Why are islanders so lavishly generous with food and material possessions but so guarded with information? Why do these people, unfailingly polite for the most part, laugh openly when others embarrass themselves? These questions are common in encounters with an unfamiliar Pacific Island culture. This book is intended for westerners who find themselves in contact with Micronesians and are puzzled by their island ways. It is for anyone struggling to make sense of cultural exchanges they don't quite understand. The book focuses on the island culture: the importance of the social map, the tension ... More

Why are islanders so lavishly generous with food and material possessions but so guarded with information? Why do these people, unfailingly polite for the most part, laugh openly when others embarrass themselves? These questions are common in encounters with an unfamiliar Pacific Island culture. This book is intended for westerners who find themselves in contact with Micronesians and are puzzled by their island ways. It is for anyone struggling to make sense of cultural exchanges they don't quite understand. The book focuses on the island culture: the importance of the social map, the tension between the individual and social identity, the ways in which wealth and knowledge are used, the huge importance of respect, emotional expression and its restraints, island ways of handling both conflict and intimacy, the real but indirect power of women. The book begins and ends with the real-life behavior of islanders. It attempts to explain island behavior, as curious as it may seem to outsiders at times, against the overriding pattern of values and attitudes that have always guided island life. The book identifies those areas where island logic and the demands of the modern world conflict: the “dilemmas of development.” Overall, the book advocates restraint—in judgments on island practices, in assumptions that many of these are dysfunctional, and in leading the charge for “development” before understanding the broader context of the culture we are trying to convert.