily not per-
mitted and the individual is compelled to conform to the wishes of the
dominant culture's representatives. In other words, his overt reaction
will, unless quite extreme, be toward acceptance.

Under conditions of directed change the dynamics of cultural change
is relatively "cut and dried" until we reach the process of integration.
It is in this process that observation of the dynamics of change becomes
interesting and fruitful. It is in the process of integration that new inter-
pretations are developed with respect to the forms and meanings of ele-
ments. It is in this process that we may observe the behavior of individuals
from the subordinate culture who adapt newly presented elements and
complexes to a new cultural context. Here we may observ^e the remolding
of elements to fit new cultural niches. Here square pegs are whittled down
to fit into round holes and round holes are shored up to fit square pegs.

The retention of old cultural elements which conflict with newly intro-
duced elements in form or meaning causes new and old elements alike to
undergo modification. This is the level of process where we may observe
not only what happens to a given element, but how and why. We may
observe not only the overt fact of adoption, but — what is more important
— the rationale behind adoption. This is the level of dynamics where
"lip-service" acceptance of an element is "seen through." Modifications
and distortions at the level of integration may result in innovations and
creative transformations so extensive as to alter an element beyond rec-
ognition.^

Bit by bit the process of integration creates an enormous and compli-
cated cultural montage — a montage which is given a general design or
character by the donor culture but which is comprised of combinations
and recombinations, substitutions and partial substitutions, replacements
and blends — all produced within the latitude allowed by the donor cul-
ture and with constant ameliorating influences derived from the recipient
culture.

In its contact relations with representatives of Western world cul-
ture, Palauan culture has been consistently subordinate. Elements of
superordinate culture which concerned leadership have been actively
introduced and unrestricted free choice has not been possible. By and
large, Palauans have not been able to reject or select as they wished.

1 Beals (1953, p. 636), in his review of acculturation study, comments that there are
numerous reports of spontaneous reformulations which result in the modification of
elements from either of the cultures in contact or produce entirely new structures.
Barnett (1953, p. 10) speaks of such circumstances as the "hybridization of traits
[elements] and complexes."

THE DYNAMICS OF ACCULTURATIONAL CHANGE 127

While it can only be a matter for conjecture, it nonetheless seems rea-
sonable to suppose that in the matter of alteration of patterns of leadership,
members of subordinate status under the indigenous Palauan system of
leadership might be relatively receptive to changes which might allow
them access to new leadership positions and enhanced prestige. The
problem of assessing such perceptions seems tenuous at best, but if we
begin with the assumption that the "have-nots" (of whatever genre) would
look favorably upon the opportunity to become the "haves," the above
supposition does not seem unreasonable.

Where Palauans have been able to exercise their wills to some extent
with respect to rejection and acceptance is in the process of integration.
For this reason, the most significant treatment of cultural dynamics in
Palauan cultural change exists at this level. The materials of this and
the following chapters, therefore, relate to this aspect of cultural dynamics.
Particular attention is directed to the nature of the cultural iTiontage
which exists in Palau and the means by which it has come into being.
The modifications in and interpretations placed on introduced elements
and the retention of elements of indigenous culture which have dictated
the direction these modifications and interpretations have taken are partic-
ularly stressed. General understandings concerning the theoretical aspects
of cultural dynamics are employed as a screen upon which cultural ex-
cerpts from the Palauan data are projected. The purpose is to discover
the extent to which the data correspond to the general understandings,
particularly in the area of directed acculturational change.

Students of cultural change agree that we know all too little of the
actual processes of cultural change, particularly in acculturative contexts
(Barnett, 1940, pp. 21-22; Beals, 1953, p. 628; Gillin, 1948, p. 533; Hers-
kovits, 1945, p. 170; 1950, p. 461; and Keesing, 1953a, p. 102). The
data on leadership from Palau provide an opportunity to examine the
processes of one variety of acculturative change, namely, that brought
about as a result of conscious direction by a dominant donor culture.

The history of directed change in Palau is one of behavior under stress.
The areas of culture interfered with in the direction of leadership change
are basic ones. To tamper with these is to cause the entire cultural struc-
ture to wobble precariously. In response, the Palauans have attempted
to stabilize the imbalance caused by external interference. They have
employed traditional understandings and interpretations to aid them in
their adaptation to alien concepts and thus far have been successful in
maintaining a measure of cultural equilibrium which, even with its ob-
vious dysfunctions, has avoided total cultural collapse and disintegra-
tion.

128 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

THE INTEGRATIONAL PROCESSES OF
ACCULTURATIONAL CHANGE

Many of the terms anthropologists employ to describe the processes
of accuhurational change are virtually synonymous. The use of terms
whose meanings overlap is a barrier to understanding rather than an aid.
Because of the existence of so many overlapping terms in the literature
dealing with cultural change, I have in this study attempted to simplify
general understandings about these processes as much as possible. Follow-
ing is a brief summary of my conclusions and some supportive documen-
tation from Palau.

First of all, in a contact situation a given element of culture will be
either accepted or rejected. If it is rejected, this constitutes one f)asic proc-
ess. Terms which apply to this process are "stability," "retention," "re-
sistance to change," and "non-change." If the element is accepted, further
processes will be involved. At the simplest and most abstracted level of
generalization there seem to be three major processes:

1. Super sedure: The new element will be adopted to replace an old
element which will be put aside. In the literature on acculturational
change this process is variously called "substitution," "replacement," and
"displacement." The term "loss" is employed with reference to the super-
seded element and often the term "innovation" is applied to the adoption
of the new element.

2. Independent Comaintenance: The new element will be adopted, but it
will not supersede any previously existing element; rather, the new ele-
ment will be maintained independently as a new increment to the adopting
culture without a corresponding decrement.

3. Blending: The new element will be adopted either partially or
wholly and then be combined or merged with whole or partial old ele-
ments. Elements of culture are conceived of as minimal units. When
partial adoption is mentioned, however, what is meant is that the char-
acteristics of the element such as form, meaning, use, or function may be par-Bj
tially adopted and partially rejected. Terms such as "recombination,"
"reinterpretation," "reorganization," "reconstellation," "reintegration,"
"adjustment," "modification," "adaptation," "synthesis," "syncretism,"
and "transformation" are used interchangeably to describe this process.
Moreover, terms such as "partial substitution" (replacement or displace-
ment) and "partial retention" (resistance to change, stability, or non-
change) also are employed.

The three processes, viz., supersedure, independent comaintenance, and blend-
ing may be considered together as constituting subsidiary processes within

THE DYNAMICS OF ACCULTURATIONAL CHANGE 129

the more general process of integration. As has been mentioned, it is this
basic process that is of crucial importance in this study.

BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES IN ACCULTURATIONAL

CHANGE

There appear to be actually only four specific behavioral responses
which occur under conditions of acculturational change and which con-
tribute to the process of integration: (1) There are old ways of doing old
things; this represents stability or non-change and perhaps even resistance
to change. (2) There are new ways of doing new things; this represents
innovation or acceptance of borrowed elements. (3) There are new ways
of doing old things; this represents innovation, retention, replacement or
substitution of the old way, and recombination of cultural elements.
(4) There are old ways of doing new things; this represents retention,
innovation, replacement or substitution of the old thing and recombina-
tion of cultural elements. Within the rather broad confines of these four
behavioral responses are contained all of the so-called integrational "proc-
esses" of acculturational change.

The four basic behavioral responses under conditions of acculturation
at the level of integration are the basic themes about which vastly more
complicated behavioral responses cluster. It is just as incredible for a cul-
ture to be totally resistant to change as it is for one to be totally receptive.
It is far more reasonable to accept the idea that most emphasis will center
around behavioral responses 3 and 4 and that all four responses could
probably be discovered in almost any culture contact milieu. They
certainly may be in Palau, where leadership change and non-change are
concerned. A few examples will demonstrate this fact.

Old Ways of Doing Something Old
Behavioral response contributing to the integrational process of independent co-
maintenance. — Aboriginal burial patterns in Palau were similar for leaders
and non-leaders. The place of burial was in the stone platform in front
of one's house on ancestral land. Most house-yard platforms (cheldukl)
in Palau typically are studded with large rectangles of volcanic stone which
mark graves. More recent graves and the graves of the illustrious or
notorious are remembered, but most of the stones mark the resting place
of someone now anonymous.

Traditionally, hereditary leaders were given funerals and burials which
befitted their elevated social position. Marking stones were larger for
chiefs than for non-chiefs and their burial places were remembered. Even
today, when one is tracing the chiefly line for the principal title in Koror

130 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

village, he finds that the names of some former chiefs who held the title
twenty reigns ago have been forgotten. Their burial places have not,
however, and if the chief was lost in battle, as several were, the name of the
land where he died will be recalled. His personal name will have been
long forgotten, but his resting place or place of death will be remembered.
The old pattern of house-yard burial in Palau was proscribed during
Japanese times, and cemeteries were established. The pattern of ceme-
tery interment has been maintained by the American administration.
In November of 1956, however, there was a departure. The long-ailing
and elderly senior chief of Koror village, one of the two high chiefs of
Palau, passed away. He was buried in the traditional manner on his sib
land, not in the community cemetery — an old way of doing something old.
The retention of this feature of traditional behavior connected with leader-
ship had the sanction of the Palau District administration. Values relat-
ing to the old traditions concerning the burial of leaders were sufficiently
strong to be respected.

New Ways of Doing Something New
Behavioral response contributing to the integrational process of independent co-
maintenance. — Numerous examples demonstrative of this kind of behavior
may be drawn from present-day Palau. A number have been remarked
upon earlier in this study, and no purpose would be served in their reitera-
tion at this point. Behavioral responses of this kind are perhaps the most
easily perceived of the four main varieties. If earlier examples need to
be extended we might note several more, but without going into detail.
Voting for elected representatives is a new way of doing something new.
So is the performance of an appendectomy or the provision of dentures
by specialist leaders. The economic leader pays for imported goods for
his store with a check written in English on a Guam bank where his capi-
tal, in American currency, is deposited by mail. The list of new ways of
doing new things is as long as one wishes to make it.

New Ways of Doing Something Old
Behavioral response contributing to the integrational processes of super sedure and
blending. — In olden days when a person assumed a chiefly title he provided
a ceremonial feast commemorative of the occasion. The custom of pro-
viding such a feast was called "^debechel." Feasts were expensive, and the
one connected with the custom of debechel was especially so. The person
assuming the title commissioned sev^eral men to make a large effigy of a
dugong (mesekiu) oi mich nuts and cooked palm flower juices (ilaut). The
preparers of the effigy were paid for their labors, of course. The price
was a high one because sufficient nuts to construct an effigy from seven to

THE DYNAMICS OF ACCULTURATIONAL CHANGE 131

ten feet long had to be acquired slowly. The collection and drying might
take as long as a year. On the occasion of the feast the effigy was cere-
monially divided among the other village chiefs.

The custom of debechel is infrequently followed today, but when it is,
certain alterations in the old means of carrying out the feast are obvious.
New ways of doing something old are employed. In such a ceremony,
observed in 1956, the effigy was made of Japanese-manufactured sea bis-
cuits, sugar, and water. It was contained in a plywood frame. The
proper cutting points for dividing the effigy were made and then a vestige
of still an earlier time when an actual dugong was the piece de resistance
made its appearance. A delegated junior chief approached the effigy and
adroitly stabbed it in the neck with a long knife.

Besides demonstrating a new way of doing something old, this example
points up the persistence in an old complex of an old formal element of
culture no longer functional but symbolic only in the context of more
recently developed elements.

Old W' ays of Doing Something New

Behavioral response contributing to the integrational processes of super sedure and
blending. — This variety of behavioral response is easily perceived because
of its general frequency. The old or traditional understandings are the
familiar ones, and behavior is based on these understandings. The con-
gressman who rises to speak to some point in an argument on the floor of
congress is doing something new. The way in which he does it is the old
way. After a lengthy assurance of his essential agreement with what his
opponent in the argument has just said, he will finally get around to dis-
agreeing categorically with the basic points. Propriety has been exercised.
Offensive and opprobrious behavior has been avoided. This mode of
argument is the old way and its application to a new thing (legislative
debate) is but one example of the blending of cultural elements. In this
example the behaver was an emergent leader. Such a blending also may
be seen when traditional leaders resort to traditional behavior and levy
fines in situations involving violations of newly introduced regulations
relating to public health. In one case where this was done, the new
"thing" was an inspection of houses and house-yard areas to see that
privies were screened, that water containers were covered, that pig-
pens were properly cared for, etc. The behavers were the municipality
chiefs who toured the various villages seeking out violations, levying fines
of twenty-five or fifty cents, and haranguing offenders. The "thing" (sani-
tation code) was new; the way in which it was done (enforced) was old.

Similarly, chiefs may be called upon to assist the magistrate who is
having difficulty collecting taxes. Such a plea was made by a magistrate

132 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

in Ngerechelong in 1956. He requested the chiefs to exert their authority
by compelling their village members to pay their annual taxes. The fact
that the request was made, of course, points up the fact that the magis-
trate recognized his own inefTectiveness and hoped to capitalize on ideas
about hereditary leaders which were still retained by the populace at large.

ALTERATIONS IN FORM AND MEANING

Ideologies are complex in nature. A new tool, whose superiority may
be perceived immediately, is much simpler and more easily assimilated.
Such concepts as "freedom" and "democracy" are difficult for a people
to understand — specifically when the frame of reference with respect to
them is limited.

To date, though progress is being made, and in spite of a long tradition
of receptivity to external cultural influences by superordinates, concepts
which are basic to self-sufficiency and self-determination according to
patterns derived from the Western world are imperfectly understood by
Palauans. The only channels which will promote understanding and ulti-
mate integration of complex and unfamiliar ideologies are those of educa-
tion. These channels are being utilized by the present administration
under the obligation of trusteeship, but the rate of change is replete with
impediments and necessarily slow. In the meantime, Palauans are faced
with the problems of integrating newly introduced elements into their
everyday life. To cope with these problems they often either consciously
or unconsciously alter the new elements.

Alterations in the form or meaning of an element of culture which is
undergoing integration may come about as a consequence of conscious
improvement (Linton, 1940, p. 476). It seems equally reasonable that
such alterations also may result from unconscious modification arising out
of different interpretations in a new cultural milieu. Herskovits (1958,
pp. 267-268) cites an example which is a case in point when he mentions
the inability of some African workmen to follow a taut line in excavating a
ditch. As he saw it, the interpretation of trench excavation which the
workers placed on it was diflferent from that in the culture from which the
taut line and the straight trench were derived. The Africans simply un-
consciously modified the new element along lines congenial to their own
cultural backgrounds, where, if trenches were dug, they were not straight.

As has been noted, the imposition of elements of culture under directed
change effectively limits the freedom which may be exercised by the recip-
ient culture in cultural borrowing. It may also inhibit modifications in
either form or meaning or both. But if self-sufficiency is a goal of the
donor culture, representatives of the recipient culture may be left delib-

THE DYNAMICS OF ACCULTURATIONAL CHANGE 133

erately to their own devices. If a donor culture is sufficiently general in
its definition of an introduced element, there is every likelihood that the
modifications related to the element will be relatively greater than if defi-
nition had been specific. In other words, under conditions of directed
cultural change, only to the extent that the dominant culture allows them
to be made will there occur modifications in the form or meaning, whether
they be conscious improvements or largely unconscious ones.

A case in point may be drawn from present-day Palau if we take magis-
terial authority as an example of a non-material element of what we may
term the magistrate complex. The concept of the magistrate has been
introduced in relatively general terms. As it is defined in the Trust Ter-
ritory of the Pacific Islands, a magistrate is a top-ranking municipal offi-
cial having summary jurisdiction. Attempts by the administration to
delineate the magistrate's responsibilities, duties, and spheres of authority
have come as subsequent introductions.

The "improving" modifications in magisterial authority have been
directed toward expansion. The magistrate not only exercises authority
in prescribed areas (education, sanitation, taxation, and enforcement of
written laws), but, in some cases, his authority has been extended ("im-
proved") to cover certain traditional areas which theoretically the admin-
istration has left to hereditary chiefs. Evidence of this fact is noted in
almost every session of the Palauan Congress, when magistrates band to-
gether with congressmen (who also are supposed to be concerned primarily
with non-traditional features of culture) to attempt to abolish such tradi-
tional customs as expensive divorce and death payments.

A magistrate also has, through "improving" modifications in the ele-
ments of the introduced magistrate complex, come to serve in capacities
not customarily considered within the duties of a senior municipal official
in the United States. He will, for example, sometimes be a presiding offi-
cial at a divorce settlement. Here, his behavioral role is comparable to
that of a traditional leader. This modification is in keeping with one of the
qualifying remarks which accompanied the definition of emergent leader-
ship used in this study, namely, that emergent leadership will probably
always be tempered by patterns of traditional leadership. In the example
cited above, the "improvement" has been toward behavior which corre-
sponds to that of traditional leaders, and modifications in form and mean-
ing have undoubtedly been both conscious and unconscious. Modifications
have been based on congenial and traditional conceptions of leadership.

Following is a case of unconscious attachment of meaning to a new
culture element as a result of traditional associations in Palauan culture.
We may term the element "a channel for securing monetary wealth in the

134 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

form of alien currency." Entrepreneurship has been congruent with cul-
tural emphases of the most influential foreign administrations in Palau
and, hence, more or less under their auspices. For many years Palauans
have used foreign currency which has been recognized as legal tender by
the various administrations. Today American dollars are used. Present-
day economic leaders are individuals who have successfully accumulated
considerable wealth in foreign currency through some business enterprise
such as operating a retail store. Unconscious attachment of meaning to
the possession of quantities of alien currency is based on traditional eval-
uations of social position and correlated wealth in native currency.

The ethnographer encounters a good deal of confusion among inform-
ants with whom he is discussing contemporary Palauan social status. As
noted earlier, traditionally the possession of native currency was a positive
correlate of high social status. A person of high social status was termed
meteet. A wealthy person was merau. Because virtually no persons not of
high social (family) status possessed wealth, the terms meteet and merau
applied to the same category of persons. In recent years, with the oppor-
tunity for persons not of high-status family connection to secure personal
wealth, the high positive correlation between wealth and social position
no longer holds true.

What happens in practice and what indicates the unconscious transfer
of indigenous meanings to a new element of culture is that economic
leaders are now often referred to as meteet. If the point is pursued, an
informant will indicate that actually this is not so, but he will be uncertain.

SUPERSEDURE AND FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENTS

The functional equivalence of culture elements has been stressed by
Barnett (1940, pp. 22-23; 1953, pp. 378-381) and Linton (1940, p. 505)
in particular. The following excerpt from the Palauan data validates the
idea that old elements of culture ordinarily will not be given up until all
of their functions have been transferred to a new element (or to several
new elements), except under conditions of directed and enforced change
(Linton, op. cit., pp. 481 and 506).

The Legal Code of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands is today
the basis for ensuring the rights of Palauans. Violators of the code are
brought to trial and punitive actions are taken. Each of the foreign ad-
ministrations in Palau has pro\'ided some such externally imposed legal
code. Consequently, many features of custom law have been superseded
in the process.

In 1956 a vacuum in the present code was detected, following the
eruption of some bad feeling in Koror village. The incident was what,

THE DYNAMICS OF ACCULTURATIONAL CHANGE 135

for lack of a better term, may be called "defamation of character" — not
of personal character, however. For such an incident, coverage would
have been provided in the Legal Code. The character defamed was that
of Koror village and there was no provision in the code for such a situation.

What happened was this: A youth from a neighboring and inferior-
ranked village had, in a state of intoxication, blatantly castigated and
maligned the village of Koror and, therefore, its people. Not many after-
noons later a delegation from the Koror klobak met with the Koror magis-
trate to petition punitive action. When the group was informed that there
was no basis for prosecution under the Legal Code they left in disappoint-
ment. Several days later a long-dormant function of an element of tradi-
tional leadership was resurrected by the chiefs. The blasphemer was fined.
Subsequently his father paid a small piece of native bead money to the
Koror klobak.

