Belau

By RICHARD J. PARMENTIER

Palau, Pelew

Hearing the word beluu, “village homeland”, early British explorers of the western Pacific mistakenly referred to the Belau Islands as “Pelew”; the spelling “Palau” became standardized in nineteenth-century German scientific writings. The form “Belau” more accurately reflects contemporary pronunciation and has become a symbol of national unity.

Belau, an archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, is located between 6° and 8° N and 134° and 135° E. The islands form the westernmost group of the Caroline Islands of Micronesia. Belau includes over 200 geologically and ecologically diverse islands; the largest, Babeldaob, is a volcanic island of 362 square kilometers. Other island types include high limestone and platform limestone islands, small reef islands, and one true atoll. A coral reef encircling most of the archipelago creates lagoons rich in marine resources and permits relatively smooth intervillage sailing. The climate is tropical, with constantly high humidity, a mean temperature of 27° C, and rainfall ranging from 320 centimeters per year in the south to 425 centimeters per year on Babeldaob. A yearly wind shift from westerly monsoons in the summer to easterly trades in the winter is interrupted only by typhoons, which periodically destroy homes, harbors, and farms.

The population in 1988 was approximately 14,000, about half of whom live on the island of Koror. The population is estimated to be 20,956 in 2011 (CIA 2011). Estimates of pre-contact population range from 20,000 to 40,000. From the late eighteenth century on Belauans were subject to decimation by introduced diseases and by the intensification of warfare caused by imported firearms. The Japanese began a massive colonial resettlement program in the 1930s, resulting in a foreign population of over 24,000 in Koror by 1940. Since World War II the local population has risen dramatically, and many Belauans have moved to Guam, Hawaii, and California.

Belauan (or Palauan), an Austronesian language, is spoken uniformly throughout the archipelago; only minor differences in accent and idiomatic expressions indicate a speaker's home village. Most Belauans over the age of fifty are also fluent in Japanese, and those younger than fifty speak English. Belauan is referred to as a Nonnuclear Micronesian language, since it has closer genetic affinity with languages spoken in eastern Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines than with those spoken in the rest of Micronesia. The language is noted for its complex system of verbal inflections, the presence of a phonemic glottal stop, and an archaic set of lexical items found in chants and myths.

The archipelago was discovered more than 2,000 years ago by Austronesian voyagers sailing from insular Southeast Asia. These early settlers occupied both low-lying islands, where fishing was the primary subsistence activity, and high volcanic and limestone islands, where extensive taro cultivation was possible. Perhaps as late as the twelfth century AD the islanders constructed monumental terraced earthworks and built inland villages on elaborate stone foundations. There is a strong possibility that prior to European contact Belauans had interaction with the Chinese, whose ships could have been the source of the ceramic and glass beads still functioning as exchange valuables. Sir Francis Drake visited briefly in 1579; extensive relations between Belau and the West began in 1783 when the East India Company packet Antelope wrecked on the reef. The islands have been subject to successive claims by colonial powers: Spain (1885-1899), Germany (1899-1914), and Japan (1914-1944). In 1947 Belau became part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations “strategic trusteeship” under the administration of the United States. Constitutional self-government was proclaimed in 1981 when the Republic of Belau seated its first government, while the islands continued to be subject to the trusteeship. After decades of bitter factional and legal disputes, After decades of bitter factional and legal disputes, Belau ratified a Compact of Free Association with the United States which went into effect on October 1, 1994. The first president of Belau, Haruo Remeliik, was assassinated in 1985; the second president, Lazarus Salii, died of gunshot wounds in 1988. However, as of 2011, national elections are held every four years and the government appears stable.

There are two types of settlements, relatively “rural” villages located on Babeldaob, Ngcheangel, Beliliou, and Ngeeur, and the relatively “urban” town of Koror. Starting in the nineteenth century, Belauans abandoned their inland villages and built new settlements closer to coastal harbors and alluvial streams. Koror was the center for nineteenth-century colonial trading operations, was later the headquarters of the Japanese-mandated Pacific islands, and is presently the home of most government offices, schools, retail shops, restaurants, and tourist facilities. Many Belauans maintain dual residences in Koror and in their home villages, and some even commute by motorboat on a daily basis. Formerly, villages consisted of residential and meeting houses constructed of closely joined lumber, with thatched roofs, and elevated bamboo floors; today, tin roofs and concrete block foundations are favored in new construction. In many places on Babeldaob one can still detect the typical village layout, with meeting houses located on a central paved square, canoe houses and men's clubhouses standing near the shore or river, and residential houses fanning out along elevated stone walkways.

