Contents; Illustrations; Tables; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1; First Impressions of Pingelap and Conceptual Background; Chapter 2; History and Culture of Pingelap; Chapter 3; Habitat and Economy; Chapter 4; Boundaries, Norms, and Laws in Pingelapese Land Tenure; Chapter 5; Patterns of Pingelapese Land Inheritance; Chapter 6; Confirming the Division of Estates: The Derak Ceremony; Chapter 7; Land Tenure in the Pingelapese Colonies; Chapter 8; Pingelapese Land Tenure and External Relations; Chapter 9; The Pinelap Study in Comparative Perspective; Appendix: Catalogue of the Flora of Pingelap
Glossary of Micronesian TermsNotes; Bibliography; Index
Summary
In Bountiful Island a major Arctic scholar turns his eye on Micronesia: the small and isolated atoll of Pingelap in Micronesia lies in a moist climatic belt which encourages abundant plant life, including such food plants as coconuts, breadfruit and taro. In this detailed examination of land-tenure practices in the atoll, David Damas argues that the resulting high level of subsistence has brought an expansion of the population which has put great pressures on land. Under these pressures, land tenure has moved from communal usage to lineage control, to individual ownership and transmission rig