In this case an old function was brought into play, even under condi-
tions of directed change, because no functional equivalent was available
to meet a need. Because of the basic tractability of Palauan leaders and
their enurement to supersedure under directed cultural change, if a new
functional equivalent had been available no doubt it would have been
employed. As it was, a situation materialized which served to reinforce
an old function in the face of a great plethora of new functions relating to
law and law enforcement.

In Palau there have been a number of instances of directed change
which have inhibited elements of traditional culture without supplying
new elements as functional equivalents. We are told that in "situations
in which an unreplaced culture element or complex is discarded as a result
of outside pressure . . . the results . . . are frequently disastrous." (Linton,
loc. cit.) We may agree that results may well be disastrous, but it should
be added that where results are not actually disastrous, they are often
dysfunctional.

An example of dysfunction that results from inhibiting culture ele-
ments without supplying new culture elements as functional equivalents
is found in the inhibition of elements of indigenous culture related to
leader selection. As explained in chapter II, there was formerly a series
of age-grade societies in all Palauan villages. Members of men's clubs
functioned primarily as soldiers, laborers, and "policemen." When war-
fare and institutionalized concubinage were interdicted in German times,
the basic factors which provided integration for the clubs were destroyed.
In subsequent years most clubs were disbanded. In Japanese times clubs
were organized for young people after the fashion of Japanese age-grade
societies. Under this system the young men's clubs {seinen dan) were

136 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

supposed to serve several purposes. One was that they were to supply
labor on a co-operative basis {kinro hoshi). Another was that they were
to pro\ide recreational outlets in the form of organized sports programs.

The age-grade society system exists today in a vastly modified form.
The villages within each municipality have been combined into one pool
from which membership is drawn for one club in each of three age levels
(young, middle, and old). With older age-grades, the system of leader-
ship prevalent in pre-contact times is adhered to with few exceptions.
Those individuals who serve as leaders are selected, for the most part,
according to the old system. The leader of the eldest club is the village
chief. The leadership for the other two age-grade groups may be sup-
plied by his sib as in aboriginal times.

As an indirect result of acculturational change, however, leadership in
some young men's clubs is elective today. This form of leader selection
is an application of new modes of leader selection which are considered
"democratic" and which are utilized in selecting political leaders. Be-
cause the newly introduced mode of leader selection is not functionally
equivalent to the traditional mode, what frequently happens with elected
age-grade leaders is that even though they may be nominal leaders of their
clubs, they must secure sanction for their decisions from the "rightful"
leaders — the men who would have been the leaders according to tradi-
tional practices. There is obviously a good deal of dysfunction as a result.
This is a case of the inhibition of an element of culture, namely, the mode
of leadership selection, and the substitution of a new element (leader selec-
tion by vote) which does not functionally substitute for the old element.

If enforcement of the cultural changes relating to club leader selection
had been more effectively carried out, there would have been less tendency
for the old element relating to leader selection to be retained. We must
conclude from this example that the extent to which directed change is
effectively enforced will determine the degree of retention of old culture
elements which may result in dysfunctions. In the example cited, the
opportunity for adaptation under relatively non-stringent enforcement of
change partially accounts for the absence of "disastrous" results and the
presence of merely dysfunctional ones.

VIIL The Chains of Custom:
Partial Adoption and Partial Retention

Cultural change is far from an all-or-none phenomenon with respect
to the new elements which are introduced and the old elements which are
abandoned to make room for the new ones. There seems to be a great
tolerance for duplication of culture elements. By no means does the sub-
stitution of a new culture element always result in the complete elimination
of the old one. In any acculturating group there are many cases of partial
as well as complete replacement of culture elements.

Among emergent leaders in Palau there have been introduced a num-
ber of culture elements that have to do with leader status. These elements
have not at all completely effaced the old culture elements which pertain
to the same thing. The old and the new elements exist side by side.

For instance, in terms of contemporary leadership in representative
government, elected congressmen are, in theory, of comparable status.
Each represents a similar number of persons from a given municipality.
Each is empowered to vote in congress, to serve on committees, to take
part in discussions, and to represent his municipality in general. What
happens, however, is that some congressmen have higher statuses than
others by virtue of the existence of old elements of Palauan culture which
pertain to individual status. A younger congressman will defer to an
older one. This is the result of patterned age-respect. A female repre-
sentative will defer to a male representative. This is a function of the
traditional, relatively retiring role played by women in meetings com-
prised mostly of men. A representativ^e of a relatively low social (family)
status under the traditional kinship system will defer to another repre-
sentative who is of high social status under the old system, thereby exem-
plifying the persistence of old ideas of hereditary social position. Thus, the
introduction of new elements of American culture which accord enhanced
status in relatively equal measure to all congressmen has only partially
replaced the old elements of Palauan culture which bear on leadership
status and status in general.

Leadership behavior in present-day Palau is rife with examples of par-
tial acceptance and partial resistance, of change and non-change merging

137

138 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

together to form a new cultural blend. Functional harmony does not
always follow in such a synthesis. Consider, for example, the paradox of
the young emergent specialist leader who goes away to medical school to
learn new and scientific ways of combating illness and who carries with him
a small bit of red cloth as an amulet to protect his person against sickness.

Consider, further, the returned student of medicine who now admits
with embarrassment the incongruity of his behavior of several years before
and at the same time behaves in a new and different situation in such a
way as to demonstrate yet another equally incongruous admixture of cul-
tural elements. An infant had died in a remote village in which two
young medical practitioners were working. The practitioner who was
present at the death of the child took great pains to make it clear that
actually it was his associate and not he who had been treating the baby.
The old cultural tendency to avoid being in a position of accountability
overrode the new Hippocratic code in which responsibility for healing
is integral.

The attempt to reconcile the old with the new pervades Palauan cul-
ture at every level. Even beliefs about the supernatural provide a series
of opportunities for partial acceptance and partial resistance to change.
During the remote village phase of this study I was visited by one of the
village leaders. The man was a high-ranking chief and a congressman
from his municipality. He had served in the past as magistrate and —
what is more important in terms of this example — he was a long-time
member and leading light in the local Protestant congregation. The pur-
pose of his visit was to ask me to identify some skeletal fragments which
had been exhumed on a nearby island. He had no doubt that they were
old. Nor was there any question that they might have been animal bones.
Rather, the question I was asked was whether the fragments of bone were
human or whether they were those of the primeval chelid el chad ("half god
-half man") deities of Palauan folklore. Despite the influence of his
Christian indoctrination and his status as a reasonably enlightened emer-
gent leader, this individual had not completely abandoned traditional
ideas of the supernatural.

Innumerable further examples of partial adoption and partial rejection
and /or retention have to do with leaders, leadership behavior, and be-
havior toward leaders in Palau. When the magistrate system was intro-
duced, it brought a whole new constellation of meanings relating to
leadership. The senior municipal official was accorded enhanced pres-
tige and elevated status befitting a community headman and his role in
social functions was defined within rather flexible limits.

Certain behavior and some attitudes which apply to the magistrate
as an emergent leader do not, however, always extend to his wife. The

THE CHAINS OF CUSTOM 139

wives of individuals in executive positions of leadership in the cultures of
the Western world are customarily accorded some sort of "first lady"
status by virtue of the statuses of their husbands. Because of the reten-
tion of traditionally patterned ideas about status which relate to sex and
family position, the "first lady" of a Palauan municipality (the magis-
trate's wife) is not necessarily prominent in social gatherings in which her
husband plays a leading role. Unless her own family background is suffi-
ciently outstanding to merit her recognition in her own right, she will be
ignored by the assemblage. When it comes to behavior toward the spouses
of leaders, retention of old ideas has resulted in a complex different from
that found in the dominant culture from which stimuli for change were
derived.

RETENTION AND PRESTIGE VALUES

The retention of traditional modes of behavior may be detrimental to
leadership prestige or it may be beneficial, since old values may persevere
and be respected in some segments of society. The positive prestige values
which attach to the material symbols of Western world culture cause an
emergent leader to adopt these symbols quite readily. To retain tra-
ditional elements which run counter to these new prestige symbols would,
according to his way of thinking, subject the leader to a lessening of
his prestige.

Young emergent leaders avoid traditional usages which they feel would
be injurious to their prestige, both in the eyes of the administration and in
the estimation of their peers. No young man would be seen in a traditional
breechcloth, nor would he wear a bone bracelet or carry a handbag for
his personal possessions. Some young leaders place a negative value on
the practice of betel-chewing and never chew in the presence of members
of the administration. However, they still must function on occasion in
a traditional milieu with Palauan elders present, and then they attempt
to please the elders by chewing. Great care is exercised in either chew-
ing" or not chewing, depending on the situation.

Conversely, the members of the traditional elite actively maintain old
customs and are proud of the high social position which they symbolize.
Some old chiefs, for example, deliberately wear loincloths, exhibit bone
bracelets on their wrists with pride, would never be seen without their
handbags, and are inveterate betel-chewers. These individuals, who have
their stake in traditional ways, are proud to follow the old customs which
symbolize high social position.

There is a great deal of cultural pride in Palau, despite a generalized
receptivity to change and the numerous modifications in pristine culture
content which have occurred over several centuries. Families of high

140 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

social position actively maintain certain old traditional customs. The
very high families (sibs) provide lustration ceremonies for their female
members at the birth of a first child. This ceremony was formerly a pre-
rogative of families of high social status and is so maintained today. In
some cases new mothers are emergent leaders, but out of deference to
family pressures they participate. Some women are more conscious than
others of the prestige values associated with participation in such a cere-
mony. Not long ago a nurse of high family-status in Ngaur municipality
bore her first child. She was provided with a very large lustration cere-
mony (ngasech) but she and the other young women who participated in-
sisted that, even though they were to wear nativ^e costume during the
ceremony, their Ijreasts should be covered — a primary concession to
Western values!

Still another example of the retention of old symbols which are con-
sidered beneficial to prestige is seen in the "wearing" of native bead
money. The segment of Palauan society which is most concerned with
native currency is the one which traditionally has been considered to be
elite. It is women from this stratum of society who validate their respec-
tive family statuses by wearing money pieces on special social occasions.

The verbal behavior exhibited Ijy some emergent leaders is another
case of the maintenance of symbols of high social position in the form of
customs which are followed by a particular group after the bulk of the
society has given them up. Old and new elements of culture are blended
together to form a resultant compound, different from both traditional
and newly introduced culture elements.

A congressman from an outlying municipality is a member of a high-
ranking sib. He prides himself on his knowledge of traditional custom and
he is generally respected for that knowledge as well as for his emergent
leadership roles. He has served his municipality as teacher, school prin-
cipal, magistrate, congressman, Palau Council member, and member of
the pan-Palau Board of Education. He is economically successful because
of his copra production and because of this success is looked upon as an
economic leader. In all of the emergent leadership roles which this indi-
vidual has played he has emphasized certain traditional usages. One of
the most outstanding of his means of doing so is his mode of verbal expres-
sion. He follows the traditionally valued practice of loading his utterances
with metaphor. When he speaks, his listeners remark that he speaks as a

Fig. 26. Age differences and cultural orientations. Upper: A member of the
new generation looks to the future. Lower : An old female chief for whom the only
clear vista is that of the past.

141

142 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

chief. For this individual the old ways hold prestige values in spite of the
new roles he plays as an emergent leader.

RETENTION AND DYSFUNCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
BEHAVIOR

Traditionally, a paramount hereditary chief had the right to make
pronouncements on policy and decisions as to action only if he had the
support of subordinate chiefs. Organized opposition to his independent
decisions by his peers, even though they were of inferior status, could
effectively render the decisions impotent. Most often the result of objec-
tions to decisions was that the decisions were changed. The emphasis
upon unanimity of feeling and consensus in decision-making allowed de-
cisions to be altered either toward amelioration or strengthening without
loss of chiefly prestige on the part of the senior chief. If necessary, how-
ever, a high chief's independent authority could be challenged to the
extent that his decision would be reversed even to the detriment of his
prestige.

The relatively "democratic" character of leadership in aboriginal Palau
reduced the degree of independence a leader might exercise in decision-
making. At the same time, there were individual differences, and chiefs
with particularly strong wills were more autocratic than their peers who
were less strong-willed.

The Palauan emergent leader is also limited in his independence in
decision-making since he functions in a democratic system. Independent
action is always subject to approbation by peers; but however limited his
independence in decision-making may be, an effective leader makes deci-
sions which result in successful group activity. His consistent good judg-
ment tends to build up a volume of "credit" upon which he can draw
when he makes future policy decisions. If a leader makes judgments
which are imprudent, even occasionally, he runs the risk of losing the con-
fidence of his followers. He is expected to be correct in his judgments and
decisions. A congressman places his leadership record on trial each time
he argues for or against a resolution on the floor of the congress or when
he so much as raises his hand to vote.

In terms of functional expediency, decision-making is one of the chief
features of role behavior at the level of executive leadership in the Western
world. In contrast, the retention of traditional features of Palauan culture
which relate to general avoidance of responsibility and an institutionalized
reluctance to commit one's self gives rise to dysfunctions in contemporary
leader behavior.

THE CHAINS OF CUSTOM 143

Manifestations of indecisive leader behavior are not at all difficult to
discern. In a recent dispute over the expenditure of a piece of native cur-
rency, the Koror council of chiefs was engaged in a long and indecisive
argument over policy. The members were agreed as to sentiment, but no
chief had assumed leadership in formulating a policy decision; finally, one
of the lesser-ranking chiefs, who possessed considerable status as a result of
his advanced age, rose to the occasion by speaking out quite directly. His
comments were heard and his decision followed. The reaction on the part
of the remainder of the council was interesting to observe. One member
commented that the chief had spoken "like a white man, not like Palauans,
who always speak like an amaidecheduiy An amaidechedui is a small lizard
who climbs tree trunks in a spiral. The simile is used to describe the cul-
turally patterned circumlocution which is typical of Palauans.

Circumlocution is but one manifestation of a deep-seated Palauan per-
sonality characteristic, namely, the generalized reluctance to commit one's
self, or assume responsibility. The term "melingmes^^ is used to describe
this type of behavior. In part, melingmes is based upon recognition of
social status; one should not contradict his social superior. It also has a
basis in general social propriety; one must always be courteous and re-
spectful to others.

A part of melingmes is also that one must be self-effacing and self-deny-
ing. If a traveler stops to rest at a friend's house and is asked if he is hungry
or thirsty, the traveler will reply that he is not, even if he is famished or
very dry. This is melingmes. The host will then provide a repast over the
patterned protestations of his guest and will apologize for the poor quality
of the food and drink. This, too, is melingmes.

Palauans are often reluctant to criticize improper behavior. They do
not wish to go on record as havdng a point of view. They are reluctant to
assume responsibility for acts or opinions. Numerous examples which
illustrate this general tendency can be cited. Some may be drawn from
the commonplace happenings in daily life; others from areas of relatively
greater social importance. There may be a crisis aboard a native boat
which has lost its power and is drifting toward a coral outcropping and
no one among the crew or the passengers will assume the responsibility
for throwing the anchor overboard; or a group of young men may stand
by in suspense while a dogfight rages on a village street. The explanation
for the behavior in both cases is melingmes.

Recently two social issues plagued the residents of one municipality.
People were not paying their taxes, and illegal stills were making alcoholic
spirits for sale. Neither the chiefs nor the magistrate would assume re-
sponsibility for a policy that would combat either situation. Finally a

144 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

particularly aggressive magistrate did take a stand, but his behavior was
considered atypical and he received some censure.

The tendency to avoid personal responsibility is so strong that even
relatively young emergent leaders are often quite ineffective. A case in
point is the system of forming committees of the legislature which will be
responsible for working on specific resolutions for the next session of con-
gress. Committees are formed on the last day of a legislative session. The
President of the Congress is empowered to appoint committees, but what
happens consistently is that he calls for nominations for each committee
and votes are taken to determine final membership. The procedure oc-
cupies a full half-day. The president's behavior exhibits melingmes. By
calling for nominations and votes, he is not committed personally in the
committee organization. The situation is further complicated and length-
ened by many members of the congress, who decline nomination. This
behavior, too, demonstrates melingmes. Palauans like large committees.
A twenty-member committee in congress is quite common. The logic is
clear — the more members, the broader the distribution of responsibility.

Legislative sessions are often fraught with confusion because the presi-
dent is unwilling to stifle useless and time-consuming debate and in general
does not provide decisive leadership. Though there is a growing tendency
for emergent leaders to be more willing to commit themselves and to accept
responsibility, the tendency for Palauans to be generally indecisive is diffi-
cult to overcome, and dysfunctional leader behavior is often the rule rather
than the exception.

Deep-seated tendencies toward indecisiveness in Palauan culture ac-
tively interfere with the exercise of decisive leadership by emergent leaders.
In one way, the perpetuation of the old behavior-governing attitudes re-
sults in '"resistance" to change — not conscious resistance which results in
non-acceptance at the time of introduction, but unconscious resistance
which results in partial non-acceptance in later behavioral applications.
The last example cited is typical of what often happens at the integrational
level of directed acculturational change. The form of the newly intro-
duced element has been accepted under conditions where choice is largely
ruled out, but the meanings and behavioral expectancies associated with
the element in the donor culture have been only partially adopted.

RETENTION AND STABILITY: UNIVERSALS OR
FORTUITOUS CULTURAL CONGRUENCES?

Features of culture which do not evidence appreciable change from
pre-contact configurations to post-contact ones either have been resistant
to stimuli for change or have remained relatively stable due to reinforcing

THE CHAINS OF CUSTOM 145

stimuli from the contact culture. Such reinforcement is often due to for-
tuitous congruences between features of the two cultures in contact.

An added consideration — yet to be stressed in studies of non-change —
is that some cases of stability due to reinforcement of pre-existing features
of culture may be caused by relatively pan-cultural universals. The ex-
amination of relatively stable characteristics of leadership behavior in
Palau under conditions of culture contact will demonstrate the point.
In each case reinforcement may actually have occurred because of the
existence of universals of effective leadership. That is to say, having pre-
viously hypothesized the existence of such universals, we might have
predicted that non-change would have resulted in certain areas of be-
havior regardless of the specific cultural influences.

Whether or not such universals exist could be determined only after
considerable comparative work. One of the values of a case study is,
however, that it can point to leads for future research.

On the basis of the Palauan data which have to do with non-change
in the characteristics of leadership behavior there appear to be strong im-
plications for the existence of universals. These data by no means purport
to exhaust the roster of such universals if, in fact, they do exist, but the
data do point to what appear to be significant ones. The examples cited
below are merely extracts from one study of leadership. They stand as a
suggestion of the possibility that such universals exist, not as confirmation
that they do. Before defensible conclusions of broad significance can be
stated concerning cross-culturally valid features of leadership there will
have to be a considerable amount of comparative work.

STABILITY AND NON-CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP ROLE

BEHAVIOR

As it is conceived in this study, leadership is role behavior. A leader
occupies a recognized status in a group and his actions as a result of this
status constitute leader behavior. As it is used here, "role" is viewed as
"the dynamic aspect of status" (Linton, 1936, p. 114).

There are two audiences toward which a leader's role behavior is
directed. One is the group for which he provides leadership; the other is
composed of individuals who are not members of that group but with
whom he comes into contact. To the latter he owes little; to the former,
much. In his relations with persons not of his group, a leader ideally
serves the interests of his group, since he is their representative. This is
the basis of representative government, and a first lesson to be learned by
emergent political leaders.

146 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

To the members of the group he represents, a leader's roles are many.
Some Palauan leadership role behavior which has remained relatively
stable throughout the history of contact suggests that universals may be
involved; for example, leaders may be looked to universally for advice and
counsel by members of the group they lead. Sagacity may well be a uni-
versally esteemed characteristic of leadership.

