The Yapese society

The four powers

Montesquieu will turn himself in his grave, but Yap managed to introduce a fourth power. In contrast to our society where we have a separation of three powers (executive, a legislature, and a judiciary) Yap also has a Council of Chiefs. On Yap live three chiefs who actually rule the island. These chiefs propose new laws (like a cabinet).

The executive power is placed in one tiny police station with a hand full of police men who, by the way, are not really taken seriously by the local people. There are harly any civil servants and control is mainly based on social control. Everybody knows everybody, so you will think twice when doing something criminal.

The court house is in the center of Colonia, the Capital (having about 600 inhabitants). We have not seen any activity in the old and declined building.

The court house

A great occupation: traffic light!

Caste system

What makes the Yapese society very special is that they have a caste system. However, is does not look like the system we know from India. The people of Yap can explain this. Apparently, the orriginal inhabitants of Yap come from India or Maleisia. The managed to cross the dangerous seas, probably because they had nothing to loose, in other words, because they were outcasts. In the new society at Yap they wanted to prevent being outcasts again. In our opinion they had a smart idea: the bigger the power, the smaller the sources and vice versa to keep everything in balance. This caste system is at village level and each village is a family on this own. At Yap, you have four castes. Well, the Yapese cannot calculate without calculators, so they stopped at four...

The highest caste in the one of the three chiefs, who can make the law. In the village of the oldest and wisest chief, which by the way is known before birth (!?). The second caste consists of the inhabitants of the villages of the chiefs. They have high status but limited land and possibilities to go out fishing. They depend on the lower villages (castes) for supplying food. By their higher status they can force the lower villages to catch fish and grow food for them. The men protect the chiefs and are chief soldiers (warriors). The third caste contains the villages where the other soldiers of the chiefs live. Finally, you have the villages with a lot of land and canoes. Here, the workers (farmers) form the fourth and lowest caste.

The chiefs hardly ever leave their village is therefore are not known on the island. We do not really understand this, since a chief carries a huge necklace with a enormous whale tooth... If he leaves the village, he always is very humble: he depends on the workers for his food. The chiefs play an important role when problems occur that invlove multiple villages. The successor of the chief (when he dies) is unclear (also with the locals) but at least the chiefhood stays within the family.

Orriginally, you could only marry within your own caste. The traditional elderly people still are convinced that the younger generation thinks that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. This conviction is not weird: if you are a good warrior then this is in your blood and this has to stay so! This makes us think of the story we heard on the pregnant women, which still is practised today. All unborn babies are massaged and the mothers are getting special herbal drinks to make sure that their child ar birth has the skills for the work in their caste. Till six months after birth, the mother does not have to join in the hard work: when the mother is happy, the child is happy. In their childhood they are prepared for the warriorship of the farm and fishing life. The skills are taught depending the phases in life.

Education

The education system at Yap (and the rest of Micronesia) is based on the American system: primary school, high school, university. They have both public and private schools at all levels.

After world war two, Yap was but under American protection and education took place in English. There was harldy any room for the traditional education at Yap. In 1985, Micronesia became independent. The most important change in the educational system took place in the end of the 90s. Since that period, the public schools teach in Yapese and base their education on Yapese traditions. This means that in the first two grades, Yapese is educated and the children learn traditional skills like fishing, weaving, herbal studies (medicins), navigation, and other importand skill for the life at an island. In the third and fourth grade, English, mathematics, and other known courses are added. Not that weird that nobody knows how to calculate on the island...

We visited a public school in Yap. The school served 38 children in rooms with 8 childeren on average. The school had a nice computer room (sponsored by Apple) and its own library. In bad times (for example in case of a hurricane) the school serves as shelter. Everything was made out of concrete and where were shutters for the windows.

The prinicipal told us that the number of children at public schools is reducing drastically. The most important reason given is the fact that private schools start teaching English at the first grade, like before in the "American period". A lot of parents were at school in that period and notice the (in their opinion) positive changes and influence by the Americans. Unfortunately, because of this, the traditional culture and its habits gets lost. Yap and also the other islands have hard times because of the westernisation that of course brings much good, but also causes traditions to get lost. Hard, but understandable. The middle course that is found in education is (unfortunately?) not being followed by all parents.

The principal and our guide (John, the manager of the hotel, who had his son in the public school) hope that in the future more understanding is created for the Yapese base, "It is better to know your own culture and language first", and that public school slowly but surely attract more children. The future will learn!

The school	The school
A classroom	A real (American) schoolbus, also used for public transport

The future

Yap currently is in an identity crisis. On the one hand is want to keep all traditions but on the other hand it want to find a connection to the modern world. A lot of people study in the United States and do not return. The youth that do return stick to the modern way of living and are not planning to "drop back" into the traditional Yapese culture. A hard problematic case. Luckily, the Yapese are known with the crisis and try to keep traditions for example by adapting the public education. We are not sure if this is the best way to go. We hope that a good balance can be found, for example like in Japan. The solution however has to come from Yap itself and cannot forced from the outside world.

Modern versus traditional

Watch the big differences among people

The Yapese society

Harm en Cindy op reis

Navigatie

The Yapese society

The four powers

Caste system

Education

The future