Ecologic Change and Culture Pattern in the Resettlement of Bikini Marshallese

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ECOLOGIC CHANGE AND CULTURE PATTERN IN THE RESETTLEMENT OF BIKINI MARSHALLESE !.tA.NY WORDS have been spoken ar,d written about the limiting and permissive effects ~f habitat upon the development of human cultu~es. The method of cultural ecology as elaborated by Steward ( 1955) has stimulated renewed interest in the creative effects of avironrnent in particular cultural situations. It is my intent in this paper to exa:mine the complex interplay of historical, sociological, and ecological factors in the recent relocation of one whole community in the central Pacific which has set in motion profound ch~.nges in the culture pattern. Early in 1945 the 160 inhabitants of Bikini Atoll in the northern Marshall Islands u-ill- :ngly acc~ded to a “request from the United States government that they give up their .:.? and lagoon for use ir. the testing of atomic weapons. Leaders of the community after dun deliberation. chose to resettle on the uninhabited atoll of Rongerik, 135 miles ::> the east. However, by 1948 the ex-Bikinians and the Marshall Islands .4dministra - aon had reluctantly reached the conclusion that Rongerik’s natural resources could never be sufficient ta support the group Permanently. At the naval air base CR Kwajaiein Island, some t-.vo hundred miles south of Rongerik, American authorities erected a tent .,tillage and for eiqht months provi~ea complete subsistence for the homeless refugees. :~fter ca reful ,and thoughtful investigation of alternative sites, the ex-Bikinians in a ~lebisc:, . conducted by the Administration selected for permanent settlement the iso - i>ted island of Kili, situated about two hundred miles south of Kwajalein and one of the southernmost of the Marshall Islands. Since the 1870’s Kili had been managed as a coconut plantation, first by C-ermans and later by a Japanese company, with native laborers recru’ted from adjacent atolls. Abandoned finally during World War II, the island WaS uninhabited and overgrovm when the displaced community arrived from Kwajalein by naval transport in November of 1948. Today the ex-Bikinians continue to live on Kili and appear likely to remain there indefinitely. in the decade following their departure from Bikini the migrating islanders time and again were confronted with strange ecologic and social situations which called for some .>.iteration of the culture pattern if the community was to retain corporate identity, a goai which throughout tended to be upheld by the majority. On occasion the habitat cu~te obviously exerted a restricting ihfl. uence, although permitting alternate courses cf action within the range of limitation. Just as clearly did the habitat fail to determine acy particular course of action. Significantly, however, once the choice had been made either by the community as a whole or by segments of it, the ecologic factor became a prime determiner! in shaping the social and cultural patterns that began to emerge. Es- -pecially noteworthy was the fact that differential adaptation by various components of the migrant population, when confronted with ecologic cnange, threatened to undermine tiie sociai integrity of the group owing to conflicts between intrusive behavioral and value systems and those which had formerly prevailed on Bikini. These intrusive elements seemed to appear largeiy as a restit of increased interaction between individu - BEST COPY AVAILABLE

