Palau

In December 2017, the Pacific Island nation of Palau changed its immigration policy in a globally unprecedented way. As of that month, tourist visas are only issued to visitors who upon entry sign the Palau Pledge, an eco-statement stamped into their passports. The pledge addresses the “children of Palau,” whose islands the inbound visitors personally commit to protecting as they take the pledge. To prepare inbound visitors prior to their arrival for this unusual visa procedure, and to get their message across more strongly, the campaign has also created a video spot, The Giant. This highly acclaimed clip is required inflight viewing for all inbound visitors to Palau. The clip begins with a traditional chesols. The lyrics of the recitation attribute ownership of the (Palauan) land exclusively to the water and the rocks. This chesols is used here to evoke a sense of deep connectedness with the land: an old, oceanic wisdom viscerally connected with the islands themselves, inscribed into traditional Palauan value structures and customs but apparently overrun by the speed and inequalities of both a long and burdensome colonial history and a present carrying the legacy of that history.
Exploring the nature of this wisdom, in this article, I take a closer look at the traditional performing arts in Palau as “sound knowledge.” I analyze chesols, a type of recitation, as a mode of knowledge that is substantive in nature and at the same time distinct to the qualities and affordance of its medium, i.e. sound. I pursue this idea by, first, conceptually exploring the notion of sound knowledge as a resource for Pacific Island cultures and loosely situating it within recent debates in phenomenology, the theory of knowledge as well as music studies. Following this, I will return to The Giant, PLP’s inflight video, looking at what can be gained from the idea that music offers a resource that may be key to survival in the complex environmental predicament of Palau, and by extension, Micronesia. What do Palauan musical practices know about sustainable ecologies and how do they know it? How does music-making make this knowledge operable and, consequentially, how do humans mobilize on this knowledge in coping with their changing life-world through music? Addressing these questions, I take a closer look at the musical genre employed in The Giant, chesols. In closing, I adumbrate the implications of the notion of sound knowledge for a Palau seeking to ensure its future livelihood.

Whereas the belief that political parties are necessary elements of democracy is widespread in political science, it is in fact empirically false. Six small Pacific island democracies function without parties, and several explanations for the absence of parties in these countries have been developed. In the present article, an interview-based qualitative analysis of one of these six democracies without parties – the Republic of Palau – is offered in order to examine why parties are absent here, and how the Palauan democracy functions without parties. The findings of this case study indicate that both size and culture contribute to the non-existence of parties in Palau, and that the role of parties is in many ways fulfilled by clan
structures. In several respects the absence of parties is found to undermine the functioning of Palauan democracy,
whereas respondents paradoxically indicate that non-elected traditional leadership contributes positively to the performance of democracy in Palau.

The position of small states in international relations is traditionally described in terms of vulnerability and dependence. This dominant perspective is largely incomplete and inaccurate, because it disregards the element of exchange that characterizes the international linkages between many small and large states. In this article, I aim to outline and motivate an alternative model on the basis of which such relationships can be understood, which has been referred to as the international patron–client framework. After providing an overview of the contemporary academic literature on the role of small states in international politics, two sections follow in which I motivate the applicability of the patron–client framework to the field of international relations, and in which I explain the motives of both patron and client states. Subsequently, the accuracy and usefulness of the framework is examined on the basis of interview data gathered during field research in the three small client states of St. Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, and Palau. The findings of this analysis indicate that the patron–client linkage offers a more fruitful model to study the relations between small and large states than the existing literature does, because it recognizes the element of exchange that such relationships entail.

The Japanese empire's attempt to establish a formal schooling system within Micronesia beginning in 1918 followed its attempts elsewhere in East Asia. The ostensible purpose of these schools was to fulfill Japan's League mandate obligations to civilize and educate natives. However, the real purpose for these schools was to create a marginalized indigenous population that would aid Japan in its overseas commercial and political goals. This research demonstrates that the marginalization of the native Micronesian children actually hindered the Japanese state's abilities to transform the indigenous population into second-class citizens.

