THE MARSHALL ISLANDS

by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

The Marshall Islands, comprising 29 atolls and 5 islands, are located in the north-west equatorial Pacific. The atolls of the Marshall Islands, comprising well over 1200 islands and islets are scattered about in an ocean area of well over 600,000 square miles. The atolls support narrow sand cays set on the more or less ring-like reef platform. Only few of the islands on the atolls have a land area greater than one square kilometre and on most of them the distance between the lagoon and the ocean side is less than 300 metres.

Today traditional Marshallese tattooing is no longer practised and the meaning of most of the ornaments and ornament fields is no longer known. In fact, only very few Marshallese of the 1990's can remember having seen people with full traditional tattoos. Thus we have to turn to historic sources. Aspects of tattooing in the Marshall Islands are described by a variety of ethnographic sources mainly of the late 19th and early 20th century, but a comprehensive treatment of the topic was not compiled until 1992.

An in-depth reading of these sources made it clear how little information had in fact been recorded at a time when a large number of people still wore tattoos and knew their meanings, as well as the traditions related to the motifs and the chants sung at the ceremonies. Then, there were still people who knew how to tattoo, although with the progressive impact of the Christian faith the ceremony itself had become more or less extinct. Language problems, and possibly also psychological aversion on behalf of the Marshallese, probably due to Christianity-induced guilt complexes, may have been inhibitive factors in the transmission of knowledge.

HISTORY OF TATTOOING IN THE MARSHALLS

Based on archaeological evidence, the first people to settle on the atolls which now make up the Republic of the Marshall Islands arrived between 1000 and 500 B.C. Over the centuries they maximised the horticultural potential offered by the scarce land on the atolls and developed a complex social system with little emphasis on permanent structures. Transmission of information was oral, by word of mouth; a reliable method to hand down one's skills, information and social regulations, but subject to as much intentional modification and alteration of content as is provided by modern news coverage.

Over two millennia after settlement the first European visitors arrived on the scene and the first written accounts appear. Most likely the first Europeans to touch upon the atolls of the Marshall Islands were members of a Spanish expedition under the command of Alvaro de Saavedra, who arrived in October 1529 on a return voyage from the Philippines to Mexico. Saavedra encountered a northwestern atoll of the Marshall Islands, possibly Ujelang. A brief encounter with the heavily tattooed natives seems to have impressed the Spaniards so much that they named the entire island group "Los Pintados"-the painted. No details of the appearance of the tattoos are known.

The next visitors to stumble upon the atolls were Captains Gilbert and Marshall, en route from Port Jackson (Sydney, Australia) to the United Kingdom via China. Their observations, like those of several subsequent visitors, Spanish, British and American, do not touch on tattooing. The earliest more detailed descriptions we have of Marshallese tattooing stem from members of the Russian Exploring Expedition under the command of Captain Otto von Kotzebue, who visited the northeastern Marshall Islands first in 1816 and 1817, and then again in 1824. The German Adalbert von Chamisso, naturalist on the expedition, even desperately ventured to obtain a tattoo-to no avail. In his eyes, "tattooing neither covers nor disfigures the body, but rather blends in with it in graceful adornment and seems to enhance its beauty".

The expedition's artist, Choris, provided a number of studies of tattooed men and women. After the Russians left, little ethnographic work was done in the Marshall Islands for over half a century.

The later part of the 19th century saw the Marshall Islands becoming drawn into the German sphere of commercial interests and ultimately in 1885 a German protectorate. Subsequently a great number of German scholars, priests and administrators dealt with Marshallese ethnography in general and Marshallese tattooing in particular either in passing or in greater detail. The traders Hernsheim and Hager provided short summaries of Marshallese life and custom for an interested audience in Germany, but mainly dwelt onthe potential economic importance of the atolls of the Marshall Islands for fledgling German colonial aspirations.

