Traditional Place Names of Palau: from Ridge to Reef (Palauan)

"The Traditional and Customary Practices Palauan Series is produced by the Bureau of Arts and Culture, Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs, Government of Palau. It is intended to make available for Palau’s present and future generations the information on traditional and customary practices in the old days. Under the leadership of Palau Historic Preservation Officer and Director of the Bureau of Arts and Culture, this series of booklets was successfully compiled, written, edited and published. Traditional Place Names of Palau: From Ridge to Reef is the 18th volume to appear in the Traditional and Customary Practices series published by the Bureau of Arts and Culture. These booklets have been produced in Palauan since 1995 with English translations of the Palauan text published since 1998. The information in this booklet has been collected during the course of 10 day-long meetings with the Palau Society of Historians. It represents the living memory of elders and culture-bearers nominated from each of Palau’s 16 states and appointed for life by the President of the Republic of Palau. The information is recorded digitally and transcribed, with the written transcriptions read aloud to the historians and amended as needed line by line. This process is done entirely in Palauan and transcribed later into English. A total of four months was spent doing background research, interviewing elders on one-to-one basis, and verifying research results with the Society of Historians. As in the other series volumes, this booklet does not attempt to present the entirety of available data on the subject. It is instead presents a summary overview based on the living memory of the Society of Historians and should be considered as an introduction and starting point for those interested in stories with moral lessons. In addition, it should be noted that many subtle variations in the principles existed among the many villages and even among different clans in Palau. Readers who wish to follow up with more in-depth studies should consult the bibliography appended to this volume. The information in this booklet is drawn from life-experiences of Palauan culture bearers many of whom were raised in the years before the onset of WWII. Some of the ancient ways described in this booklet live on only in the culture of memory, some are still present but disappearing, others are an essential part of Palauan cultural identity. We are grateful to the Society of Historians for helping us more fully appreciate how long-held traditions have evolved into the dynamic mix of ancient and modern that characterizes Palauan life today. In these testimonies and stories, they have left their descendants a valuable legacy that will only become more valuable as time goes on." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Palauan Bureau of Arts and Culture, administered by the Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior (grant number P15AF00111).

Traditional Place Names of Palau: from Ridge to Reef (Palauan)

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