Woleai Region

By William H. Alkire and Teferi Abate Adem

Anangai, Mereyon, Oleai, Olnea, Thirteen Island, Uleai, Weleya, the Woleai

Woleai is the largest of a group of closely related atolls in the central and west-central Caroline Islands of Micronesia that also includes Eauripik, Ifaluk, Faraulep, Elato, and Lamotrek. Collectively, they are sometimes called “the Woleai.” Residents, however, label themselves by means of a nominal prefixed to their particular island name, as in reweleya, which means “person of Woleai (nationality).”

Woleai is located at 7°21' N and 143°52' E. Eauripik lies 111 kilometers southwest, Ifaluk 55 kilometers east, Faraulep 150 kilometers north-northeast, Elato 250 kilometers east, and Lamotrek 280 kilometers east of Woleai. Each atoll consists of a reef-enclosed lagoon with a number of islets distributed along that reef. These average 1 or 2 meters above sea level with a maximum elevation of 7 to 8 meters. At Woleai there are twenty islets, totaling 3.9 square kilometers in area. Eauripik's five islets only total 0.23 square kilometer, Ifaluk's four islets have 1.5 square kilometers, Faraulep's four islets equal 0.41 square kilometer, Elato's four islets total 0.31 square kilometer, and Lamotrek has three islets equaling 0.96 square kilometer. The year has two seasons—that of the trade winds (November to May) and the other of variable westerly winds (June to October). All of these atolls lie within a region where tropical storms and typhoons are nearconstant threats. Rainfall is high (250 to 300 centimeters) and relatively evenly distributed throughout the year, but the coralline soils are poor. Each atoll, therefore, supports fewer than 200 plant species. Terrestrial fauna are also limited, composed primarily of domesticated dogs, pigs, chickens, cats, wild lizards, rats, crabs, and a variety of tropical marine birds.

In 1980 Woleai had 638 inhabitants settled on five of its islets; Eauripik, 121, all on one islet; Ifaluk, 389 on two; Faraulep, 132 on two; Elato, 51 on one; and Lamotrek, 242 on one islet. The region's population density is a relatively high 600 persons per square kilometer. The population throughout the region is growing at a rate of 2 to 3 percent per annum. In 2003 the population of Woleai was reported to be 920 (OCHA 2003).

The peoples of these islands all speak dialects of Woleaian, a Micronesian language of the Eastern Oceanic Branch of Austronesian. This language is part of a linguistic chain that includes Ulithian and Sonsorolese to the west and Satawalese and Chuukese to the east. They are only distantly related to the Non-Oceanic Austronesian Western Micronesian languages of Yap and Palau.

No firm dates for the first settlement of these islands have been established, although it is possible that migrants from the east (possibly Chuuk) arrived between A.D. 300 and A.D. 1000. Once settled, the residents of each atoll continued wide-ranging interisland voyages as far as Chuuk, Yap, Palau, and the Marianas. European explorers found the islands in the late 1700s and early 1800s. These islands were claimed by Spain in 1885, and subsequently they have been administered by Germany (1898), Japan (1914), and the United States (1945). Since 1986 they have been part of the state of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), which maintains a treaty of “free association” with the United States but is largely self-governing.

Lineal villages (gapilamw) are found along the lagoon shore of each inhabited islet. Most islands are divided into two or three districts (tabw). A village and its district usually share the same name, which is often descriptive of the village's location on the islet, such as, “Ifang,” meaning “North,” and “Tabwogap,” meaning “West District.” Some of the larger and more populous districts may have more than one village. Dwellings are located 30 or more meters inland from the lagoon shore. They are one-room rectangular or hexagonal structures, twice as long as they are wide, with mat-covered earthen floors, plank or plaited-mat walls, and thatched roofs. In some cases (especially on Eauripik and Faraulep) they are built on raised stone platforms up to 1 meter above the surrounding ground. Several such houses may be found on a single named plot or estate (bwogot). Each estate has a separate cook house. A main path parallels the lagoon and separates the dwellings from the canoe houses that are located nearer the lagoon. The village or island menstrual house is also located near the beach, but it is removed from the canoe houses. Early in the century each island had a centrally located men's house. Only Ifaluk and Eauripik retain such structures today.

