Book

The demystification of Yap: dialectics of culture on a Micronesian island

University of Chicago Press • Chicago • Published In 1976 • Pages:

By: Labby, David.

Abstract

This is s sophisticated analysis of Yapese social structure and culture. Labby presents an emic perspective and logic, one that conforms with a materialist perspective, because according to Labby land is key. He shows how religious and social rituals regulate access to land and agricultural production. According to Labby, social hierarchy is ultimately based on land productivity, both in terms of soil fertility and history of a land's development. While men 'own' the land, women cultivate it. Marriage becomes an important institution mediating the relationship between property and labor. Labby shows how an ideology of purity and pollution and social rank control and allocate the scarce resource of land. The compliment of land and labor form the basis of a system of reciprocity between men and women, and between landholding patrilineages and labor-holding matrisibs.

HRAF PubDate

2000

Region

Oceania

Sub Region

Micronesia

Document Type

Book

Evaluation

Creator Type

Ethnologist

Document Rating

4: Excellent Secondary Data

5: Excellent Primary Data

Analyst

Ian Skoggard ; 2005

Field Date

1969-1971

Coverage Date

1850

Coverage Place

Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia

Notes

David Labby

Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-141) and index

Labby attempts to articulate a social theory of traditional Yapese culture, therefore we are not talking about the colonial or modern period, although these are the only periods from which he draws his source material. Therefore, to determine the time focus for the study is problematic. Labby does not give a period or date. I suggested the time of 1850 prior to an increased contact with Western traders (Labby 1976, 3).

LCCN

75021270

LCSH

Yapese (Micronesian people)/Yap (Micronesia)