The draft paper as at 24th April which is updated from the draft made for the oral presentation session (5th April 2017 does not contain any references and text errors needed corrections). The paper is still being worked on with more sections being added with some aspect areas clarified in more detail. Others are being reviewed. Due to the closure of the Parliament in the UK early for the snap elections, the text is still unfinished and will be resumed for the new Parliament session with no end date set yet. The document is best viewed by a download to Microsoft Word as web browsers tend to muddle the layout. Please note that the ice sheet mass balance changes occur mainly in nearby Iceland, Jan Mayen and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rather than Greenland itself. (High viscous, low nucleation events pushing very cool, effusive, almost 'solid' lava incursions vertically up like the Mascarene volcanism of Mauritius are rare anomalies from a misaligned hotspot influencing further afield - and therefore far less likely.)

“Music, In-Between Spaces and the Sonosphere (Or, a Musicologist’s Very Short Introduction to Relational Skills)”, in: Charissa Granger, Friedlind Riedel, Eva-Maria van Straaten & Gerlinde Feller (eds.), Music Moves. Musical Dynamics of Relation, Knowledge and Transformation. Hildesheim: Olms 2016, pp. 137–156.

This paper is a preliminary report on a sociolinguistic field survey. It records the beliefs which 834 permanent residents of Suva, Fiji had about their own language and literacy skills in 1988-89. The interview subjects were selected from five census enumeration districts with populations ranging from 430 to 1200, and chosen for having a roughly equal ethnic composition of Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Bilingual interviewers (linguistics students) invited and assisted subjects to complete an extensive questionnaire, and offer unstructured comments. The collated and analysed outcome gives a complex and sometimes surprising picture of urban language change.

The colonisation of the Pacific islands represents one of the major achievements of early human societies and has attracted much attention from archaeologists and historical linguists. Determining the pattern and chronology of colonisation remains a challenge, as new discoveries continue to push back dates of earliest settlement. The length and direction of the colonising voyages
has also led to lively debate seeking to trace languages and artefactual techniques and traditions to presumed places of origin. Seafaring simulation models provide one way of resolving these controversies.One of the most remote of these island groups, the Marianas, is shown here to have been settled not from Taiwan or the Philippines, as has been argued in Antiquity by Hung et al. (2011) and Winter et al. (2012), but from New Guinea or Island Southeast Asia to the south. It represents an incredible feat of early navigation over an ocean distance of some 2000km.

Stone money disks, predominantly quarried in Palau, were part of a complex political economy on Yap and obtained through a series of exchange relations with Palauan clans or villages. Though ethnographic and ethnohistorical records provide some insight into this exchange relationship, a lack of archaeological data has prevented a better understanding of the methods involved in stone money production and how quarry sites were used by Yapese. I present the first systematic surface survey and excavation of a stone money quarry and document evidence for the only example of Pacific Islanders’ carving and transporting of carbonate rock between culturally distinct island groups. Archaeological results obtained from survey and excavation at Omis Cave complement ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts.

A number of recent genetic, linguistic, and archaeological studies have attempted to ascertain the origin of settlers to the Palauan archipelago, but it remains a complex and debated issue. To provide additional insight into colonization strategies and settlement patterns, we conducted computer simulations of drift voyages to the Palauan archipelago based on historically recorded winds and currents. Drift voyages were considered here as drifting before the wind when lost, a strategy documented for Pacific Islanders. The simulations suggest that peoples drifting before the wind from the southern Philippines would have had the most success in landfall. This finding supports the current hypothesis of human colonization to the islands of Palau. Keywords: Computer simulation, drift voyaging, seafaring, colonization, Palau, Micronesia.

Music Worlding in Palau: Chanting, Atmospheres, and Meaningfulness is a detailed study of the performing arts in Palau, Micronesia as holistic techniques enabling the experiential corporeality of music's meaningfulnessthat distinctly musical way of making sense of the world with which the felt body immediately resonates but which, to a significant extent, escapes interpretive techniques. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research alongside Pacific Islander and neophenomenological conceptual frameworks, Music Worlding in Palau distinguishes between meaning(s) and meaningfulness in Palauan music-making. These are not binary phenomena, but deeply intertwined. However, unlike meaning(s), meaningfulness to a significant extent suspends language and is thus often prematurely considered ineffable. The book proposes a broader understanding of how the performing arts give rise to a sense of meaningfulness whose felt-bodily affectivity is pivotal to music-making and lived realities. Music Worlding in Palau thus seeks to draw the reader closer to the holistic complexity of music-making both in Palau and more generally.