Fish and taro have long been the staple foods of Belau. Fishing by spear gun, line, hand net, and trap is carried out in the coastal lagoons; high-powered speedboats are used for trawling outside the reef. The catch is pooled by local cooperative associations for retail sale in Koror. In preparation for funerals and festivals, men work the lagoon with huge nets. Women take pride in taro cultivation on “dry” upland slopes and in “wet” irrigated swamps; the backbreaking labor required has led many younger women to substitute cassava and imported rice. Young men raise pigs for slaughter at ceremonial events.

Increasingly vast amounts of imported commercial goods are replacing locally produced items. In Koror the government is the largest employer, and little locally owned industry has flourished. Belau is completely dependent upon U.S. government funds and upon payments from other countries for access to Belau's marine, strategic, and recreational resources.

Skills such as wood carving, meeting-house construction, and tortoiseshell-ornament production are becoming rare; basket weaving, however, is widely practiced by women. Most able-bodied men are expert fishermen, and individuals win renown by developing specialized techniques and by possessing expert knowledge of tides and spawning cycles. Young people strive to obtain advanced educational and business training at stateside schools. In the villages, wage earners include schoolteachers, nurses, magistrates, land registrars, and religious officials.

Interdistrict trade in the traditional context involved not only daily necessities such as lamp oil, pottery, wooden implements, palm syrup, and canoe sails but also specialized prestige goods such as turmeric powder, tortoiseshell ornaments, women's shirts, red-ocher dye, and dugong bracelets. In the nineteenth century, European settlers established trading centers for the commercial extraction of trepang, pearl shell, and copra. As of mid-1990s, a few families in each village run small retail stores. A complex system of social exchange, involving the presentation of food and service in return for cash and valuables across the affinal bond, is the principal focus of daily economic life. U.S. currency is used in financial transactions; Belauan valuables supplement cash in customary exchanges.

The most important division of labor is between fishing, emblematic of male virtue, and taro cultivation, symbolic of female productiveness. This split parallels the duel system of exchange values, women using locally produced hammered turtleshell trays and men using beads and cylinders of foreign origin. Women take charge of domestic activities, such as food preparation, child care, and laundry, and they also carry heavy responsibility in selecting holders of male and female chiefly titles.

Prior to changes imposed by colonial powers, land was either “public land of the village” (chutem buai er a beluu), subject to the local chiefly council, or “land of the principal houses” (chetemel a kebliil), controlled by chiefly titleholders and senior matrilineal relatives. Residential sites and taro patches were assigned to affiliated family segments rather than being passed down to offspring. These lands reverted to chiefly control for redistribution. German officials instituted patrilineal land inheritance and encouraged nuclear families to move their houses and to plant coconut trees on unused village land. By mid-1990s, land was divided into “public land” controlled by the national government, “clan land” controlled by chiefly houses, “village land” governed by village councils, and private property owned in fee simple. The national government is forbidden by the constitution to use eminent domain for the purpose of helping a foreign country.

The basic kin unit is the “house” (blai), which is composed of individuals linked by strong matrilateral bonds (ochell, or “offspring of women”) and of individuals associated by weaker patrilateral ties (ulechell, or “offspring of men”). Each house controls a residential site, taro patches, a chiefly title, exchange valuables, and ceremonial prerogatives. Houses form wider affiliative networks (kebliil) both within the village and between villages, which function to channel social cooperation, exchange, and inheritance. The complexity of Belauan kinship lies in the lateral breadth of relationships rather than in the depth of remembered genealogies.

Distinctive characteristics of the system of kin terms include: the overriding of generation (offspring of women label offspring of men as “children”); the importance of sibling rank reflected in senior and junior terms for both males and females; a reciprocal term for cross-sex siblings signaling the solidarity of the brother-sister pair; the existence of a special term for mother's brother; and the generalization of the respectful kin terms “mother” and “father” in polite address to all elders. With respect to the generational stratification of sibling and cousin terms, the system could be labeled Hawaiian; with respect to the skewing of generations due to the importance of matrilineal ties, it could be labeled Crow. Titleholders are never addressed by their personal names.

Marriage is fundamentally an economic institution. Traditionally, high-ranking women were prohibited from “falling,” that is, marrying a man of lower rank. The prohibition was based on economic considerations—if the husband were of low rank his relatives would be unable to make a sufficient financial contribution and the couple's male child would lack the financial assets needed to maintain his chiefly authority. Today, individuals are free to select spouses, but social rank and wealth are critical considerations. Fragile marital ties are subordinate to enduring kinship ties: while the former are severed at death or divorce, the latter are a “bridge forever.” High-ranking individuals tend to marry outside of the village, and there is still considerable rank endogamy. Newly married couples establish independent houses on land near the husband's father's house; men who receive a chiefly title can move back to their matrilineal home. Divorce is frequent and remarriage is the norm.