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als in the displaced population ~nd other Marshallese and Americans whom they wor with and listened to in the course of migration from Bikini to Kili. The behavior tha. was being learned and the new interpretations placed upon Bikinian cuiture predispo: some migrants to seek that adjustment to ecologic change which accorded best with tVestern concepts of commercial exploitation of island resources. .%t the other extl : were those individuals who preferred the isolation and self- sufficiency of the life at Bikini, and they sought that solution in the new setting that could most completely r: store the Bikini way of living. The sYstem by which Bikinians exploited their environment prior to 1946 was sim~ o~ganized and nicely adapted to the atoll 1s marginal condition. Of :wenty-six islanti that dotted the coral reef ring only four were usefully productive and only the larges supported a permanent settle m~nt, on 400 acres or 28 per cent of the total land are oi the atoll. Coconut and panaanus trees provided fruit, leafy fiber, and ti-mber, ar. with arrowroot, a starchy tuber, constituted the principal economic plants. Howev. the atoll residents could not have survived for long in this relatively unprod~ctive la tude of the Marshall Islands without the abundance of marine fishes and shellfish th~ were easily collected along the reef and in the more than 200 squa”re miles of shelte lagoon. Housing and canoes of traditional model continued to be built from local wc and fibers, although metal tools had long since replaced aboriginal shell -blaaed art. alistic mission workers. Thrcugh the channels of world trade 13ikinians bought CIU. ar.d sewing materials, fishing tackle, and small amounts of rice, flour, anG tobaccr Imports always tended to be limited by the meager surpluses of coconut meat and p. danus leaf which islanders turned into copra and trade handicraft. An equilibrium seems to have been achieved between size of community and carrying capacity of ! ar..1 lagoon, given the production system of an only slightly Westernized Marshalle> population and a moderate amount of individual emigration.. -111 land was assigned to one or another of eleven matri-lineages whose male hea: exercised primary responsib~lity for economic organization and for maintenance of 1~.w and order. The workaday basis of productive activity was the matrilocal exter. ~ familY, u5uallY comprising two or three households and occupying One of the mor: teasive lineage landholdings which crossed the main island from ocean to lagoor. t:. ciude a complete range of natural resources. Only rarely did the entire communit’; join in cooperative ventures, such as fish drives, roof thatching, or fe~st preps-’: Otherwise labor was organized along sex lines. Men worked with wood, mkcr. :.: . from coconut husk, fished and sailed canoes, and collected pandar.~s, arrewr:~c” coconut as needed. Women cared for the children, cooked food, plaited ma~ti ac.a :. from pandanus leaf, and washed and mended clothing. Both sexes contributed to CO: production but only women made handicraft for trade. Daily work schedules were CL ually organized and, particularly for men, avoided long periods of sustained effort one task. Although many young adults had lei~ Bikini for short visits, medical att~~L :ion, and wage employment, the marked tendency toward local endogamy among Bi kinians reinforced the individual’s sense of belonging to the community. An-r atterr. to break down the isolation and self-sufficiency of the atoll group was strongiy resi ed by those in control. When the evacuated population arrived off Rongerik one morning in March of 194! board a naval vessel they looked about and made the inevitable comparlsor. with :h, ancestral home. They found Rongerik Atoll to be less promising in its principal dir. sions though possessed of a similar variety of economic plant and rr.arine species. land and lagoon Rongerik was only one-fourth the size of Bikini, and of its ten isla~.

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arked ~lit ,t~vo could be regarded as even temporarily habitable. On the larger of these, ~ !g acres in extent, the Administration had located a cluster of tent dwellings near the lagoon. Fish and arrowroot seemed to be in good supply but the small coconuts and poor -;arieties of pandanus prompted the newcomers very soon to plan’ sprouts and cuttings -i better quality obtained from Bikini. By midsummer, after a typical northern Marshalis season of little rainfall and haviag suffered a forest fire in May which burned an estimated 30 per cent of the main island’: ‘~source$, the islanders commenced. to learn more directly the deficiencies returns . Men extended their operations beyond the reef but were less familiar with deep -se,.’ t:ch~.iql:l:s. A first alternative in the face of these frustrations was to incieas~ t:. . pcrcb? se of trade food. However, the small number and poor quality ci coconuts r:. .l~c Impossible a y copra production for export. Women k.ad to spend more of +ti,eir tire. s in handicraft manufacture (fans, belts, and mats) but here, too, meager supplies - i coconut and pandanus leaf limited their output. With these sources of mon- .:; income restricted on Rongerik, a number of men and some women left the community to w:rk for wages as unskilled laborers at Kwajalein air base. This attempt to holster the home economy had even less success. The small earnings tended to be dissipated in higher living costs and distractive novelty before they could be convertea ..n.tofood for relatives on Rongerik. Moreover, the absence of able persons from home : ~akened the labor force needed to extract sustenance from the burdened atoll. ho!~er attempt to relieve the situation sent small parties of older people and children to : }ri,~elab Atoll by outrigg~ r canoe, about six hours distant by sail, where the inhzbi - :ar.ts gladly took them in for a few weeks until their health could be restored by normal et. But the strain of a sea voyage demanded more frequent repair of sennit lashings cn outr:$ger parts, and the sennit made from short weak fiber of Rongeri-k coconut :.~sk proved unequal to the task. When the sea grew rougher w’ith the approach of winter this project “had to be abandoned, Sixteen mor.. (..l.-s after relocation the problem of existing on Rongerik had reached such proportions that the migrants put their exploitation of atoll resources on a corn- :Tuaity .~asis. By this time lineage and extended family had lost some of their former importance in economic -natters. The eleven lineage heads now acted in concert as a formall~~ recognized Council rather than as relatively independent chiefs of their respective kin groups. The senior ranking head served as chief of the governing body. .\t frequ :at intervals the Council assigned persons to working parties to fish, plant, ‘:ollect food, make handicraft, and clean up the village area. These assignments were made with less regard for kinship ties than for individual capabilities and a maximum use of the limited facilities. The Council bought food for the community and distrib - ~ted it in equal shares to all. Income from the sale of handicraft went into a common find in a futile attempt to balance the rapidly rising trade debt. In January !948 the Administration directed an investigation of the crisis on Rongerik. Recommendations for imrnetiiate removal of the people were acted upon as the only remaining alternative to meet the problem raised by resettlement of Bikinians on an atoll too small to From .March until November the Rongerik refugees lived in rows of closely spaced tent huts on the ocean side of Kwajalein land~..g field. In this artificial setting the community found no use for an economic system of its own. Three times each day the members walked LO a near>y mess hall that served Western fare :0 three or four hundred Marshallese laborers who lived on the island and worked for the Americans. For eight months did the Administration provide all food and lodgin,g at no expense to the