Traditional leadership in Palau was provided by individuals who were
expected to be informed about the group for whom they provided leader-
ship, and also were expected to be generally informed. I have noted
earlier in my discussion of traditional leader role behavior and the expec-
tations of traditional leadership that general knowledgeability on the part
of the chiefs was stressed. The same expectations hold for emergent lead-
ership. Persons who have been elected to political office in Palau ha\e
ordinarily been ones who were informed not only as to the problems in
their communities, but also as to the means for executing their duties.
Being informed (or knowledgeable) is closely related to the possession of
certain facilitating skills.

One of the expectations of emergent leaders today is that they should
possess an understanding of the nature of the American administration
and the culture it represents. Because of this understanding it is "gen-
erally felt that these leaders are in a . . . position to secure favors . . . from
the administration" (Palau District Memorandum from District Anthro-
pologist to District Administration, 1953).

Traditional leaders in Palau offered advice whether it was solicited or
not. Age-respect patterns assured them that attention would be paid to
their words. A chief was frequently the only source of information on a
given subject. Wisdom and advanced age were considered to be positively
correlated; hence, chiefs, who were usually of advanced age, often were
termed chelimosk ("wise person"). Hereditary leaders were known for their
special knowledge as well as their general wisdom. A chief in one munici-
pality today is considered to be an authority on chants and money matters.
He is consulted by younger persons at social functions where chants are
sung competitively. He is renowned for his memory and reminds forget-
ful singers of the proper words. His leadership is directed to all members
of the community, not just toward his kin group. Likewise, if a young
man wishes to make a money payment, he will consult this chief to dis-
cover the proper piece he should use and to learn what he should expect
in return. A person who listens to and abides by the advice supplied by
an elder is kedung ("well-mannered," "respectful," "good").

Because the whole of the process of socialization consists of the proffer-
ing of instruction and advice, both in word and deed, and since leaders of

THE CHAINS OF CUSTOM 147

kin groups were the agents through which sociaHzalion occurred in ab-
original Palau, it is clear that traditional leaders exhibited role behavior
in which they advised and encouraged their followers.

Emergent leaders also advise and encourage — sometimes because of
special knowledge they possess, and sometimes because they are consid-
ered to be generally wise. A successful storekeeper who is clearly an
economic leader may be asked his opinion and advice, not only on business
matters within a field of his presumed competence, but also on matters
which have nothing to do with economic pursuits. This represents a
carry-over from traditional ideas of leadership role behavior; it demon-
strates a high degree of stability.

Besides offering advice and counsel, a leader often provides an outlet
for the confiding of problems. Advice is unconsciously sought by followers
who react toward their leaders in this way.

Under the indigenous kinship system in Palau a chief was frequently
also the leader of a sib. He stood in avuncular relationship to many of
the sib members, since all male elders within a sib were conceived of col-
laterally as "mother's brother." The special behavior one exhibited tra-
ditionally toward one's maternal relations and particularly toward one's
mother's male sibling or, in extension, toward all male sib-mates of com-
parable age to one's mother, has special significance for this study. A sib
leader definitely stood in a special institutionalized relationship to other
sib members and was the socially designated individual in whom one
might confide.

To some degree the biological father of Ego competed with the mother's
brother for the loyalty of Ego, but even when Ego chose to take his cares
to his father in preference to his maternal uncle, it was a leader to whom
he appealed, because the father provided household leadership and per-
haps held leadership status in his own sib.

Emergent leaders do not always stand in a consanguineal connection
to persons who look to them for leadership. Because they function within
the traditional kinship system, emergent leaders do serve in some cases as
leaders of kin groups. To the extent that they do, they will be called upon
to play confessor-confidant roles. Their selection as emergent leaders,
however, is governed by factors which are external to the traditional kin-
ship system, and their followers outside their kin groups may or may not
confide in them or confess troubles to them. There has been some
transfer in role behavior, however, and some emergent leaders who com-
mand respect from those they lead are able to fulfill roles formerly played
exclusiv^ely by traditional leaders.

A recognition of special competence may dictate the choice one makes
as to whom he will bring his problems. If a young man wishes to go to

148 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

high school in Guam, he may confide his desires to the local teacher or
principal. If a person is concerned over something he has done which
is generally considered reprehensible, he may seek out a lay minister or
catechist. Likewise, an individual who suspects that he has a venereal
infection may discuss it with a medical practitioner or nurse rather than
with any other leader.

Traditional leaders were expected to be all things to all men — at least
to all men within the group for which they supplied leadership. With the
present-day emphasis upon specialization of leadership, the roles of leaders
are more clearly defined and are limited to a particular sphere of compe-
tence. Specialist emergent leaders often serve Palauans in general, rather
than only those of a relatively small kin or local group. Their role be-
havior is, therefore, more limited in scope than that of traditional leaders,
but is directed generally to the broader audience.^

Still another relatively stable feature of Palauan leadership behavior
which may be a universal of leader role behavior is that of arbitration. In
aboriginal times the Palauan councils of chiefs performed the functions of
a court as well as those of a legislature. Executive, legislative, and judicial
functions were combined. It was common practice for chiefs to settle dis-
putes over land, money, and personal property. They depended upon the
traditions of custom law to provide answers to social problems. With this
bolster, the chiefs dictated settlements which allowed for a payment of
native currency. Such payments usually brought a dispute of almost any
intensity to an end.

One money payment which was formerly quite common was called
tngakereng. Today this payment is made principally to resolve marital dif-
ficulties when a wife has left her husband because of some alleged or actual
misbehavior on his part. In earlier days it was also prescribed for the
settling of disputes between consanguineal relatives, friends, age-grade so-
cieties, kin groups and kin group segments, village moieties, and villages.

Today magistrates and some other emergent leaders (including infor-
mal leaders) are called upon to settle disputes between members of the
groups they lead. The role of chiefs in settling disputes has changed some-
what. Some matters are appealed to chiefs, but there are today other
leaders to whom one may appeal. Special agencies such as the District

^ It should be emphasized that specialist emergent leaders do not ordinarily supply
leadership for a well-defined social group of relatively small numerical size. There is
often little group cohesion among those served and members of such a collectivity may
share few common interests or may not even perceive themselves as a group. This
variety of leadership is not strictly comparable to the variety of leadership in small
groups where interpersonal relations are primary, where interests are mutually valued,
and where members are aware that they form a collectivity which is distinguishable
from other collectivities.

THE CHAINS OF CUSTOM 149

Court and the Land and Claims Department of the administration have
been estabHshed to handle differences. Traditional leaders are called
upon much less often than before the introduction of external authority
and new agents and agencies of power. Today a legal code provides the
basis for settling many disputes. Most chiefs have only a hazy knowledge
of the contents of the code. Either American or native judges decide dis-
putes which formerly would have come to the attention of traditional
leaders and which would have elicited appropriate role behavior from
them. Thus the arbitrating role of traditional leaders has been usurped
to some extent by emergent ones as a result of cultural change, but they
are still called upon to arbitrate some disputes.

Another characteristic of effective leadership which has remained un-
changed in Palau and which may be a universal is that of resourcefulness.
The fact that ineffective leadership exists today among some traditional
leaders and some emergent leaders who lack resourcefulness, serves to
point up the disparity which exists between normative and actual be-
havior. Resourcefulness on the part of a leader is still an ideal prerequisite
of effective leadership. Its absence in some cases is significant because it is
indicative of a detrimental effect of change. The ideal has remained
stable, but actual behavior fails to live up to the ideal because of the
weakening or total loss of leadership sanctions at the traditional level and
because of inadequate appreciation of leadership sanctions at emergent
levels. Individual differences at both levels contribute to a given leader's
degree of resourcefulness.

In pre-contact Palau a chief was supposed to be an "idea man." His
followers and lesser-ranking chiefs were obliged to put his ideas into action.
The fact that many traditional leaders are not exhibiting resourceful be-
havior today was brought sharply to light recently in a municipal "town
meeting" in one Palauan municipality. Following is an excerpt from field
notes covering the meeting. The discussion centered on an assessment of
the recent accomplishments in the municipality. Everyone was agreed
that there had not been many. Two factions were arguing the reasons.
The hereditary chiefs (traditional formal leaders) formed one faction and
the relatively young men (30-45 years of age) the other. The most out-
spoken young men were those who provided informal and formal emergent
leadership in the municipality. They were taking their elders to task.
The main point they made was that, among other things, the chiefs were
not resourceful.

First young man: "Things have not been well in the village. Nothing is being accom-
plished. If you chiefs would get together and do your jobs properly, then things would
be different. It is just like the way in which you chiefs go to the canoe shed to wait for
your share of the fish when the fishermen return from the lagoon. While you are sitting

150 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

there, the canoe shed is falHng down around you. The responsibility for the village is
the chiefs'. You have forgotten your responsibility."

Chief: "But the people do not listen to us; we are weak."

Second young man: "You chiefs always say that you have no power. You and your
helpers must have meetings and discuss problems. If you do, the people will take
heart."

First young man (to a specific chief) : "You chiefs have real, big power. You can tell
people to pay their taxes and they must. You are the man who sits with his back to
the ptang [stone back-rest on the council house platform; a seat of authority] ; you
are strong."

Leaders vary in their resourcefulness. In the spring of 1955 a new
magistrate was elected in one of the municipalities on Babeldaol:) Island.
He began immediately to "organize" the municipality. He planned a
series of projects, from the designation of responsibility for care of the
roads to stopping the manufacture of alcoholic spirits in unlicensed stills.
He set up committees and delegated responsibility. His manner was force-
ful, his program logical. He was successful where his predecessor had failed.

When a leader lacks resourcefulness and does not provide efTective
leadership, there will be no common "positive" activity. Divisive tend-
encies will prevail. An example of ineffective leadership will serve to
substantiate the point. As has been mentioned earlier in this study, there
is a long tradition of individual village autonomy in Palau. This is true
in spite of the affiliation of groups of villages into political confederations.
This tendency toward autonomy is based upon socio-political systems
which existed relatively independently in all villages. The individual
social statuses of kin group leaders (hereditary chiefs) were maintained
under this system. The tradition of village autonomy has been retained
to the present time.

Municipal boundaries correspond to pre-contact lines of division which
separated small groups of villages which were closely allied; for example,
Ngerechelong municipality contains seven villages, each of which has a
senior chief and a village council of chiefs. Traditionally, one of the seven
villages was considered senior and its chief was senior to those of the other
six villages. The present administration recognizes this scheme of organ-
ization.

At the present time the senior chief of Ngerechelong municipality is
highly ineffective. His personality is far from dynamic, and he has suf-
fered poor health for some years and is generally inactive. His behavior
is not resourceful. Moreover, he has few sib members upon whom he may
rely for support, and therefore he has very limited financial resources.
As a result, he does not exert effective leadership within the municipality.
Chiefs from the other six villages carry on as autonomously as possible.

THE CHAINS OF CUSTOM 151

There is little unanimity of action, little concerted effort toward common
municipal goals, and a consequent general dysfunction. The senior chief
does not provide a cohesive force. His role behavior is not that of an
effective leader.

The neighboring municipality of Ngarard, on the other hand, is headed
by a resourceful chief of strong character from a large sib. He has good
health and is financially solvent. Ngarard is recognized as a relatively
well-organized municipality in which individual village autonomy is sub-
merged in the interests of municipal unity. Resourcefulness on the part
of the senior chief in this municipality results in effective leadership which
provides group cohesion. Perhaps it may ultimately be shown that effec-
tive leadership is basically active leadership — in other words, that "good"
leaders get things done.^

Several generations ago a high chief of Youldaob was known for his
achievements. His leadership frequently is compared with a more recent
holder of the same title. This latter chief is known for his lackluster per-
formance as a leader. He did not know custom. He violated chiefly
responsibilities by squandering his sib's money, and he tried to use village
money to pay for his family obligations. People explain his behavior vari-
ously. One explanation is that when he was young and still heir presump-
tive to the high title, he did not apply himself to the learning of custom
and chiefly duties; he preferred to go fishing.

Under a system of ascribed leadership status it is possible for an indi-
vidual to be a leader nominally, but to exhibit few of the qualities of lead-
ership which relate to action. In this case, such an individual becomes
a figurehead. Actually, other individuals provide functional leadership
which results in action, but they are not leaders nominally.

An example of action-prone emergent leadership may be drawn from
Koror village. Several years ago the middle-aged-women's club wished
to have a clubhouse. (This is innovative behavior in the first place since,
as has been mentioned earlier, women's clubs had no houses in aboriginal
Palau.) They arranged for land upon which to erect the house and called
upon the men's clubs for assistance. After some time it became apparent
that no assistance was forthcoming. One of the women, therefore, took
it upon herself to secure a building. She discovered an unused Japanese-
style building" and secured the permission of the administration to dis-
mantle it and re-erect it on club land. Next she organized crews of men
and women to do the work and arranged for trucks to transport the dis-
mantled sections. The women not only had their clubhouse as a result of
the leadership provided by this woman, but the women won a victory over

1 For a thoughtful and probing commentary on the characteristics of effective
leadership, see Whyte (1955, pp. 257-263 and passim).

152 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

the men's clubs with whom they compete. The distinction which must
be drawn here is between nominal leaders and true or "good" leaders.
"Functional" or "operational" leadership is based upon action (see Gard-
ner, 1956, and Whyte, 1951).

A final characteristic of leader behavior which has remained stable in
Palau and which suggests itself as a possible universal of effective leader-
ship is that of integrity. Indigenous leadership in Palau ideally was sup-
posed to be trusted. A leader's word was supposed to be dependable.
If a chief freed a prisoner captured in a raid on an enemy \dllage and
told him to go his way — that he would not be molested — the prisoner was
supposed to be able to rely on the promise. Likewise, if a leader promised
his followers that he would do something, he was supposed to keep his word.

Attitudes toward emergent leaders are much the same. If a magis-
trate promises to repair the village road or to raise teachers' salaries he
is expected to do so. Both of these promises were made by a magistrate
in one Palauan municipality recently. When he failed to carry out his
promises he was criticized by members of the community. The Palauan
language includes a term for truth. If one's word may be depended upon
it is said that he speaks mral tegoi (literally, "real talk").

Traditional Palauan leaders were supposed to be fair and just in their
dealings w^ith their followers. Despotism did occur occasionally under the
system of inherited titles, but chiefs who were particularly despotic were
either banished from office or killed outright. Meserou, a high chief of
Youldaob in the dim past, is depicted in folk tales as a despot. One in-
formant said, "When Meserou was chief he was very strong and hard on
the people. So they threatened to oust him and he moved to another
village" (thereby relinquishing his title).

Folklore accounts tell of several chiefs who were ambushed and killed
because of their oppressive despotic behavior. Ideally a chief was ex-
pected to behave fairly in his relations with those he led and with chiefs
from other villages. His conduct was constantly scrutinized by his sub-
ordinates and peers. If he was found wanting in any chiefly character-
istics, including fair-mindedness, he was subjected to censure and the
eflfectiveness of his leadership suffered.

Emergent leaders, too, are supposed to be fair and just in their rela-
tions with followers and other leaders. A fair-minded man does not take
advantage of his superior position in interpersonal relations. A value re-
lating to ideal leader behavior which was applied to traditional leaders
and which is also applied to emergent ones is that a leader should not be
egoistic or conceited. He should not hold his status up for all to see.
Rather, he should behave fairly toward all persons with whom he has deal-

THE CHAINS OF CUSTOM 153

ings. When discussing a particularly controversial contemporary young
leader an informant gave this appraisal: "He is meterakakel a ngarel ['reck-
less with his mouth'] . He speaks to men as he would to a dog or cat.
He acts like he is a high man."

Whether or not universals of leadership behavior are involved, it is
patent that there has been a high degree of stability and non-change in
patterns of Palauan leader behavior. The chains of custom have been
pulled taut under acculturative stress, but they have held, even in the
face of relatively drastic directed and enforced cultural change. It is to
be expected that their strength will diminish only gradually as the passing
of generations causes them to erode and fall away.

IX. Leadership and Cultural Change
in Broader Perspective

There are two cogent questions which may be posed at the conclusion
of any case study: To what extent do the data and findings of the study
corroborate or contradict general theoretical understandings and com-
parable case studies and to what extent do they extend them? The
Palauan data on leadership change under acculturational stress tend to
reinforce a number of significant general understandings about what hap-
pens under conditions of culture contact. The special conditions of directed
change in the area of leadership, furthermore, suggest certain modifica-
tions, if not contradictions, and some extensions of our general under-
standings about acculturational change. Of course, the remarks in this
study are based on the assumption that cultural anthropology is, as Rad-
clifTe-Brown (1952, p. 1) has said, a nomothetic study, "the aim of which
is to provide acceptable generalizations."

Comparisons of the data of this study with other case data are made in
this chapter. Case materials are those selected from Africa and from parts
of Oceania outside Micronesia. Each of these areas has had a history of
contact and an administrative background broadly comparable to those
in Palau.

GENERAL UNDERSTANDINGS AND OTHER CASE DATA

The foregoing pages of this study validate the maxim which holds that
people "tend to respond most easily to stimuli which have some continuity
with, or analogy with, their traditional values and forms of organization."
(Firth, 1957, p. 198.) Relative ease of culture transfer and adaptation to
external stimuli for change has for some time been attributed to what
Herskovits (1938, p. 134) has called "congruity of culture patterns."
"Under such conditions there will be a basis for collaboration and agree-
ment in ideas, sentiments, and general outlook. . . ." (Malinowski, 1945,
p. 66.) Compatibility or congruity as well as their antitheses have been
subsumed under what Malinowski chose to call "the common factor in
culture change." Where compatibility exists, the common factor is a
positive one and felicitous change may be expected; where it does not

154

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE 155

exist, the common factor is negative and the effects of such conditions are
also negative.

"Long-run identity of interests" (loc. cit.) between introduced cul-
tural emphases and indigenous Palauan ones which relate to leadership
and which contribute to the existence of a positive common factor of lead-
ership change in Palau centers on the acquisition and maintenance of
wealth, certain assertive personal characteristics, respect quotients, and
specialized skills and competence. The negative common factor relates
to relative age, mode of leader selection, sex role behavior, and qualities
of decisiveness. The conclusions arrived at by Malinowski in his analysis
of African contexts of change seem to be very well borne out by leadership
change in Palau.

Leadership change in Palau effectively demonstrates the tendency for
a culture undergoing change to place familiar interpretations on newly
acquired cultural increments. The various characteristics of cultural ele-
ments (form, meaning, use, and function) allow almost infinite malleability
under relatively non-stringent conditions of contact. However, in Palau,
and in all probability in the majority of cases of contact between so-called
"native peoples" and technologically advanced cultures, conditions are
rarely non-stringent. But even in the face of overpowering influences to
conform to the modes of behavior relating to adopted elements under
conditions of dominance and submission, considerable violence to the
integrity of introduced elements is done.

The generally accepted notion that an acculturating culture will im-
pose familiar interpretations in the course of adopting new cultural fea-
tures is confirmed by the Palauan materials on leadership change. Such
interpretations result in stability and non-change. Retention of the old
in the adoption of the new is the process involved. The examples cited
in the foregoing pages of this study may be added to those of any number
of other reports of change in the area of native leadership. Extremely
comparable are the findings from a number of African field studies (see,
for example. Hunter, 1936).

Palauan materials also serve to bulwark the African data bearing on
the issue of the loss or partial loss of traditional sanctions of leadership and
the consequent vitiation of effective leader behavior. In Northern Rho-
desia the administration recognized the chiefs while failing to note the
importance of the hereditary sacerdotal functionaries who served as coun-
cil members aboriginally. Bereft of his advisors, a chief could not function
as before. He no longer had behind him the sanctions of public opinion
which his council provided. In a close parallel to the situation in Palau,
Bemba chiefs also lost sanctions related to the possession of economic assets.

156 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

The abolition of war and tribute-taking, when coupled with the intro-
duction of a money economy and medium of exchange by the dominant
culture, left chiefs without another basic sanction for leader behavior
(Richards, 1935).

