Changing Family Organization Among Ex-Bikini Marshallese (Draft) Paper Presented at 10TH Pacific Science Congress, Honolulu, Hawaii, August 25, 1961

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Draft copy of paper presented at 10th Pacific Science congress, Hanolulu, Hawaii, August 25, 1961. Not ta be rePr~duced ar ‘u~ted except with author’s permission. The cantent will be included eventually in a baok & the Kili situatian, date of publication as ORGANIZATION AMONG EX-BIKtNI MARSHALLESE Prafessw of Anthropology University of Hawaii, Honalulu In the summer of’1957, when I went t~ Kili Island~ in the Marshalls group of Micronesia, I had intended to undertake a study of haw certain attitudes became established amang children and ywths with respect to the advantages and disadvantages af life an the stall of bikini. In 1.946,just over a decade earlier, the grandparents, parents, and alder siblings of this younger generation had been evacuated as a community from Bikini Atall in order that the United States government might use the lagaan and islands as a site for testing nuclear weapans. The cammunity had previously been quite isalated frsm the rest af the Mershalls, and some 200 residents formed a remarkably inbred and culturally conservative graup regardedz by other Marshellese as an inferior and samewhat naive people. In the early months af 1948, tvw years after their resettlement on Rongerik$ another stall in the relatively dry narthern Marshalls, Z spent a week or mare an Rangerik Atoll at the request of!the Government ts determine the canditian af their adjus@ent to the new envirmmmt. The stall’s resaurces had proved inadequate for permanent settlement on a subsistence basis, end the commmity had undergone a frightening experience during which the local leaders had attempted a number of innovations to meet the crisis. The entire population was removed as soon as possible and by the end af 1948, after a waiting periad an Kwajalein Island, they were settled cm the single island of Kili in the southern Marshalls. Here they cantinue ta live at the present time. Adjustment ta the natural conditions on Kili has not been easy, but this is for quite different reasans than prevailed an Rangerik. This aspect af their resettlement has been described elsewhere. In 19&9, abaut me year after the gr~up’s arrival an fili, I was able ta spend another brief petiod with them, enough ta gather certain demographic and other infarmatian for camparisan with that gained earlier sn Rangerik. In the course of this field work I remarked significant differences among individuals and family groups as ta their attitudes tward i<iliand their remembrance of’Bikini. Wme hated the new island, far goad reasons, and harked back ccmstantly ta Bikini as the place ta which they wtsh6d ta return-- this was impassible because af the consequences of atamic weapans tests. Others accepted the fact af their resettlement and faced the future on Kili with an optimistic end constructive view. At tlmt time I wondered what would be ths attitudes of individuals born an fili after 1948 wha wauld never have the chance ta know at firsthand what the Bikini of their elders had been, or might be, like.

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It MS 1957 before I could return again ta KiliJ inte~ding ta conduct research an this matter by identifying family graups of the more extreme convictions and camparing the youngsters ih each group as to their developing attitudes, at the same time trying ta learn samething af the innovative process invalved. Before I had been cm Kili two days I could see that much had happened to the cwnmunity since 1949} and that my first prablem wauld be ta ideht~f’y and relate groups of Kilians ta my remembrance of them a decade earlier, and ts try to c~prehend the rlatureaf new @sbps whidh had emerged around new activities which constituted part of the cmmunity’s total adjustment to Kili in that period. I must say that this jab taok the entire summer, and I still have ta guess at what happens ta the younger generation. My principal task in 1957, apart from reccmstructing the sequence of events since 1949, was ta conduct a hausehsld survey: a series of intensive interviews with the accupants of the thirty house groups that made up the community. In this survey I reviewed systematically a number af tapics, namely, the nature of use w other participation in activities relating ts water supply, personal bathing, fishing canoes, capra driers, cooking hearths, livestock, retail stores which depended cm a central wholesale outlet, hwsehald composition, and an emerging land tenure system. The material when analyzed confirms my general impression at the time that a number af prafaund and persistent changes are taking place in the sacial cwganizatian of the ex-bikinf cammunity, and that same of these changes are completely unsuspected by the peaple themselves as revealed in conversations which I had with the council af elders shcwtly before my final departure from Kili. I intend now ta present same features af this change. I do nat have time this mwning ta explain the reasons far the chenge which I have abserved; in fact, I am nat quite sure in same cases just what has happened, and will have ta gs back eventually to ask mare questians of the people of Kili. When they lived cm Bikini they operated within a system which gave primity ta matrilineal lineage status in regard ta residence, ecanamic cooperation, distribution and cansumptian of fcmd and other resources, and inheritance of real property rights. Male representatives af same 11 lineages acted together, although with same ranking af position, to prsvide an effective community organization. In other wards the matrilacal household, representing usually two cm three hause graups, and the property-holding matrilineal lineage were basic far Bikini social On :Ciliin 1957 I found 30 occupied hwses strung out in a line generally paralleling the beach an the narth-central side of the island. ‘ha af these were used by a resident Marshallese chluchman, and fall autside the Xilian village system in most matters. The remainder were nearly equally divided between a western and en eastern district which has little relevance far aur analysis here. The first questian I asked had to do with water supply. On a coral island such as Kili the only water for human use is rainwater x well water. The people had three cisterns, one of them in paw canditian and nat suitable far drinking w

