Bountiful Island: A Study of Land Tenure on a Micronesian Atoll

Thomas S. Abler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and the author of A Canadian Indian Bibliography, 1960-1970.

Pingelap is a small coral atoll in the Eastern Carolines just six
degrees north of the equator in the western Pacific. With a land area of
less than a square mile, the well-watered islands support a dense
population of about 750, with breadfruit and taro being the most
important crops. David Damas first conducted research on Pingelap in
1975 and returned several times over the next eight years. While this
book contains a good deal of general ethnographic information, its main
focus is on issues of land ownership—both on Pingelap and among
Pingelapese who have established colonies on the nearby high island of
Pohnpei and on Sokehs Island—and the transfer of that ownership from
one generation to the next.

Numerous case studies of the transfer of title show the complex links
by which property is inherited. Background for the land tenure study is
provided by a brief history of the atoll through successive colonial
administrations—German, Japanese, and American. The chapter on
“Habitat and Economy” is particularly strong. Damas places his data
from Pingelap and its colonies in the context of a “controlled
comparison” of the sort favored by Fred Eggan; that is, issues of land
tenure on Pingelap, and the resolution of those issues, are compared to
those on similar atolls elsewhere in Micronesia.

This monograph, essential reading to specialists in Micronesia, will
also be of great interest to the anthropologist with an interest in
property, kinship, and descent.