Namoluk Beyond the Reef

This case study examines emigrants from Namoluk Atoll in the Eastern Caroline Islands of Micronesia, in the Western Pacific. Most members of the Namoluk community (chonNamoluk) do not currently live there - some 60% of them have moved to Chuuk, Guam, or the mainland US (such as Honolulu, Hawai'i or Eureka, California). The question is how (and why) those expatriates continue to think of themselves aschonNamoluk, and behave accordingly, despite being a far-flung network of people, with inevitable erosions of shared language and culture.

Mac Marshall is professor of anthropology at the University of Iowa, with a secondary appointment as professor of community and behavioral health. He is former editor of Medical Anthropology Quarterly and currently serves as Secretary of the American Anthropological Association.