The Changing Pohnpeian Family

Seberiano Barnabas and Francis X. Hezel, S.J Reprinted from Micronesian Counseler #12 November 1993

A Glimpse of the Model Pohnpeian Family

It is not easy to provide a satisfying description of the Pohnpeian family. The Pohnpeian word peneinei, translated as "family", can be used of several types of kin groups and is even more slippery than the English word "family", which can be equally applied to parents and children in a single household or to all the relatives that come together for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. The Pohnpeian word may represent several different overlapping groups: the nuclear family, the members of a household, or all the residents on a single estate, among other things. We will not attempt to give the word a more precise definition than it can bear. Instead, we shall focus in this study on the group of related persons, however large, who live in proximity with one another and function as a social and economic unit. This is what we refer to as the "family" on Pohnpei.

The model Pohnpeian "family" in the 1950s was a patrilineal unit that included the father and mother, all their married sons, and their unmarried sons and daughters. There were many variations in actual practice, but this seems to have been the ideal form of the Pohnpeian family. Married daughters stayed for a few years after their marriage to learn how to take care of domestic chores so that her family would not be embarrassed by her ineptness, and then she moved off with her husband to the latter's estate. This group could have a depth of three or even four generations, and was termed a keinek, or lineage.

The authority in the family was the senior man on the estate. When he died, he was replaced by one of his brothers (if the brother had been living on the estate) or the eldest son. His successor took over the authority for the estate and responsibility for the welfare of the broad family group living on the estate.

Usually all the members of this group lived on the same piece of land. Originally they may have all lived in the same house. Even when they lived in separate but adjoining houses, they shared most of their food. Families that did not share their food in this way were the object of ridicule from their neighbors. In the days before World War II there was a single uhmw for a family group. The uhmw, or earth oven, was the symbol of the family's solidarity in much the same way that a hearth was for earlier Europeans. Together with the nahs, or feast house, the earth oven was the focal point of the family identity.

There were links with the matrilineage as well, although this group was usually far more disparate than the father's lineage. The importance of the network of blood relatives through the woman's side was recognized through occasional gifts. Some of the matrilineal relatives had significant roles to play in the life of family members. This was especially true of the maternal uncle, or uhlap, and the maternal grandparents. Gifts often passed from the mother's brother to his nephews and nieces, and vice versa. The links were fostered by regular food exchanges as well as parties to celebrate certain events.

Although Pohnpei is described as a matrilineal society, Pohnpeian couples have, at least since German times and possibly before, normally resided with the man's family after marriage. Hence, one finds a cluster of people descended through an older man living on the same estate. The patrilineal group that lived together on the estate, although it may have been composed of several different nuclear families, once functioned as a single economic and social unit. It operated as a group in many ways: fishing together, preparing preserved breadfruit, and building canoes and houses. The authority over the land resided in the father of the estate. The different households on the estate, however, had some responsibility for their domestic affairs and for the daily care of their children.

Today Pohnpeian families still tend to live in patrilineal groups, although there are many exceptions to this residence pattern. It is far more common today than in the past for brothers to live on separate parcels of land located at some distance from their original family estate. Patrilineal groups continue to work together as a unit, at least on an occasional basis, but the different households seem to operate more independently of one another than they did in former times. While the households on the estate still share food and labor at times, they tend to eat by themselves, supervise their own resources independently, and control their own labor supply.

The remainder of this report will attempt to provide a look at the major changes in the family on Pohnpei over the last 40 years. It attempts to compare the Pohnpeian family, as it functioned around 1950, with the Pohnpeian family of today. This study will highlight the changes that have occurred in the family under eight major headings: resources, food distribution, labor, child-rearing, celebrations, adoption, conflict resolution, and respect behavior.

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