Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 2 - Oceania - U ppt

358 Ulithi Ulithi ETHNONYM: Re Ulthi Orientation Identification. Ulithians are Micronesians living on an atoll in the west-central Caroline Islands. While the natives refer to their land as "Ma Ulithi," Europeans have applied other names to their islands: Isles de Sequeira, Los Dolores, Los Garbanzos, Mackenzie, and Mogmog. The Japanese call them "Uhssi" and "Urishi." Their culture has undergone strong change since the atoll came under U.S. control in 1944 and can best be described in terms of its traditional cul- ture, with observations as to current modifications. Location. The atoll, which is not really one entity but is made of four geologic units, is located at about 100 N and 140° E. Its closest neighbors are Yap and Ngulu to the west and Fais to the east. Guam is about 640 kilometers to the northeast. The climate is that of the doldrums belt, with much rainfall and high humidity. Demography. In 1731 Father Cantova reported a popula- tion of 592, in 1870 Tetens and Kubary counted about 700, and in 1903 District Officer Senfft reported 797, after which there was a steady decline, with a census by Lessa showing only 421 in 1949. Then, as the result of U.S. medical and public health measures, there was an upswing, with a census by Lessa showing 514 people in 1960. Linguistic Affiliation. The language is a dialect of Tru- kese, a subdivision of the far-flung Austronesian languages. History and Cultural Relations Most likely Ulithi was discovered in 1525 by Portuguese who had been blown there from the Celebes and remained for sev- eral weeks in great harmony with the people while rebuilding their small vessel. The Spaniards in the Philippines often en- countered Carolinians marooned there, some of them appar- ently being Ulithians. Missionaries were inspired to convert the natives of the Carolines, but they did not succeed in es- tablishing a mission until 1731. It was headed by Father Can- tova and was in Ulithi, but very soon afterwards he and his party were murdered by the people. Between the time of the Cantova episode and the stopovers of British, French, and Russian explorers, however, Ulithi did not live entirely in a world isolated from foreign influences. The people were in continual indirect contact with Spaniards through the sus- tained trade being carried on by Carolinians sailing to the Marianas. These native traders would return home with iron implements, cloth, and glass beads. In the nineteenth century two large-scale traders worked throughout the Carolines. One was a German, Alfred Tetens; the other was the Irish- American David O'Keefe. German interest in the region grew strong and in 1899 after much dispute Germany acquired all of the Carolines from Spain. Japan took over the area in 1914 and in 1920 was given a class C mandate by the League of Nations. Two Spanish missionaries were permitted to begin conversion of Ulithi to Catholicism. The United States seized the atoll in 1944 and immediately converted it into a huge naval base for the invasion of Okinawa and the Philip- pines. In 1947 the United Nations gave the United States a trusteeship over most of Micronesia, after which intensive ed- ucational activity took place and very large payments and subsidies were given to the Ulithian people, resulting in a rapid deterioration of the traditional culture. In 1986 Ulithi became part of the newly established group of Caroline Is- lands known as the Federated States of Micronesia, indepen- dent but in "free association" with the United States. Settlements The settlement pattern is that of small, highly nucleated vil- lages, although it has been speculated that formerly it was that of neighborhoods, each of which had a strip of land ex- tending from the sea to the interior, with a house, cook hut, and canoe shed, surrounded by garden areas. Each village has its large men's council house, used not only as a meetingplace but also as a dormitory for unmarried men and a clubhouse for all males. At the time of maximum population in 1903 the average number of inhabitants per village was 88. All dwell- ings are on the lagoon side of an islet. Houses are built on platforms made of slabs of coral, and they are characterized by sharply pitched roofs made of plaited palm leaves and walls of paneled wood. Such traditional houses have now been re- placed by boxlike wooden ones or concrete-block structures useful to withstand typhoons. In the interior of the isles of Mogmog and Falalop are artificially constructed gardens, used principally for growing taro. The vast lagoon serves not only as a fishing ground but also as a highway for the ex- tremely fast lateen-sailed outrigger canoes used to transport people and goods. Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Simple horticul- ture dominates subsistence activities, although fish and other sea foods are more highly prized in the diet. The chief plant food is the coconut, consumed in many forms, followed by breadfruit, true taro and pseudotaro, bananas, and from time to time squashes and sweet potatoes. There is some gather- ing, especially of wild berries and other fruits. Pigs are valued but are few because of the scarcity of suitable feed. Chickens are more abundant, being the predominant domestic animal. Birds are occasionally trapped for consumption. Highly desir- able but limited by religious and political taboos is the giant sea turtle, Chelonia mydas. With the rise of a cash economy, originally instigated by the manufacture of copra and then enormously expanded by U.S. welfare allotments and other grants, the traditional economy has been reduced to a shambles. Industrial Art. There are part-time specialists, especially canoe and house carpenters, who are exclusively men. Women weave garments on a true loom, probably introduced long ago from Indonesia. Weaving materials are made of ba- nana fiber, hibiscus fiber, or a combination of the two, al- though these textiles have largely been supplanted by com- mercial cloth. There is no pottery making, due to the absence of clay, but some pottery is imported from nearby Yap. Prior to the introduction of iron tools, such tools as adzes, knives, and scrapers were made from shells or coral. Since the advent of traders the chief commercial activity has been the manu- Ulithi 359 facture of copra, with some seasonal gathering of trochus shells for the foreign market. Trade. While there is some internal trade between individ- uals, most of it is external and somewhat ritualistic, being car- ried on in a complex system involving exchange with Yap and the islands of the Woleai, almost as far east as Truk. Al- though Ulithians are regarded as being of low caste by Yapese, because they live on out-lying islands, Ulithi receives more from Yap than it gives, especially in the form of food- stuffs and large timber for constructing canoes. A common form of exchange, largely poiiais tegiving of fiemats used as men's and women'scltig Division of Labor. Sex plays a part in dividing household and village activities: men mainly do the fishing and carpen- try, while women cultivate gardens, harvest wild plants and shore fish, weave, and almost exclusively raise children and perform most domestic work, including cooking. Land Tenure. Land is held in various ways. In theory the six landownership, chiefs of the atoll have the right of eminent domain. In practice land is owned by lineages in a fee-simple system, which is administered by the lineage's chief. It is bro- ken up into plots that are worked by family groups with usu- fruct rights that are tantamount to ownership. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. In addition to the nuclear fam- ily there are the extended family, the composite family, and the all-important corporate lineage. Lineages are matrilineal. Even though adoption is extremely common, in theory the adoptee retains membership in his natural mother's lineage. Kinship Terminology. Kin terms are a slight variation of the Crow type, which reflects unitineal descent by "overrid- ing" generations. A kin term always embraces secondary and tertiary relatives in addition to primary ones. The system of nomenclature serves both for purposes of reference and of address. Marriage and Family Marriage. Marriage is monogamous. Residence is patrio- cal, but the residence rule is somewhat elastic, especially be- cause a husband spends long stretches of time helping in his wife's gardens if the land assigned for her use by the prevailing system of land tenure is on another islet. In actuality there is some matrilocal, avunculocal, and neolocal residence. Until the advent of Catholicism divorce was very common and eas- ily accomplished by mutual agreement. Domestic Unit. While the nuclear family is the basis of the domestic unit, in actuality households consist less of a husband and wife and their offspring than they do of either extended families, composite families, or units not involving a marital pair. Although members of a nuclear family may live under one roof, for purposes of eating they may be scattered among commensal units. inheritance. Individual inheritance is greatly restricted by the rights of the matrilineal corporate group, which has its traditional lands, traditional house, common hearth, canoes, and canoe sheds. Individuals acquire usufruct tenure to a plot of land in three ways: intralineally, by matrilineal inheritance through another members extralineally, as a result of patri- lineal inheritance of usufruct tenure originally acquired by gift exchange or purchase; and, last, life usufruct tenure, which is held only for the lifetime of the individual or for even less time. The system of land tenure is basically a matter of lineage "ownership' and the granting of rights to individuals either matrilineally or patrilineally. Socialization. The social personalities of infants and chil- dren are shaped mostly by their mothers, but other kin are very crucial. These include their fathers, older siblings, line- age mates, and also members of the kindred, or iernnt, who are all the people who are their cognates. When children are adopted, which is always before they are born, they continue to be domiciled with their real parents until the ages of 5 to I0, because these years are considered to be the most crucial formative years of their lives. Much permissiveness character- izes child rearing, which involves a minimum of corporal pun- ishment and an abundance of scolding and ridicule. Affec- tion is lavished on children by all those around them, giving them a strong sense of security. Sociopolitical Organization Kinship factors dominate the whole sociopolitical organ- ization. Social Organization. Although certain lineages outrank others, there is virtually no social stratification. Such ranking seems to be lost in historical factors. Individuals may rise to a favorable position by virtue of the acquisition of certain spe- cialties and skills, none of which are hereditary. Political Organization. The basic unit of government is the village council, made up of all elderly men except for out- right incompetents. The head chief and district chiefs are he- reditary. These chiefs each succeed to their positions by vir- tue of their status as the oldest male member of certain lineages, which being matrilineal do not allow a man to suc- ceed his father. Complicating what is otherwise a simple local system is a highly complex arrangement superimposed on Ulithi by its "owners" in the Gagil district of the Yap Islands to the west. Gagil extends its dominance also to all the is- lands east of Ulithi as far as Truk. Yap's caste system is ap- plied to all of these islands. Social Control. Pressure to conform to social norms comes not from law, which is only rudimentary at best, but from the fear of criticism, public contempt, ridicule, and os- tracism, as well as the utter need for cooperation in a small so- ciety dependent on mutual assistance for its very existence. Litigation is suppressed. The gods and the ancestral ghosts are major influences in controlling social behavior. With the advent of foreign control some law has been introduced and traditional restraints that were operative under the old reli- gion have been weakened. Conflict. Warfare internally and externally ceased long ago because of its suppression by foreign powers, but oral tradi- tion proves conclusively that it was not uncommon in the past. Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. Since the 1930s Ulithians have gradu- ally been converted to Roman Catholicism. But the old be- liefs and practices persist in the minds of the elderly. There is 360 Ulithi a melange of many diverse elements: celestial and terrestrial deities, nature spirits, demons, and ancestral ghosts, supple- mented by magic, divination, and taboos. The gods of heaven, earth, and sea are lofty, but they are really more the objects of mythology than participants in everyday life, a sphere that is dominated by the ancestral ghosts. Nature spir- its are characterized as being either malevolent or benevolent and are thought to be active in human endeavors and conditions. Religious Practitioners. Lineage ghosts are the object of ritual attention through mediums, who transmit advice through them. Four major part-time magical practitioners are recognized-in navigation, typhoon control, community fishing, and palm-leaf divination, with medicine not far be- hind. There are also sorcerers and countersorcerers. Ceremonies. A rite of passage is important for girls but less so for boys. One major ritual, prolonged for weeks, is de- signed to promote an abundance of fish for the community. Other rituals are political, magical, and religious. Arts. Artistic expression occurs mostly in song and dance. The graphic and plastic arts are minimal. Medicine. Illness is believed to be essentially supernatural rather than natural in origin. Healers may be either special- ized or domestic. Death and Afterlife. According to traditional beliefs, death is the result of sorcery, taboo violation, or the hostility of spirits, except when the deceased has reached old age and succumbed to natural causes. After burial the soul lingers for four days on earth and then journeys to Lang, the sky world, where a god assigns the soul to either a paradisal or a tortured afterlife, depending on the person's behavior while alive. A period of mourning lasting for four lunar months is ended when a large feast, called "pay stone," is given for those who washed the corpse or dug the grave. The numerous taboos im- posed on the living are then lifted. The dead often visit their relatives and communicate with them through mediums. See also Truk, Woleai, Yap Bibliography Lessa, William A. (1966). Ulithi: A Micmrnesian Design for Living. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Reprint. 1980. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press. Lessa, William A. (1980). More Tales from Ulithi Atoli: A Content Analysis. University of California Publications: Folk- lore and Mythology Studies, no. 32. Berkeley and Los Angeles. Lessa, William A. (1987). "Micronesian Religion: An Over- view." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade et al., vol. 9, 498-505. New York: Macmillan. WILLIAM A. LESSA Usino rHNoNYM: Tariba Orientation Identification. The name 'Usino" refers to the inhabi- tants of four lowland social and territorial units (parishes), each corresponding to a dialect of the Usino language. Al- though all speakers of the language are known to the Usino people as "Tariba," they distinguish between mountain and lowland speakers. This summary focuses on the lowlanders, who call themselves 'Usino folovo" or 'Usino men," because Usino is the name of the central village of the lowland region. Prior to contact, these parishes rarely united as a single socio- political unit and had no collective name for themselves, de- spite intensive social and linguistic alliance. Location. The Usino people live in Madang Province of Papua New Guinea in three major villages and seven hamlets, all of which are centered in the Ramu River Valley near Usino Patrol Post, just east of the Ramu River. To the west rise the Bismarck Mountains and to the east the Finisterre Moun- tains rise to about 1200 meters. The area is steamy tropical rain forest, characterized by rich biotic resources and two di- matic seasons, a wet season from December to May and a dry season from May to November. Located 60 meters above sea level, the dense rain forest is crisscrossed by numerous streams and rivers utilized for canoe travel and fishing. Be. cause yearly rainfall approximates 508 centimeters, these wa- terways flood, turning the rain forest into swamp during the wet season. Demography. The land is sparsely populated with about 2.7 persons per square kilometer. In 1974, 250 Usino people resided in three centralized villages, but since then the popu- lation has increased to about 400, owing in part to a rise in the birth rate and the return of wage laborers and their families. Linguistic Affiliation. The term "Usino people" refers to inhabitants of a geographic region, near Usino village in the lowlands, rather than to a linguistic isolate. The Usino lan- guage also encompasses groups in several mountain villages. It appears to be closely related to Sumau (or Garia) in the Finisterre Mountains and to Danaru and Urugina in the Upper Ramu Valley. These four languages comprise the Peka Family of the Rai Coast Stock of Non-Austronesian lan- guages. Most Usino people can understand at least one or two neighboring languages, and all except the oldest Usino women now speak Tok Pisin as well. History and Cultural Relations Little is known about the origins of the Usino people; linguis- tic evidence suggests that they may derive from the Madang coastal area to the east. Usino people date first European contact in the late 1920s when the German Lutheran mission first settled in the Finisterre Mountains. Apparently, indige- nous missionaries from the coast were the only source of regu- lar foreign influence, while European government and mis- sion patrols from Madang and Bundi made frequent visits until the 1960s. During World War 11, German and indige- Usino 361 nous missionaries returned to their homes while Usino peo- ple scattered to the bush during the fighting between Ameri- cans and Japanese in the region. When the missionaries re- turned in the late 1940s and 1950s, Christianity had been eclipsed by cargo cults, which flourished until the mid-1960s. Although an indigenous Lutheran missionary settled in Usino village in 1980, traditional beliefs remain strong. Prior to the establishment of Usino Patrol Post and airstrip in 1967, access to the port town of Madang entailed a four-day trek. In 1974, a feeder road from the Lae-Madang Highway connected Usino Patrol Post with the coast and the high- lands. In 1981, when Walium supplanted Usino Patrol Post as the Upper Ramu District headquarters, the airstrip and health center dosed, and Usino people were alienated from their primary source of cash income. Usino responded to these recidivistic trends in the mid-1970s to mid- 1980s with a sense of increased relative isolation. Settlements Until mission contact in the 1930s, Usino resided in scat- tered homesteads, gardening and hunting within their tradi- tional parish territories. Afterward they formed one large vil- lage in accord with government policy. The site of this village changed several times and fission occurred about 1967, creat- ing two major villages, the largest of which is Usino. Each vil- lage and hamlet is in a constant state of internal flux with re- gard to residence patterns and household membership. Houses are built year-round as extended families outgrow their homes or as families nucleate. Rectangular houses, made of bush materials, encircle a central common. In the past, initiated men usually resided in one house that doubled as a male cult house, but they could live with their families if they wished. Until recently, residential patterns reflected tra- ditional beliefs about ritual pollution; if men and women shared a house, they partitioned their sleeping areas, and women had isolated menstrual huts on the edge of the village. In 1974, women observed menstrual seclusion in the backs of their houses, with separate back doors for their exclusive use. Since 1981, there are no more back doors, although women still observe menstrual seclusion. Economy Subistece and Commercial Activities. The Usino sub- sistence base has changed little in the past four generations. The production of taro, bananas, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, tapioca, and yams characterizes the swidden horticultural economy. Coconuts, betel nuts, papayas, and tobacco are also cultivated in village plots. Garden produce is supple- mented by bush foraging, fishing, and the hunting of wild pigs, cassowaries, bandicoots and other small marsupials, birds, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and insects. Pig husbandry is practiced to a lesser extent than in the highlands. Although most Usino men have engaged in contractual labor on the coast for a year or two, at present Usino access to wage labor is minimal. Until the late 1980s, attempts at commercial pro- duction of coffee, rice, and