Support is found in Palauan leadership change for the idea that any
contact situation may be viewed advantageously as an integral whole
(Malinowski, 1945, p. 14). Powerful and effective responses to stimuli
for change tend to be disintegrating influences in the sense that they
negate certain existing features of culture by supplanting or simply out-
lawing them. A situation where these features have to do with deeply
rooted aspects of culture ofTers an especially fav^orable opportunity for the
observation of the integrated nature of culture. In less crucial areas of
culture, such "chain reactions" when one cultural feature is displaced or
subtracted are less observable.

An example of the far-reaching involvements in leadership change may
be drawn from Malinowski's (op. cit., p. 52) comments on African culture:

Chieftainship is often based on the Native system of kinship, and it represents the
principle of family authority in an extended and glorified form. It is the embodiment
of past history, of all that is magnificent in it. In order to uproot chieftainship com-
pletely it would be necessary to change law and religion, to refashion family life, and
to stamp out all the memories of the past.

The integration of hereditary leadership in Palauan culture is no less true.
Principles of family authority, history, law, religion, the exchange system,
inheritance, social control, and territorial alignments are all subject to
reverberations when traditional leadership merely is nudged. When it is
given a great push aside, the reverberations become tremors of drastic
proportions. Thus is confirmed Radcliffe-Brown's (1952, p. 7) comment:
"It is a corollary of the hypothesis of the systematic connection of features
of social life that changes in some features are likely to produce changes
in other features."^

At the same time that attention is called to the validation of the func-
tional viewpoint, it must be said that Malinowski's (1945, p. 20) unwilling-
ness to accept the assertion that existing institutions cannot possibly be
understood without a knowledge of the past is not a tenable position \vhen
we examine Palauan leadership change. Even if we grant the difficulties
of determining a "zero point of change" (Mair, 1934) or of producing a
comprehensively valid historical reconstruction, it still must be maintained
that change has to be measured against a previous condition or state of
being. A cultural base-line of change must be established if it is at all

^ Compare two Pacific contexts in which "initiating and multiplying" effects of
change are noted in Melanesia (Belshaw, 1954, p. 148) and "primary, secondary, and
even tertiary" effects are noted in Polynesia (Danielsson, 1956, pp. 229-230).

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE 157

possible. Among certain groups where historical reconstructions are im-
possible, a mode of analysis which ignores temporal factors entirely has
been suggested and utilized in an initial field situation. It has yet to be
widely adopted.

Watson's unique method of analyzing "acculturational change" among
the Cayua ignores temporal factors completely and places emphasis rather
on causal factors of change. He developed a so-called configurational ap-
proach which stresses what he calls "conditions" as against the more tra-
ditional emphasis which has been placed on diffusion and borrowing of
culture traits in the process of acculturation.

Evans-Pritchard (1950, p. 121) probably stated the case for the impor-
tance of historical backgrounds as well as it has been done when he said :

The claim that one can understand the functioning of institutions at a certain point
in time without knowing how they have come to be what they are ... as well as a person
who, in addition to having studied their constitution at a particular point in time, has
also studied their past, . . . seems to me an absurdity.

The treatment of leadership and political behavior in general has been
assessed as "by no means one of the strongly focused points in anthropo-
logical literature" (Keesing and Keesing, 1956, p. 295). Very often when
leadership and political behavior are dealt with, they "appear in longer
book or monograph-length studies for which the titles offer no overt clues"
(op. cit., p. 275).^ For example, in Experiments in Civilization Hogbin
devotes an entire chapter to a discussion of Solomon Island traditional
leadership. Elsewhere, tucked into the introduction, he notes some effects
of leadership change in Malaita which are substantially identical with
those in parts of Palau (Hogbin, 1939, p. 4).

The old system of leadership . . . attacked on all sides, has practically collapsed.
The authority of the headmen over their followers depended in the past on such factors
as the protection they gave, their great stocks of valuables, and the sacrifices they made
to secure the good will of the ancestors. Today, on the other hand, order is preserved
by the Government, and offenders are imprisoned; young men, since they alone are
employed as labourers, possess far more wealth than their elders; and, where Christian-
ity has been adopted, sacrifices can no longer be offered. Robbed of their supports
headmen therefore have very little influence.

When Mead comments about the Manus that for them "the political
practices of the West carry very little intrinsic sense of reward," she
might just as well be talking about Palau. Political meetings in Manus,
Mead (1956, p. 418) says, are likely to be a bore. The same thing holds
for Palau. This is not to say that it is an invariable rule. But when the
meetings are not boring, there is usually some crucial issue at stake. Such

^ For a very comprehensive survey of the literature relating to leadership see
Keesing and Keesing (1956, pp. 275-295).

158 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

is the case with legislatures in the Western world, too, it should be noted.
The bulk of the pages of the Congressional Record probably provides as
adequate a sedative as most persons would require. The important point
that Mead makes that is also true of Palau is that the new political forms
along democratic lines do not adequately supplant the old forms, which
were, in Mead's terms, "cathartic rituals, self-limited and satisfying."
The old forms were perceived as purposive; the new are not.

The problem of perception bulks large in the study of cultural change.
With specific reference to political change and leadership, Belshaw (1954,
p. 159) notes that an administrative official in charge of native political
affairs "cannot be expected to inculcate a genuine belief in democratic
methods unless he can show that these do in fact contribute to native
happiness. His forms of procedure are often meaningless and empty
unless they are given a context of value. . . ." In other words, newly
introduced elements must be perceived as being worth while — of leading
to valuable ends if followed — or else they are merely accepted because
they must be — as forms, as hollow shells whose values remain unperceived.

On Raroia in Polynesia hereditary chiefs have been replaced by
popularly elected chiefs and councils. "The old leaders, who were re-
ligiously sanctioned and therefore obeyed, have disappeared, and their
places have been taken by traders and office seekers, who lack authority."
(Danielsson, 1956, p. 224.) While this example does not provide an
absolute parallel with conditions in Palau, it does point to what has
been spelled out in bold letters in this study, namely, that traditional
sanctions for leadership and power have broken down at the same time
that new sanctions supportive of new emergent leadership positions and
leadership power have been introduced. The Palauan data are supportive
of Radcliffe-Brown's (1952, pp. 205 ff.) comments on positive and nega-
tive social and supernatural, or, as he preferred to say, religious sanctions.
Wealth as a specific positive sanction for leadership is not at all peculiar
to Palau. Hogbin (1951, pp. 118 ff.) makes quite a point of it in his
study of Busama village in New Guinea.

The changing sanctions for leadership in Africa also are largely the
same as those in Palau (Wilson and Wilson, 1954, p. 7).

Political authority in the new system [of leadership in Africa] is less immediately
linked with religious status and wealth. . . . The religious power of the traditional
authorities is being transferred to European missionaries and to African ministers and
elders; in wealth they are no longer solely prominent, being equalled or outdone by
their subjects who have become clerks, shopkeepers, and mechanics.

In another monograph, this one centering on a description of an
urban Papuan village, there appears a sketch of an emergent leader

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE 159

whose behavior is absolutely comparable to the behavior of some Palauan
emergent leaders. His frustrations and successes might just as easily
be theirs (Belshaw, 1957, pp. 226 ff.). The following is one of Belshaw's
comments about a Papuan emergent leader he describes:

. . . underlying his desire for things European was a hardly veiled hostility which on
occasion verged upon a mild persecution mania. . . . With a fine sense of hierarchy he
continually sought out senior officials to lay complaints before them, suggest policies,
and discuss public matters. When they reacted against him, resenting the fact that he
"gave himself airs," bored with his long-drawn-out arguments, and suspicious of his
political manipulations, for which they gave him greater credit than he deserved,
Gavera felt that they were persecuting him, and attributed all his difiiculties to the
machinations of his opponents, European or otherwise.

My own field notes from an emergent leader's case history are as
follows :

S is preoccupied with his importance. He uses any device possible to create an
impression with the administration. His ends are self-seeking. Actually he has a lim-
ited amount of power within the Palauan political scene, but the administration is
unsure of just how powerful he may be. He is considered something of a nuisance.
S is quite concerned that he should be as American as possible and he affects American
behavior constantly. Yet he speaks with great pride of his hereditary right to certain
high titles and lets his importance as a Palauan be known. If a thorn in the side of the
administration exists, it is surely S. He is a very busy young man. He often intrudes
himself into matters which do not directly concern him and is quick to ofi'er his opin-
ions. When they are rejected or he is rebuff'ed in other ways, he becomes maledictory.
Periods of sulking and self-pity appear to be common with him. He alternately resents
members of the administration and his cultural peers.

My notes on another Palauan leader are as follows:

N is beyond a doubt the most militant of the young men in leadership positions in
. village. His resentment of Americans is not always shielded. He has had the ben-

efit of some advanced education and is well aware of current events. He professes an in-
terest in the social betterment of Palauans in general, but it is difficult to determine the
depth of his convictions. He is much interested in his own future and the leadership
role he plays guarantees him a certain measure of personal success regardless of the
future for Palauans at large. He, like S, makes life difficult for administrators. The
main diff"erence is that N is generally a more capable person and has some knowledge
of legal affairs. If he can find support for his position in the statutes of the territory,
then he can successfully combat the administration, which he gives every evidence of
resenting at times. In this way he turns the forces of law back on those who have intro-
duced them. In so doing he remains relatively immune, since he is responsible only
for pointing to the law of the land, not for promulgating it.

Belshaw (1957, p. 227) says of his subject:

Indeed, although Gavera had some vision, in a vague way, about advancing his
community, he saw politics as a continuous battle with Europeans around him, and as
an instrument for advancing his own personal power. As to the first, he sought points
of difficulty, and made it an intellectual exercise to find ways and means of defeating

160 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Europeans with their own arguments, particularly those of the law, which he learnt to
be all important. h

Some effects of cultural change in the area of leadership which are
not entirely comparable with those in Palau are described by Roth for
Fiji (1953, p. 162). His view of what is happening in Fiji as young
people experience higher education does not entirely dovetail with the
situation in Palau. This may be because the Fijians are better able to
adapt to village life following advanced education than is true of present-
day Palauans, or because Roth (loc. cit.) has oversimplified his remarks
in the effort to present an optimistic outlook for the future:

Every year there is an increase in the numbers of Fijians who have received higher
education either in Fiji or overseas. Many take up posts in Government or industry
and this normal development is supported by Fijian Administration policy. Under the
same policy Fijians not attracted by such posts can satisfy their urge to reach a higher
standard of living by work in the village. Young men with some training in academic
subjects can assume social responsibilities of service to their fellows, some as Fijian
Administration officials, some as village leaders in the widest sense; they can at the same
time grow crops of economic value and by their training be an example to others.

In Palau the situation is far from the neat one Roth presents, and
since the contexts are so similar, one wonders if Roth's position as an
administrator and his hopes for a smooth and well-adjusted society do not
cause him to overstate the happy quality of the assimilation of young ■
educated persons into a reservoir for community leadership.

In June of 1956 a number of young Palauans graduated from George
Washington High School on Guam (an American type of school). Many
of them had not been home for several years. A number of the group
were uncertain of their futures. The "bright lights" of the thriving
American and Guamanian community of Agana along with opportunities
for lucrative employment and a continued association with American
culture were more attractive to many than the thought of returning to ,
their sleepy home villages in Palau, where everything seemed so far off J
the beaten path. How were these young people to put their skills, their]
knowledge of world history and current events, and their general aware-
ness of the outside world to practical and personally rewarding use in]
Palau? The administration could use only a small proportion of the
graduates in its offices. In Palau there is no organized industry which
could absorb these young people. Outside of the administrative center!
of Koror, there is little to excite the active and capable person who has
become accustomed to a more urban atmosphere. His age stands in
the way of his achieving any crucial leadership position for some years
to come. Even if he wished to teach other young people in his munici-
pality .school, there are a limited number of openings available in a four-

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE 161

teacher school. After exposure to urban excitement, assimilation into
a rural and extremely rustic community is difficult in any society; witness
the numbers of young people in America who find it impossible to return
to the somnolence of their place of native birth in North Dakota or
Nebraska after four years of college in a major metropolis.

So it is in Palau. Dissatisfaction and unrest are among the effects
of being forced to return to one's native village. A consequence of this
dissatisfaction and unrest is that many young people (even those who
have not been away to school) flock to Koror, where there exists the
nearest facsimile of Guam and the wider world. Denied employment,
they live with relatives, often causing an economic strain. Boredom and
dissatisfaction combine to effect rebellious behavior. Delinquency and
its unsavory rewards result.

One suspects that, in spite of Roth's rather rosy estimate of the assimi-
lation of young educated persons in Fiji, something of the same nature
as that in Palau is happening among young Fijians. In fact Roth (1953,
p. 161) notes:

While the genuine workers have little difficulty in finding a reasonably permanent
outlet for their various qualifications there is a tendency for youths to seek part-time
work in closely-settled or industrial centres. Here amid the so-called glamour of an
alien way of life they exist on a small weekly wage eked out by partly free board and
lodging provided by relatives. But these transient excitements they enjoy in an atmos-
phere where there is no customary discipline and where they behave as they like with
impunity. Overcrowded conditions, particularly but not only in Suva, lead to out-
breaks of hooliganism or vice. . . .

THE IMPERATIVE QUALITY OF DIRECTED CHANGE

Non-material elements of culture have long been assumed by anthro-
pologists to offer greater barriers to integration than material ones. Kee-
sing has gone even farther by suggesting that any given culture may be
separated into two groups of "zones." One group of zones consists of
those in which the persistence of old ways and non-change may be ex-
pected (Keesing, 1953b, p. 83):

. . . those which appear to show a high frequency of persistence, as pertaining to basic
survival, security, integrity, value, problem solving, for the group concerned, and in
which, if change or interference occurs, the greatest disturbance and tension is likely to
be generated. Categories cover essentials of psycho-somatic conditioning, communica-
tion, organic maintenance, primary group relations, prestige status maintenance, territorial
security, and ideological (including religious) security.

The categories I have italicized have particular significance for leader-
ship change. To these we might add power sanctions, loci of social control,
and decision-making.

162 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

The other zones consist of those "in which mobility or ready change
tend to appear with high frequency." These, Keesing indicates, are rela-
tively "nonaffectively charged techniques" to which he refers as "instru-
mentalities." Included are tools, etiquette, and military tactics. Gener-
ally the categories in this group of zones relate to relatively "impersonal
or mass social structures."

A point which requires stressing in the light of the Palauan data is that
under directed cultural change the zones of culture which are often hit the
hardest are the hard core of culture — Keesing's "zones of persistence."
The less persistent zones of culture — Keesing's "zones of mobility" — are
the flesh of culture, so to speak, where more choice is left to the subordi-
nate group. A good bit of the "theorizing" about what happens under
conditions of acculturational change gives the impression that the cultures
in contact are relatively equivalent. This is rarely, if ever, the case. The
Palauan data point up the importance of a realistic attitude about domi-
nance and submission in contact relations. Palauans have had relatively
little choice in some areas of change. Alterations have been demanded
and secured. As in all situations of contact, impact has been uneven (see
Danielsson, 1956, p. 222).

The conditions of directed acculturational change are such that some
zones of culture which under non-directed change would be expected to
be resistant to change are those which stand the l^est chance of being
programatically required to change. Resistance still occurs, to be sure,
but it takes the form of "post-acceptance" modifications based on con-
genial interpretations. To the extent that a subordinate culture can com-
promise its zones of persistence with demands for change in those zones,
it will avoid cultural disintegration. Inability to compromise with the
requirements for change imposed by a dominant culture can have only
dire results.

Palauans seem to have (and to have had) a penchant for adapting to
new ways. This has been true even in zones of persistence, where accept-
ance has been enforced. A generalized receptivity to change is one of the
most marked features of Palauan culture (Barnett, 1953, p. 59).

The Palauans expect change in their culture and most of them are resigned to it;
some gladly welcome it. This attitude is in harmony with their history. It appears
that they have always been politically unsettled, and conquest and penalization for
defeat are not new to them. Since the discovery of the islands by Europeans they have

Fig. 27. Emergent economic leaders. Upper: Asao, successful store owner in
Koror village. Lower: Haruo, who takes care of his father's store in Mengellang
village of Ngerechelong mimicipality.

163

164 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

taken their domination by foreign peoples as a matter of course; it is a prerogative that
goes to the victor.

What Barnett is claiming for Palauans here is a congenial attitude toward
change which has deep cultural roots and enables a successful adaptation
to the new, even in crucial and deep-seated, "persistent" zones of culture.

The conditions of directed acculturational change are such as to cause
us to revise some of our understandings of the processes of change as they
are viewed when we assume that the cultures in contact are relatively
equivalent. It is a commonplace that prestige values will often recom-
mend an element of culture to a borrowing group. However, if an element
is deliberately introduced by a donor culture, prestige values which would
recommend it for acceptance if the recipient culture had free choice in the
matter need not necessarily even be perceiv^ed. When a subordinate cul-
ture is forced to accept an element or a complex of elements, adaptation
becomes an essential means of survival. If we were able to tally the num-
ber of instances of the existence of Nadel's "social symbiosis" in today's
world, they probably would be in the considered minority when compared
with instances of great disparity between contact groups and a consequent
domination of one by the other. ^ Since the development of machine tech-
nology in the last few centuries such disparity has become especially pro-
nounced. Certainly the history of contact between relatively complex
civilizations and rather more primitive peoples far antedates this period,
but it is since the development of advanced technologies that disparities
have become greater and at the same time contacts with less developed
cultures have been accelerated through the creation of better and faster
modes of transportation.

Contact between cultures has become much more than the mere trad-
ing of a few superficial features of culture which did nothing radical as
far as revising the basic integrity of either of the contact groups. It has
become increasingly revolutionary in its scope.

DOMINANCE TOWARD SELF-DETERMINATION

As a result of the steadily increasing directive tendencies of the admin-
istrations which have governed Palau, cultural change has advanced apace
as the years of contact have become extended. The present American
administration is something of a paradox to Palauans. It directs change,

1 Just how long such instances of disparity between industrialized and relatively
non-industrialized cultures will continue to exist is a moot point and no attempt is
made here to offer an answer. Points which would have to be considered in such a
prognostication would seem to be available natural resources, relative population (and,
therefore, labor force) size, individual and collective motivation, aptitudes, desire for
and rates of change, etc.

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE 165

but it also expects Palauans to strive for self-sufficiency. This latter fea-
ture is understandably puzzling to a people who have been accustomed to
domination which left little room for the expression of their own wills.

"Domination," says Roucek (1947, p. 279), "is the process . . . which
limits interaction and forcibly controls . . . activities ... in the direction
of values or goals chosen by [the dominator]." The general history of
leadership change in Palau is adequately described by this definition, and
it is also appropriate to the changes in leadership which are being brought
about currently by the American administration in the introduction of
concepts of local representative government through elected leaders. The
difference is that the present dominant culture has introduced a series of
new and revolutionary concepts which actually are coercive in a totally
different direction. They have as their ultimate aim the dissolution of
externally imposed dominance.

This situation is extremely puzzling to Palauans. The absence of a
tradition of self-sufficiency under foreign administration leaves a void
which at times is unproductive of guides for action. The present admin-
istration's insistence upon the development of indigenous responsibility
for motivating action is sometimes interpreted by Palauans as a lack of
interest in promoting indigenous welfare. There appears to be a real
dysfunction in sudden shifts of expectations as to the expression of free
will and the assumption of responsibility for self-determination by in-
digenous leaders.

Equally puzzling to Palauans, and unresolvably so to some, is their
perception of the former Japanese administration as contrasted with that
of the United States. Even though the Japanese administration actively
promoted ends which served its own purposes, sometimes to the detriment
of those which would have been to the best interests of Palauans, the feel-
ing on the part of many Palauans is that they were much better off under
Japanese rule than they are today. To some extent this is true if we use an
economic yardstick. And this is what Palauans do when they express
this attitude.

