La legitimación de la guerra

“Hierarchy and rank are fundamental to Micronesian political life but exist within a participatory context, recognizing that every individual and group possesses legitimate interests in the community’s continued success” (Petersen 2009:158). This participatory context in Pohnpei is the prestige economy, where individuals attempt to gain status and honor through competition (Fischer and Fischer 1957; Keating 1994; Petersen 2009).

Successful participation in prestige competition results in upward mobility in the title system in addition to gaining respect and honor from other members of the community. Political maneuvering is a constant preoccupation on Pohnpei mitigated through the prestige economy (Bath 1984a).

The feast is the most visible manifestation of the prestige economy (Bascom 1948; Keating 1994; Mauricio 1993; Petersen 1989b, 2009; Riesenberg 1968). Although there are many facets to the prestige economy, “food is at the core of all transactions which ultimately involve a change in status during competitive exchanges” (Keating 1994:164). Feasts, where the redistribution of food and various goods occurred, were not the only components of the prestige economy. Knowledge of traditional history, rituals, medicines, and other types of information was “valuable for the prestige and political influence which its possession gives” (Fischer and Fischer 1957:141). The management of this knowledge was a significant source of power and can impact upon one’s status within Pohnpeian society (Falgout 1984; Keating 1994; Mauricio 1993). The individuals who controlled the knowledge and history could control the story (Mauricio 1993).

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4.7.1 Prestige Competition and Feasting

Feasts act as a stage for social competition aimed at gaining and maintaining individual and group status (Dietler and Hayden 2001; Hayden 1996, 2001; Junker 2001; Wiessner 1996). Feast hosts, who are often social leaders, organize feasts to demonstrate their status through their ability to gather and feed large groups through the redistribution of food surplus. “Feasts are techniques for transforming surpluses into socially, economically, and politically useful currencies that can be used to further individual and group self-interest and survival” (Hayden 2001:58). Status achieved through this type of competition allows for additional wealth to be acquired and networks through which labor can be mobilized (Hayden 1996; Junker 2001). “In ‘competitive’ feasts, there is an escalation of labor mobilization and surplus needed to finance future feasts and the aim of translating feasting success into long- term political power and economic profit (e.g. Friedman 1979)” (Junker 2001:280). Feasts are among social practices which mobilize voluntary labor (Dietler and Herbich 2001). Social obligations established through feasting allow for labor to be mobilized for large subsistence or architectural projects, which in turn produces status for an individual or group.

There are six major feasts each year (three related to yam growing season, one for fermented breadfruit, one tied to cookhouses, and one for twine production; see Riesenberg 1968:83-86), which are accompanied by first fruits offerings and other small feasts (Mauricio 1993; Petersen 1982b; Riesenberg 1968). Small feasts include death feasts (uhmw en mwirilik or mwiririk), apology feasts, family feasts and feasts for visitors (Riesenberg 1968; Ward 1989). All feasts include the presentation of food and goods brought by the participants, the sharing of kava (Latin: Piper mythisticum; Pohnpeian: sakau), and redistribution of the food and goods contributed by all. “The share of food a man receives at a feast is partly in proportion to the rank of his title, but in the long run the rank of his title is also partly in proportion to the amount of food he has contributed to feasts” (Fischer and Fischer 1957:159). In this way the contribution and redistribution of food and goods reifies and institutionalizes the relationship

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between the title system and feasts (Keating 1994). Therefore, the redistribution of food and goods is a core activity in Pohnpeian social hierarchy.

Petersen (1989b, 1995) has noted that competitive feasting within the prestige economy also has the capability to mobilize a significant labor force. The mobilization of labor can take place on the clan, section or district level. This type of labor is often utilized for major construction projects (e.g. feast houses, religious structures, canoe channels) (Fischer 1974; Petersen 1995). It is likely that the monumental site of Nan Madol was constructed at least in part by labor mobilized or paid for through feasting (Petersen 1995).

In 1901, Governor Berg began his tenure with hopes of disarmament of the islands and discontinuing feasting on Pohnpei (Ehrlich 1978; Hambruch 1936b; Hezel 1995). The reasoning behind disarmament is more self-evident (see Section 4.8) than the reasons for ending feasting, which included the assumption that fewer feasts would increase time invested in the production of commercial goods (e.g. copra). The typhoon that devastated Pohnpei in 1905 aided Berg in his move towards disarmament. He traded food or money for any guns or ammunition turned in to the German administration, though most of the arms turned over did not work properly and others were hidden away for future use (Ehrlich 1978; Hambruch 1936b). Even with the limited success of disarmament, Berg had no impact on traditional feasting. “Despite a century of foreign contact and two regimes of colonial rule, the title system, tribute, feasts, and so on, remained strong” (Ehrlich 1978:115).

4.7.2 Economics and Social Competition in the Historic Period

Commercial interests drew foreigners into Micronesia in the early 19th _Century,

whether it was to provision whaling vessels or to find new sources for marketable materials (e.g. copra, beche de mer, etc.). These visitors were the first to interact with Pohnpeians on a regular basis, and some remained on the island.

Beachcombers on Pohnpei included deserters from whaling or trading vessels, stranded sailors, and escaped convicts. “Having broken with European or American society,

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beachcombers were prepared to teach Pohnpeians something of the ways of the world from which they had fled” (Hanlon 1988a:60). The beachcombers acted as intermediaries between the Pohnpeian chiefs and the ships that stopped at the island for provisions and trade

(Hambruch 1936b; Zelenietz and Kravitz 1974). Even though most of the beachcomber population never fully integrated into Pohnpeian society, they had a significant impact on the prestige economy by negotiating access to new goods on behalf of the chiefs. When traders began to establish trading stations on Pohnpei they undermined “the remnants of the beachcomber presence on Pohnpei” (Hanlon 1988a:134). The Pohnpeians quickly adapted to this change in the structure of trade on the island.

Commerce provided Pohnpeians of all ranks with new goods and means to gain status within or outside the traditional socio-political system. Foreign trade goods and introduced foods were quickly incorporated into the prestige economy, while learned skills were used in multiple contexts. Education in particular provided Pohnpeians with a new path towards prestige outside of the traditional system.