Why are islanders so lavishly generous with food and material possessions but so guarded with information? Why do these people, unfailingly polite for the most part, laugh openly when others embarrass themselves? What does a smile mean to an islander? What might a sudden lapse into silence signify? These questions are common in encounters with an unfamiliar Pacific Island culture. Making Sense of Micronesia is intended for westerners who find themselves in contact with Micronesians--as teachers, social workers, health-care providers, or simply as friends--and are puzzled by their island ways. It is for anyone struggling to make sense of cultural exchanges they don't quite understand.



The author focuses on the guts of island culture: the importance of the social map, the tension between the individual and social identity, the ways in which wealth and knowledge are used, the huge importance of respect, emotional expression and its restraints, island ways of handling both conflict and intimacy, the real but indirect power of women. Far from a theoretical exposition, the book begins and ends with the real-life behavior of islanders. Each section of every chapter is introduced by a vignette that illustrates the theme discussed. The book attempts to explain island behavior, as curious as it may seem to outsiders at times, against the over-riding pattern of values and attitudes that have always guided island life.

Even as the author maps the cultural terrain of Micronesia, he identifies those areas where island logic and the demands of the modern world conflict: the "dilemmas of development." In some cases, changes are being made; in others, the very features of island culture that were highly functional in the past may remain so even today. Overall, he advocates restraint--in our judgments on island practices, in our assumption that many of these are dysfunctional, and in leading the charge for "development" before understanding the broader context of the culture we are trying to convert.

Making Sense of Micronesia: The Logic of Pacific Island Culture

Making Micronesia: A Political Biography of Tosiwo Nakayama

The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth's surface and encompasses many thousands of islands, the home to numerous human societies and cultures. Among these indigenous Oceanic cultures are the intrepid Polynesian double-hulled canoe navigators, the atoll dwellers of Micronesia, the statue carvers of remote Easter Island, and the famed traders of Melanesia. Recent archaeological excavations, combined with allied research in historical linguistics, biological anthropology, and comparative ethnography, have begun to reveal much new information about the long-term history of these Pacific Island societies and cultures. "On the Road of the Winds" synthesizes the grand sweep of human history in the Pacific Islands, beginning with the movement of early people out from Asia more than 40,000 years ago, and tracing the development of myriad indigenous cultures up to the time of European contact in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

Questions that scholars have posed and puzzled over for two centuries or more are illuminated here: Where did the Pacific Islanders come from? How did they discover and settle the thousands of islands? Why did they build great monuments like Nan Madol on Pohnpei Island in Micronesia or the famous Easter Island statues? This book provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological and historical anthropological knowledge of these fascinating indigenous cultures.

In particular, Kirch focuses on human ecology and island adaptations, the complexities of island trading and exchange systems, voyaging technology and skills, and the development of intensive economic systems linked to the growth of large populations. He also draws on his own original field research conducted on many islands, ranging from the Solomons to Hawai'i, as he takes us on an intellectual voyage into the Oceanic past.

On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact

Legends from the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands are interwoven with historical interludes and beautiful woodcut illustrations.

Micronesian Legends

The first collection of poetry by a Pohnpeian poet, Emelihter Kihleng's My Urohs is described by distinguished Samoan writer and artist Albert Wendt as "refreshingly innovative and compelling, a new way of seeing ourselves in our islands, an important and influential addition to our [Pacific] literature."

My Urohs

From the mysterious ruins of Pohnpei to Saipan's historic beaches, the islands of Micronesia offer the traveler hundreds of intriguing destinations to explore. Looking for more than the standard itinerary? Explore the sunken Japanese fleet in Chuuk Lagoon or celebrate with the locals at the annual Arts Festival in Palau. Neil Levy, a renowned South Pacific travel expert, brings the islands and atolls of Micronesia within reach of travelers who, on any budget, are looking to experience the full bounty of these incredible islands. This guide covers all four Pacific archipelagos: Guam; the Republics of Palau, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Nauru; the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, including Saipan, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Completely updated and revised, the sixth edition of Moon Handbooks Micronesia, is packed with the most current information on sightseeing options, diving and recreation, accommodations, and restaurants, as well as custom maps, color photographs, fascinating sidebars, and a complete coverage of the area's culture, history, and social issues.