Extensive colonization in the Palaus by Japanese immigrants and
entrepreneurs created a situation which was economically quite beneficial
to some Palauans. The fact that some benefits, such as the opportunity
to earn wages as an employee of a Japanese businessman or the chance to
buy goods imported from Japan in local stores run by the Japanese, were
not specifically designated for Palauan well-being and prosperity, is not
clearly understood. Instead, comparisons are made between the Japanese
period and the present one in which only a few Americans are present
and colonizing and business enterprise by non-Palauans are interdicted.

166 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Today the "fringe" or "marginal" benefits which were the fortuitous
result of a large alien population, such as was the case in Japanese times,
are denied Palauans. Government positions for natives are restricted in
number. Consequently, elements of material culture which formerly were
in sufficient supply so as to result in "surpluses" enjoyed by Palauans are
not so numerous. The Japanese period is looked upon as a sort of "golden
era" in which times were prosperous beyond precedent.

DOMINANT CULTURE RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

In all likelihood the problems of culture transfer under directed cul-
tural change generally will be greater than if change were not enforced,
but rather more a matter of choice. Wherever behavioral responses are
restricted through direction under domination, the risk of heightened frus-
tration and possibly aggression is greater than where choice is freer. How-
ever, another factor must be considered, and this is the desire of a people
to change. If pressure for change under dominance is matched by a cor-
responding intensity of desire for change in the directions under enforce-
ment, the adaptation will proceed with facility, even under relatively
stringent conditions. A case of widespread desire for change in another
Pacific culture is pointed to by Mead in her treatment of accelerated cul-
tural change in Manus (1956, p. 442). She carries her point even farther
by commenting that a subordinate culture may well wish to change with
greater speed than the dominant culture is willing to allow. This, she says,
constitutes "resistance to giving" by the members of the more developed
culture. This way of looking at resistance to change is something of a de-
parture from our customary attitude with respect to resistance to change.

Mead's comments which follow from the above statements are a con-
siderable moral indictment of the administration of native peoples by the
Western world. She offers the view that too often only a restricted meas-
ure of dominant culture content is off"ered the administered. Unwilling-
ness to allow full social participation in the Western way of life seems all
too prevalent to Mead. Emissaries of cultures of the Western world advo-
cate changes in dress, sanitation, architecture, exploitation of resources,
political representation, civil law, education, and so on, while at the same
time they deny access to statuses of prestige and the degree of social partici-
pation allowed non-native peoples.

It is not my intention to off'er a discussion of the moral quality of the
contact situation in present-day Palau as Mead has done for conditions of
contact in general. What is important to this study, however, is her com-
ment about restricted social participation. While, by and large, Mead's
comments with respect to limited social participation hold true in Palau,

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE 167

what must be added is, first, that a far greater degree of social acceptance
and participation exists than in certain other Pacific dependencies under
European administration; and, secondly, that social acceptance and par-
ticipation are awarded to native leaders to a far greater extent than to
members of the native community at large.

Degree of acculturation seems to have a great deal to do with just how
extensive a given leader's social participation in the dominant culture is
allowed to be. In Palau, for example, several of the young emergent
leaders in the field of medicine are more frequently invited to the homes of
American administrative personnel for purely social reasons than any
other members of Palauan culture. These are ordinarily young people who
have been away to school in Guam or Hawaii and with whom the mem-
bers of the American administrative community have considerably more
in common than with the Palauan who has slight knowledge of English
and has never left his nativ^e village. Less acculturated leaders also are
more in evidence at American social gatherings than non-leaders. Another
criterion beyond mere "degree of acculturation" which should be noted
and which may explain why medical specialists are allowed a relatively
greater degree of social participation in the American community is that
they constitute no "resurgent threat" to the members of the administra-
tion. Relatively "militant" political leaders may constitute such a threat.
Hence, they are unconsciously denied the same rather extensive degree of
participation enjoyed by the relatively "non-resurgent" medical personnel.

At official Palauan social gatherings at which Americans are in attend-
ance, only the more prestigeful members of the administration are likely
to be invited. Of course at unofficial levels of social interaction, there are
many contacts between non-leaders from both cultures, but much more
important to consider are the "official" contacts. Perhaps what is demon-
strated by this "social selectivity" as far as participants are concerned is
another possible universal of leadership, namely, that leaders ordinarily
have more social contacts and opportunities for social interaction outside
the groups they lead than do their followers (see Whyte, 1955, p. 259).

RATE OF CHANGE: ATTITUDES, POLICIES, AND
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Palauan culture is undergoing rapid change. Palauans are anxious to
adopt new ways which they consider to be superior to their own. The
general positive attitude maintained toward Americans and things Amer-
ican has been mentioned earlier in this study. Linton (1940, p. 484) rec-
ognized the importance of the attitude of the recipient culture toward the
donor culture when he said: "... the attitudes of the receiving group

168 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

toward the donor group will attach themselves ... to the elements of cul-
ture which contact between the two groups makes available for borrow-
ing." Positive general attitudes toward American culture have facilitated
a rapid rate of leadership change in Palau under the American admin-
istration.

Rapid rates of change often have been pointed to as productive of
difficulties in acculturating groups. If total cultural disintegration were
not the result, at least there ensued considerable unrest and serious dys-
functional effects. A departure from the idea that these developments
were the only predictable ones recently has been made. Mead's observa-
tion of an extremely rapid rate of cultural change in Manus has led her
to suggest that where the people of a culture actively desire change, an
integrated and well-balanced culture is best achieved by rapid change.
This point of view assumes that partial change over protracted periods of
time in some cases actually can be productive of discord and incongruences.

Mead thinks that dominant administrations have two courses. Either
they should introduce changes in as abstract a form as possible so that
they may be incorporated within old patterns with a minimum of change,
or they should introduce as much of a given culture pattern as possible
so that all the congruent elements may be made available to the recipient
culture and it will not have to tack together a patchwork of ill-adaptive
indigenous elements to "piece out" partial patterns which have been in-
troduced.

Leadership change in Palau lies somewhere between the ideal al-
ternative approaches spelled out by Mead. Some introductions have been
left at relatively abstract levels so as to allow freedom of interpretation,
and so as not to overtax the recipients and /or disastrously upset indigenous
patterns. In other cases, introductions have been highly specific. Mead's
support of "all out" change is difficult for anthropologists with strong rela-
tivistic ideas to accept. Policy formulations are carefully eschewed by
most anthropologists in applied fields. Direct recommendations are shied
away from. Firth (1957, p. 209) has stated that the ideal role of the
applied anthropologist in solving problems in so-called underdeveloped
countries is limited to "diagnosis" and "prediction." The same point is
discussed by Barnett (1956).

There are, nonetheless, serious implications for Palauan leadership
change in what Mead has to say about alternative modes of directed change.
At a very concrete level, should administrators, noting some of the dys-
functional effects of the institutionalized reluctance of leaders to make
decisions, bear down hard on emergent leaders and demand decisiveness?
Should assertive qualities of leadership be rewarded over non-assertive
ones? Should women and members of the legislature with relatively low-

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL CHANGE 169

ranking sib affiliations be actively urged to participate to greater extent?
These are questions answerable only in terms of the possible outcomes of
such actions. The same effects may be brought about through time with
perhaps a greater chance of avoiding difficulties. Under programatic
rapid change, traditional modes of leadership and the associated values
tend to crumble more rapidly. Chiefs already feel so little a part of legis-
lative activity at times that at one recent congress one of them rose and
announced to the assembly that it seemed to him that the chiefs were of
so little consequence in the activities of the congress that they might as
well go home.

My personal conviction is that Mead's alternative of complete and
maximum change is a more drastic step than would be advisable in terms
of Palauan leadership — in spite of widespread Palauan amenability to and
desire for change. For example, I can not agree with her that there are no
generational differences in attitudes toward change. She says of Manus:
"The people of Peri all changed together as a unit— parents, grandparents,
and children — so that the old mesh of human relations could be rewoven
into a new pattern from which no thread was missing." Mead goes on to
say: "As living individuals remembering their old ways and their old rela-
tionships, they could move into a new kind of village, live in new kinds of
houses, participate in a new kind of democracy, with no man's hand
against another, no child alienated from the self or from the others."
(Mead, 1956, p. 452.) This Utopian characterization seems to be an over-
simplification for Manus and, as a matter of fact, even a contradiction of
her comments elsewhere in her study as quoted earlier in this chapter
(op. cit., p. 418). The conditions of change she describes for Manus
would hardly be true of Palau if more vigorous attempts at change were
undertaken. Palau (as probably is true of most other societies, too) is not
so homogeneous a culture that some segments will not be affected more
than others by cultural changes which more closely impinge upon them.
There is too vast a corpus of traditional cultural elements with respect to
leadership, for example, for traditional leaders to change all together as
a unit along with individuals of younger generations whose stake in the
old ways is naturally much more limited.

A more prudent approach to leadership change in terms of ultimate
effects, particularly under an administration which is attempting to incul-
cate "democratic" ideals, would seem to be one in which specific dysfunc-
tions would be combated with specific guides for action, and education
toward self-sufficiency would proceed over a relatively longer period of
time with a slower rate of change than would be true under Mead's
"revolutionary" alternative. The current general positive attitude toward

170 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

American culture tends to expedite the contemporary rate of cultural
change in Palau. So long as it exists, change will proceed apace in the
area of leadership as well as in other areas of culture.

Appendix I: Methodology

THE PLAN OF THE STUDY

Initial Phase of Orientation and Site Selection

The sixteen months of field work upon which this study is based be-
gan on December 10, 1954. The administrative center of Koror served
as a base of operations for me and my wife while we were getting estab-
lished. The initial period of several months was one of adjustment and
orientation. We discussed our research plans with members of the Amer-
ican administration and we secured from them many helpful recommen-
dations and suggestions. One of our first tasks was learning the Palauan
language. The services of a capable guide and translator were engaged.
This individual, a man of considerable prestige in Palauan society, had a
passable grasp of English and had been an employee of the administration
for several years. In addition to serving as a linguistic informant, this
individual accompanied me to a number of Palauan communities which
were considered as possible sites for intensive investigation.

The over-all research plan was to divide time in the field equally be-
tween two Palauan communities. Ideally, the two communities were to
represent the greatest degree of contrast possible within present-day Pa-
lauan culture, so as to allow observation and study of one community
which represented maximum change from traditional Palauan culture and
another which represented minimum change. The selection of the most
changed community presented no problem. The administration center
of Koror was the only choice. This community has experienced a more
intensive history of contact with alien cultures over a longer period of time
than has any other community in Palau. It was formerly even more of an
administrative hub. Koror was the headquarters for the Japanese man-
date of all Micronesia for many years. This community has been the
center for commercial as well as governmental activities throughout a long
history of contact. It remains so and is the major port of entry in the
Palau Islands since it is adjacent to the only deep-water harbor.

Koror village on Koror Island is the urban center of Palau. Among
other things which are over-and-above, but also related to, the presence
of government headquarters, Koror boasts the main trading company in

171

172 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Palau, the only movie, numerous stores and restaurants, three mission
churches and schools, electric power, a rudimentary water system, a hos-
pital, and the only secondary school in the district. It is also the head-
quarters for the Palau constabulary force. There are several other urban
features of Koror which are largely due to the existence there of the ad-
ministrative headquarters. One is a government weather station and the
other an entomology laboratory. Koror also contains the only post office
in the Palaus. The District Court sits in Koror, and the village is the con-
vening headquarters for such groups as the Palauan legislature and the
pan-Palau Board of Education. Even with all these features, it is hardly
the thriving metropolis it was during Japanese times when geisha houses,
hotels, and Japanese-owned businesses, homes, and military installations
crowded the tiny island. In those days there was even a park and a zoo.

For these reasons the decision to conduct half of the field study in Koror
had been made long before going into the field. The selection of the other
site for investigation was a more difficult problem. A series of criteria had
to be satisfied by the second community. Ideally it had to be as nearly
representative of aboriginal Palau as possible, so as to aff"ord the least
altered view available of traditional social structure and political organiza-
tion, and hence, of leadership. The more closely this community corre-
sponded to traditional Palauan culture, the better it was for the purpose
of the study. It also seemed desirable to obtain a community which had
not been studied previously by anthropologists. This was to avoid dupli-
cation and to provide comparative data. This criterion immediately ruled
out three communities.

The community had to be small enough in space and population to
facilitate the study of its various villages or hamlets without the expendi-
ture of an undue amount of time in travel between them. Also, the com-
munity selected had to be representative of aboriginal settlement patterns
and possess a complete range of age groups. A number of communities
were eliminated from consideration because they had been drained of
many young adults through emigration to Koror or Guam.

Sought for as well was a community which exhibited viable political
activity, so that a view could be obtained of Palauan "grass-roots" leader-
ship. Finally, it had to be an integrated and well-functioning social unit,
free of excessive disruptive factionalism, and reasonably vital.

After a series of reconnaissance visits to outlying communities it was
decided that the community of Ngerechelong at the northernmost tip of
Babeldaob Island and about twenty-five miles from Koror fulfilled the
criteria for site selection better than any other Palauan community.
Therefore, necessary arrangements were made to depart from Koror for

APPENDIX I: METHODOLOGY 173

Ngerechelong, and the "remote village" phase of the study began on
March 1, 1955.

The Remote Village Phase

Ngerechelong is one of fourteen communities within the Palaus which
are designated by the administration as municipalities. As is true of the
other municipalities, Ngerechelong is a semi-autonomous territorial and
political entity. Its boundaries are based on aboriginal ones. The seven
villages of present-day Ngerechelong also were aligned together as a polit-
ical and territorial entity during pre-contact times. At the time of this
study approximately 600 persons resided in the municipality. In dealings
with the administration they were represented by an elected official called
a magistrate. They supported their own elementary school and levied
and collected taxes for its support and the support of their elected repre-
sentatives as well as various community projects.

Ngerechelong's geographical location at the tip of the big island of
Babeldaob renders it a relatively isolated community. It is bordered on
three sides by water and on a fourth by a narrow neck of land. Above
this stricture, the municipality reaches northward for a distance of between
two and three miles and is about a mile to a mile and a half wide at its
greatest width. The land is hilly, and the hills are often bare and eroded.
The lower areas and the stream courses, however, are well supplied with
foliage.

Mengellang, the main village of Ngerechelong, is the seat of political
control. The senior chief of the community lives there, and there also
the community has erected its municipal office in which the magistrate
holds forth.

It was in Mengellang that the headquarters for this phase of the field
study was established. Arrangements were made to live with a native
family. For seven months my wife and I participated as much as possible
in the family life of the household and in village and community life in
general. All seven of the villages in the municipality were included within
the scope of the study.

There were fewer than twenty houses in Mengellang in 1955. A small
general store, a public meeting house, a part-time medical dispensary, and
the municipal office rounded out the village structures. A single grass-
covered road bisected the village, which was set on top of a hill. From
Mengellang it was a steep three-quarters of a mile in either of two direc-
tions to the sea. On all sides the land sloped steeply away to the low
swampy taro fields where the women went each day to work.

The household which served as field headquarters in Mengellang was
surrounded by leaders. The magistrate had his home and store across the

174 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

road. The senior chief of Ngerechelong is also the head chief of Mengel-
lang village. His house was about a minute's walk in one direction from
the headquarters and the municipal office was about as far in the other.
As it turned out, the widow with whom we lived was the senior title-
holding female representative of the ranking kin group of one of two
traditional village socio-political factions. Throughout this phase of the
study there was ample opportunity to observe vigorous leadership be-
havior at extremely close range. The household fluctuated in size from
time to time because Palauans are essentially peripatetic. There is much
visiting between relatives and sometimes the visits are quite extended.

Some dependence was placed upon native sources for food during this
phase of the study. Occasionally, however, because the supply of vege-
tables and even fish was rather modest in the village and because every
attempt was made not to work a hardship on the household, our diet was
supplemented with surplus government "C" rations. One item of diet
was always available in more than adequate quantities, however, and
that was taro.

Integration into village life was aided greatly because the "family"
arrangement entered into corresponded with indigenous residence pat-
terns and because of the prevalence of adoption in Palau. A wife custom-
arily comes to live after marriage in the household of her husband's
family of orientation. Sometimes some years elapse before the couple
is able to establish a separate residence of its own. Not many weeks
after my arrival it became clear that I had been adopted and that my role
in the household was that of son. The confirmation of this fact actually
became clear for the first time in terms of my wife's status rather than my
own. She was reacted to as a daughter-in-law. She was the "outsider."
It was with the development of several minor family crises involving "in-
law" relations that we realized that a measure of rapport had been gained.

The significance of this integration into the household was that once
we were so ensconced, avenues were opened for more general integration.
As the elder son in the household I found that I also was considered as a
representative of the sib to which my "mother" belonged — my connection
being, of course, maternal. As the ranks of the sib were at the time shy of
male members and there was a vacant title for my sib on the village coun-
cil of chiefs, I was urged to accept the title and participate in the activities
of the council. True, the title was number nine in a roster of ten. Never-
theless, I was accorded chiefly status and was expected to be present at all
meetings of the chiefs and to contribute support to financial undertakings
of the group — in keeping with my rank, of course, since degree of partici-
pation and responsibility correspond to one's position on the council.

APPENDIX I: METHODOLOGY 175

Obviously, for purposes of the study of leadership, no better opportunity
could have been desired. From the time of my acceptance of the title,
I was henceforth referred to as Ongetiu (literally, "ninth").

Of course, there were many other concomitant doors opened as a result
of the relatively fortuitous circumstances of our choice of a household in
which to live. For example, because I had been accorded chiefly status,
and in spite of her comparatively junior age-status, my wife was, according
to custom, allowed to become a member of the senior (oldest) women's
age-grade society. From her vantage point of membership she was able
to observe the senior female traditional leaders in the age-grade society,
much as I was able to observ^e the senior male traditional leaders in the
village council.

The principal indication that chiefly rank had been vouchsafed in all
sincerity was a totally different attitude which subsequently was displayed
toward us. ^Vhen we first arrived in the village very special care had been
taken to treat us as members of the American administration. Special
consideration was given us at gatherings, where we would be seated on
specially placed mats in a prominent position. If food was served, ours
was the choicest available, and we were served first. Deferential treatment
was the rule and, try as we might, we could not altogether discourage it.
This is the customary hospitality and respect behavior shown visiting
American administrators. Because Palau is a closed security area, virtu-
ally the only American visitors to Ngerechelong besides ourselves had been
members of the administration or missionaries, who are extended similar
hospitality. Consequently, there was only one existing pattern of behavior
where Americans were concerned.

When our protestations that we were not members of the administra-
tion and had come to Ngerechelong specifically for the purpose of learning
aliout the way of life in Palau were finally accepted, a new way of reacting
to us developed. A place in the community was found for us, and our
statuses were defined. With the assumption of the title, deferential be-
havior reserved for members of the administration was no longer accorded
us. At social gatherings my seat was that of the ninth chief; my wife's
place was with the women of the senior age-grade society. Our food was
no longer necessarily the choicest, but corresponded in quality to my rank-
position on the council of chiefs. We were no longer served first, but rather
took our turn.

One of the chief reasons why it was possible for us to be integrated was
because we could communicate and be communicated with in the native
language. Because the principal of the Ngerechelong school and one of
his teachers were the only members of the community who spoke and

176 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

understood English with ease, it was necessary to use the native lan-
guage almost exclusively in Ngerechelong. For approximately the first
month of our stay in the remote village we had the services of the guide-
translator we had hired upon our arrival in Palau. However, this individ-
ual's family and small store were in Koror village and he did not wish to
be away from them for very long. His wishes corresponded with our own
desires to be as dependent upon our own linguistic ability as possible.
By the time the translator left for Koror, our command of the language
was sufficient to allow us to work alone with informants who spoke only
Palauan. With his absence, our learning rate was accelerated perforce.
Deprived of our "crutch," our linguistic legs grew stronger — and this was
what we wanted.

