Traditional Marshallese Tools (Alele Report 2004/2)

Petrosian-Husa, Carmen

From introduction: "The purpose of this report was to record the process of making four traditional Marshallese tools: 1. weikan or beka, the pandanus crusher 2. kaaj, a fishing hook 3. raanke, the coconut scraper 4. jikwi, the breadfruit peeler. This was accomplished by filming and photographing the process as well as by interviewing the informant and compiling background information. Background research relied heavily on the 18 volumes of German sources, compiled by Dirk Spennemann and housed in the Historic Preservation Office in Majuro. Without these sources this report could not have been written. In the course of background research a big variety of sources was used. As pandanus was and is such an important food item in the Marshall Islands, many travelers had mentioned it or even given detailed accounts about it and its use. For instance Adelbert von Chamisso, who was one of the first ones who describes his travels in the Radak Chain in 1817, or the ethnologists Augustin Erdland and Augustin Kramer, who did research in the Marshall Islands at the time of the German colonial period. Fishing. which is such a vital part of Marshallese life, is mentioned in many of the early publications and has impressed the early visitors to the Marshall Jslands. The coconut palm has often been described as the tree of life in pacific cultures. This certainly also applies to the Marshallese culture. As its use and the practice to scrape coconut meat is so widespread considerable less information about the coconut scraper could be found. Th.is is also true for the breadfruit scraper, which is such an inconspicuous tool that it did not attract much attention from early travelers. Japanese sources are actually missing in this report due to lack of access to such files as well as difficulty in reading them. After WWU, when America governed the Marshall Islands as a Trust Territory, quite a few reports were written about the Marshallese way of life as well as about the material culture and the nature of the islands. All of this information has been given consideration and some have been included in order to give an overall perspective of the topic." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant administered by the Marshall Islands Historic Preservation Office and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Traditional Marshallese Tools (Alele Report 2004/2)

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