peanuts were unsuccessful, and cattle projects have engendered few profits. Industrial Arts. Usino people traditionally manufactured carved wooden bowls, one of their major items of exchange. Additional handicrafts include canoes, drums, bark cloth from the paper mulberry tree, woven bamboo mats for house walls, pandanus baskets, spears, bows, and woven-fiber net bags. Trade. Usino is an entrepreneurial community, economi- cally and geographically intermediate in several important trade networks extending across the Ramu Valley. Unlike neighboring highland areas, the Usino bush abounds with wildlife and is a source of feral pigs, cassowaries, bird of para- dise plumes, Victoria pigeon and hornbill feathers, lizards, opossum meat and fur, and mussel shells for lime. In addition to being richer in natural resources than the bordering moun- tain groups, Usino produces wooden bowls, betel nuts, to- bacco, taro, and coconuts-lowland products highly valued by upland groups. Usino's location, intermediate between two mountain ranges, ensures its entrepreneurial role as goods from the Bismarck Mountains flow through Usino to the Finisterres and vice versa. Usino's position as a trading center allows it to survive as an in-marrying group, maintain- ing exchange relationships with outside groups by means other than marriage. Division of Labor. A relatively sharp sexual division of labor characterizes Usino life. Men work collectively at hunt- ing, carving canoes, building garden fences and houses, plan- ning and conducting exchange ceremonies, and performing harvest and initiation rituals. They also perform planting and hunting rituals and magic, curing, manufacture of tools and weapons, and public oratory. Women are primarily responsi- ble for child care, cooking, collecting firewood, weaving net bags, and weeding and harvesting gardens. Girls begin these tasks at about age 5, while boys are relatively free to play until adolescence. Women cooperate with men in several tasks, collecting grass for thatch, hunting small rodents and carry- ing home the meat, clearing the undergrowth in new gardens as men fell the large trees, making lime, planting gardens, pre- paring sago, and preparing vegetables while men undertake the cooking at public feasts. Both men and women fish, but by different methods. Recently women have joined their hus- bands in the production of cash crops. land Tenwe. Parish membership entails hereditary land rights to a particular associated terrritory, collectively owned by a group of patrilineal kin. Usufruct is usually transmitted according to patrilineal inheritance rules, but cognatic princi- ples play a large part in determining land-use alternatives. De- spite the patrilineal ideal, a majority of men actually utilize land obtained through affiliation with mothers or wives. Al, though a person relinquishes ownership rights to his natal territory if he leaves and his children become members of an- other parish, most people maintain limited hunting and fish- ing rights in their native parish by virtue of strong family ties and continuity of use. Because no discernible population pressure yet exists, borrowing land is relatively easy; a man and his children can eventually gain rights to land of another Usino parish by helping the owners cultivate the land. Ide- ally, children inherit land from their father if he has paid bride-price and child-price. Otherwise, children remain mem- bers of their maternal parish, and they inherit land accordingly. 362 Usino Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. The largest local group in Usino is the parish, a named social and territorial unit. A par- ish is composed of persons associated with a certain tract of land, bearing a distinct name, and forming a political unit. There are four such traditional units, and members have grouped along kinship lines into three villages. At present each Usino parish is divided into two social and territorial subunits, or 'carpets." A carpel is an exogamous unilinear group, or patrilineage, which has its social center within a par- ish territory. Descent is patrilineal; by making a payment for his wife and each child, a father attains rights to his children and thereby establishes claims to his daughter's bride-price as well as to child-price for his daughter's children. Despite the patrilineal ideal, however, a child will remain a member of the mother's patrilineage unless bought by the father. Although child-price is functionally an autonomous payment, it is seen by most as an extension of the bride-price. Kinship Terminology. Deviating from standard systems, in Usino paternal parallel cousins are merged with siblings while cross cousins are distinguished from maternal parallel cousins. The distinction between cross and parallel cousins is important, and manikin play an important social role for each individual. Relative age is an important marker, parents' younger siblings are lumped with parents, but parents' older siblings are called "grandmother" and "grandfather." There is also terminological merging between grandparents and grandchildren, distinguished by sex. Great-grandparents and great-grandchildren call one another "husband" or "wife." Affinal kin are distinguished from consanguineal kin. Intra- community marriage results in many overlapping kin categories. Marriage and Family Marriage. Polygyny in Usino is accepted but not preferred, and it is practiced by only about 18 percent of the families. Successful polygynous unions are initiated by the cowives themselves. Preferential intraparish marriage and sister ex- change characterize Usino, and if suitable mates are not available within the opposite carpel, spouses are selected from other Usino parishes. Consequently, a multiplicity of af- final and cognatic ties connect Usino parishes. Intergroup al- liances are maintained through trade partnerships rather than marriage. Divorces do not threaten the system of alli- ance and exchange, and they are accomplished with relative ease. Low population density and minimal cash income limit access to wealth and goods, prohibiting large bride-price pre- stations, and there are no marriage-payment negotiations. Partners are officially betrothed by their parents, sometimes as children, but in practice young people often choose their own mates. Women generally choose their second husbands. Postmarital residence is usually virilocal, but most parish members live their entire lives within Usino territory, if not in the same village. Domestic Unit. The basic domestic and economic unit is the household, composed of either a nuclear or extended family. Inheritance. Inheritance is patrilineal, once bride-price and child-price are paid by the husband to his affines. Socialization. Education is primarily informal, through observation and imitation; relatively few children attend the primary school 6.4 kilometers away, and only a few Usino men have attended high school. Scolding and physical pun- ishment are frequently used to impress upon children their responsibilities. Sociopolitical Organization Social Orgnization. The