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cooking, afi a reserve series of four -wlls sunk below ground inland from the village and supplying brackish water suitable for bathing and laundry. Almost every house had near it an oil drum m ather cantainer which trapped rainwater fram the hause row?. Each hwse was practically independent in this regard, therefwe, and supplemented the local supply with water from the cisterns as needed. Only in extremely dry weather did the wells came importantly inta use. Kinship did not appear ta be a basis for sharing beyand the hwse gr~up. Access ta cistern w well when needed was measured by convenience in walking and carrying the water. The kinship principle was more apparent in use Of bathing facilities. Although mast house graups had their am bath hut attached to w lacated near the dwelling, and used only by the house accupants, there were five instances af sharing by tws, w three, hause groups. Where this sharing existed it depended m a sibling m ather lineage tie. Copra driers had been constructed at 13 different lacations in the village, and were equipped with fire hearths, sheltering roofs, and racks on which pieces of ripe coconut could be dried befare sale to island traders and expwt far warld consumption. lJanyof these had been built in the periad 1953 ta 1955 when ~~ U. S. government initiated a ccmununitydevelopment praject ta assist the islanders in their adjustment ta Kili. Kilians regarded them as private praperty associated with specifically named house gr wps. Regular use af tk driers fallowed kinship lines in six instances, the link being that af adult siblings in a joint family ar the membership of a single family extended two ar three generations. However, na difficulty was reported in obtaining permission ta use another’s drier if the latter was not in use by the awner group; if justification was needed, one cauld usually find same kinship tie ta refer to, the closeness af affiliation seemed unimportant. All cases of sharing bath facilities were identified with capra-drier share groups, althaugh the latter were slightly more numerous and mare inclusive.. hhen it came to cooking hearths, I found that practically every house group cooked aver an open hearth a short distance fram the dwelling, when the weather was clear, and in this sense was autonomous. But in rainy weather, same shelter viasrequired, a roofed cook hut, sometimes attached ta the copra drier, sametimes not. I found the same number of coak huts as copra driers, and in all but twa cases the camplex of sharing was identical. In the exception, factws af convenience seemed ta have brought adjacent house grmps into a slightly different alignment, but close kin ties still provided the basis af caoperatian. Women, who did the caoking, reported a change from time ta time in where they caaked if they wanted relief from the usual grwp or swght ta gossip in a mare advantageous place, but these changes were essentially brief breaks in rautine. Men did the fishing, mast af them using a small paddle canoe off the reef. I accwnted far 12 such canoes, but 8 were at the time either disaoled or last at sea, and me was still being built.