Moon Handbooks Micronesia

Legends of Micronesia (Book One) (Bk. 1)

Marsha R. Kennedy has always had a constant need to travel and to live around the world. In January of 2009, she set off on an adventure living and working in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (an island that is only a tiny speck on the globe) as an Attorney for the Micronesian government. This travel essay is a humorous recount of some of her experiences there. A list of "101 Things I Learned Living in Micronesia (FSM) That You Probably Should Consider before Moving There" is a list of anecdotes included at the end.

My Life in Micronesia: An American Attorney in Micronesia

Take a wonderfully crazed excursion into the demented heart of a tropical paradise—a world of cargo cults, cannibals, mad scientists, ninjas, and talking fruit bats. Our bumbling hero is Tucker Case, a hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy's body, who makes a living as a pilot for the Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation. But when he demolishes his boss's pink plane during a drunken airborne liaison, Tuck must run for his life from Mary Jean's goons. Now there's only one employment opportunity left for him: piloting shady secret missions for an unscrupulous medical missionary and a sexy blond high priestess on the remotest of Micronesian hells. Here is a brazen, ingenious, irreverent, and wickedly funny novel from a modern master of the outrageous.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia (Oxford History of Art)

What allows certain individuals and groups to maintain control over the actions and lives of others? linguistic anthropologist Elizabeth Keating went to the island of Pohnpei, in Micronesia, and studied how people use language and other semiotic codes to reproduce and manipulate status differences. The result is this inside view of how language works to create power and social inequality.

Power Sharing: Language, Rank, Gender, and Social Space in Pohnpei, Micronesia

For nearly fifty years, US government officials have identified Belau, in western Micronesia, as a key strategic site and have implemented administrative policies designed to maintain permanent access to Belau's land, reefs and waters for military purposes. Elder women placed themselves at the forefront of opposition to these policies, and, as part of oppositional efforts, successfully entered international political arenas. Speaking to Power moves beyond examining the impact of militarism and colonial administrative policy in Belau and draws on feminist poststructural analysis to explore the fluidity of contests in constructions of "gender," "politics," and "tradition" during US administration in Belau.

Speaking to Power: Gender and Politics in the Western Pacific

Winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Enter the exotic world of the South Pacific, meet the men and women caught up in the drama of a big war. The young Marine who falls madly in love with a beautiful Tonkinese girl. Nurse Nellie and her French planter, Emile De Becque. The soldiers, sailors, and nurses playing at war and waiting for love in a tropic paradise.

Tales of the South Pacific

Comprising thousands of islands and hundreds of cultural groups, Polynesia and Micronesia cover a large part of the vast Pacific Ocean, from the dramatic mountains of Hawaii to the small, flat coral islands of Kiribati. "The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia" offers a superb introduction to the rich artistic traditions of these two regions, traditions that have had a considerable impact on modern western art through the influence of artists such as Gauguin. After an introduction to Polynesian and Micronesian art separately, the book focuses on the artistic types, styles, and concepts shared by the two island groups, thereby placing each in its wider cultural context. From the textiles of Tonga to the canoes of Tahiti, Adrienne Kaeppler sheds light on religious and sacred rituals and objects, carving, architecture, tattooing, personal ornaments, basket-making, clothing, textiles, fashion, the oral arts, dance, music and musical instruments--even canoe-construction--to provide the ultimate introduction to these rich and vibrant cultures. Each chapter begins with a quote from an indigenous person from one of the island areas covered in the book and features both historic and contemporary works of art. A timeline for migration into the Pacific includes the latest information from archaeology, as well as the influx of explorers and missionaries and important exhibitions and other artistic events. With more than one hundred illustrations--most in full color--this volume offers a stimulating and insightful account of two dynamic artistic cultures.