The descriptions of the scholars Finsch and Kubary are more detailed than those of the traders although the descriptions especially of Finsch, contain some misconceptions, possibly caused by the inability to speak Marshallese. Some other information dating to the late 19th century is provided by accounts of shipwrecked people, such as Eisenhardt or Humphrey.

German colonial administrators and doctors filed a number of formal reports, most of which were published in the official journals. The administrators, their spouses as well as naval officers and civilian visitors also published a number of informal articles in colonial newspapers and magazines, which contain additional information although mainly of a more general nature. Soon after its establishment in 1904, the Catholic mission in Jaluit began to compete with the Protestant missionaries who had been well entrenched for almost half a century. The Catholic fathers collected traditions and ethnographic information, as well as worked on the Marshallese language. Father Erdland published a comprehensive ethnography and a dictionary, both of which discuss tattooing at length. Erdland's dictionary lists a number of terms for tattooing on body parts, some of which seem to refer to motifs commonly used on that body part or ornament zone.

Following his two months sojourn in the Marshall Islands in 1897/1898 Augustin Kramer wrote a paper on mat weaving and tattooing in 1904, and included tattooing in a monograph on his trip published two years later. In 1910 Kramer again visited the Marshall Islands, this time with the German South Sea Expedition, and published the entire ethnographic material together with Hans Nevermann in 1938 as a volume of a series covering the 1910 expedition. Tattooing is again reviewed, and all other German sources are commented upon.

THE DEMISE OF TATTOOING

Yet at that time, tattooing was on the rapid decline. Tattooing had largely ceased in the second half of the 19th century, so that Otto Finsch, discussing tattooing needles, was forced to state that "in 1879 it was no longer easy to obtain such implements." Along with the teachings of the Bible, the missionaries brought along their set of moral, ethical and aesthetic values, which were-of course-those of the contemporary society of their home country, and more to the point, the values of their own class level. It was these values then, which they superimposed by persuasion or force on the peoples of the Pacific, who until then had been able to survive quite well without the doubtful blessings of Christiandom and European society. Throughout the Pacific, tattooing, traditional attire, as well as traditional dancing were considered to be the apex of heathenism and therefore banned by missionaries of any denomination, be they Marists, London Missionary Society, Wesleyan, or American Protestant Revivalists.

In the Marshall Islands the Protestant missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ("Boston Mission" were noted for interfering with domestic Marshallese issues. This disruption of Marshallese customs encompassed almost all aspects of daily social interaction. Tattooing was a custom which the missionaries had to put an end to for a number of reasons, each equally compelling to the self-righteous souls from rural backgrounds:

*Tattooing was connected with the old traditional way of life and the very expression of both status and group identity they were set to modify.

*Tattooing was closely interwoven with traditional religious and spiritual beliefs, and thus "heathen".

*Tattooing was perceived to be aesthetically offensive to theEuropean eye.

*In the 19th century both British and U.S. penal systems identified released convicts and Army deserters by their tattoos.

*A Bible reference existed mentioning that the Israelites shall not be tattooed (Leviticus XIX:28) - hence tattooing was supposed to be un-Christian.

On the balance, therefore, the missionary abhorrence towards tattooing was partially based on European narrow-mindedness and European ideals of beauty and aesthetics, and-for a fundamentalist-was morally justifiable by the Bible.

Often, however, the missionary impact is downplayed and the general Europeanisation is blamed for the demise of the social systems. The fact that it was the Christian missionaries and not the general Europeanisation of the Marshall Islands which brought about the departure from clothing and body ornamentation customs becomes clear if one considers that in the mid-1880s tattooing was still practiced in the northern atolls, where Christian religion had not yet gained a foothold:

"The Christian influence of the mission has changed the original hairdo of the natives, and long hair is forbidden as unchristian ... Where the missionaries have not penetrated, on all northern islands and [the] Ratak [Chain], the old customs still prevail, as does the characteristic hairdo ..." and "The original native customs are still to be firmly entrenched in the northern islands of the group. Here tattooing and flower decorations are still en vogue, as well as the enormous distention of the ear lobes."

