Kosrae

ETHNONYMS: Kusaie, Strong's Island, Ualan (Ualang)

Orientation

Identification. Kosrae is the easternmost of the Caroline Islands. Until 1977, most maps identified it as "Kusaie," but the inhabitants have always known it as "Kosrae." The island is now one state of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Location. Kosrae is located at about 5° N and 163° E. Like other Micronesian high (volcanic) islands, its interior consists of rugged mountains. Today large parts of its 110 square kilometers have been cleared of rain forest for cultivation and settlement. Abundant rainfall, averaging about 500 centimeters annually, supports lush vegetation and feeds the many rivers. The island is surrounded by a small fringing reef, which provides both fish and canoe transportation.

Demography. Before the first contact with technologically advanced Western powers in 1824, the population was about 5,000. During the whaling era between the 1840s and the 1860s, new diseases were introduced that decimated the population. Only 200-300 Kosraens were alive in the 1870s, and many outsiders predicted total extinction. Population numbers began to recover in the 1880s and a steady growth began that continues into the present. Today the resident population is around 6,000.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Kosraen language is unique to the island and is not mutually intelligible with any other Modern tongue. It is one of the Nuclear Micronesian languages, its closest historical relations being with Pohnpeian and Marshallese.

History and Cultural Relations

Archaeological work done mainly in the 1980s shows that Kosrae was definitely settled by the early first millennium a.d., although future research is expected to push this date back to the first millennium b.c. The society was highly stratified at the time of initial contact with the West. In aboriginal times, Kosrae shared many common cultural features with surrounding islands, including: matrilineal lineages and clans; social rank defined by affiliation with kin groups defined as "noble" or "commoner"; noble control over land worked mainly by commoners; elaborate redistributive exchanges; and settlements oriented around a group of close relatives sharing access to a single cook house. For several decades after their 1824 discovery by Europeans, Kosraens were victimized by whaling crews, who made deals with chiefs for the Island's abundant foods, water, and female companionship. The first missionary established a station in 1852 and Virtually the entire population was Christianized in the 1870s. During the Japanese mandate of 1914-1945, extensive Economic development occurred, run by and for the benefit of the Japanese companies and government. The United States was granted control over Micronesia at the end of World War II. After two decades of relative neglect, in the 1960s the U.S. administration poured in money for education, health care, public works, and development projects. Employment with the government became and remains the major source of jobs and cash income, spent on food, building materials, vehicles, and other imports. Most Kosraens continue to acquire the bulk of their subsistence from traditional crops and fishing, but imports have replaced almost all other native manufactures.

Settlements

In aboriginal times, commoners lived in scattered clusters of houses averaging only about thirty to fifty people. The strong distinction between nobility and commoner was apparent in the residential segregation: noble families lived on the tiny Island of Lelu located in a small bay off the east coast. Their fine residences were surrounded by enormous stone walls built of layers of basalt crystals laid horizontally, reaching heights of 7.5 meters. Nobles, served by numerous retainers, lived within these magnificent courtyards, into which no commoner could set foot without permission. In the twentieth century, the pull of access to church, stores, and other services led to increased nucleation of settlement. Today most of the population lives in one of four concentrated villages. The ancient political center of Lelu remains the capital and Commercial center.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Aboriginally, subsistence was based on breadfruit, coconuts, bananas, taro, yams, and sugarcane. Breadfruit was the staple when in season. It was preserved in leaf-lined pits for times of scarcity. Each settlement included at least one earth oven, used for cooking. Soft taro was made into a feast food called fahfah by men trained in the elaborate skills needed to prepare it properly. Coconuts were reserved for the noble class. Another important crop was kava, a drink made from the roots of a plant that grew in the mountains. It was prepared for and served to members of the nobility by specialists. Fish were harvested mainly from the lagoon using nets. A medium of exchange made of shells existed, but little is known of its specific uses. In modern times, daily food for most families is a mixture of imported rice, tinned meats and fish, and locally produced fish and tree and root crops. Fahfah and pork are mainly feast foods.

Industrial Arts. Like other Micronesians, Kosraens in precontact times were especially skilled in the construction of canoes. In prehistoric times, at least, they also possessed the knowledge needed to mine and transport the basalt used to build the impressive stone walls enclosing chiefly compounds on Lelu Island. Skills needed to work with modern tools developed during the Japanese mandate, and today many Islanders are electricians, carpenters, and heavy-equipment operators.

Trade. Old Kosrae was visited by neighboring atoll dwellers for purposes of trade, although evidence suggests that Kosraens themselves rarely ventured far beyond the shores of their lush homeland. German traders had firmly established the exchange of copra for imported Western articles by 1890. The sale of copra remained the major source of cash income into the 1960s. During World War II, Kosraen fields provided food crops taken to the Japanese garrison stationed in the Marshalls. Today about one in four Kosraens of appropriate age has a job, trading labor for cash used almost entirely to purchase goods imported from Japan, Australia, and the United States. Privately owned stores have sprung up to supply the new demand.

