article
In the court or in the village?: settling disputes in Yap: 1950-1979
Journal of Pacific history • 26 (1) • Published In 1991 • Pages: 74-93
By: Lingenfelter, Sherwood G..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Lingenfelter examines two institutions of dispute settlement, one traditional, the other modern. Traditional disputes within a village are handled by a council of village elders and disputes between villages, by a council of chiefs from allied villages. In 1950, the U.S. administration established a District Court and High Court. Lingenfelter presents several cases and discusses which kind of case is likely to be found in which venue. He also analyzes the distribution of cases by village, rank, and caste of the litigants. He notes an increase in court cases over time, especially in the towns. According to Lingenfelter, the main consideration in choosing between the two venues is whether or not the plaintiff wants to see an offender punished or continue to maintain a personal or political relationship with the defendant. Traditional village settlements maintain social harmony whereas court settlements threaten to breach social relations.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Status, role, and prestige
- Informal in-group justice
- Inter-community relations
- Justice
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Yapese
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Micronesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2005
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1967-1980
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1950-1979
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Sherwood G. Lingenfelter
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 73200598
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Yapese (Micronesian people)/Yap (Micronesia)