The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia

Where America's Day Begins: A Reporter In Guam And Micronesia

This book gives you full details and great images of the best places to scuba dive across the vast expanse of the northwestern Pacific Ocean known as Micronesia, covering such famous locations as, Palau, Truk Lagoon (Chuuk), Yap and Guam and less well-known but just as wonderful destinations like Kosrae, Pohnpei, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands.

Author and photojournalist Tim Rock lives in Micronesia and travels and dives the islands frequently. Here, he gives the reader insight into both the popular sites and those that are a little off-the-beaten-path. He writes about not only the main islands, but the outer reefs and remote atolls too.

This is not just a great reference book, it's a fun adventure. Page through and imagine diving all the fantastic sites, seeing astonishing seascapes, visiting sunken historical relics and gazing at the amazing marine life and fantastic corals. The whole of Micronesia seems to consist of one top bucket list after another.

This is a great new concept from a veteran dive author and photojournalist. Full color throughout with over 200 photos and maps, the book is the first of a series that will include The 50 Best Dives in the Philippines and in Indonesia.

The 50 Best Dives in Micronesia: The Ultimate Guide to the Essential Sites

My Canoe Has No News: Travels in Micronesia

World War II was a watershed event for the people of the former Japanese colonies of Micronesia. The Japanese military build-up, the conflict itself, and the American occupation and control of the conquered islands brought rapid and dramatic changes to Micronesian life. Whether they spent the war in caves and bomb shelters, in sweet potato fields under armed Japanese guard, or in their own homes, Micronesians who survived those years recognize that their peoples underwent a major historical transformation. Like a typhoon, the war swept away a former life.



The Typhoon of War combines archival research and oral history culled from more than three hundred Micronesian survivors to offer a comparative history of the war in Micronesia. It is the first book to develop Islander perspectives on a topic still dominated by military histories that all but ignore the effects of wartime operations on indigenous populations. The authors explore the significant cultural meanings of the war for Island peoples, for the events of the war are the foundation on which Micronesians have constructed their modern view of themselves, their societies, and the wider world. Their recollections of those tumultuous years contain a wealth of detail about wartime activities, local conditions, and social change, making this an invaluable reference for anyone interested in twentieth-century Micronesia. Photographs, maps, and a detailed chronology will help readers situate Micronesian experiences within the broader context of the Pacific War.

The Typhoon Of War: Micronesian Experiences Of The Pacific War

Upon a Stone Altar: A History of the Island of Pohnpei to 1890

Traditional Micronesian Societies explores the extraordinary successes of the ancient voyaging peoples who first settled the Central Pacific islands some two thousand years ago. They and their descendants devised social and cultural adaptations that have enabled them to survive--and thrive--under the most demanding environmental conditions. The dispersed matrilineal clans so typical of Micronesian societies ensure that every individual, every local family and lineage, and every community maintain close relations with the peoples of many other islands. When hurricanes and droughts or political struggles force a group to move, they are sure of being taken in by kin residing elsewhere. Out of this common theme, shared patterns of land tenure, political rule, philosophy, and even personal character have flowed.



To describe and explain Micronesian societies, the author begins with an overview of the region, including a brief consideration of the scholarly debate about whether Micronesia actually exists as a genuine and meaningful region. This is followed by an account of how Micronesia was originally settled, how its peoples adapted to conditions there, and how several basic adaptations diffused throughout the islands. He then considers the fundamental matters of descent (ideas about how individuals and groups are bound together through ties of kinship) and descent groups and the closely interlinked subjects of households, families, land, and labor. Because women form the core of the clans, their roles are particularly respected and their contributions to social life honored. Socio-political life, art, religion, and values are discussed in detail. Finally, the author examines a number of exceptions to these common Micronesian patterns of social life.

