The oral history of the central Carolines traces what are claimed to be the indigenous migration routes and the order of settlement of the islands. This history is called rapito or wuruwow, “original story to come” or “legend”, and is preserved as secret knowledge by individual clans. This history is viewed as a central determinant of clan rank. Let me summarize three migration stories from Satawal.
The original settlers of the island are recognized as the ancestors of the Sawsát clan, which means “proprietors of the sea” or “lords of Satawal”. The Sawsát clan’s oral history is told as follows.
Long, long ago, warfare on Yarawo (or Kachaw) island, caused by overpopulation and a shortage of food, led the ancestors of the Sawsát clan to leave the island in rafts. They drifted to Truk and then to Puluwat Atoll. Finally four men and seven women arrived at Satawal and settled on the western coast of the island near the entrance to its lagoon. After a time they decided to invite people from other islands to join them at Satawal, since the island was otherwise uninhabited at the time. Some voyaged to Lamotrek Atoll. There they learned that Lamotrek was a “chiefly island”, controlling Satawal and the Elato Atoll.
Accepting the invitation of the Sawsát clan, some Lamotrekan people of the Yatonoyong clan moved to Satawal. The Sawsát people gave them a large parcel of land covering the southern part of the island and directed them to settle there. The chief of the Sawsát clan married a woman of Yatonoyong who bore a son. The chief transferred authority over the island to his son since the latter was obedient and looked after his father and the other members of his father’s clan. In return, the Sawsát clan became subordinate to the Yatonoyong clan (Sudo 1985:640-642). After this transfer of authority the Yatonoyong clan changed its name to Neyáár, because its members lived at the time under a yáár tree.
According to the traditions of Neyáár, which thereby became the chiefly clan of first rank, its clan ancestors are said to have come to Satawal from Yarawo via Ifalik and Lamotrek. After this, some people of the Mongonufarh clan came to Satawal from Lamotrek. The head of the Neyáár clan directed them to settle the northern part of the island. This group was called “Yáánatiw” and was named for the area they settled. Thirdly, another group from the Mongonufarh clan on Lamotrek migrated to the island and settled in the middle of Satawal island under the direction of the Neyáár clan. This group was called “Noosomwar” (lit., “not moving anywhere”).
The oral history of Yáánatiw and Noosomwar, both of which were originally from the same Mongonufarh clan, indicates that their home island was Ifalik Atoll situated to the west of Lamotrek. Their ancestors also left Yarawo and drifted to Yap or Ifalik. On Ifalik three girls were born and placed in cradles hung under a three-pronged branch (mong) of a pandanus tree (farh). Although one of them stayed on the island, the other two girls were taken respectively to Woleal and Lamotrek by the people of Ifalik. They married and had children on each island. Their matrilineal descendants were called “Mongonufarh”. Some members of the Mongonufarh clan of Woleal later came to Lamotrek where they founded a separate “clan” distinct from the other Mongonufarh clan. These two branches of the Mongonufarh clan are called Yáánatiw and Noosomwar on Satawal. They are considered independent “clans” and their members are allowed to inter-marry.
After these four clans had settled on the island, seven clans are said to have come to Satawal from the eastern islands, such as Truk, Tamatam, Puluwat, or Pulusuk. Today representatives of only four of these clans remain on the island. Each was given plots of land on which to settle by one of the three clans from Lamotrek.
In these oral histories, narratives of all three chiefly clans indicate their original homeland to be Yarawo, and tell of their ancestors coming via the western islands; Yap, Woleai, Ifalik, or Lamotrek. On the other hand, the histories of the five commoner clans, including Sawsát, claim that their ancestors migrated from the eastern islands: Truk, Puluwat, Tamatam, or Pulusuk. According to an oral history of Pulap Atoll the chief of the autochthonous clan of the island passed his authority to his son whose mother came from Yap (Flinn 1982:62; Komatsu 1990:29-30). Thus chieftainship is legitimized by the “fact” that the principal ancestress of the chiefly clan is descended from Yap. Also in Ulul chieftainship was transferred from father (chief) to a son whose mother came from Faraurep Atoll located to the west of Ulul Island (Sudo 1977:212; Thomas 1978:53, 85). In the remainder of the paper I will examine this association of migration routes and rank based on oppositions: first occupant/stranger, western/eastern, chiefly/commoner, in the context of the social and political organization of the central Caroline Islands.