Product Description
Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Languages of the Federated States of Micronesia, Music of the Federated States of Micronesia, National Symbols of the Federated States of Micronesia, Pwo, Alingano Maisu, Chuukese Language, Operation Christmas Drop, Flag of the Federated States of Micronesia, Patriots of Micronesia, Yapese Language, Pohnpeian Language, Coat of Arms of the Federated States of Micronesia, Mokilese Language, Preamble, Pingelapese Language, Kosraean Language, Ulithian Language, Nukuoro Language, Kapingamarangi Language. Excerpt: Pwo is a sacred initiation ritual, in which students of traditional navigation in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia become master navigators and are initiated in the associated secrets. Many islanders in the area indicate that this ceremony originated on the island of Polap, or nearby islands. The Pwo today is having a comeback in importance. In the days before World War II, it was common to have Pwo take place. After WWII, through westernization and the influence of missionaries traditional practices including Pwo started to be abandoned. Mau Piailug, famous for helping Hawaiians regain their traditional navigation skills, was the last person to go through Pwo, in 1951. For thirty-nine years, the ceremony lay dormant. Then, in May 1990, Pwo again took place. This time Urupiy, a master navigator, with help of an American documentary anthropologist, Eric Metzgar, conducted the Pwo for his son and four other students on the island of Lamotrek. This event was subsequently made into the film Spirits of the Voyage. On March 18, 2007, Piailug presided over the first Pwo ceremony for navigators on the island of Satawal in 56 years. At the event five native Hawaiians and eleven others were inducted into Pwo as master navigators. The Polynesian... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=6427283 ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1781 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Oceania, published by University of Sydney on July 1, 2009. The length of the article is 14164 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Key words: dance, ethical modes of being, cultural phenomenology, Yap

Citation Details
Title: 'Becoming beautiful in the dance': on the formation of ethical modalities of being in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia.(Report)
Author: C. Jason Throop
Publication: Oceania (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2009
Publisher: University of Sydney
Volume: 79Issue: 2Page: 179(23)

Article Type: Report

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In a unique blend of historical investigation, cross-cultural comparison, and in-depth analysis, Weekend Warriors draws parallels between past traditions of aggression and the present-day problem of drunkenness on the Pacific island of Truk. Marshall demonstrates that many of our beliefs about drinking and drunkenness may be faulty and that a genuine understanding demands a social and cultural approach as well as a medical one. ... Read more

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What allows certain individuals and groups to maintain control over the actions and lives of others? Linguistic anthropologist Elizabeth Keating went to the island of Pohnpei, in Micronesia, and studied how people use language and other semiotic codes to reproduce and manipulate status differences. The result is this inside view of how language works to create power and social inequality. This book challenges widely held theories on the nature of social stratification, including women's roles in creating hierarchy. ... Read more

Product Description
"Ethnobotany of Pohnpei" examines the relationship between plants, people, and traditional culture on Pohnpei, one of the four island members of the Federated States of Micronesia. It is the result of a decade of research by a team of local people and international specialists carried out under the direction of the Mwoalen Wahu Ileilehn Pohnpei (Pohnpei Council of Traditional Leaders). It discusses the uses of the native and introduced plant species that have sustained human life on the island and its outlying atolls for generations, including Piper methysticum (locally known as sakau and recognized throughout the Pacific as kava), which is essential in defining cultural identity for Pohnpeians. The work also focuses on ethnomedicine, the traditional medical system used to address health conditions, and its associated beliefs. Pohnpei, and indeed the Micronesian region, is one of the world's great centers of botanical endemism: it is home to many plant species found nowhere else on earth. The ultimate goal of this volume is to give readers a sense of the traditional ethnobotanical knowledge that still exists in the area, to make them aware of its vulnerability to modernization, and to encourage local people to respect this ancient knowledge and keep such practices alive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Ethnobotany of Pohnpei:Plants,People, and Island Culture
This book supervises all life in this small but verybeautiful island. The companied people's life with plants, animals and all of nature. We realized there people is in a good harmony with surrounding flora and fauna. This book is suggesting how we build future way of daily life for the sustainable society on this planet. Only one is remaining to this book, I hope more easy to understand its environment and history by overviewing map and others. However, this book keeps its high value to be deposited in every book shelf of public/home.

Extraordinary Accomplishment
Kudos to Dr. Balick! This is a brilliant example of the best practices of ethnobotany.Dr. Balick's book is not only an expression of inspired scholarship, but it appropriately salutes the practitioners of traditional healing and resource management.I consider it a must read for all who care deeply about the preservation of cultural and biological diversity.

Buy at UH Press
The book is excellent -- however it lists at $28 at UH Press. That's dirt cheap for this type of book.

wrong price?
University of Hawaii Press has a list price for this book of $28.Could $55 be the hardcover price?My one-star rating is for the price here, as I don't yet know the contents of the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

What a spiffing yarn
This is the most spiffing book I have ever read. Lots of fish, boats, water, the lot. This fellow Bob is a very fishy fellow. He must eat a lot of fish (and drink a lot of water). I do not think there is a more spiffing book available on the Amazon website. Plus it is very learned, with plenty of long words. To all you people who read this - BUY THIS BOOK! It's spiffing.

Tuna Fishing
The book is worth keeping as a future reference for the future generation of the island of Satawal. The arts of tuna fishing techniques on the island is gradually beginning to fade away. ... Read more