In order to observe leadership behavior, we attended village council
meetings, municipal council meetings, and informal caucuses, and worked
with teachers, municipal leaders, and chiefs. We observed the course of
the election of a new magistrate and documented the intrigues centering
upon the selection of a new village chief. In the latter case we saw the
means by which two rival sibs were vying for the focal power position in
the village; in the former, we witnessed the first faltering steps of the new-
born institution of electing representatives to leadership positions.

In order to understand the meanings of traditional leadership, we in-
vestigated village socio-political structures and saw the basic patterns of
power and leadership emerge. Study of the social organization of the
community was essential to understanding the background of traditional
leadership and the reasons for the obvious stalemates and dysfunctions in
the exercise of leadership; these we noted, but at first could not explain.
Accordingly, we reconstructed traditional schemes of organization through
the use of elder informants. In this way we gained an understanding of
the kinship system, which, in turn, made possible an understanding
of hereditary leadership. We collected genealogies, life histories, and per-
sonal data from both traditional and emergent leaders so as to determine
family connections, individual characteristics, general backgrounds, spe-
cial competences and skills, travel experiences, etc. We attempted to
discover in this way just why these individuals had been singled out by
their society as leaders. To better understand the meaning of traditional
political power and leadership at the village level we mapped all seven
villages, located sib land, delineated traditional political boundaries, and
noted the general interrelation of kin group affiliation with relative politi-
cal power and leadership.

As a part of our general survey of the community we made a complete
census, recorded household composition and the genealogical relation-

APPENDIX I: METHODOLOGY 177

ships of each household member, and compared contemporary village
and family organization with that of yesteryear. Also treated were in-
heritance patterns, old and new agents of social control, social stratifica-
tion, and the exchange system. We sat in on land disputes, divorce settle-
ments, and house-buying ceremonies. During the course of our stay we
noted the observances of various life crisis situations such as birth, mar-
riage, and funeral ceremonies.

In each case the guiding principle which determined whether or not
we should study a given feature of culture was whether or not it would
throw light on the basic problem of leadership and cultural change.
Ngerechelong lived up to our most optimistic expectations in fulfilling the
requirements of the over-all plan of the study. We concluded the remote
village phase of the study after seven months and on October 1, 1955,
returned to Koror for the "urban" village phase.

The "Urban" Village Phase

Koror, the fons et origo of Palauan cultural change, stood in sharp con-
trast to the relatively quiet and sleepy "country town" where we had just
spent a little over half a year. There had been busy times in Ngereche-
long, but the general pace was slower. There, the most advanced land
transport was in the form of two or three small oxcarts, roads were hardly
more than widened trails, and trading company boats paid only irregular
calls. Here, in Koror, there were bicycles, jeeps, and graded roads.
Several piers were busy every day with native boats from outlying areas,
and once every several months a supply ship made port. Here there was
a weekly plane which served as Palau's chief link with the outside world.
Here was the government radio station, electric power, and even an ice
cream machine in one native store and a jukebox in another. This was
the "city." By the current standards of the Western world even Koror is a
pretty rustic community, but in Palau it is the apogee of urbanism.

The first job in Koror was to find suitable working headquarters.
Government housing was completely occupied at the time and because
of large-scale emigration to Koror from other areas of Palau, native hous-
ing was also at a premium. To have attempted to live with another
Palauan family would have created hardship and would not have afforded
the privacy we wished for the "urban" phase.

Moreover, we had been integrated into a native community already
and had learned what we wished from that experience. In Koror our
problems of rapport were of a different order. Palauans knew who we
were and that we had lived in Ngerechelong for some months. They
knew we were not administration personnel. Our status was defined al-
ready. In other words, it was not necessary for us to further validate our

178 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

reasons for making inquiry. We did not wish "family" obligations or
encumbrances of loyalty to any particular sib, council, age-grade group,
lineage, or household. Rather, we wished to rove freely in the commu-
nity, concentrating on various features of leadership and change as cir-
cumstances allowed.

At times we devoted ourselves to a survey of administrative records.
Census data, certain administrative correspondence, office files dealing
with native affairs, and other government records were placed at our
disposal. Some of these related to the background and development of
Palauan legislative bodies. At other times, when the legislature convened
or when other groups of leaders met to discuss some issue, we devoted our-
selves to observation.

During the urban phase of the study we established headquarters at
the entomology laboratory in Koror. A large room served as living and
working space. The arrangement was particularly desirable since the
laboratory was removed from the main administration housing areas and
it was our wish to remain unidentified with the administration. At the
same time, the laboratory was sufficiently centrally located so that most
parts of Koror could be reached quickly.

In the months that followed the return to Koror we interviewed and
observed leaders in political aff'airs and specialist leaders such as those in
religious groups, leaders engaged in economic pursuits, public health func-
tionaries, administration employees, and so on. We concentrated also on
describing and analyzing the local kin groups as well as the general struc-
tural organization of Koror village proper and the smaller surrounding
villages within its immediate political penumbra.

A new series of life histories of leaders was collected, and standardized
personal data were gathered for individuals in all categories of leadership.
Extensive interviews were conducted with relatively youthful emergent
leaders.

In this last phase of the study the preliminary proceedings and actual
meetings of two sessions of the Palauan Congress were observed and re-
corded. One of these sessions was held in October of 1955 and the other
in April of 1956. Our study of the remote village had been interrupted
in order to observe the ninth biannual session of the congress during
April of 1955. These three legislative sessions, each of one week's dura-
tion, provided a vivid view of both formal and informal behavior in one
category of emergent leadership. The fact that the sessions were consecu-
tive lent a desirable quality of continuity to the analysis.

During this last phase of field work, the community of American ad-
ministrators was included within the scope of the study. Certain members

APPENDIX I: METHODOLOGY 179

of the administration who were vitally concerned with overseeing the de-
velopment of self-government were as much subjects of observation as
were the Palauan leaders. These administration officials were the agents
who were introducing new elements of culture relating to leadership.
Their interaction with representatives of the receiving culture was an
extremely important desideratum of the study.

Koror village afforded the most panoramic view of emergent leader-
ship in Palau chiefly because it was where the majority of emergent
leaders were to be found. Their leadership roles made their presence
there obligatory. We were able to observe sessions of the District Court
with Palauan judges presiding. We noted the leadership roles played by
medical practitioners at the Koror hospital. The fact that economic entre-
preneurship is most prevalent in Koror enabled us to view the behavior
of economic leaders. And so it was with specialists, native administrative
employees, and Koror municipal officials.

Our observation of the multifarious categories of emergent leadership
was coupled with an investigation of traditional leadership in Koror.
This latter was particularly important because of the focal socio-political
position of Koror village in pre-contact times. As has been shown above,
Koror was pre-eminent in one of two political confederations and was, at
the time of contact with representatives of the Western world in 1783, in
ascendancy over all of Palau.

With the observation of the eleventh session of the Palau Congress in
the spring of 1956 the second main phase of the field study of Palauan
leadership was concluded. On April 14, we left Palau.

STUDY METHODS AND TECHNIQUES

Beyond an over-all participant-observation field approach employed
in this study, subsidiary means were utilized for securing and ordering
data. The Outline of Cultural Materials system of filing data was used. All
field notes were typed in duplicate, as soon after elicitation as possible.
Immediate reworking of the first notes allowed a review of each interview
while the material was fresh. Expansion was the usual result. Lacunae
were noted and new elicitations secured to fill them. The carbon copy was
mailed to the United States and the first copy and the original rough notes
were retained in the field until the completion of the field project, when
they, too, were mailed to the United States, a few at a time. This seem-
ingly cumbersome means of separate field note shipment was to avoid loss.

In order to become familiar with Palauan culture, we had consulted
the literature on Palau before leaving for the field. Several anthropolog-
ical reports on various aspects of Palauan culture based on field work con-

180 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

ducted from 1947 to 1949 form the most recent documentation of Palauan
culture (Barnett, 1949; Ritzenthaler, 1954; Useem, 1949; and Vidich,
1949). The field work upon which these most recent reports are based
was part of a pan-Micronesian project called the Co-ordinated Investi-
gation of Micronesian Anthropology (CIMA). The data of the reports
provided a convenient springboard for inquiry.

A further review of this literature was made during the first phase of
the study, and excerpts of each native term appearing in the texts along
with the accompanying definitions (often abstracted) were transcribed
onto 3" X 5" cards. These cards were then placed in one of twelve cate-
gories with appropriate questions written on attached slips of paper. These
twelve categories were designed simply to combine related materials for
ease of investigation. The categories were as follows: kinship; titles and
names; religion and the supernatural; death and death ceremonies; money;
community; sayings; birth and birth ceremonies; general vocabulary; ex-
change system; adoption; social position.

In the early months of the study the categories were used as the basis
for eliciting information which had significance for the study of leadership
and cultural change. This technique also allowed a check on the relia-
bility of the CIMA research on Palau and provided an organized means
for going beyond those earlier investigations.

Because the primary focus of the study was on leadership, leaders were,
of course, the primary subjects of investigation. Since leaders form a rela-
tively small proportion of the Palauan population, sampling theory had
little meaning for the study. For example, in Ngerechelong municipality
we dealt with a limited number of chiefs, one magistrate, three congress-
men, several teachers, and a handful of informal leaders. Owing to the
relatively small number of individuals involved, it was both necessary and
possible to include them all in the study. To have drawn any sample at
all from such a universe without prior knowledge of its characteristics,
obviously would have skewed the findings toward inaccuracy since a ran-
dom sample is not necessarily a representative one.

A crucial point with regard to any field data is their reliability. In
other words, were the same study to be conducted independently by an-
other investigator, would the findings be the same? In this study, tech-
niques of inquiry were utilized which I believe adequately assure the
reliability of the findings. As has been mentioned, the findings of earlier
studies were utilized. Our own findings either confirmed or failed to con-
firm their reliability. Where our findings differed from earlier ones, we
made a special eff'ort to treat the area exhaustively so as to make sure our
own data were accurate.

APPENDIX I: METHODOLOGY 181

Every attempt was made to assure reliability by utilizing multiple in-
formants; by repeating questions on the same topics not only with a
number of informants, but also with the same informant on separate
occasions; and by checking and re-checking the information which seemed
to be at variance with what otherwise appeared to be the logical patterns.
Moreover, we used the native language in interviews and in everyday life
and recorded certain data in the vernacular; also, we determined crucial
meanings of key terms, and generally questioned the information we
elicited until we were sure it was the consensus or that it integrated
well with other information.

Appendix II: Orthography

The basic form of the orthography which has been employed in Palau
stems from early German missionary attempts to reduce the native lan-
guage to writing (Walleser, 1913). It has never been wholly satisfactory
and usage has been far from uniform.

The general recognition of the absence of a universally agreed upon
system of spelling for the Palauan language and the resultant problems
which had arisen culminated in a meeting of interested persons in Koror
village during May of 1955. Present were representatives of the Palau
District administration, officials of the mission schools, and members of
the Palau District Education Department. The purpose of the meeting
was to arrive at some consensus and to develop an orthography which
would be agreeable to all concerned.

The orthography used in this study corresponds only partially to that
agreed upon by the committee. The transcriptions by missionaries, Ger-
man ethnographers, CIMA team members, earlier standards of the edu-
cation department, the decisions reached by the committee, and my own
transcriptions were compared before we arrived at the final orthography.

In this study the following symbols are used in the spelling of native

terms :

Vowels
a as in father.

e as in \^et (also designates the shwa as in rut).
i as in machme.
0 as in note.
u as in rude.

This study differs from the agreed upon system (1955) in that long vowels
are not designated by duplication and semivowels are used:

Semivowels
w as in w^U.
y as in >'ou.

In the adopted system labialized vowels are indicated by //, thus: uodel
("old"), not wodel. Also, palatalized vowels are indicated by /, thus:
iolt ("wind"), not yolt.

182

APPENDIX II: ORTHOGRAPHY

183

ai as in h/gh.

au as in lioase.

oi as in soH.

ei as in late.

ao as in mouse..

Diphthongs

Consonants

often medial.

sometimes as in sob

sometimes as in sop

sometimes as in width (unvoiced).

sometimes as in /Aat (voiced).

as in /ell.

sometimes as in call

sometimes as in "o

as in /ead.

as in wan.

as in no (infrequent).

as in rod.

as in jail.

glottal stop or velar fricative, as in German suchen. (This feature is changing;

sometimes merely aspirated by younger speakers.)

as in sing.

Appendix III: Glossary of Palauan Terms

abai: council house, men's clubhouse.

Aibedul: senior male title of Koror village.

ak: I.

amaidechedui: small lizard.

ar- (r): prefix denoting plurality with respect to persons.

arbedcheduches: persons of lower family-status.

archad: men (human beings).

artal ulaol: (literally, people of one floor); members of a kin group (household, line-
age, etc.).

bab: up.

Babeldaob: geographico-political division.

belu: village (in extension, hamlet, town, city, state, country, etc.).

bital {bitang): other.

bital belu ma bital belu: (literally, other village and other village) ; refers to village moiety
division.

bital blai ma bital blai: (literally, other house and other house) ; refers to kin group seg-
ments and vdllage moiety system.

bital eiyanged: (literally, other heaven or sky); refers to major political confederation.

bital taoch ma bital taoch: (literally, other channel and other channel); refers to village
age-grade society alignment.

bital wa ma bital wa: (literally, other leg and other leg); refers to kin group segments.

bladek: ancestral spirit.

blai {bin, possessive form): (1) house; (2) kin group term.

blolobl: institutionalized concubinage.

boldak: together.

bul dil: prenatal divining ceremony.

chad: human being.

chad era ngebard: (literally, man of the west); white man.

cheldebechel: age-grade club(s).

cheldukl: stone house-yard platform.

chelebechil: death settlement.

chelid: (1) god; (2) middle.

chelid el chad: (literally, god-man) ; supernatural being.

chelimosk: wise person.

daob: ocean.

debechel: special food for title-assumption feast and, by extension, the name for such a
feast.

delach: stomach.

di: just, only.

di emol blai: just one house.

diak: no, not (general negative).

digimes oil: (literally, wet legs); "recent" immigrants.

184

APPENDIX III: GLOSSARY OF PALAUAN TERMS 185

Dira-: female house-title prefix.

ebul: impoverished and/or unfortunate (refers to impoverished persons and connotes

lower status).
eiyanged: (1) heaven (or sky); (2) political confederation.
emol (emong): one.
era: to, for, with, from, in, of.
ilaut: cooked palm flower juices.
katur: left (side).
kauchocharo: mutual enemies.
ke-: prefix connoting mutuality.
keblil: kin group term.
kedikem: right (side).

kedung: well-mannered, respectful, good.
kinro hoshi: co-operative work.

(Japanese)
kl-: prefix connoting plurality under special conditions.
kleblil: kin group term.

klibedul: roster of men who have held the title of Aibedul.
kloal saos: (literally, four posts); four top-ranking sibs within a village.
klobak: council of chiefs.

klobak el dil: (literally, council of women) ; female chiefs' council.
kumiai: co-operative association.

(Japanese)
ma: and.

mechas: (1) elder female; (2) vocative term for elder females, connoting respect.
melingmes: patterned reticence, self-derogation, and reluctance to assume responsibility.
mengesus: to exhibit respect behavior.
mengol: (literally, to carry on shoulder); concubine.

merau: wealthy (may refer to an individual, a kin group, or even a village).
merreder: leader.
mesekiu: dugong.
meteet: upper social status.
meteet el belu: high-ranking village
meterakakel: reckless.

meterakakel a ngarel: (literally, reckless with his mouth) ; unseemly and indecorous speech.
metiud a belu: split of the village (moiety division).
mich: a kind of nut.
Modekngei: nativistic religion.
mral: real, true.

mral tegoi: (literally, real talk); truth.
mur: feast.

murengel a bechil: feast in honor of one's wife.
ngalek: child.

ngarel: his, her, its mouth.

ngasech: lustration ceremony for mother at birth of her first child.
ngebard: west.

ngelong: front; a division within the village council of chiefs.
ngi: he, she, it.

Ngira-: male house-title prefix.
obak: older brother (generic).
ochel: matrilineal descent.

186 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

oheraol: house- or canoe-buying ceremony.

oil: his, her, its leg.

oktemelek: my maternal uncle — referential kinship term applied most frequently to Ego's

mother's eldest male sibling, but extended to mother's other male siblings and

sib-mates as well; general designation for senior males whose membership in a

lineage is based on maternal ties.
Olbil era Kelulau: Palau Congress.
omotk oiyang: (literally, omotk, first bloom; oiyang, flower cluster of the coconut palm);

jumping over, to accede to titled rank through supersedure.^
osiis: patterned respect behavior.
0U-: prefix denoting making, having, or doing.
oungalek: (1) kin group term; (2) to make a child of.
oiirot: general designation for females whose membership in a lineage is based on

maternal ties; used also to designate female members of high-ranking sibs.
pkid: peninsula.

ptang: stone back-rest on council house platform; a seat of authority.
rebai: back; a division within the village council of chiefs.
rubak: (1) elder male; (2) vocative term for elder males, connoting respect.
Riibak el Dios: God.
seinen dan: young men's association; in Palau applied to both young men's and young

women's age-grade societies.
(Japanese)
sengk: ceremony connected with a birth.

(German; from Geschenk)
tal (tang): one.
talungalek: kin group term.
taoch: channel.

Tebechelel Olbil: Palau Council.
tegoi: (1) language, word, talk; (2) thing.
terul: two (refers to humans).
terul udos: two female siblings.
tngakereng: money payment.
udoud (udoudir, possessive form) : money.
ulaol: floor.

ulechel: patrilineal descent.
ulengang: god-house.
uriul: after.

uriul klobak: (literally, after council); lower-ranking members of some village councils.
wa: leg (generic).

waisei: yes (general affirmative); indicates accord, agreement, ratification.
you: down.
Touldaob: geographico-political division.

1 The use of these terms to describe a situation is an example of the extensive use
of figures of speech in Palau. Informants diff"cred as to terms, but there was no dis-
agreement as to the behavior described. One informant gave the terms noted here;
another simply indicated that supersedure might be described through the use of the
word omlotk ("to hop or jump over"). Walleser also gives this meaning for the term
omlotk. Moreover, for the "flower cluster of the coconut palm," he records the term
choeang, clearly the same term I have transcribed as oiyang. He does not, however,
include the term omotk in his dictionary. The similarity between omlotk ("to jump
over") and omotk ("first bloom") seems too close to be coincidental. My own tran-
scription of the first of the terms descriptive of supersedure possibly should include
the letter "1."

Appendix IV: Documents

PALAU DISTRICT
TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

CHARTER OF THE OLBHL ERA KELULAU ERA BELAU

WHEREAS the Palau Congress was inaugurated on July 4, 1947, under the author-
ity of the Military Government of the United States of America to act as a body of
advisors to the Military Government of the Palau District; and

WHEREAS the Palau Congress has met annually in regular sessions since its inau-
guration; and

WHEREAS the people of the Palau District of the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands have stated their desire for representation in the government of their district;
and

WHEREAS the Congress of the United States of America has agreed by ratification
on July 18, 1947, of the Trusteeship Agreement between the United States and the
United Nations Security Council to promote the development of the inhabitants of the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands toward self-government;

NOW THEREFORE, I, Delmas H. Nucker, Deputy High Commissioner of the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, do hereby charter the people of the Palau Dis-
trict of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to convene a Congress which shall be
known as the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU ERA BELAU, hereinafter referred to in this
document as the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU, to advise the District Administrator,
and otherwise aid in the government of their District as hereinafter provided.

Article I: MEMBERSHIP

SECTION 1. The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall be composed of the two High
Chiefs of North and South Palau, and of the magistrate, the recognized para-
mount hereditary chief, and the duly elected representative or representatives of
each municipality of the Palau District, these elected representatives to be herein-
after referred to as CHADAL OLBIIL.