cultural-linguistic unit that in- cludes the mountain speakers of Usino is called a "phyle" since the word "tribe" is inappropriate for a group which lacks corporate existence. The phyle is divided into smaller units, based on slight differences in culture. The lowland Usino subphyle is divided into four "parishes," political units associ- ated with defined tracts of land. Members of these parishes have grouped along kinship lines into villages and hamlets, but members of extraphyle parishes are also incorporated into the villages. Each Usino parish is subdivided into two smaller social and territorial subunits called carpels, the exogamous patrilineal groups (discussed previously) that have their so- cial centers within parish territory. The Usino social structure is one of discrete multicarpellary parishes, because each par- ish has a set of unilinear kinship groups that belong to it and to it alone. Parishes in this system may be self-sufficient, and in precontact times they always were. Unlike the neighboring mountain-dwelling Garia, Usino people have definite terri- torial groups with fixed boundaries. Political Organization. Each patrilineage, or carpel, has a patriarch who oversees land and ritual that is patrilineally in- herited, but for the most part he is a figurehead for the de- scent group. Actual leadership depends on a combination of personal qualities. The vernacular term for big-man (nama- gem) means "good man" and can refer to any man who excels in some way. Almost all men over age 40 are considered namagem in some capacity, but leaders are those who excel in activities such as accumulating pigs, wealth, or trade partners and who demonstrate skill at initiating and directing commu- nal activities. There are no distinctive visual symbols of eco- nomic differentiation and no obvious differences in standard of living, consumption, or material wealth. What little status differentiation exists is based on acquired trade ties, the pos- session of powerful ritual names and secrets, or access to cash. Social Control. Internal hostilities are managed through informal mechanisms such as gossip, physical confrontation, threat of sorcery, and health beliefs that attribute illness to unresolved grievances, disharmony, and intervention by an- cestral spirits. Pigs destroying gardens, bride-price and child- price, marital disputes, and trespass on hunting rights are primary sources of interpersonal conflict. In a washing cere- mony, disputants absolve one another of transgression. Vil- lage moots or courts consider those cases that defy informal settlement, and government courts are used as a last resort. Conflict. Extraphyle raiding characterized external con- flict until the 1920s and 1930s, when Usino voluntarily ac- cepted pacification. Relations with other groups are generally amicable, but issues over exchange, land use, and sorcery oc- casionally require traditional methods of dispute settle- ment-that is, a moot or court in which the contending par- ties air their differences and seek consensus. If consensus is Uvea 363 not attained, sorcery or appeal to government courts may follow. Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. The secret ritual names of the mytho- logical culture heroes and heroines are owned by patrilineages and are used in ritual for warfare, hunting, planting, harvest- ing, feasts, and magic: these secret names give rituals their power. Ownership of these names is the most valuable kind of ritual knowledge, but secret names of bush spirits-those who protect parish land as well as the mischievous and dan- gerous wild men and women spirits-may also be invoked by patrilineages for protection and healing. Access to spiritual power is unequal; early missionaries burned some of the sa- cred names, rendering them ineffective, so some lineages lost this powerful knowledge. Additional secret names were lost when elders died before passing the names on to younger members. Also, some people have greater success in attract- ing the favor of spirits. Although Usino cargo cults ended in the 1970s, a strong cargo bias still underlies relationships with Europeans. Lutheran concepts of God have been added by some to the spiritual belief system, but traditional belief in spirits remains universal. Religious Pracytioners. Any man who seeks success in planting, hunting, and exchange must attempt to control the spirit world by giving gifts to the spirits and invoking their rit- ual names. Most men inherit or buy a few names and rituals and occasionally observe taboos, in order to achieve material well-being, but there are also several kinds of ritual specialists in Usino. One or two specialize in dance ritual, making the dances ritually powerful so as to enhance intergroup ex- change and to attract potential mates. Two other men con- trol rituals for planting and harvesting. Other men control rit- uals for male initiation, but female initiation, last conducted in 1975, was performed by specialists from outside Usino be- cause that ritual knowledge had been lost. Ceremonies. Rituals are associated with nearly all activi- ties: dances, initiations, warfare, hunting, curing, gardening, rainmaking, love magic, canoe and wooden bowl making, slit gong and drum making, feasts and exchanges, weddings, deaths, and births. Dance ceremonies, with singing and drumming, accompany most weddings and formal redistribu- tive feasts. Public oratory and exchange of food and valued trade items mark most exchange ceremonies. Funerals are characterized by the ritual drinking of kava. Most sacred are the male cult ceremonies, including male initiations-which involve seclusion of initiates, physical trials, and dancing- from which women are excluded. Female initiation follows first menstruation, just prior to marriage. Male initiations are performed every few years. Hand-washing ceremonies end rit- ual seclusion for mourners and cleanse them of ritual pollution. Arts. Artistic endeavors include the carving of plain wooden bowls and drums, with minimal decoration. Some spears are decorated and net bags are dyed with simple de- signs. Dancing and ceremonial body decorations exhibit the most artistic elaboration. Medicine. Minor illness is often traced to intragroup con- flict and supernatural intervention (such as attacks by ghosts), but serious illness and death are generally attributed to sorcery from the mountains. Many illnesses are explained by soul loss, and cures are called upon to locate and retrieve the soul. In the past, two curers divined the causes of illnesses and treated them, but both men died without passing on their knowledge. Usino people now rely on a Garia healer, related by marriage, and the government health center. Death and Afterlife. Ghosts of the deceased (gob) are said to roam the village and, if offended, cause illness. A hand-washing ceremony following the mourning period rit, ually buries the ghost. The ghosts of those who die violently, kenaime, may be especially dangerous, so control of them through spells and secret names is important for healers and big-men. Eventually gob disappear, some say to a mountain village. Traditionally the spirits of the dead offered no assist- ance to the living, but during the cargo cults of the 1950s and 1960s people went to their parents' graves and asked for their assistance in acquiring material goods. See also Garia Bibliography Conton, Leslie (1977). 