Traditional Micronesian Societies illustrates the idiosyncrasies of individual Micronesian communities and celebrates the Micronesians' shared ability to adapt, survive, and thrive over millennia. At a time when global climate change has seized our imaginations, the Micronesians' historical ability to cope with their watery environment is of the greatest relevance.

Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization

The New Shape of Old Island Cultures: A Half Century of Social Change in Micronesia

The Navigator's Children (The Last King of Osten Ard, #3)

Yap: Political Leadership And Culture Change In An Island Society

"Suffering and Sentiment" examines the cultural and personal experiences of chronic and acute pain sufferers in a richly described account of everyday beliefs, values, and practices on the island of Yap (Waqab), Federated States of Micronesia. C. Jason Throop provides a vivid sense of Yapese life as he explores the local systems of knowledge, morality, and practice that pertain to experiencing and expressing pain. In so doing, Throop investigates the ways in which sensory experiences like pain can be given meaningful coherence in the context of an individual's culturally constituted existence. In addition to examining the extent to which local understandings of pain's characteristics are personalized by individual sufferers, the book sheds important new light on how pain is implicated in the fashioning of particular Yapese understandings of ethical subjectivity and right action.

Suffering and Sentiment: Exploring the Vicissitudes of Experience and Pain in Yap


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Compacts of Free Association with the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau

In "Strangers in Their Own Land", the renowned sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country – a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Russell Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets – among them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accident – people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children. 

"Strangers in Their Own Land" goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Russell Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream – and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Russell Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in "red" America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from "liberal" government intervention abhor the very idea?

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

"Hezel writes clearly and with erudition and commands an impressive body of information. His book is a tour de force.... Not only will it be read eagerly by Pacific scholars, but it should find a wide audience among well-educated Micronesians hungry for greater understanding of how their islands have become ensnared in world geopolitics." --Ethnohistory

Micronesia

Making Sense of Micronesia: The Logic of Pacific Island Culture

Francis X. Hezel

Making Micronesia: A Political Biography of Tosiwo Nakayama

David Hanlon

On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact

Patrick Vinton Kirch

Micronesian Legends

Bo Flood

My Urohs

Emelihter Kihleng

Moon Handbooks Micronesia

Neil Levy

Legends of Micronesia (Book One) (Bk. 1)

Eve Grey

My Life in Micronesia: An American Attorney in Micronesia

Marsha R Kennedy

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Christopher Moore

Moon Handbooks Micronesia

Neil Levy

The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia (Oxford History of Art)

Adrienne L. Kaeppler

Power Sharing: Language, Rank, Gender, and Social Space in Pohnpei, Micronesia

Elizabeth Keating

Speaking to Power: Gender and Politics in the Western Pacific

Lynn E. Wilson

Tales of the South Pacific

James A. Michener

The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia

Adrienne L. Kaeppler

Where America's Day Begins: A Reporter In Guam And Micronesia

Janet G. Go

The 50 Best Dives in Micronesia: The Ultimate Guide to the Essential Sites

Tim Rock

My Canoe Has No News: Travels in Micronesia

John W. Perry

The Typhoon Of War: Micronesian Experiences Of The Pacific War

Lin Poyer

Upon a Stone Altar: A History of the Island of Pohnpei to 1890

David L. Hanlon

Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization

Glenn Petersen

The New Shape of Old Island Cultures: A Half Century of Social Change in Micronesia

Francis X Hezel

The Navigator's Children (The Last King of Osten Ard, #3)

Tad Williams

Yap: Political Leadership And Culture Change In An Island Society

Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

Suffering and Sentiment: Exploring the Vicissitudes of Experience and Pain in Yap

Jason Throop

Compacts of Free Association with the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau

U.S. House of Representatives

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Arlie Russell Hochschild

The First Taint of Civilization: A History of the Caroline and Marshall Islands in Pre-Colonial Days, 1521-1885

Francis X. Hezel