SECTION 2. The secretary of each municipality shall certify each newly elected or
appointed member of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU from his municipality for
eligibility and shall so inform the secretary of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU
prior to the opening of each session of that body.

SECTION 3. Members of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU may receive compensations
and allowances for travel and subsistence as may be determined by each munici-
pality.

187

188 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Article II: REPRESENTATION IN CHADAL OLBIIL

SECTION L Each municipality shall hold elections for CHADAL OLBIIL at least
every two years.

SECTION 2. Each municipality shall elect one but not more than five CHADAL
OLBIIL provided, that if the population as determined by the last official census
preceding election is less than 200 it shall elect one CHADAL OLBIIL; that if
the population exceeds 199 but not 499 it shall elect two CHADAL OLBIIL; and
that if the municipal population exceeds 499 it shall elect one additional CHADAL
OLBIIL for each additional 500 population or fraction thereof.

SECTION 3. Any citizen of the Trust Territory is eligible for membership in the
CHADAL OLBIIL, regardless of sex, provided that he has attained the age of
twenty-six years prior to the date of election; and that he has been a resident of
the Palau District for more than three years prior to the date of election; and that
he has been a resident of the municipality which he is to represent for the year
immediately preceding his election; and that he has been elected by vote of the
electorate of that municipality; and that he continue to be a permanent resident
of the municipal district from which he was elected for the period of his term
in office.

SECTION 4. An CHADAL OLBIIL shall serve for a term of two years following the
date of his election, unless he is removed from office as hereinafter provided, or
until such a time as his successor is elected or appointed.

Article III: OFFICERS

SECTION 1 . A member of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall be elected president,
to be known as BEDUL OLBIIL, by majority vote of that body at the beginning
of each April session. He shall serve until the qualification of his successor, unless
he is removed from office or dies in office, in which case a new president shall be
elected to complete his term.

SECTION 2. The BEDUL OLBIIL shall be assisted by a secretary, whom he shall
appoint with the approval of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU.

SECTION 3. The BEDUL OLBIIL shall be assisted by a body of advisors to be
known as TEBECHELEL OLBIIL; he shall appoint the TEBECHELEL OLBIIL
with the approval of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU.

Article IV: MEMBERSHIP VACANCIES

SECTION 1. Upon the death or ineligibility of a duly elected CHADAL OLBIIL,
a substitute shall be appointed by the municipal council to represent the munici-
pality for the remainder of the term of office so vacated.

SECTION 2. In the event that a duly elected CHADAL OLBIIL or a magistrate is
unable to attend a session of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU, a substitute may be
appointed by the municipal council to represent the municipality for that session.

SECTION 3. An CHADAL OLBIIL may be removed for cause by the District Ad-
ministrator or by petition of two-thirds of the electorate of his municipality and a
substitute shall be appointed by his municipal council to fill the unexpired term
in office.

SECTION 4. After certification by their municipal secretary, appointees to the
OLBIIL ERA KELULAU under the provisions of Sections 1, 2, and 3 of this

APPENDIX IV: DOCUMENTS 189

Article shall in all ways be considered members of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU
with all of the powers of those whom they are appointed to replace.

SECTION 5. In the event that the paramount hereditary chief of a municipality
or either of the two High Chiefs is unable to attend a session of OLBIIL ERA
KELULAU, he may designate a substitute who shall have all the powers that he
himself could exercise if present. In cases where a paramount chief is unable to
confer such appointment, his chief's council may act in his stead. The council
will certify such appointment and will so inform the secretary of the OLBIIL
ERA KELULAU prior to the opening of its next session.

Article V: POWERS

SECTION 1 . The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall have the power of resolution upon
any subject, including but not limited to those herein specifically mentioned.

SECTION 2. The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall determine its own rules and pro-
cedures, provided that they do not contravene any provisions of this charter, and
may choose any officers or employees it deems desirable in addition to those
herein provided.

SECTION 3. The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU is hereby empowered to receive and
administer real and personal property, including that which was formerly acquired
or held by the Congress authorized and existing pursuant to District Order 1-49.

SECTION 4. The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall have the power by resolution to
levy and provide for the collection of taxes and fees.

SECTION 5. The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall have the power to disburse funds
in accordance with resolutions.

Article VI: MEETINGS

SECTION 1. The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall meet as a single body, convened
in regular session during April and October at dates to be fixed by that body prior
to the close of the previous session.

SECTION 2. The OLBIIL ERA KELULAU may be convened in special session by
the BEDUL OLBIIL or by petition of one-third of its membership.

SECTION 3. Any session of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall be adjourned by
majority vote.

SECTION 4. A quorum to do business shall consist of two-thirds of the CHADAL
OLBIIL and two-thirds of the membership not eligible to vote on resolutions.

Article VII: VOTING

SECTION 1. All members of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall have equal rights
and privileges, except as hereinafter provided.

SECTION 2. All members of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall have the right to
propose resolutions and to vote on all matters except resolutions. The CHADAL
OLBIIL alone shall have the right to vote on resolutions, each CHADAL OLBIIL
having a single vote. Magistrates, paramount hereditary chiefs, and the two
High Chiefs of North and South Palau may vote on resolutions only if they are
also elected CHADAL OLBIIL.

190 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

SECTION 3. Any matter, in order to be expressed as a resolution of the OLBIIL
ERA KELULAU, shall require a two-thirds majority vote of the CHADAL
OLBIIL present and voting.

SECTION 4. The secretary of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall maintain a rec-
ord of all sessions of that body and forward a copy thereof in Palauan or in English
as the body may determine, to the District Administrator.

SECTION 5. Resolutions adopted by the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU shall be signed
by the BEDUL OLBIIL and the secretary and submitted to the District Admin-
istrator.

SECTION 6. Resolutions will be approved or disapproved by the High Commissioner
within a period of one hundred and eighty days from the date of acceptance by the
District Administrator of an English translation thereof; if the High Commissioner
fails to approve or disapprove any resolution before the expiration of the one hun-
dred and eighty day period, the resolution shall be considered approved, providing
it does not conflict with any provision of the Trust Territory Code or an existing
District Order.

SECTION 7. The District Administrator shall cause to be filed with the Clerk of
Courts of the Palau District a copy of each resolution accorded the force and effect
of law together with copies of all action thereon.

SECTION 8. Any resolution so approved or considered approved in accordance with
Section 6 above, shall have control over any municipal enactment.

SECTION 9. Questions may be submitted to the BEDUL OLBIIL by the District
Administrator for consideration by the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU.

Article VIII: AMENDMENTS

SECTION 1 . All provisions of this charter shall continue in force until amended by
resolution of the OLBIIL ERA KELULAU or by order of the High Com-
missioner.

Article IX: EFFECTIVE DATE
SECTION 1. The effective date of this charter shall be the 5th day of January, 1955.

SECTION 2. Approval is hereby granted for a District Order rescinding Palau Dis-
trict Order 1-49 effective on the same date as this charter.

Given under My Hand and Seal this 5th Day of January, 1955

DELMAS H. NUCKER

Deputy High Commissioner

oj the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

APPENDIX IV: DOCUMENTS 191

TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Office of the Civil Administrator
Palau Islands

District Order No. 3-48

PALAU COUNCIL
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE PALAU ISLANDS:

Article I: FUNCTIONS

On July 1, 1948, a Palau Administrative Council shall be formed with the following
functions :

Membership:

High Chief of the Southern Palaus.

High Chief of the Northern Palaus.

Advisor to the Political Department.

Advisor for Legal.

Advisor for Finance.

Advisor for Public Safety.

Advisor for Labor and Agriculture.

Advisor for Education.

Advisor for Statistics.

Advisor for Commerce.

Advisor for Public Works.

Advisor for Public Health.

Advisor for Lands.

Advisor for Administration.

Such other members as the Civil Administrator may appoint.

The function of the Palau Council is purely advisory to the Civil Administrator.
They will submit conclusions and recommendations on any matter submitted to them
by the Civil Administrator. They are encouraged to originate and submit to the Civil
Administrator any matters relative to Civil Administration. In other words, the Coun-
cil is to keep its fingers on the pulse of the people and so inform the Civil Administrator
on public opinion. The council may originate desired legislation and submit to the
Palau Congress via Civil Administrator.

Sessions: The Palau Council shall be subject to call of the Civil Administrator.
No dates for regular sessions will be set until such times as the need for them is indi-
cated. Any member of the Council may request to the Civil Administrator that the
Council be called into session, stating their reasons thereof.

Given under my hand this 17th day of June, 1948.

C. M. HARDISON

Commander, U. S. Navy
Civil Administrator, Palau District

192 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Office of the Civil Administrator
Patau Islands

District Order No. 4-48

PALAU CONGRESS
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE PALAU ISLANDS:

The composition, function and duties of the Palau Congress are as follows:

Article I: COMPOSITION

The Palau Congress shall be composed of the magistrate of each municipality and
elected members from each municipality as follows:

One (1) member for 0 to 199 population.

Two (2) members for 200 to 499 population.

Three (3) members for 500 and over population.

The members must be indigenous to the municipality they represent, and will be
elected for a term of two (2) years. In case of vacancy brought about by death or ill-
ness of a member, a special election will be held in the municipality concerned to fill
the vacancy.

Article II: SESSIONS

The Palau Congress shall meet once a year, on the first Monday in April and shall
remain in session until the business before it is finished or a three-fourths majority vote
adjourns it. The Congress can be called into extra session by the Civil Administrator
and in such event it will remain in session as long as the Civil Administrator deems it
necessary.

Article III: FUNCTIONS

The function of the Palau Congress is purely advisory to the Civil Administrator.
It will be the duty of the Palau Congress to submit opinions and recommendations upon
any matter brought before it by the Civil Administrator. The members of Congress
may submit matters for opinion and recommendations to the assembled Congress.

The rules of procedure for the Congress will be published separately.

This order effective 1 July, 1948.

Given under my hand this 18th day of June, 1948.

C. M. HARDISON

Commander, U. S. Navy
Civil Administrator, Patau District

APPENDIX IV: DOCUMENTS 193

TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Office of the Civil Administrator
Palau Islands

District Order No. 07-55

REVOCATION OF DISTRICT ORDERS 3-48 and 4-48

District Orders 3-48 and 4-48 which concern the establishment of the Palau Coun-
cil and Palau Congress respectively, are hereby revoked and superseded by the charter
of the Olbiil era Kelulau.

Given under my hand this 2nd day of May 1955.

DONALD HERON

District Administrator

Approved this day of 1955.

Deputy High Commissioner

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

194 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Office of the Administrator
Palau Islands

District Order No. 1-49
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WESTERN CAROLINE ISLANDS:

ARTICLE I

Rules for the Etection of Congressmen.

1 . Election of congressmen will be held by the Municipality concerned within
10 days after the termination of Congress.

2. Elections will be conducted by an electoral assembly.

3. The Chief and the Magistrate (or Clerk, in municipalities where the Chief is
Magistrate) are charged with the proper conduct of elections.

4. Three days prior to the election day the Magistrate of the Municipality will
publish the time and place of the electoral assembly.

5. All persons eligible to vote, except those physically unable, are urged to leave
their daily tasks and be present at the electoral assembly.

6. An electoral assembly is duly and legally constituted if a majority of the
electors are present.

7. The Chairman of the electoral assembly will be furnished by the clerk of the
Municipality concerned, a roster or registration list of eligible voters.

8. The Chairman of the electoral assembly will register the electors participating
in the electoral assembly and make a report to the Civil Administration. This report
will contain the following: Number of voters eligible to vote, number of voters present,
names of nominees, number of votes cast for each nominee, name of person or persons
elected.

9. It is prohibited to hold an election without the permission, in each case, of the
Civil Administration.

10. Members of Congress will be elected from each Municipality of the Palaus
in the ratio of:

One member for up to 199 population.
Two members for 200 to 499 population.
Three members for 500 and above.

11. The Magistrate of a Municipality will automatically become a member of
Congress over and above the ratio as shown in paragraph 10.

12. Each Palauan 26 years of age or older is hereby qualified to vote for or to be
elected as a member of Congress except that :

(a) Persons must vote in the Municipality where they maintain their legal
residence.

(b) Persons elected must be legal residents of the Municipahty concerned.

APPENDIX IV: DOCUMENTS 195

(d) Persons under probation are hereby disqualified for the length of their
term of probation.

13. Members of Congress will be elected for a term of office of two years from the
date of election.

14. If there is a session of Congress convened at the expiration of any Congress-
man's term of office the date of the new election will be postponed until the Congress
has adjourned and the member will retain all his rights and prerogatives as a member
of Congress until the postponed election can be held.

15. Each Municipality is authorized to pay to its Congressmen an allowance of
not more than $1.00 per day each day Congress is in session.

ARTICLE II

Rules for the Conduct of Congressmen.

1 . Congressmen shall attend all sessions of Congress.

2. Upon receiving notification of the convening of Congress, Congressmen
shall be punctual in arriving on the date set.

3. In the case of temporary illness or other circumstances which would prevent
a member from attending Congress, it is directed that the Civil Administrator be
informed as soon as possible.

4. In the case of permanent illness or inability of a member to attend Congress,
the Civil Administrator will appoint a member to fill the unexpired term of office
of the Congressman concerned or until an election can be held.

5. The President of the Congress will be elected at the beginning of each annual
meeting of Congress. If a special session of Congress is called the President of the
last regular session will preside. The President of the last regular session will preside
at the opening of the new Congress and will, as the first matter of business before the
Congress, hold the election of the new President of Congress. The President of the
Congress may be re-elected.

6. The President of the Congress is charged with the following:

(a) He will open and close the sessions.

(b) He will moderate the discussions.

(d) He will keep order in the Congress. In this duty he is empowered to
order the removal of any person who will not keep order; he may
order the spectators cleared from the Congress if they do not keep order.

(e) He may, with the consent of Congress, limit the discussion on matters
brought before the Congress, or he may declare out of order discussion
which has no bearing on the matter before the Congress.

(f) He may summon such advisors as he deems necessary for advice or
explanation of matters before the Congress. He may not disregard a
request from the Congress for summoning of such advisors.

(g) He may not submit any opinions or enter into the discussion of the
matter before the Congress except to introduce said matter for dis-
cussion.

196 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

(h) He may not vote on any matter before the Congress except to break

a tie vote,
(i) If a motion to introduce new matter for discussion is brought to the

floor while another matter is already under discussion, he will not close

such discussion without the consent of the Congress,
(j) He will present the record of the business of the Congress to the Civil

Administrator.

7. If the President is unable to sit as President a new President will be elected,
for the time being.

8. The Secretary of the Congress is charged with the following:

(a) He will keep the record of the proceedings. In this duty he is allowed
to appoint assistants as he deems necessary.

(b) He will call the roll at each session.

(d) He will assign a serial number to all matters introduced into the Con-
gress. Such serial numbers will show the number of the documents
and the year and session of the Congress. This may be in the form
of the following examples: 1-48, regular session, or; 12-48, 2nd special
session.

9. All matters to be brought before the attention of Congress, whether intro-
duced by the Civil Administrator or a member of the Congress, will be submitted
to the President of the Congress on the first day of the Congress or as soon thereafter
as may be practicable. The President of the Congress will then give them to the
Secretary of the Congress to be numbered and placed on the agenda except as other-
wise ordered by the Civil Administrator.

10. All bills submitted to the Congress will be forwarded to the Civil Adminis-
trator with the record of the voting and discussion.

11. Each Congressman will cast his own vote and all votes will be counted
equally.

12. The Civil Administrator may close Congress at any time.

13. Sessions of the Congress are open to the public.

14. Congress is empowered only to render opinions and make recommendations
to the Civil Administrator.

15. The Civil Administrator is not required to follow the opinions and recom-
mendations of the Congress; however, he will, in all cases, take account of such
opinions and recommendations.

16. Recommendations once approved by the Congress and the Civil Adminis-
trator will then become effective upon publication and posting in the various Munici-
palities.

17. The Civil Administrator reserves the right to modify, change, or retract
any of the rules in this order at any time.

APPENDIX IV: DOCUMENTS 197

ARTICLE III

The rules given in Article I, Section 12, shall apply to elections, for municipal
officials or to any issue that requires a vote in the municipality.

District Order No. 8-48 is hereby cancelled.

Given under my hand at Koror, Palau Islands, this 12th day of January, 1949.

C. M. HARDISON

Commander, U. S. Navy
Civil Administrator, Palau Islands

TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Office of the District Administrator
Palau District

District Order No. 05-55

REVOCATION OF DISTRICT ORDER 1-49

Pursuant to instructions contained within Hicomterpacis dispatch serial 050321 Z
of January, 1955, Palau District Order 1-49 is revoked as of this date.

Given under my hand this 11th day of April, 1955.

DONALD HERON

District Administrator

Bibliography^

I. GENERAL SOURCES
Adam, L.

1947. Virilocal and uxorilocal. American Anthropologist, vol. 49, p. 678.

Anonymous

1832.* The history of Prince Lee Boo, a native of the Pelew Islands. John Harris,
London.

After, D. E.

1955. The Gold Coast in transition. Princeton University Press.

Baker, R. H.

1951. The avifauna of Micronesia. University of Kansas Publications: Museum
of Natural History, vol. 3, pp. 1-359.

Barnett, H. G.

1940. Culture processes. American Anthropologist, vol. 42, pp. 21-48.
1942. Invention and cultural change. American Anthropologist, vol. 44, pp. 14-30.
1949.* Palauan society. LIniversity of Oregon Publications. (Mimeographed.)
1953.* Innovation: The basis of cultural change. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.

1956. Anthropology and administration. Row, Peterson & Co., Evanston, Illinois.

Bateson, G.

1935. Culture contact and schismogenesis. Man, vol. 35, pp. 178-183.

Bavelas, a., and Lewin, K.

1942. Training in democratic leadership. Journal of .A.bnormal and Social Psy-
chology, vol. 37, pp. 115-119.

Beals, R.

1952a. Acculturation, economics, and social change in an Ecuadorean village. In
Acculturation in the Americas (S. Tax, Editor). Selected Papers of the XXIXth
International Congress of .Americanists, vol. 2, pp. 67-73. University of Chicago
Press.

1952b. Notes on acculturation. In Heritage of conquest, pp. 225-232 (S. Tax,
Editor). Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois.

1953. Acculturation. /« Anthropology today, pp. 621-641 (A. L. Kroeber, £'(///or).
University of Chicago Press.

Belshaw, C. S.

1950. Island administration in the south west Pacific. O.xford University Press,
London.

1954. Changing Melanesia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

1957. The great village. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London.

1 Asterisks denote sources relating specifically to the Palau Islands.

198

BIBLIOGRAPHY 199

Bernard, J.

1928. Political leadership among the North American Indians. American Journal
of Sociology, vol. 34, pp. 296-315.

Bruner, E.

1956. Primary group experience and the processes of acculturation. American
Anthropologist, vol. 58, pp. 605-623.

Buck, P. H.

1953. Explorers of the Pacific. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 43.

BURNEV, J.

1803.* A chronological history of the voyages or discoveries in the South Sea or
Pacific Ocean. Part 1. G. and W. Nicol, London.

Capell, a.

1943. The linguistic position of south-eastern Papua. Australasian Medical Pub-
lishing Co., Ltd., Sydney.

n.d.* A grammar of the language of Palau. Coordinated Investigation of Micro-
nesian Anthropology, Report No. 6b. Pacific Science Board, Washington, D.C.
(Mimeographed.)

1948. Grammar and vocabulary of the language of Sonsorol-Tobi. Coordinated
Investigation of Micronesian Anthropology, Report No. 30. Pacific Science
Board, Washington, D.C. (Mimeographed.)

Chapple, E. D.

1943. Anthropological engineering: Its use to administrators. Applied Anthro-
pology, vol. 2, pp. 23-32.

Chapple, E. D. (with C. M. Arensberg)

1940. Measuring human relations: An introduction to the study of the interaction
of individuals. Genetic Psychology Monographs, vol. 22, pp. 3-147.