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‘Ofthe three left, one was used ahnost entirely by the ohurckuhan} which meant that during that summer mly tw canxs were available far sms 32 fishermen. Reports from these men indicated that one canae, Andru’s, kept in the eastern part af the village was used mainly by men in that district (where it was convenient~ but also by a group of men living in the extreme western section af the village. The other canoe, Betwl’ s, located in the western district but fairly central in the cammunity, was used by the remainder of fishermen in that district, tagether with a few adjacent in the east. Analysis af this situatian kin-wise revealed that lineage ties between classificatory siblings provided a mast important basis far use af these scarce properties. The two canoes were regarded as the principal property of the tw men who had been instrumental in building them. [~Jherea man had need af a can~e other than the one he usually used, he asked permission an the basis of same other kinship link, often through his spouse. Use af a canoe by other than the wrier required that half the fish catch be left in the canoe when it was returned. Livestock cmsisted af nearly 300 chickens, about 30 ducks, and a like number of pigs. The pattern af wnership tended to be more individualistic here, although coaking and eating an animal was easily accomplished amang kinsmen. Mast animals roamed freely day and night, foraging far faad, but pens and coops had been built, abaut 15 of each. Even these structures seemed ta passess fewer family associations than noticed above far caok huts and capra driers. A nuclear family in me caoking group might have its awn chicken coop separate from that of another nuclear family in the Friar ta 1956 the village Cauncil had opposed the establishment of retail stares an Kili ather than me spansared by the Council as a ccmumnity venture, Hmever, tward the close of that year the policy was changed, and at least me ather retail stare was in aperatim. The first of these was a caaperative enterprise by a group of ambitiaus yaung men in their 30’s, belonging principally to two of the largest lineages an Kili. I believe in this case the lineage relationship was nat a significant ane; rather it appears to have been an organization based an compatibility and like interests. Later, however, other retails developed an the scene in which the lineage emphasis was paramount. The accasian far this blossoming of retail activity was the payment in December 1956 of .+25,000in cash to the ex-Bikini people as part of the csmpensaticm made to them by the U. S. government far loss of their ri@ts in Bikini Atall. The combination of ready cash and a limited supply af stare goads m the island (a cmdition, in the latter case, which was usual far Kilk because of difficulties of shipping) appears to have created a concern amcmg the villagers about the equitable distribution of faod stores and ather goods. A kind af ratiming was put into operation by the manager of the Cauncil Store, the only saurce af trade gaads an the island, with sa-called “wholesale” prices charged to owners of so-called retails. Licenses were issued ta same 15 men to operate these retails, and in 1957 thirteen were still active. Of these, 6 were based primarily on lineage representation as seen in the pattern of investment of dallars by lineage

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members. Mast af these came inta being just after the cash settlement, and reflects, I think, a call upon traditional rules af organization to meet the new situatian in which scarcity at’supplies and possible inequities of distribution threatened. Of particular interest is the subsequent farmatian af 5 additicmal retails, the last one in June 1957, in which the investment interest was restricted ta the membership af a primary family with no suggestion of lineage assaciatian. This is the direction af change m Kili at present. Na restriction of sales was nated, each retail being open ts anyane an the island, but in practice the goods seemed to be consumed almast entirely by members of an investment group, and few managers were able ts repart a profit. We come back now to the hause graups as residence units. Same are large, comprising several nuclear families, athers are mare limited. These are many instances where hwse groups lacated next to each other have close lineage ar affinal ties far potential cmperatim. But by na means all af this patential was realized in 1957, in fact, tnuchless than I had sbserved earlier in 1949 on Kili and the year befare that m Rangerik Atoll. The activities we have reviewed this morning involve contiguity af residence as an important basis for ccmperatian, in some instances supplemented impcwtantly by lineage ties. The degree to which residence has become important ta Kilians is best seen in their division at Kili inta land holdings far the production of capra. In 1954 the Council under the leadership af Juda, elected magistrate and hereditary leader af the cmmunity, decided to allot land parcels to house graups an the basis af membership size and acreage planted ta caccmut trees by fcmeign management priar ta i~orldWar II. Certain inequities af land-awnership by lineages on bikini were noted by the Cwncil, where size af lineage membership had grwn taa large far inherited acreage and where other lineages were land rich. Agreement was reached by the Cauncil an the new method which would eaualize things. A date was chasen far making the allotment, and on …