The economy is primarily subsistence-oriented, although it has been linked to the outside world for at least a century through the sale of copra. The interiors of the larger islets are devoted to taro (Cyrtosperma and Colocasia) and breadfruit cultivation, while coconut palms and bananas are grown elsewhere. Pigs, dogs, and chickens are eaten. A wide variety of reef and pelagic fish are exploited. Green sea turtles are hunted and provide an important part of the diet on Lamotrek and Elato. In recent years some residents have become dependent on money they earn as employees of the state government (as teachers and medical services personnel) and money earned by emigrants who work on Yap and elsewhere.

Canoes, woven loincloths and skirts, and shell belts and necklaces are manufactured primarily for local use rather than export.

These islands have long participated in a number of interisland trading networks. A formal exchange and redistribution system (chulifeimag) links the eastern with the western islets of Woleai atoll. Elato is tied to Lamotrek by another system called the “fishhook” (hu), and all of these islands (as well as others) were once linked to Yap in a “tribute” exchange system called the sawei. These systems permit easy transfer of surpluses to alleviate shortages when an island in the network is damaged by storms or drought.

Men are primarily fishermen and women are gardeners. Only men are permitted to fish from canoes or along distant reefs. Women can fish reefs adjacent to an island with nets if they can reach the area by walking and wading, but their primary activities are to cultivate taro, weave, and cook. Men tend coconut and breadfruit trees, build houses and canoes, and occupy themselves with tasks centered at the canoe houses, such as repair and manufacture of cordage, rope, nets, and other fishing equipment.

Control of land is in the hands of the senior women of matrilineal subclans and lineages. These women assign plots for cultivation to their “sisters and daughters” and those rights are defended by their “brothers,” the men of the lineage. At marriage a man gains some exploitation rights to the tree crops of his wife's lineage. Land can be gift-transferred between lineages, but it is not sold. Reef and lagoon areas are also owned by subclans, clans, or entire islets. Each lineage owns parcels of land along the lagoon and ocean shore and in the interior; this distribution ensures that each lineage has access to all environmental zones on an island. However, those lineages or subclans with the longest settlement histories usually control the largest number of parcels.

From four to twelve matrilineal clans (gailang) are found on each island. Each is divided into subclans, lineages, and descent lines.

Woleai kinship terminology has a generation emphasis with Hawaiian cousin terminology. Kin terms are referential as individuals always address each other by personal name. The matrilineal emphasis of the society is reflected in separate terms for mother's brother and sister's children. Terms can be compounded to guarantee clarity of meaning. That is, although one's mother's sister is formally silei, meaning “my mother,” she may be more descriptively identified as bwisilisilei, meaning “sister of my mother.”

Today monogamy is the most common form of marriage, although traditionally polygamy was permitted. One's mother's brother arranges or has the power to veto a first marriage. Ritually, only a small exchange of food between the lineages marks the occasion. Clan exogamy is preferred and subclan exogamy enforced. Postmarital residence is matrilocal. Divorce and remarriage were very common until conversion to Christianity in the 1950s.

Households average six to eight members. Residents share meals within or near the estate's cookhouse. The typical estate group includes an old woman (or set of sisters), her/their daughters, unmarried sons, and in-marrying husbands. Unmarried adult males do not sleep at the estate but in the men's house or one of the canoe houses.

Since land, canoes, and houses are collectively owned by lineages, issues of inheritance seldom arise. When they do, property is transmitted matrilineally first within the lineage, then within the subclan, and finally within the clan. Gender-specific personal possessions such as female weaving and gardening tools or male fishing equipment are usually passed from mother to daughter or father to son.

