knowledge?

on Truk since the first Yale

University Expedition in 1947.

The psychological dimension

has been an important one for studies of Truk since World War 11. Typically, these men lave concerned themselves vith how their informants and ither Trukese think, classify, or 'eel about their world and hemselves.

But, John Caughey tells us, hey have not really studied fruk at all only a small part >f it for they have all done heir real fieldwork only on

lononum. Dr Caughey sets

>ut to show us just how the >eople of Faanakkar (a >seudonym) differ from those »thers who for three decades lave been ‘the Trukese’ to the

/odd of anthropology.

Instead of mild, gentle, even lassive Trukese, we find the •eople of Faanakkar to be

•roud, assertive, aggressive

/ho at the smallest slight, will ike up a machete or cast a

evastating spell. If shamed

do greatly, they commit

Liicide.

Like some sort of oceanic

ekyll and Hyde, the people of

Lononum and Faanakkar, re

pectively, are personality

pposites.

Rononum co-operate, it ;ems, while, even in inter aurse, the Faanakkar com ete, man against woman to ot achieve the orgasm first, md, in this matrimonial so lety, women are kept in line y a strong belief in love magic hich can force them to pur ie, ‘like a man,’ a spiteful jitor.

The question I kept asking

lyself throughout this short

SO page monograph was why

te Faanakkar should be so

elligerent? One could equally

ask, I suppose, why the Rononum so fail to continue this characteristic attitude, Caughey tells us, of nineteenth century Truk society in gen eral?

The author does not provide us with an answer, but he does tell us a lot about how the people of Faanakkar believe their society operates. Most of Caughey’s evidence for his as sertions comes from the state ments of his informants, not from their observed behav iour.

Also, somewhat disturbing is the lack of consideration for the colonial context of the people of Faanakkar.

Throughout the monograph

there are accasional references to a Trukese reality that is not all thatched huts and canoes on the lagoon. The sky is com pared to blue plastic; a mal evolent spirit appears on the half-sunken hulk of a Japanese

warship; strength (and

endurance) is tested by sitting on a hot steam pipe; Japanese and German work gangs are mentioned.

Land can be sold, probably through the American admin istration of Truk, and there are high school dormitories. But, where do the modern people of Truk obtain their modern de sirable goods, such as the cor rugated iron houses, motor boats? Do they have cars, tran sistor radios, factory made clothing? In short, do they have access to those manufactured goods which feature in the ad vertisements?

And, if they do have these things, how do they relate to the apparently traditional sys tem of prestige so well

displayed by Caughey? Chiefs

Micronesian Senator Lazarus Salii has written about the vexatious American trusteeship over his islands, while Micronesian poet Moses