Book
Taro, fish, and funerals: transformations in the Yapese cultural topography of wealth
UMI • Ann Arbor, Mich. • Published In 2005 • Pages:
By: Egan, James A..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The two major questions Egan sets out to answer in this doctoral dissertation are i) why in the post-colonial period (1986 and after) have funerals, once staid affairs, become the site of extravagant ceremonial exchanges and gift-giving, and ii) why no one can buy taro, the Yap staple, in any market in spite of the commodification of all other Yap produce? In the past, elaborate gift-giving ceremonies (MITMIT) were centered on weddings and involved two main staples: fish, caught by men and taro, grown by women. Following the work of Labby (see document no. 26), Egan shows how these exchanges express, fortify, and manipulate property, kin, and political relationships. The colonial powers considered the MITMIT a pagan ritual and suppressed it, but ignored the cash donations given at funerals, which had come under the purview of the Catholic church. In the post-Second World War period, expanding US bureaucracy, aid, and trade, especially in the post-colonial period after 1985, heated up the Yap economy resulting in an increase in funerary donations. Men now had access to cash and imported goods to donate, whereas women, still tied to the farm, could only reciprocate with their traditional taro produce, which they kept off the markets in order to use for gift-giving.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Real property
- Gift giving
- Labor and leisure
- Division of labor by gender
- Status, role, and prestige
- Household
- Avuncular and nepotic relatives
- Parents-in-law and children-in-law
- Clans
- Inter-community relations
- Burial practices and funerals
- 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
- Book
- 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
- 1988-1993
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1850-1993
- 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
- by James Arthur Egan
- Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of California, Irvine, 1998
- UM9821439
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Yapese (Micronesian people)/Yap (Micronesia)