Division of Labor. Even in aboriginal times, there were crafts specialists, including cooks, fahfah makers, kava makers and servers, nannies, canoe builders, and fishers. Most or all of these specialists were attached to and provided their services for chiefs. Gender also determined the allocation of tasks: women were weavers of mats, nets, baskets, belts, and clothing, while men were cultivators, builders, cooks, and makers of earth ovens. Both sexes fished. The titled nobility did little or no farming, construction, or other forms of manual labor.

Land Tenure. Before the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the principal chief controlled the allocation of all the land on the island. He allocated control over particular districts, with their natural resources and commoner residents, to other members of the noble class. Commoners, and in theory other members of the nobility, used the land only by his leave. In return, commoners were obliged to supply regular tribute and labor services to the chief to whom their district was assigned. Today ownership is in the hands of individuals, although a group of siblings will occasionally maintain Control over plots.

Kinship

Kinship Groups and Descent. Few details are known of kinship and family relations in aboriginal times. There were matrilineal clans, segmented into lineages. Clans were ranked, as were lineages within them. Certain lines of descent within at least two or three clans were considered noble, the others commoner. Whether kin groups were assigned Common rights to resources or owned common property is unclear, although such rights were commonplace in neighboring islands. Clans, lineages, and matrilineal descent itself are now only memories on the island. Modern Kosraens trace their Relationships bilaterally, and the kin group is the operative unit. Members of an individual's kindred are called upon for occasional communal labor and to make contributions at Weddings and funerals.

Kinship Terminology. A modified Hawaiian terminology was used in precontact times. Modern Kosraens continue to use generational terminology in many contexts, but the English word cousin has been added to use when one wishes to distinguish degrees of relatedness within one's own generation.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. The old clans were presumably exogamous, and today exogamic restrictions apply to second cousins. Traditionally, chiefly polygyny occurred, but this ended with Christianization and modern Kosraens are so rigorously Monogamous that divorce is extremely uncommon. In modern times people choose their own spouses, although parental approval is always sought and remains almost essential. Newly married couples frequently live alternately with both sets of parents for a year or more until they build a house of their own, ideally on the land of the husband if he has sufficient land and if Relations with his kin are amiable. The bond between husband and wife creates new affinal relationships and binds the two sets of kin with mutual obligations of economic and social support.

Domestic Unit. Nuclear families are statistically the most common living group, but a variety of domestic arrangements occur. Children normally live with their biological parents, but this is complicated by high rates of adoption, which in the 1970s reached 25 percent in one village. A middle-aged couple with married offspring may have one or more of their Children's family living with them temporarily or for long periods. Occasionally, brothers will live together with their families for short periods or even semipermanently. Elderly couples may live alone or with one of their children, according to familial circumstances.

Inheritance. In modern times, inheritance of real property is determined by a will—ideally, a written one—left by the owner, who usually attempts to provide all his male children with land suitable for the cultivation of various crops. With population growth, fragmentation of parcels often makes this impossible. Disputes among potential heirs are common, caused often by the fact that a man favors some of his Children over others.

Socialization. Due to the large average family size and the fact that relatives usually live close by, young children grow up in a nurturing atmosphere. Infants are coddled by young and old alike. Although there is variation, physical punishment occurs from the age of 2, and verbal scolding is Common. Children begin to perform simple household tasks such as sweeping and fetching as early as age 3 or 4. Girls help their mothers extensively with washing and other chores once they reach the age of 9 or 10. Boys accompany their fathers and older brothers to gardens at similarly young ages, and in fact today much of the harvesting of gardens is done by teen-aged boys, partly because their fathers are so often employed for wages.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. In traditional times, gender, kinship, and rank served as the main organizing principles of society. One was born into a noble or commoner kin group, and there seems to have been little possibility of social movement Between these classes. Interaction between classes was governed by a rigid etiquette, including special forms of speech used by commoners towards nobles. Commoner labor and tribute provided the nobility with most of their necessities as well as luxury items. Only those of noble rank were allowed to hold titles and to control the resources and labor that titles carried with them. Hereditary rank distinctions now belong to the past, victims of nineteenth-century Christianization. Modern Kosraens with nobility in their ancestry, however, seem proud of their heritage.

Political Organization. In aboriginal days, political authority rested largely in the hands of the chiefs. One privilege enjoyed by the nobility was that of competing for one of eighteen ranked titles, whose holders were appointed by the principal chief, "Tokosra." The Tokosra was so powerful that early Western visitors referred to him as a king, noting that the people treated him like a god. The office of Tokosra was hereditary within a certain lineage of the freshwater-eel clan. Once he succeeded, the Tokosra appointed other male Members of the nobility to the titles; their wives acquired the assodated female titles. Because the titles were ranked and carried control over the resources and commoner labor of particular districts on the island, considerable competition and conflict arose among the nobility for appointment and promotion. Ordinarily, this took the form of feasting and rendering extra service and gifts to the Tokosra, in order to win a title or to be promoted to a higher title carrying control over more resources and people. Armed conflicts also are known to have occurred over succession. The fifty to sixty named Districts were the lowest level of the political structure, where the commoner population lived and worked. Each district was headed by a commoner overseer, who acted as a mediator Between the residents and the chief assigned to administer the district. With the loss of population and Christianization in the last decades of the nineteenth century, this political System declined. Today the island has its own state legislature and sends elected representatives to the Congress of Micronesia.

