Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization in the Central Pacific Hardcover – Illustrated, June 30, 2009

The author is an anthropologist who has focused on the prehistory of that part of the Pacific known as Micronesia, which extends from Kiribati (the former Gilbert Islands) and the Marshall Islands in the east through Kosrae (Kusaie), Pohnpei (Ponape), Chuuk (Truk), Guam and the Mariana Islands, Yap, and Palau to the west, and how the area of Micronesia differs from Polynesia and Melanesia further south. What society flourished at one time in the past and built the magnificent stone ruins of Kosrae and Pohnpei? How did the many atolls of the area get the breadfruit trees that support their dense populations? In what way did the matrilineal clans and lineages of their societies contribute to the homogeneity of peoples who speak a dozen or more different languages. If you are interested in questions such as these, this is the book for you.

A good source

SATISFIED!!

The author was a rare bird, an American enlisted man in the air over the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. On his way home he flew over island paradise and resolved to return. He made it as an anthropologist, eventually on the United Nations commission to de-colonize his people. They are proud to have achieved their freedom without war and I am tickled that a Viet Nam veteran was in their ranks. This is a real ethnography, a life's work, by one of our crazy bright enlisted guys who got a superior education. Not to be missed.

With no training in anthropology or background in Micronesia, I didn't think I'd last 10 pages when I delved into this scholarly work. But Petersen is that rare academic who can write complex and nuanced analyses in utterly clear, elegant, engaging prose. Two arguments he puts forward I found particularly rich: the efficacy of dispersed matrilineal clans in helping typhoon-tossed islanders survive; and his discovery of the "breadfruit revolution" that coincided with a burgeoning of Micronesian culture. While these developments are specific to Micronesia, Petersen's approach opens up a way of seeing how culture works that is rich and illuminating.