'Women's Roles in a Man's World: Appearance and Reality in a Lowland New Guinea Village." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, Eugene. Conton, Leslie (1985). 'Reproductive Decision-Making in the Upper Ramu District, Papua New Guinea: Cognitive As- pects of Adaptive Problem-Solving." Papua New Guinea Medical Journal 28:163-176. Conton, Leslie (1985). 'Social, Economic, and Ecological Paramaters of Infant Feeding in Usino, Papua New Guinea." Ecology of Food and Nutrition 16:39-54. Conton, Leslie, and David Eisler (1976). 'The Ecology of Exchange in the Upper Ramu Valley." Oceania 47:134-143. Eisler, David (1979). Continuity and Change in a Lowland Po- litical System in Papua New Guinea. Ph.D. dissertation, Uni- versity of Oregon, Eugene. LESLIE CONTON Uvea ETHNONYMS: East Uvean, Uvean, Wallis Island Uvea, like its twin island Futuna, is culturally and lin- guistically closely related to Tonga. Uvea is a volcanic high is- land located 180 kilometers northeast of Futuna at 13° S and 176° W. There are close to 6,000 people in Uvea and Futuna. In 1982 there were 12,000 migrant workers from these islands in Noumia, New Caledonia. Uvean is classified in the East- ern Polynesian Group of Austronesian languages. Settle- ments are now mainly along the coast. In the past, wetland . a lesser extent than in the highlands. Although most Usino men have engaged in contractual labor on the coast for a year or two, at present Usino access to wage labor is minimal. Until the late 1980s, attempts at commercial pro- duction of coffee, rice, and peanuts were unsuccessful, and cattle projects have engendered few profits. Industrial Arts. Usino people traditionally manufactured carved wooden bowls, one of their major items of exchange. Additional handicrafts include canoes, drums, bark cloth from the paper mulberry tree, woven bamboo mats for house walls, pandanus baskets, spears, bows, and woven-fiber net bags. Trade. Usino is an entrepreneurial community, economi- cally and geographically intermediate in several important trade networks extending across the Ramu Valley. Unlike neighboring highland areas, the Usino bush abounds with wildlife and is a source of feral pigs, cassowaries, bird of para- dise plumes, Victoria pigeon and hornbill feathers, lizards, opossum meat and fur, and mussel shells for lime. In addition to being richer in natural resources than the bordering moun- tain groups, Usino produces wooden bowls, betel nuts, to- bacco, taro, and coconuts-lowland products highly valued by upland groups. Usino's location, intermediate between two mountain ranges, ensures its entrepreneurial role as goods from the Bismarck Mountains flow through Usino to the Finisterres and vice versa. Usino's position as a trading center allows it to survive as an in-marrying group, maintain- ing exchange relationships with outside groups by means other than marriage. Division of Labor. A relatively sharp sexual division of labor characterizes Usino life. Men work collectively at hunt- ing, carving canoes, building garden fences and houses, plan- ning and conducting exchange ceremonies, and performing harvest and initiation rituals. They also perform planting and hunting rituals and magic, curing, manufacture of tools and weapons, and public oratory. Women are primarily responsi- ble for child care, cooking, collecting firewood, weaving net bags, and weeding and harvesting gardens. Girls begin these tasks at about age 5, while boys are relatively free to play until adolescence. Women cooperate with men in several tasks, collecting grass for thatch, hunting small rodents and carry- ing home the meat, clearing the undergrowth in new gardens as men fell the large trees, making lime, planting gardens, pre- paring sago, and preparing vegetables while men undertake the cooking at public feasts. Both men and women fish, but by different methods. Recently women have joined their hus- bands in the production of cash crops. land Tenwe. Parish membership entails hereditary land rights to a particular associated terrritory, collectively owned by a group of patrilineal kin. Usufruct is usually transmitted according to patrilineal inheritance rules, but cognatic princi- ples play a large part in determining land-use alternatives. De- spite the patrilineal ideal, a majority of men actually utilize land obtained through affiliation with mothers or wives. Al, though a person relinquishes ownership rights to his natal territory if he leaves and his children become members of an- other parish, most people maintain limited hunting and fish- ing rights in their native parish by virtue of strong family ties and continuity of use. Because no discernible population pressure yet exists, borrowing land is relatively easy; a man and his children can eventually gain rights to land of another Usino parish by helping the owners cultivate the land. Ide- ally, children inherit land from their father if he has paid bride-price and child-price. Otherwise, children remain mem- bers of their maternal parish, and they inherit land accordingly. 3 62 Usino Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. The largest local group in Usino is the parish, a named social and territorial unit. A par- ish is composed of persons associated with a certain tract of land, bearing a distinct name, and forming a political unit. There are four such traditional units, and members have grouped along kinship lines into three villages. At present each Usino parish is divided into two social and territorial subunits, or 'carpets." A carpel is an exogamous unilinear group, or patrilineage, which has its social center within a par- ish territory. Descent is patrilineal; by making a payment for his wife and each child, a father attains rights to his children and thereby establishes claims to his daughter's bride-price as well as to child-price for his daughter's children. Despite the patrilineal ideal, however, a child will remain a member of the mother's patrilineage unless bought by the father. Although child-price is functionally an autonomous payment, it is seen by most as an extension of. cash economy, originally instigated by the manufacture of copra and then enormously expanded by U. S. welfare allotments and other grants, the traditional economy has been reduced to a shambles. Industrial Art. There are part-time specialists, especially canoe and house carpenters, who are exclusively men. Women weave garments on a true loom, probably introduced long ago from Indonesia. Weaving materials are made of ba- nana fiber, hibiscus fiber, or a combination of the two, al- though these textiles have largely been supplanted by com- mercial cloth. There is no pottery making, due to the absence of clay, but some pottery is imported from nearby Yap. Prior to the introduction of iron tools, such tools as adzes, knives, and