The residential family (ongalek) often includes grandparents and other extended kin. Adoption of children within the network of kin is common.

Property belonging to the house is controlled by senior “offspring of women” members, who select the heirs to land and valuables. Much private property passes in the patriline. Women give turtleshell heirlooms to their daughters.

Mothers play a greater role in child-raising than fathers; children have a more relaxed, affectionate relationship with fathers than with mother's brothers. Older siblings take on child-care responsibilities. Young men's clubs act as powerful peer reference groups.

The principles of democratic egalitarianism and inherited hierarchical rank conflict in contemporary Belau. Rank pertains to relations between siblings, between houses in a village, between titles in a political council, and between villages within the state. According to myth, four villages were regarded as preeminent: Imeiong, Melekeok, Imeliik, and Koror. Financial wealth, elected political office, and esoteric knowledge are other sources of social power.

Prior to the indoctrination into democratic values and practices, Belau was governed by chiefs, whose titles were ranked according to the social hierarchy of local land parcels. Called dui, the word for “coconut palm frond,” titles possess sacredness and demand respect apart from the person who carries the title. The highest titleholders from Melekeok village (the Reklai title) and Koror village (the Ibedul title) have emerged as “paramount chiefs” of the archipelago. In 1981, Belau became a self-governing constitutional republic, headed by an elected president and a national legislature. Traditional chiefs play an advisory role at the national level. Each state is headed by an elected governor and sends two senators to the national legislature. At the village level, a council of chiefs parallels a council of elected officials, headed by a magistrate. The central role of multivillage confederacies, once factions for intervillage warfare, has vanished.

Traditional sanctions, including fines and banishment, applied by the local council of chiefs are supplemented by the legislated civil code, which in turn is subject to the laws of the Trust Territory.

In the absence of inter-district political councils in the pre-colonial period, inter-village hostility functioned as a primary means of political integration and as a mechanism for the financial enrichment of chiefs. Warfare took the form of either swift head-hunting raids or massive sieges aimed at the devastation of the enemy village. Also, rivalry among chiefs and competition over title inheritance created powerful motives for political assassination.

Belau has been heavily missionized by Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Mormons. A nativistic movement, Modekngei, or “Let Us Go Forth Together,” is a powerful religious and educational force. Except for some village gods (represented in stone monuments), the traditional pantheon has been replaced by the Christian trinity. Christianity and Modekngei provide the primary religious dogmas; the latter stresses purification rites and trances.

Traditional male and female religious specialists performed offerings to local gods (chelid) and, while in trance, spoke the messages and prophecies of the gods. Male titleholders served as ritual specialists in the domestic cult, focusing on manipulating ancestral spirits (bladek) through offerings of burnt coconut and small pieces of money. Today, Belauans can serve as Christian deacons, ministers, and priests; Modekngei utilizes ritual specialists.

Important traditional ceremonies include interdistrict dancing festivals (ruk) and competitive feasts between local fishermen's clubs (onged). Protestants and Catholics observe the principal festivals of the Christian calendar; followers of Modekngei assemble weekly at the ritual center in Ibobang.

Skills such as canoe building and decorative wood carving are currently being revived as folk art. “Storyboard” carvings depicting events from folklore are a major tourist item. Local dance teams perform at festivals; older women sing archaic funeral chants and songs. Storytelling is a highly respected form of verbal art.

Western medicine is available at the central hospital in Koror and in village clinics; villages place a high value on public health and sanitation. Traditional curing employs herbal medicines applied on the side of the body opposite the affected part.

Funerals are costly, elaborate rituals. The deceased's female relatives maintain a mourning period, and male relatives collect financial contributions to be distributed to heirs at a subsequent ceremonial occasion called “death settlement talks.” Burial takes place in community graveyards, although formerly burial was under the house platform. A week after burial, close relatives meet again to pave the grave and to send the spirit to its final resting place in the southern part of the archipelago.

CIA. 2011. World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ps.html/ Accessed June, 2011.

Force, Roland, and Maryanne Force, 1972. Just One House: A Description and Analysis of Kinship in the Palau Islands. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin no. 235. Honolulu.

Krämer, Augustin, 1917-1929. “Palau.” In Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition, 1908-1910, edited by Georg Thilenius, B. Melanesien, vol. 1. Hamburg: Friederichsen.

Parmentier, Richard J., 1987. The Sacred Remains: Myth, History, and Polity in Belau. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Barnett, H. G., 1949. Palauan Society: A Study of Contemporary Native Life in the Palau Islands. Eugene: University of Oregon Publications.