Social Control. As in other complex chiefdoms, the titled nobility of old Kosrae had many rights over the persons and properties of commoners, which they used to reward diligence and support as well as to punish laziness and recalcitrance. Since the island became Christian 100 years ago, the main source of social control has been the church membership and church-sponsored activities. Those who smoke tobacco, drink alcohol, have illicit sexual relations, or are in a state of anger or conflict with their relatives or neighbors face exCommunication and the possibility of eternal damnation. The threat of excommunication remains a deterrent against antisocial or culturally prohibited behaviors. Reinstatement occurs by means of public confession and repentance at a monthly service.

Conflict. Little is known of interpersonal conflicts in precontact days. Recurrent, patterned, large-scale conflicts were associated with political and prestige rivalries, primarily among the titled nobility. Although usually rivalries took the form of competitive feasting and gift giving, in 1837 one chief, together with his six brothers and commoner supporters, deposed an unpopular Tokosra by force. Also, prior to contact, quarrels over just which lines in one clan were truly noble led commoners in several districts to rebel (unsuccessfully) . Unfortunately, little is known of the frequency and intensity of such rebellions. In modern times, the church's Influence has spared the island from some of the fighting associated with young male drunkenness in much of Micronesia—although such violent encounters are far from uncommon on weekends. Intrafamily conflicts occur, as everywhere, but are usually settled quickly. Perhaps the main source of serious, enduring disputes today is land. Close relatives (e.g., siblings) quarrel over inheritance and use rights. The failure of previous generations in settling land issues means that distant relatives often find themselves at odds over ownership of particular parcels. Nevertheless, Kosrae is a remarkably peaceful island overall. Almost all fighting is alcohol-related, and as late as the 1970s no one could recall a violent death except for those associated with World War II battles.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Little is known of the aboriginal Religion, other than that it was polytheistic and involved ritual processions to Lelu led by priests. A goddess of breadfruit seems to have been most important. Modern Kosraens are known throughout Micronesia for their staunch religiosity and the church is very much the center of their public life. They believe that membership in the Kosraen church is necessary for their salvation. The sincerity of one's commitment to the church and to God is shown by one's "work," such as regular attendance at church services and social functions, living a clean moral life, and monetary support of church activities and building programs.

Religious Practitioners. Today each village has its own church, its own pastor and deacons, and a plethora of offices and committees. There is in addition an overarching committee that meets periodically to deliberate issues that face the Kosraen church community as a whole. Competition for annually elected high offices in the village churches is largely covert but nonetheless serious, for incumbents enjoy considerable respect.

Ceremonies. Aside from Sunday services (morning, afternoon, and evening), the church organizes a variety of social as well as religious activities. Most of these involve feasts, for which people spend weeks preparing. Major annual events include Liberation Day (which commemorates the day U.S. forces captured the island from the Japanese), Christmas, and installation days for winners of high church offices. Dedications of new church buildings also are islandwide events.

Arts. In aboriginal times, bodies were decorated with tattoos. Pandanus leaves used to make sleeping mats and clothing were dyed and woven into geometric patterns. Very finely woven belts were made of banana fibers dyed and woven into pleasing designs. Today, only the weaving of mats survives. Other than a few crafts produced for the very limited tourist trade and the sewing of dresses for use on ceremonial occasions, Kosraens are uninterested in expression through graphic arts. Great creativity is shown, however, in composing new hymns to be sung in church at several year-end events.

Medicine. Little is known of precontact treatments. Today people seek care at a new hospital completed in the late 1970s. A few women continue to practice folk medicine, Especially massages, which are often given to pregnant women.

Death and Afterlife. Funerals receive extensive Ceremonial treatment. The body lies in state for three days, usually at the house of the deceased's closest male relative. Relatives and friends visit the family, to pay their respects and to "cheer them up." To supply the hundreds of guests, close kin of the family contribute enormous quantities of food, today mainly imports. Aside from year-end church events, funerals and weddings are consistently the largest social gatherings on the island.

See alsoYap

Bibliography

Fischer, John L., and Ann M. Fischer (1966). The Eastern Carolines. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files Press.

Peoples, James G. (1985). Island in Trust. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Ritter, Philip L. (1978). "The Repopulation o/Kosrae." Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

Ritter, Philip L., and Lynn T. Ritter (1982). The European Discovery of Kosrae Island. Micronesian Archaeological Survey Report no. 13. Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.

JAMES G. PEOPLES