scrapers were made from shells or coral. Since the advent of traders the chief commercial activity has been the manu- Ulithi 359 facture of copra, with some seasonal gathering of trochus shells for the foreign market. Trade. While there is some internal trade between individ- uals, most of it is external and somewhat ritualistic, being car- ried on in a complex system involving exchange with Yap and the islands of the Woleai, almost as far east as Truk. Al- though Ulithians are regarded as being of low caste by Yapese, because they live on out-lying islands, Ulithi receives more from Yap than it gives, especially in the form of food- stuffs and large timber for constructing canoes. A common form of exchange, largely poiiais tegiving of fiemats used as men's and women'scltig Division of Labor. Sex plays a part in dividing household and village activities: men mainly do the fishing and carpen- try, while women cultivate gardens, harvest wild plants and shore fish, weave, and almost exclusively raise children and perform most domestic work, including cooking. Land Tenure. Land is held in various ways. In theory the six landownership, chiefs of the atoll have the right of eminent domain. In practice land is owned by lineages in a fee-simple system, which is administered by the lineage's chief. It is bro- ken up into plots that are worked by family groups with usu- fruct rights that are tantamount to ownership. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. In addition to the nuclear fam- ily there are the extended family, the composite family, and the all-important corporate lineage. Lineages are matrilineal. Even though adoption is extremely common, in theory the adoptee retains membership in his natural mother's lineage. Kinship Terminology. Kin terms are a slight variation of the Crow type, which reflects unitineal descent by "overrid- ing" generations. A kin term always embraces secondary and tertiary relatives in addition to primary ones. The system of nomenclature serves both for purposes of reference and of address. Marriage and Family Marriage. Marriage is monogamous. Residence is patrio- cal, but the residence rule is somewhat elastic, especially be- cause a husband spends long stretches of time helping in his wife's gardens if the land assigned for her use by the prevailing system of land tenure is on another islet. In actuality there is some matrilocal, avunculocal, and neolocal residence. Until the advent of Catholicism divorce was very common and eas- ily accomplished by mutual agreement. Domestic Unit. While the nuclear family is the basis of the domestic unit, in actuality households consist less of a husband and wife and their offspring than they do of either extended families, composite families, or units not involving a marital pair. Although members of a nuclear family may live under one roof, for purposes of eating they may be scattered among commensal units. inheritance. Individual inheritance is greatly restricted by the rights of the matrilineal corporate group, which has its traditional lands, traditional house, common hearth, canoes, and canoe sheds. Individuals acquire usufruct tenure to a plot of land in three ways: intralineally, by matrilineal inheritance through another members extralineally, as a result of patri- lineal inheritance of usufruct tenure originally acquired by gift exchange or purchase; and, last, life usufruct tenure, which is held only for the lifetime of the individual or for even less time. The system of land tenure is basically a matter of lineage "ownership' and the granting of rights to individuals either matrilineally or patrilineally. Socialization. The social personalities of infants and chil- dren are shaped mostly by their mothers, but other kin are very crucial. These include their fathers, older siblings, line- age mates, and also members of the kindred, or iernnt, who are all the people who are their cognates. When children are adopted, which is always before they are born, they continue to be domiciled with their real parents until the ages of 5 to I0, because these years are considered to be the most crucial formative years of their lives. Much permissiveness character- izes child rearing, which involves a minimum of corporal pun- ishment and an abundance of scolding and ridicule. Affec- tion is lavished on children by all those around them, giving them a strong sense of security. Sociopolitical Organization Kinship factors dominate the whole sociopolitical organ- ization. Social Organization. Although certain lineages outrank others, there is virtually no social stratification. Such ranking seems to be lost in historical factors. Individuals may rise to a favorable position by virtue of the acquisition of certain spe- cialties and skills, none of which are hereditary. Political Organization. The basic unit of government is the village council, made up of all elderly men except for out- right incompetents. The head chief and district chiefs are he- reditary. These chiefs each succeed to their positions by vir- tue of their status as the oldest male member of certain lineages, which being matrilineal do not allow a man to suc- ceed his father. Complicating what is otherwise a simple local system is a highly complex arrangement superimposed on Ulithi by its "owners" in the Gagil district of the Yap Islands to the west. Gagil extends its dominance also to all the is- lands east of Ulithi as far as Truk. Yap's caste system is ap- plied to all of these islands. Social Control. Pressure to conform to social norms comes not from law, which is only rudimentary at best, but from the fear of criticism, public contempt, ridicule, and os- tracism, as well as the utter need for cooperation in a small so- ciety dependent on mutual assistance for its very existence. Litigation is suppressed. The gods and the ancestral ghosts are major influences in controlling social behavior. With the advent of foreign control some law has been introduced and traditional restraints that were operative under the old reli- gion have been weakened. Conflict. Warfare internally and externally ceased long ago because of its suppression by foreign powers, but oral tradi- tion proves conclusively that it was not uncommon in the past. Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. Since the 1930s Ulithians have gradu- ally been converted to Roman Catholicism. But the old be- liefs and practices persist in the minds of the elderly. There is 360 Ulithi a melange of many diverse elements: celestial and terrestrial deities, nature spirits, demons, and ancestral ghosts, supple- mented by magic, divination, and taboos. The gods of heaven, earth, and sea are lofty, but they are really more the objects of mythology than participants in everyday life, a sphere that is dominated by the ancestral ghosts. Nature spir- its are characterized as being either malevolent or benevolent and are thought to be active in human endeavors and conditions. Religious Practitioners. Lineage ghosts are the object of ritual attention through mediums, who transmit advice through them. Four major part-time magical practitioners are recognized-in navigation, typhoon control, community fishing, and palm-leaf divination, with medicine not far be- hind. There are also sorcerers and countersorcerers. Ceremonies. A rite of passage is important for girls but less so for boys. One major ritual, prolonged for weeks, is de- signed to promote an abundance of fish for the community. Other rituals are political, magical, and religious. Arts. Artistic expression occurs mostly in song and dance. The graphic and plastic arts are minimal. Medicine. Illness is believed to be essentially supernatural rather than natural in origin. Healers may be either special- ized or domestic. Death and Afterlife. According to traditional beliefs, death is the result of sorcery, taboo violation, or the hostility of spirits, except when the deceased has reached old age and succumbed to natural causes. After burial the soul lingers for four days on earth and then journeys to Lang, the sky world, where a god assigns the soul to either a paradisal or a tortured afterlife, depending on the person's behavior while alive. A period of mourning lasting for four lunar months is ended when a large feast, called "pay stone," is given for those who washed the corpse or dug the grave. The numerous taboos im- posed on the living are then lifted. The dead often visit their relatives and communicate with them through mediums. See also Truk, Woleai, Yap Bibliography Lessa, William A. (1966). Ulithi: A Micmrnesian Design for Living. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Reprint. 1980. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press. Lessa, William A. (1980). More Tales from Ulithi Atoli: A Content Analysis. University of California Publications: Folk- lore and Mythology Studies, no. 32. Berkeley and Los Angeles. Lessa, William A. (1987). "Micronesian Religion: An Over- view." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade et al., vol. 9, 49 8-5 05. New York: Macmillan. WILLIAM A. LESSA Usino rHNoNYM: Tariba Orientation Identification. The name 'Usino" refers to the inhabi- tants of four lowland social and territorial units (parishes), each corresponding to a dialect of the Usino language. Al- though all speakers of the language are known to the Usino people as "Tariba," they distinguish between mountain and lowland speakers. This summary focuses on the lowlanders, who call themselves 'Usino folovo" or 'Usino men," because Usino is the name of the central village of the lowland region. Prior to contact, these parishes rarely united as a single socio- political unit and had no collective name for themselves, de- spite intensive social and linguistic alliance. Location. The Usino people live in Madang Province of Papua New Guinea in three major villages and seven hamlets, all of which are centered in the Ramu River Valley near Usino Patrol Post, just east of the Ramu River. To the west rise the Bismarck Mountains and to the east the Finisterre Moun- tains rise to about 120 0 meters. The area is steamy tropical rain forest, characterized by rich biotic resources and two di- matic seasons, a wet season from December to May and a dry season from May to November. Located 60 meters above sea level, the dense rain forest is crisscrossed by numerous streams and rivers utilized for canoe travel and fishing. Be. cause yearly rainfall approximates 508 centimeters, these wa- terways flood, turning the rain forest into swamp during the wet season. Demography. The land is sparsely populated with about 2. 7 persons per square kilometer. In 1974, 25 0 Usino people resided in three centralized villages, but since then the popu- lation has increased to about 400, owing in part to a rise in the birth rate and the return of wage laborers and their families. Linguistic Affiliation. The term "Usino people" refers to inhabitants of a geographic region, near Usino village in the lowlands, rather than to. a linguistic isolate. The Usino lan- guage also encompasses groups in several mountain villages. It appears to be closely related to Sumau (or Garia) in the Finisterre Mountains and to Danaru and Urugina in the Upper Ramu Valley. These four languages comprise the Peka Family of the Rai Coast Stock of Non-Austronesian lan- guages. Most Usino people can understand at least one or two neighboring languages, and all except the oldest Usino women now speak Tok Pisin as well. History and Cultural Relations Little is known about the origins of the Usino people; linguis- tic evidence suggests that they may derive from the Madang coastal area to the east. Usino people date first European contact in the late 1 920 s when the German Lutheran mission first settled in the Finisterre Mountains. Apparently, indige- nous missionaries from the coast were the only source of regu- lar foreign influence, while European government and mis- sion patrols from Madang and Bundi made frequent visits until the 1960s. During World War 11, German and indige- Usino 361 nous missionaries returned to their homes while Usino peo- ple scattered to the bush during the fighting between Ameri- cans and Japanese in the region. When the missionaries re- turned in the late 1940s and 1950s, Christianity had been eclipsed by cargo cults, which flourished until the mid-1960s. Although an indigenous Lutheran missionary settled in Usino village in 1980, traditional beliefs remain strong. Prior to the establishment of Usino Patrol Post and airstrip in 1967, access to the port town of Madang entailed a four-day trek. In 1974, a feeder road from the Lae-Madang Highway connected Usino Patrol Post with the coast and the high- lands. In 1981, when Walium supplanted Usino Patrol Post as the Upper Ramu District headquarters, the airstrip and health center dosed, and Usino people were alienated from their primary source of cash income. Usino responded to these recidivistic trends in the mid-1970s to mid- 1980s with a sense of increased relative isolation. Settlements Until mission contact in the 1930s, Usino resided in scat- tered homesteads, gardening and hunting within their tradi- tional parish territories. Afterward they formed one large vil- lage in accord with government policy. The site of this village changed several times and fission occurred about 1967, creat- ing two major villages, the largest of which is Usino. Each vil- lage and hamlet is in a constant state of internal flux with re- gard to residence patterns and household membership. Houses are built year-round as extended families outgrow their homes or as families nucleate. Rectangular houses, made of bush materials, encircle a central common. In the past, initiated men usually resided in one house that doubled as a male cult house, but they could live with their families if they wished. Until recently, residential patterns reflected tra- ditional beliefs about ritual pollution; if men and women shared a house, they partitioned their sleeping areas, and women had isolated menstrual huts on the edge of the village. In 1974, women observed menstrual seclusion in the backs of their houses, with separate back doors for their exclusive use. Since 1981, there are no