Pearl shell was an important and highly valued resource for producing tools and ornaments in Oceania. One pearl shell artifact type that is quite rare in Micronesia, however, is the crescent-shaped scraper/grater. These artifacts have recently been found in two burial caves in Palau, Western Caroline Islands suggesting they may have played important social and symbolic roles in society. The first direct AMS dating of this tool type, found in association with an in-situ female burial at the Chelechol ra Orrak site, provides a date of AD 150–270, while associated dates range from 770 BC–AD 180. These dates help contextualize human burials and associated artifacts from one of the earliest and most diverse burial sites in Austronesia.

The word list summarizes the results of the fieldwork that took place in July 2018. Example phrases served as a basis of the word list accompany each word. The obtained data mostly are confirmed with information from other sources that are not numerous unfortunately. All of the items are accompanied with the regular IPA transcriptions. Context phrases are given with consideration to informant's pronunciation. Next allophones are in free variation: [ts] ~ [tʂ], [u] ~ [ʉ] in all positions, and [ow] ~ [ɞw] in diphthong ou. Each first one of them was chosen to use further. The phonemic status of [ae], which appears in three words at least, is uncertain. Since this sound appears to be in free variation with [ɛ:] in verb hakene 'to see', I may assume that [ae] is an allophone of [ɛ:]. Other words containing [ae] were used once only (as uruteh 'all of them') or did not demonstrate the variation (as per 'dry'). Spelling inconsistencies in the context phrases are related to active phonological processes, that is:-fronting of low vowels between any high vowels;-presence or omitting of furtive vowels;-lengthening of vowels in the words where furtive vowel is omitted, and-ablaut processes under influence of omiited furtive vowels. Abbreviations: PAn = Proto-Austronesian PCk = Proto-Chuukic PCMc = Proto-Central Micronesian PMc = Proto-Micronesian PMP = Proto-Malayo-Polynesian POc = Proto-Oceanic PPC = Proto-Pohnpeic-Chuukic PWMc = Proto-Western Micronesian

In this article, I explore facets of the complex musical experience afforded by omengeredakl, a genre of traditional vocal music from Palau, Western Micronesia. The concept of atmosphere will lead me to propose a conceptual distinction between musical meaning(s) and musical meaningfulness as well as enable an integrated analysis of both. With this, I am pointing at weaknesses in some of the recent ethnomusicological literature on atmosphere: atmosphere should not be identified with affect, or looked at as part of a two-stage process in which affective experience is followed by reflective interpretation. The potential of atmospheres for the study of music lies precisely in that the concept enables us to transcend this and other pairs of opposites. Overcoming this binary will allow us to draw closer to the efficacy of music: after all, the proverbial 'power of music' exceeds the impact of affective experience and discursive meaning.

The Palauan archipelago contains one of the most ecologically diverse coral reef systems in the Indo-Pacific that was as attractive for humans prehistorically as it is today. New evidence is emerging that during the past few thousand years there has been increasing exploitation of coral reef resources, particularly finfish and mollusks, leading to a decline in taxa numbers, richness, and diversity in various locales. This paper examines the historical interactions between human populations and coral reef ecologies in Palau by combining known archaeological data and results from modern biological data of different reef fauna. The integration of these data sources provides a framework for attempting to explain variations in taxa composition between islands in the archipelago and how this may relate to human exploitation or other phenomena through time. By using this perspective to link past events with present-day conditions, we can gain a better sense of the extent to which anthropogenic changes may have affected island environments in western Micronesia during the Late Holocene. The study also illustrates the many diffculties researchers face in attempting to synthesize and explain past and present human predation behavior when using disparate sources of data.

