essay
Personality and structure: political acquiesence in Truk
induced political change in the pacific : a symposium • Honolulu • Published In 1965 • Pages: 17-39
By: Swartz, Marc J..
Abstract
In this article, Swartz offers a complex political and psychological explanation for the Chuuk acquiescence to foreign political domination. Although they had a reputation for extreme hostility against outsiders, the Chuuk gave in to German sovereignity without a fight. Why? Swartz argues that traditional chiefs lacked the authority to enforce sanctions both within and between lineages. If a chief tried to enforce a sanction too aggressively, and thereby putting himself above everyone else, he would jeapardize his own welfare upon retirement. Instead sanctions within a lineage were supernaturally enforced by ancestral spirits who would inflict disease on anyone who violated lineage morals. No such sanctions operated for territorial chiefs of interlineage organizations. Therefore aggression against outsiders went unpunished, which according to Swartz caused the Chuuk considerable anxiety. As outsiders the Germans avoided the opprobrium of haughtiness when carrying out pacification, and helped to relieve the Chuuk of their anxiety by providing a necessary external agent of punishment.
- HRAF PubDate
- 1999
- Region
- Oceania
- Sub Region
- Micronesia
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard ; 1997
- Field Date
- 1955-1956
- Coverage Date
- 1885-1956
- Coverage Place
- Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia
- Notes
- Marc J. Swartz
- Pacific Science Congress (10th : 1961 : Honolulu, Hawaii)
- Held at the University of Hawaii and sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, and the University of Hawaii
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 39)
- LCCN
- 68003796
- LCSH
- Trukese (Micronesian people)