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to coincide with those expressed in the laborers’ camp whicfi ~-!;resented a ~el~~ng lander clothing, keep their children out of mischief when the latter ‘.’..rc 00Y in se\. and sit in the scant shade of the temporary dwell ina:, and discuss past expex.-’~~~~$ ; future prospects. The main purpose of this sojourn at Kwajaleln w’as : select a >i: nity had increased in size by fifty persons, most of whom had lc(t Bikini beiore the w’;2: and now with their non- Bikinian spouses and children were joining tl~e ai. cestr:-l group in anticipation of the material potential of Kili, the fern-.er coconut plantation ir. the more productive southern Marshalls. ihe new site presented three major ecologic contrasts with Bikini and Roz~gerik. First, Kili consisted of 230 acres of land, all of it one island and no lagoon i!’ association. Marine reso:rces were restricted to the fringing reef and deep sea that surrounded the island. The nearest other land was Jaluit Atoll, thirty miles north. La-’ of a sheltered anchorage at Kili posed a-serious problem, especially in rougi-. xeat~- ! whi~h held during most of the trade wind season, when the reef would become a bar- . to communication wit;. the rest of the Marshalls. Second, Kili had been planted for commercial rather thin subsistence exploitation. Coconut groves blanketed the isla.. displaying fruit whici. reflected the careful choice of superior seedlings, but “~ther fooci plants appeared .;nly in isolated instances. If the settlers tirea of a coconut die. they might well starv+. At the same time the dried meat exported as copra could insure a cash income iotir or five times that earned in peak years on Bikini .4to11. Tti the climate was more humid-- 160 inches of rain annually insteaa of GJ, and n-ore e . greater yield per acre and favored a wider variety of economic ~1a12L. than was pos. bie on either Bikini or Rongerik. On the other hand, damp weather could hi:. i,’r t.. drying of copra, arti~icial heat being required when clouds hid the sun. At first the commuity of Kili worked well as a unit under the Council is d:. -c: . Tne people cleared some land near the shore and, supervised by an A:rierlcan Ct.zk ter, constructed an orderly village of durable frame houses. They removed choki: urtdergrowth from plantation areas near the village to gain access tc !.e Coconul ‘ . source, and they set out cuttings and seedlings of other species to suppiemer.:. .xi:~ dominant cr”p. As time passed the settlement program appeared to lose mo~])eu~u. The community’s unified approach to the problem weakened as .mem. bcrs began to ii. agree on goals and methods. These differential reactions represented comn-, -tment= to alternative courses of action within the new ecologic setticg. -4 particular choic~- depended on the individual’s past association with the group at Ziki:li and RGx. gerik, his social experience in the cosmopolitan population of Kwajaieln Isla..d, his positi in the migrant community as determined by traditions of rank and ki:-s’ni~, ~..~ inrLal capabilities and acquired skills, and his relative optimism or frustr:-:ion at Che rnc ment as he responded to ecologic conditions. Three principal alter:;~..~’es, and late. a fourth, are suggested as significant by analysis of the behavior Ui .ividual .rner be~s of the relocated group. One of these characteristic reactions may be regarded as negative dnci the tither two as positive if the practicalities of the adjustment problem a: Kil are consider?. Typical of the first group were those persons who \vished to reconstruct Bl~L~.i at X’

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or, failing in that, to return to the ancestral atoll. They hoped to restore the pre-evac - ~an uation way of life, with the lineages again holding land and the extended family revived as the basic uni~ of economic organization.; They sought to re-establish the kind of auPar-thority that recognized the rights and obligations of kinship. Cooperating with others 71 they built small paddle canoes and plied their old skills in fishing off the reef’ …