In Palau, Micronesia, marine resources, particularly shellfish, played a vital role in human subsistence for millennia. Despite the vast array of molluscan species in archaeological assemblages, there is a dearth of data on nearshore palaeoecology or prehistoric shellfish foraging practices. In this study, we analysed stable oxygen isotopes (δ18O) values present in the calcium carbonate shell of Gibberulus gibberulus from the Chelechol ra Orrak archaeological site to reconstruct average nearshore sea-surface temperatures (SST) from approximately 1500–1100 cal BP. Modern shellfish samples and environmental data were collected from intertidal zones near the site and x-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed to identify the biomineralogical composition of G. gibberulus. These steps provide necessary information for the selection of the proper oxygen isotope-to-SST conversion formula. The selected formula was applied to δ18O samples from archaeological shells to reconstruct prehistoric SST averages. The results of this proxy validation study verify that G. gibberulus accurately records ambient SST and can be used to reconstruct ancient nearshore conditions. These findings also contribute to the establishment of an environmental baseline, which can be used to examine how environmental changes may have influenced the availability of molluscan taxa that in turn influenced human subsistence practices through time.

Contact between Europeans and Pacific Islanders beginning in the early 1500s was both accidental and intentional. Many factors played a role in determining when contacts occurred, but some islands remained virtually isolated from European influence for decades or even centuries. We use Palau as a case-study for examining why this archipelago was free from direct European contact until 1783, despite repeated attempts by the Spanish to reach it from both the Philippines and Guam. As computer simulations and historical records indicate, seasonally-unfavourable winds and currents account for the Spanish difficulty. This inadvertently spared Palauans from early Spanish missionaries, disease, and rapid cultural change.

OBJECTIVE To explore the frequency and severity of temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJ-OA) and its causative factors in a skeletal assemblage from the prehistoric site of Chelechol ra Orrak, Palau, western Micronesia. MATERIALS 50 temporomandibular joint surfaces (mandibular condyles and articular eminences), representing a minimum of 22 adult individuals, 17 of which retain teeth. METHODS Joint surfaces were macroscopically evaluated for characteristics associated with TMJ-OA and joint morphology. Dental remains were scored for tooth wear and staining. RESULTS Nine individuals (40.1 %) displayed lesions typical of TMJ-OA. The strongest associations were between tooth wear and TMJ-OA. CONCLUSIONS Indirect effects of parafunctional dental activity appear to be a factor in TMJ-OA frequency at Chelechol ra Orrak. While betel nut chewing may be one of those activities, it does not appear to be solely driving the presence of TMJ-OA. SIGNIFICANCE This study highlights the association between a specific parafunctional use of the temporomandibular joint and the potential pathological consequences. It also reinforces the need to carefully evaluate the archaeological context of skeletal remains in order to evaluate specific etiological factors in the presence of TMJ-OA in present and past populations. LIMITATIONS Sample sizes are limited in this study. This will increase as excavations continue. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH Because dental occlusion appears to be associated with TMJ-OA, focus on dental conditions affecting occlusal patterns, such as third molar agenesis, antemortem tooth loss, and malocclusion, and their relationship to TMJ-OA frequency, are recommended.

Synchrony of spawning in many hermatypic corals, typically a few nights after the full moon, is putatively dependent on solar and lunar light cycles in conjunction with other possible cues such as tides and temperature. We analyze here the contributions of separate components of light dynamics, because the effects of twilight and lunar skylight on coral spawning synchrony have previously been conflated and the alternative hypothesis that these components have differential contributions as proximate cues has not been tested. Moonlight-dependent changes in spectra during twilight, rates of decreasing twilight intensities, and changes in lunar photoperiod were experimentally decoupled using programmed light-emitting diodes and compared for their separate effects on spawning synchrony in Acropora humilis. Effects on synchrony under the control of synthetic lunar cues were greatest in response to changes in lunar photoperiod; changes in light intensities and spectra had lesser influence....

Abstract Human skeletal remains have been discovered from a variety of contexts in the Palauan archipelago of western Micronesia. These include caves, rockshelters, earthen mounds, stone platforms, midden burials, crypts, sarcophagi, and historic period gravesites. Recent excavation of a prehistoric cemetery in a rockshelter on Orrak Island dating from ca 1000 BC–AD 200, combined with nearly contemporaneous surface finds in caves on both Orrak and other nearby islands, shed light on the earliest known burial practices in Palau. ...

Direct dating of a human bone fragment from the Chelechol ra Orrak site (western Micronesia) has yielded one of the earliest dates for Palau thus far. This date compares well with recently collected paleonenvironmental evidence and radiocarbon dates on Babeldaob Island suggesting that settlement of the Palauan archipelago took place much earlier than previously thought.