Trukese

Will the real Trukese stand up?

Faanakkar. Cultural Values in a Micronesian Society by John

L. Caughey. Published by

Department of Anthropology,

University of Pennsylvania,

Philadelphia, PA,1977.

Can a small population of 18,000 people living on a few islands in the middle of the Pa cific ocean possibly demon strate differences amongst themselves that might be termed cultural? That is, that they exhibit differences in be haviour and belief that do not stem from individual psychol ogy? This is the question John Caughey sets for himself in his study, Faanakkar. Cultural values in a Micronesian so ciety.

Anthropologists conven

tionally study a few dozen to a

few hundred people, though

the tribes they describe often consist of many thousands (or, even, tens of thousands). The justification is that in ‘small scale’ societies (we don’t say ‘primitive’ any more) intra cultural variation is slight, if at all.

We secretly subscribe to the belief that the people we study somehow all think and act in a manner so similar that if we found it in our own European society we would scream ‘Brainwashing’. Such a belief in cultural homogeneity, it should be said, is also con venient for the poor anthropol ogist, who is often a loner, working for only a year or so in an attempt to acquire the cultural expertise that would require a lifetime for the mem ber of that same culture.

Typical to the approach to small scale societies is the work of half a dozen prestigious eth nographers who have worked