In this paper I have examined the characteristics of chieftainship and the principal elements determining rank and status among kin groups in the central Carolines.

There are two contrasting principles of precedence operating here:

Notes:¹ OL: original land; ² OT: original taro patches; ³ BT: Breadfruit tree.

The first principle is a basic and general element used to legitimize chieftainship. The second principle operates in the acquisition of chieftainship and its maintenance in some island societies — Satawal, Ulul, Pulap — where the chiefly clan became extinct or where chieftainship was usurped by another clan. In this new political order, settlers from western high ranking islands carry the title of chief. Regardless of the actual historical order of settlement, the highest ranking clans articulate their oral history of migration to assert their legitimacy of the chieftainship by claiming as their homeland two centres of influence: Kachaw and Yap.

Another element that validates chieftainship is land-ownership. This is demonstrated not only by the fact that the highest ranking chiefly clan holds the largest amount of land on the island, but also by oral history in which this clan is represented as having originally controlled all of the land of the island. In other words, the first settlers assumed a dominant status as the primary title holders to the entire territory of the island and later settlers were given a subordinate status as secondary title holders. It is a characteristic feature of chieftainship in the Carolines that the most important responsibility of the chief is to manage food resources while maintaining the social order. Thus the superior/inferior relationships are expressed symbolically through gifts of “first crops”.