The Federated States of Micronesia: Control, Self Preservation and Continuity
Date
2015
Authors
Puas, Gonzaga
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Abstract
The history of the people of the Federated States of
Micronesia’s engagement with the outside world has been a
neglected area of academic scholarship. Historians often treated
the topic as a footnote since Micronesians were perceived as
unseen participants of colonial processes. To this end indigenous
perspective of history has been absent from the main corpus of
historical literature. Despite the distorted nature of imperial
history, which portrayed Micronesians as poor savages, and
unsophisticated people, there is an emerging trend of historical
discourse contradicting these images.
This PhD dissertation argues that Micronesians have been dealing
successfully with the outside world since the colonisation
period. This argument is sustained by examination of oral
histories, secondary sources, personal experience, interviews,
and field research to reconstruct how Micronesian internal
processes continued rather than succumbing to the different waves
of colonisation. For example, colonisation did not destroy
Micronesian cultures and identities, but instead Micronesians
recontextualised the changing conditions to suit their own
circumstances. Their success rests on the doctrines of
adaptation, assimilation, and accommodation deeply rooted in the
kinship doctrine of eaea fengen (sharing) and alilis fengen
(assisting each other).
Micronesians inhabit an oceanic environment of small islands and
big seas. This oceanic world necessitated inter-island contact
that crisscrosses the seas following the web of the expansive
ainang (clanship) system. An oceanic civilization had already
flourished, rich in maritime activities and infrastructure,
knowledge and skills of seafaring, warfare, canoe technology,
fishing techniques, and conservation practices to perpetuate
Micronesian continuity. This oceanic outlook also contained
effective mechanisms for dealing with a host of unheralded
external influences from beyond the horizon such as China’s
emerging influence in the Pacific and the impact of climate
change on the Federated States of Micronesia.
Micronesians perceived such influences as challenges and
opportunities to shape and reshape their societies through the
processes of accommodation and later assimilation for the
purposes of adapting to the changing circumstances brought by the
four colonial powers. As colonisation intensified, Micronesians
began to organise themselves against outsiders’ oppression.
Reassertion of independence was the main objective. The
opportunity arose post World War II (WWII) when the process of
decolonization began. The Constitution of the Federated States
of Micronesia (FSM) was formally established for the purpose of
defining the modern identity of the indigenous people; it is
reasserting and perpetuating Micronesian values and continuity.
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Federated States of Micronesia, indigenous people, decolonisation (decolonization), Constitution, Micronesians, continuity, self=preservation
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