Chapple, E. D., and Coon, C. S.

1942. Principles of anthropology. Henry Holt and Co., New York.

Cheyne, a.

1852. A description of islands in the western Pacific Ocean . . . manners and cus-
toms. Trubner, London.

Danielsson, B.

1956. Work and life on Raroia. George Allen and Unwin, London.

Delano, A.

1817.* Narrative of voyages and travels ... in the Pacific Ocean. ... E. G. House,
Boston.

DE Valencia, A.

1891.* Memoria de Palaos. (Typescript.)

Dixon, R. B.

1928. The building of cultures. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.

Drucker, p.

1951. Anthropology in Trust Territory Administration. The Scientific Monthly,
vol. 72, pp. 306-312.

DuMONT D'Urville, J. S. C.

1843. Voyage au Pole Sud et dans L'Oceanie sur les corvettes "L' Astrolabe" et
"La Zelle," . . . histoire du voyage. Gide, Paris.

200 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

Elkin, a. p.

195L Reaction and interaction: A food gathering people and European settlement.
American Anthropologist, vol. 53, pp. 164-186.

Embree, J. F.

1943. Resistance to freedom: An administrative problem. Applied Anthropology,
vol. 2, pp. 10-14.

1946. Military government in Saipan and Tinian. Applied Anthropology, vol. 5,

pp. 1-39.
1949a. American military government. In Social structure, pp. 207-225 (M. Fortes,

Editor). Oxford University Press, London.

Erasmus, C.

1952. The leader vs. tradition: A case study. American Anthropologist, vol. 54,
pp. 168-178.

EuLAU, H., Eldersvei.d, S. J., and Janowitz, M.

1956. Political behavior. Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois.

Euler, R. C, and Navlor, H. L.

1 952. Southern Ute rehabilitation planning : A study in self-determination. Human
Organization, vol. 11, pp. 27-32.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E.

1950. Social anthropology: Past and present, 1950. Man, vol. 50, pp. 118-124.

Fairchild, H. p.

1944. Dictionary of sociology. Philosophical Library, New York.

Fallers, L. a.

1956. Bantu bureaucracy. W. Heflfer & Sons, Cambridge.

Firth, R.

1949. Authority and public opinion in Tikopia. In Social structure, pp. 168-188
(M. Fortes, Editor). Oxford University Press, London.

1957. Human types. (Revised edition.) Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., London.

1958. We the Tikopia. (Revised edition.) George Allen and Unwin, London.

Force, R. W.

1959. Palauan money. Some preliminary comments on material and origins.
Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 68, pp. 40-44.

Ford, C. S.

1938. The role of a Fijian chief. American Sociological Review, vol. 3, pp. 541-550.
1941. Smoke from their fires. Oxford University Press, London.

Forde, D.

1 953. Applied anthropology in government : British Africa. In Anthropology today,
pp. 843-844 (A. L. Kroeber, Editor). University of Chicago Press.

Fortes, M.

1936. Culture-contact as a dynamic process. Africa, vol. 9, pp. 24-55.
1953. The structure of unilineal descent groups. American Anthropologist, vol. 55,
pp. 17-41.

Fortes, M. {Editor)

1949. Social structure. Oxford University Press, London.

Fortes, M., and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. {Editors)

1950. African political systems. Oxford University Press, London.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 201

FOSBERG, F. R.

1947. Botanical report on Micronesia. U. S. Commercial Company Economic
Survey of Micronesia. (Typescript.)

Gardner, G.

1956. Functional leadership and popularity in small groups. Human Relations,
vol. 9, pp. 491-509.

GiBB, C. A.

1947. The principles and traits of leadership. Journal of .Abnormal and Social
Psychology, vol. 42, pp. 267-284.

GiLLIN, J.

1948. The ways of men. D. .Appleton-Century Co., Inc., New York.

Gladwin, T.

1950. Civil administration on Truk: A rejoinder. Human Organization, vol. 9,
pp. 15-24.

GouLDNER, A. W. {Editor)

1950. Studies in leadership: Leadership and democratic action. Harper and Bros.,
New York.

Gressitt, J. L.

1953.* The coconut rhinoceros beetle {Oryctes rhinoceros), with particular reference
to the Palau Islands. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 212.

1954. Insects of Micronesia. Introduction: vol. 1. Bernice P. Bishop Museum.

GULICK, J.

1955. Social structure and culture change in a Lebanese village. Viking Fund
Publications in Anthropology, No. 21. Wenner-Gren Foundation for .Anthropo-
logical Research, Inc., New York.

Hall, E. T.

1950. Military government on Truk. Human Organization, vol. 9, pp. 25-30.

Herskovits, M. J.

1938. Acculturation: The study of culture contact. J.J. Augustin, New York.
1941. Some comments on the study of cultural contact. .American Anthropologist,

vol. 43, pp. 1-10.

1945. The processes of cultural change. In The science of man in the world crisis,
pp. 143-170 (R. Linton, Editor). Columbia University Press.

1950. Man and his works. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

1952a. Introduction. In Acculturation in the Americas (S. Tax, Editor). Selected
Papers of the XXIXth International Congress of .Americanists, vol. 2, pp. 48-63.
University of Chicago Press.

1952b. Some psychological implications of Afro-.American studies. In .Acculturation
in the .Americas (S. Tax, Editor). Selected Papers of the XXIXth International
Congress of .Americanists, vol. 2, pp. 152-160. University of Chicago Press.

1954. Some problems of method in ethnography. In Method and perspective in
anthropology, pp. 3-24 (R. F. Spencer, Editor). University of Minnesota Press.

1958. Some further notes on cultural relativism. .American .Anthropologist, vol. 60,
pp. 266-273.

HOCKIN, J. P.

1803.* A supplement to the account of the Pelew Islands. G. and VV. Nicol, London.

HOGBIN, H. I.

1939. Experiments in civilization. George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., London.

1951. Transformation scene. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London.

202 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

HOLDEN, H.

1836.* A narrative of the shipwreck . . . of Horace Holden and Benj. H. Nute ... in
. . . the Pelew Islands in the year 1832. Russell, Shattuck, and Co., Boston.

HOMANS, G.

1950. The human group. Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York.

Hughes, E. C.

1945. Leadership and inter-group co-operation. Applied Anthropology, vol. 4,
pp. 18-19.

Hunt, E. E., Jr.

1950. A view of somatology and serology in Micronesia. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology, vol. 8, pp. 157-184.

Hunter, M.

1936. Reaction to conquest. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England.

Kanehira, R.

1935. An enumeration of Micronesian plants. Journal of the Department of Agri-
culture, Kyushu Imperial University, vol. 4, pp. 237-464. Kyushu.

Keate, G.

1788.* An account of the Pelew Islands. G. Nicol, London.

Keesing, F. M.

1930. Government of Pacific dependencies. Pacific Affairs, vol. 3, pp. 448-459.

1931. Dependencies and native peoples of the Pacific. Institute of Pacific Relations,
Honolulu.

1945. Applied anthropology in colonial administration. In The science of man in

the world crisis, pp. 373-398 (R. Linton, Editor). Columbia University Press.
1953a. Cultural dynamics in administration. In Proceedings of the Seventh Pacific

Science Congress of the Pacific Science Association, vol. VII, pp. 102-116.

Pegasus Press, Christchurch, New Zealand.
1953b. Culture change: An analysis and bibliography of anthropological sources to

1952. Stanford Anthropological Series Number One. Stanford University Press.

Keesing, F. M. and M. M.

1956. Elite communication in Samoa: A study in leadership. Stanford Anthropo-
logical Series Number Three. Stanford University Press.

Kennedy, R.

1944. Applied anthropology in the Dutch East Indies. Transactions of the New
York Academy of Sciences, ser. II, vol. 6, pp. 157-166.

Kimball, S. T.

1950. Future problems in Navajo administration. Human Organization, vol. 9,
pp. 21-24.

Kraemer, A.

1929.* Palau. In Ergebnisse der Sudsee-Expedition. II. Ethnographic: B. Mikro-
nesien. vol. Ill (G. Thilenius, Editor). Friederichsen, de Gruyter and Co.,
Hamburg.

Kroeber, A. L.

1948. Anthropology. Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York.

Kroeber, A. L. {Editor)

1953. Anthropology today. University of Chicago Press.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 203

KUBARY, J.

1895.* Ethnographische Beitrage sur Kenntnis des Karolinen-Archipels. P. W. M.
Trap, Leiden.

LaPiere, R. T.

1954. A theory of social control. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.

Lasswell, H. D.

1948. Power and personality. W. W. Norton & Co., New York.

Leach, E. R.

1954. Political systems of highland Burma. Harvard University Press.

Leighton, a. H.

1945. The governing of men. Princeton University Press.

1949. Human relations in a changing world. E. P. Button and Co., Inc., New York.

Lerner, D., and Lasswell, H. D.

1951. The policy sciences. Stanford University Press.

Linton, R.

1936. The study of man. D. Appleton-Century Co., Inc., New York.

1955. The tree of culture. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Linton, R. {Editor)

1940. Acculturation in seven American Indian tribes. D. Appleton-Century Co.,

Inc., New York.
1945. The science of man in the world crisis. Columbia University Press.

LowiE, R. H.

1920. Primitive society. Boni and Liveright, New York.

MacIver, R. M.

1937. Society: A textbook of sociology. Farrar and Rinehart, New York.

McCormack, W. C.

1956. Changing leadership in a Mysore village. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.
University of Chicago. (Typescript.)

Mair, L. p.

1934. The study of culture contact as a practical problem. Africa, vol. 7, pp.
415-422.

Malinowski, B.

1939. The dynamics of contemporary diffusion. International Congress of Anthro-
pological and Ethnological Sciences, pp. 357—360. Copenhagen.
1945. The dynamics of culture change. Yale University Press.

Matsumura, a.

1918.* Contributions to the ethnography of Micronesia. Journal of the College of
Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, vol. 40, pp. 1-174.

Mayo, H. M.

1954.* Report on the plant relocation survey and agricultural history of the Palau
Islands. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Honolulu. (Mimeographed.)

Mead, M.

1956. New lives for old. Victor Gollancz Ltd., London.

Merton, R. K.

1952. Reader in bureaucracy. Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois.

204 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

MURDOCK, G. p.

1949a. Social organization and government in Micronesia. Coordinated Investiga-
tion of Micronesian Anthropology, Report No. 19. Pacific Science Board, Wash-
ington, D.C. (Part II mimeographed.)

1949b. Social structure. The Macmillan Co., New York.

1956. How culture changes. In Man, culture, and society, pp. 247-260 (H. L.
Shapiro, Editor). Oxford University Press, New York.

Oliver, D. L.

1955. A Solomon Island society: Kinship and leadership among the Siuai of Bou-
gainville. Harvard University Press.

Oliver, D. L. {Editor)

1951.* Planning Micronesia's future. Harvard University Press.

Oliver, D. L., and Miller, W. B.

1955. Suggestion for a more systematic method of comparing political units.
American Anthropologist, vol. 57, pp. 118-121.

Pehrson, R.

1953. Leadership and local organization in a pastoral nomadic community. Un-
published M.A. thesis. University of Chicago. (Typescript.)

1954. The Lappish herding leader: A structural analysis. American Anthropol-
ogist, vol. 56, pp. 1076-1080.

Pigors, p.

1935. Leadership or domination. Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston.

POWDERMAKER, H.

1928. Leadership in central and southern Australia. Economica, vol. 8, pp. 168-190.

Radcliffe-Brown, a. R.

1952. Structure and function in primitive society. Cohen and West, Ltd., London.

Redfield, R.

1953. The primitive world and its transformations. Cornell University Press.

Redfield, R., Linton, R., and Herskovits, M. J.

1936. Memorandum on the study of acculturation. American Anthropologist,
vol. 38, pp. 149-152.

Richards, A. I.

1935. Tribal government in transition. Journal of the Royal African Society,
vol. 34, suppl.

Ritzenthaler, R. E.

1954.* Native money of Palau. Milwaukee Public Museum Publications in An-
thropology, No. 1. North American Press, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Rohrer, J. H., and Sherif, M. {Editors)

1951. Social psychology at the crossroads. Harper and Bros., New York.

Roth, G. K.

1953. Fijian way of life. Oxford University Press, London.

Roucek, J. S. {Editor)

1947. Social control. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York.

Schmidt, R.

1937. Leadership. Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 9, pp. 282-287. The
Macmillan Co., New York.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 205

Shapiro, H. L.

1956. Man, culture, and society. Oxford University Press, New York.

Shepardson, M.

1956. Leadership and culture change: A case study of the Navajo Indians. Unpub-
lished M.A. thesis. Stanford University. (Typescript.)

SlEGEL, B. J.

1949. Anthropological analysis of shared respect: Contributions to a study of revo-
lution. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 5, pp. 351-368.

1952. Suggested factors of culture change at Taos pueblo. In Acculturation in the
Americas (S. Tax, Editor). Selected Papers of the XXIXth International Con-
gress of Americanists, vol. 2, pp. 133-140. University of Chicago Press.

Social Science Research Council Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1953

1954. Acculturation: An exploratory formulation. American Anthropologist,
vol. 56, pp. 973-1002.

South Pacific Commission

1953. The Koror community centre. Technical Paper No. 46. Noumea, New
Caledonia.

Spencer, R. F. {Editor)

1954. Method and perspective in anthropology. University of Minnesota Press.

Spicer, E. H. {Editor)

1952. Human problems in technological change. Russell Sage Foundation, New
York.

Spoehr, a.

1947. Changing kinship systems. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropo-
logical Series, vol. 33, pp. 159-235.
1949. Majuro, a village in the Marshall Islands. Fieldiana: Anthropology, vol. 39.

1954. Saipan, the ethnology of a war-devastated island. Fieldiana: Anthropology,
vol. 41.

Steward, J. H.

1953. Evolution and process. In Anthropology today, pp. 313-326 (A. L. Kroeber,
Editor). University of Chicago Press.

1955. Theory of culture change. University of Illinois Press.

Tax, S. {Editor)

1952a. Heritage of conquest. Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois.

1952b. Acculturation in the Americas. Selected Papers of the XXIXth Inter-
national Congress of Americanists, vol. 2. University of Chicago Press.

Tax, S., Eiselev, L. C, Rouse, I., and Voegelin, C. F. {Editors)

1953. An appraisal of anthropology today. University of Chicago Press.

Tetens, a.

1958.* Among the savages of the South Seas: Memoirs of Micronesia, 1862-1868.
Translated from the German by Florence Mann Spoehr. Stanford University
Press.

Thurnwald, R. C.

1932. The psychology of acculturation. American Anthropologist, vol. 34,
pp. 557-569.

Useem, J.

1945a.* The changing structure of a Micronesian society. American Anthropol-
ogist, vol. 47, pp. 567-588.

206 CULTURAL CHANGE IN PALAU

1945b. The American pattern of military government in Micronesia. American

Journal of Sociology, vol. 51, pp. 93-102.
1946. Governing the occupied areas of the South Pacific; wartime lessons and

peacetime proposals. .Applied Anthropology, vol. 4, pp. 1-10.
1947a. Applied anthropology in Micronesia. Applied Anthropology, vol. 6,

pp. 1-10.
1947b.* Economic and human resources. Yap and Palau, western Carolines. U. S.

Commercial Co., Honolulu. (Mimeographed.)
1949.* Report on Palau. Coordinated Investigation of Micronesian Anthropology,

Report No. 21. Pacific Science Board, Washington, D.C. (Mimeographed.)
1950.* Structure of power in Palau. Social Forces, vol. 29, pp. 141-148.
1952.* The development of democratic leadership in the Micronesian Islands. In

Human problems in technological change, pp. 149-164 (E. H. Spicer, Editor).

Russell Sage Foundation, New York.

ViDICH, A.

1949.* Political factionalism in Palau. Coordinated Investigation of Micronesian
Anthropology, Report No. 23. Pacific Science Board, Washington, D.C.
(Mimeographed.)

Walleser, S.

1913.* Palau Worterbuch. I, Palau-Deutsch; II, Deutsch-Palau. Mission Society,
Hong Kong.

Watson, J. B.

1952. Cayua culture change: A study in acculturation and methodology. Amer-
ican Anthropologist, vol. 54, no. 2, pt. 2 (Memoir no. 73).

Watson, J. B., and Samora, J.

1954. Subordinate leadership in a bicultural community: An analysis. American
Sociological Review, vol. 19, pp. 413-421.

Weber, M.

1922. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. J. C. B. Mohr and Paul Siebeck, Tubingen.

White, L. A.

1949. The science of culture. Farrar, Strauss and Co., New York.

Whyte, W. F.

1951. Small groups and large organizations. In Social psychology at the cross-
roads, pp. 297-312 (J. H. RoHRER and M. Sherif, Editors). Harper and Bros.,
New York.

1955. Street corner society: The social structure of an Italian slum. (Second
edition.) University of Chicago Press.

Wilson, G. and M.

1954. The analysis of social change. Cambridge University Press.

Wilson, J.

1799. A missionary voyage to the southern Pacific Ocean . . . 1796-98 ... in the
ship Duff. T. Chapman, London.

WORSLEY, P.

1957. The trumpet shall sound. MacGibbon and Kee, London.

Yanaihara, T.

1940. Pacific islands under Japanese mandate. Oxford University Press, New
York.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 207

II. OFFICIAL SOURCES

Civil Affairs Handbook: West Caroline Islands

1944. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department. Washing-
ton, D.C.

Code of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
1952, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Honolulu.

Decisions on Names in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and Guam

1955. Part I: Caroline Islands. Cumulative Decision List No. 5501. Department
of the Interior, Washington, D.C.

District Order 2-48

1948. American Navy Administration. Palau District.

Handbook on the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

1948. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department. Washington,
D.C.

Palau District Annual (Statistical) Report
1948-56. (Mimeographed.)

Palau District Memorandum from District Anthropologist to District Admin-
istration
1953 (dated Jan. 16).

Quarterly Report, Civil Administration Unit, Palau District

1951 (April, May, June).

Quarterly Report, Palau District

1952 (Jan., Feb., March).

Special Study on Social Conditions in Non-Self-Governing Territories

1956. Summaries and analyses of information transmitted to the Secretary-General
[United Nations] during 1955. Columbia University Press.

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands: Annual Reports

1955. Seventh annual report on the administration of the Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands. U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

1956. Eighth annual report on the administration of the Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands. U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

1957. Ninth annual report on the administration of the Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands. U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

United Nations Review

1956. Modernizing without uprooting: The challenge in the Pacific Islands, vol. 3,
pp. 46-52. Columbia University Press.

United Nations Visiting Mission : Handbook of Information
1956. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Guam.

Inde)

Acculturational change, 123-136, 157, 162,
164; behavioral responses in, 129-132;
general understandings about, 154, .164;
integrational processes of, 128, 129. See
also Exogenous cultural change.

Adam, L., 46

Administration of native peoples, 89-91;
the administrator, 89, 90; assistants, 90,
91 ; direct rule, 89, 90: indirect rule, 89,
90; philosophies of, 86, 87

Age-grade societies, 40, 42, 43, 71, 106,
108, 135, 136, 151, 175, 178; dual or-
ganization of, 32, 40; leader selection,
136; leadership of, 42, 136; member-
ship in, 42; membership progression in,
42

Alien administrations, 102, 108, 109, 134,
165; policies and practices of, 87-89

Antelope, 66

Apter, D. E., 123

Authority, duplicating systems of, 112

Barnett, H. G., 43, 44, 48, 126, 127, 134,

164, 168, 180
Beals, R., 126, 127
Belshaw, C. S., 156, 158, 159
Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 7
Blending as an integrational process of

acculturational change, 128-131
Burial, 129, 130
Burney, J., 66

Business, 84, 102, 114, 134, 147, 165, 179
Businessmen, 102, 116; Japanese, 85, 165.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Leadership and cultural change in Palau"

See other formats