Land is another important element in the status system. In Truk and the central Caroline Islands generally it is argued that clan ranking is determined not only by order of settlement but also by the amount of land originally controlled by each clan (Goodenough 1951; Alkire 1970; Nason 1970; Shimizu 1987). This principle of determining clan rank is common in Satawalese society (Sudo 1984, 1987).
On Satawal, however, it is not the first-settlers but the first of the new settlers whose descendants comprise the chiefly clans of the island. According to oral traditions, Sawsát, the original clan, passed its proprietary right to the island’s land and to its chieftainship to the Neyáár clan, which was the first of the new settlers to arrive after Sawsát. After this transfer the Neyáár people owned the entire island by the right of being the first settlers from a “high ranking island”, Lamotrek, and the Sawsát clan became subordinate to Neyáár. When the other two chiefly groups migrated from Lamotrek, the Neyáár clan gave large amounts of land to them and divided the island into three villages: the south, middle and north. By this division, control of the south village was retained by the Neyáár clan, while the middle and north were granted to the Noosomwar and Yáánatiw clans, respectively.
As the other clans migrated to Satawal, they were, in turn, given several plots of land by one or the other of these three clans, depending on where they settled. Maasané, for instance, is said to have come under the patronage of the Neyáár clan and to have settled near the Neyáár homestead, receiving Neyáár land in the process. The relationship between land-giver and land-receiver is called yakkune, which means “to be trustworthy to each other”. Land-receivers are linked in a subordinate relationship to land-givers, and are obliged to follow the directives of the latter when requested. The three land-giving clans, Neyáár, Yáánatiw, and Noosomwar, held the highest rank and were known as “chiefly” clans. On the other hand, the four land-receiving clans, Kataman, Piik, Sawen, and Maasané, were subordinate and called “commoner” clans. Though not a land-receiver, the Sawsát clan was, as we have noted, also considered a commoner clan.
The three chiefly clans still own large tracts of land on Satawal. The amount of land that is currently controlled by each of the eight clans is shown in Table 1. The clans of the first settlers from Lamotrek established priority of land control and continue to own the largest amounts of land. Thus arrival sequence of land-ownership is a close reflection of clan rank.