All members of a household have responsibilities for the care of infants and young children. Adoption is extremely common, not only by childless couples but also by those with their own children. Children have great freedom to move about the island and between households. Only rarely are they punished, most usually if caught fighting with other children. For that purpose a mother's brother may be called to lecture them or administer some form of mild physical punishment, such as ear flicking. As they approach puberty socialization emphasizes conduct considered appropriate to each sex. Boys are encouraged to spend more time in the canoe house while girls are told to remain in the vicinity of the dwellings and interior gardens. Puberty ceremonies are held for girls at first menses and involve isolation in the village menstrual house for several weeks and a shift in dress to an adult woman's woven skirt.

Each island is largely self-governing but linked to others through intermarriage and exchange networks of varying size.

The matrilineal clans on each island are ranked according to seniority of settlement and control of land. Genealogy, gender, age, and specialized knowledge determine an individual's rank within the community. Men outrank women in public affairs and older residents have priority over younger. Men who have mastered certain traditional domains of knowledge such as navigation, and canoe building are respected and formerly were referred to as “taboo men.”

Each district of an island has a chief, usually the senior man (sometimes woman) of the clan that first settled or conquered it. These chiefs are ranked and constitute the island's governing council along with a senior man from every other clan on the island. Some islands have a paramount chief. The Lamotrek paramount chief also has authority over Elato. A chief's authority permits him (or her) to receive first fruits from all other clans and subclans that reside in the district or (in the case of a paramount chief) on the island, to command and schedule community labor and rituals, and to invoke taboos. The chief does not have the right to dispossess lower-ranking individuals or kin groups. Today, Woleai elects three representatives by precinct to the Yap state legislature and, along with the other outer islands of Yap, one senator to the FSM national congress. Traditional chiefs hold membership on a council that advises and oversees the activities of the state legislature.

The senior members of lineages and clans have the responsibility to maintain peace and harmony among members. Chiefs can fine malefactors if they break the peace or taboos. The offender's kin group is held responsible for paying such fines, which are usually levied in traditional goods. Fines are not kept by the chief(s) but redistributed within the community. In extreme cases a troublemaker may be denied harvesting rights by his or her kin group and thereby forced into exile on a neighboring island.

Warfare between islands, which occurred in precontact times, ceased over 100 years ago following the Spanish conquest of the islands in 1885. The presence of interisland exchange and trading networks probably has served to harmonize interaction.

Nearly all residents are Roman Catholic. Each island has a church tended by a lay deacon. Each island is visited four or five times a year by a priest from the mission on Ulithi. Perhaps no more than a dozen non-Christian residents remain. The traditional religion was animistic and ancestor-focused. Many Christians retain some degree of belief in various elements of the traditional system. Yalus is a term applied to all gods, spirits, and ghosts. A number of gods (who were also patrons of important crafts) existed beyond the island. Malevolent and benevolent spirits inhabited the sea, sky, and land. Ancestral spirits and ghosts might remain on estate lands to aid their descendants or to punish them if taboos were broken.

Traditional specialists included diviners, curers, navigators, mediums, and weather, crop, and fishing magicians.

The main house of each lineage had an altar dedicated to ancestral spirits where offerings were periodically renewed. Rituals were held when deemed appropriate by the chiefs, as before overseas voyages, or to ward off typhoons or guard against illness. Church services and processions are now held on important Catholic holidays.

Women have an inventory of complex weaving designs and men carve images or paint designs on canoe-house lintels. Both sexes tattooed themselves in traditional times with an extensive set of elaborate designs. Song and dance are the most developed of the arts. Songs are composed by women and both sexes have separate inventories of standing and sitting dances.

Most illnesses are diagnosed by a diviner and thought caused by malevolent spirits. Medicines are prepared by curers from land and sea ingredients that frequently have some homologous association with the illness. Massage is also a highly developed curing technique.

A period of mourning may last for several months, but the first four days are the most restrictive. Dirges are sung from the time of death until burial on land or at sea the next day. Today most bodies are buried in the church graveyard. Taboos are placed on harvesting coconuts for a period of several weeks to several months, depending on the rank of the deceased. Similar restrictions are placed on reef fishing if a chief or his sister or mother dies. People who die in accidents or during pregnancy or childbirth may be captured by evil spirits and haunt the living. Others may help the living by communicating through mediums.

