Material culture

Jeanelle Ardos presented the coconut frond product known locally as a pwaht. Pwaht derives from the English word plate and was thus a post-contact invention. Where a kiam feeds a family, a pwaht feeds one. Where a kiam is not individually owned, a pwaht is. A pwaht embodies the western concept of personal ownership rather than collective sharing.

Vincent Chaem presented a Yapese basket appropriate to a young adult male from Yap. The baskets sits upright unlike the basket they is the Hallmark of a Yapese elder male.

Kerry KC Hawley presented the Pohnpeian pounding stone, a moahl. The moahl is actually a stone, perhaps ethnogeology, and is not an intentionally shaped and formed object. The moahl is a basalt rock, often from a river. During sukusuk (sakau pounding) the sakau root is pounded with moahl. Traditionally there are four pounder per stone. Each moahl has a name based, as far as I know, on the physical position of the one who is pounding. At the front of the nahs are peitehl (the basalt slabs on which sakau is pounded), one for the Nahnmarki and one for the Nahnken.

Moahl for Nahnmwarki:

moahleina

moahlasang katau

moahleileng (moahleiloang)

moahleini

Moahl for Nahnken:

moahleiso

moahlmwahu (moahlamwahu)

souriahtek (soauriahtik)

souriahlap (soauriahlap)

Bentrick Ioanis also presented a ngarangar. Pohn tal when coconut removed. Polished: ngarangar. With sakau: kohwa. The ngarangar he presented was an unusual blonde ngarangar made by his uncle.

 

Mayoleen Ioanis brought inipal, a fibrous tissue found at the base of a coconut frond used as a sieve to strain coconut and squeeze juices from medicinal leaves. As a sieve the inipal is called sihp. Sihp appears to be a cognate of sieve, given that Pohnpeian has no f or v and substitutes p for those sounds. There is also a title, Sihpw. Sihpw may be a cognate of the English word chief, as the word sihpw also means chief. Another use of the word sihpw is for sheep. Although there were no sheep on Pohnpei, translators of the bible settled on sihpw to translate the word sheep. 

Rollie Maliuwelmog presented local coconut rope. This is termed galegal on an outer island of Yap according to Rollie.

Unica Rodriguez presented a ngarangar. She actually went first today.

W-Three Sorris presented a basket for food storage from Chuuk. The food is placed inside and then hung from above. The basket weave produces an enclosed basket with only a small opening for food to be put inside.