Documents referred to in this section are included in eHRAF World Cultures and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The OR21 Woleai Region collection consists of 28 documents, including this culture summary, and focuses largely on the atoll of Ifaluk. The collection contains information on three main time periods: the early 20th century, the late 1940s-mid-1950s, and the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The earliest information on the Woleai region comes from travel reports by German explorers and missionaries who lived and worked in the region from 1904-1910. These reports provide important historical data. Professional anthropologists conducted fieldwork in one of the five atolls of the region in the late 1940s, mid-1950s, late 1980s and early 1990s. Burrows and Spiro (1953, no. 42) provides a first hand account of culture and society in Ifaluk atoll including social organization (households, lineages, sub-clans, clans, chiefs and ranks), economic activities (fishing, gardening, palm oil supping, food processing, meat sharing, canoe making, navigation and inter-island trade), religion (spirits, gods, ghosts, conversion and aspects of change) and life cycles (birth, adoption, child care, socialization, rites of passages, marriage, etc.). Burrows and Spiro (1953), which evolved from earlier field reports by Burrows (1949, no.1) and Spiro (1950, no. 29 and 1949 no. 28), is the most comprehensive ethnographic work in the file. Alkire (1965, no. 45) focuses on social structure and inter-island relations from the vantage point of Lamotrek atoll. All the other works examine more specific aspects of culture in Ifaluk including arts (Burrows, 1963, no. 43), emotions (Lutz, 1982, no. 44), illness and health issues (Alkire, 1981, no. 46), child care (Betzig, et. al, 1989, no. 47), adoption (Betzig, 1988, no. 48), chiefly privileges and food distribution (Betzig, 1988, no. 49), and organization of labor (Sosis, 2005, no. 50). Together, the documents show that life in the Woleai region remains largely traditional, despite many years of administration by successive external powers.

This synopsis is from the article “Woleai,” by William H. Alkire, in The Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 2, Oceania, Terence E. Hays, ed., Boston, Mass: G. K. Hall and Co., 1991. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by Teferi Abate Adem in November 2005.

AIRO (literally, “fellow clansmen) – use KINSHIP RELATIONSHIPS (602)

AIVAM (adopted children) – use ADOPTION (597)

ALUS (general name for spirits) – use SPIRITS AND GODS (776)

BWARUX (serenade) – use SONGS (533)

CLAN CHIEFS – use COMMUNITY HEADS (622)

GAPENGPENG (invocations) – use SONGS (533) or PRAYERS AND SACRIFICES (782)

IM (homesteads) – use HOUSEHOLDS (592)

KAILANG (clan) – use SIBS (614) or CLANS (618)

MEN’S HOUSE – use RECREATIONAL STRUCTURES (345)

PALU (master navigator) – use OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALIZATION (463)

SENNAP (master craftsman) – use OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALIZATION (463)

TAUPOTU (tattooing specialist) – use OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALIZATION (463)

TARANG (celebrations on a girl’s first menstruation) – use PUBERTY AND INITIATION (881)

UR (men’s dance) – use DANCES (535)

Alkire, William H. (1965). Lamotrek Atoll and Inter-island Socioeconomic Ties. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Alkire, William H. (1970). “Systems of Measurement on Woleai Atoll, Caroline Islands.” Anthropos 65:1-73.

Alkire, William H. (1974). “Land Tenure in the Woleai.” In Land Tenure in Oceania, edited by H. Lundsgaarde, 39-69. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Burrows, E. G., and M. E. Spiro (1953). An Atoll Culture: Ethnography of Ifaluk in the Central Carolines. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files Press.

Krämer, Augustin (1937). “Zentral-Karolinen.” In Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition, 1908-1910, edited by Georg Thilenius. II. Ethnographie; B. Mikronesien, Vol. 10, pt. 1. Hamburg: De Gruyter.

OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) (2003). Micronesia – Typhoon Lupit OCHA Situation Report No. 3. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/OCHA-64BV2X?OpenDocument Accessed Jun3 6, 2006.