The speed with which the missionaries could effect this change is astonishing. Tattooing was banned soon after the missionaries arrival on Ebon. Since the special rites associated with tattooing in the Marshall Islands had also a religious significance, the Ebonese shortly after the arrival of the European missionaries showed reluctance to carry out these rites in the missionaries presence; about 800 people left for Jaluit to do it in safety there.

It seems that the German colonial authorities had nothing or only little to say about tattooing. A survey of the Colonial Records showed that this matter played no role in the correspondence between the Station Chief in Jaluit and the Governour General in Rabaul, New Britain.

Following the outbreak of World War I, Japan seized the Marshall Islands from Germany in October 1914. Her possession of Micronesia was formalized in 1922 by the League of Nations. Unlike the Germans, the Japanese authorities, who took over the administration of the Marshall Islands following the outbreak of World War I, banned tattooing. According to a U.S. government publication of 1943:

"In 1922 the Japanese made tattooing or marking if one's own or another's body a police offense under penalty of enforced labor for a period not to exceed 30 days. This law may have been an effort to erase the physical marks of distinction separating chiefs from commoners. Or it may have been designed to eliminate a source of infection, since it is reported that, after being tattooed, a person usually develops a high fever."

A number of Japanese ethnographers worked in the Marshall Islands, some of whom dealt with the topic of tattooing. The main Japanese work on Micronesian tattooing was done by Hasebe Kotond, who published a paper on Marshallese tattooing in 1930, wherein he discussed contemporary tattooing motifs and the decline of traditional Marshallese tattooing.

A census of 238 men conducted in 1930 showed only 56 to be tattooed with indigenous motifs. Of these the overwhelming majority (48) had only horizontal bands around their arms, as well as their legs. Most of these tattoos would have been completed during German colonial times, indicating how far the demise had gone.

In 1945 following Japan's defeat in World War II the Marshall Islands became a Trust Territory of the United Nations, under administration by the United States of America. Ethnographic work conducted immediately after World War II shows that traditional tattooing was no longer practiced.

TRADITIONAL MARSHALLESE TATTOOS

Spiritually and conceptually Marshallese tattoos and their motifs are firmly rooted in the marine environment and Marshallese tattooing has drawn its elements and ideas for motifs from the sea. Many motifs, for example, are abstract forms of specific fish, or are to represent canoe parts or the canoe's movements.

Even more to the point, tattooing in general is called eo, which according to the German ethnographer Krämer means the drawing of lines in general, because the lines of the blue-striped or regal angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus) (see figure above), also called eo, were considered to be exemplary. The Regal Angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus) was for the Marshallese the apex of clear lines and example for tattoos.

The Marshallese tattoo motifs are in general character very abstract pictographs. Their meaning, as outlined above, finds its roots in theenvironment: markings of fish, tooth marks of fish bites, motifs resembling shells or their ornaments and so on.

Marshallese tattoo motifs (right)and their natural examples (left)

THE MEN'S TATTOOS

Marshallese tattooing was executed in a systematic manner and none of the motifs were of accidental creation; they, as well their arrangement, follow strict patterns. In their entirety, Marshallese men's tattoos are very striking. As a number of last century observers have pointed out, a completely tattooed man appears to be dressed in a chain suit, resembling a medieval knight.

A men's tattoo is laid out in a series of ornament zones which bear descriptive names, such as "mast," "ocean swell," "boat," "clouds" and the like, which find their origin in the seafaring nature of Marshallese men. A complete man's chest tattoo consists of three main tattoo components, which can be added to. These main ones are the upper and the lower chest triangle as well as a central vertical ornament field. Added to these three main components could be other ornament fields, such as a shoulder tattoo, a tattoo on the side of the chest or a stomach band.

Men's tattoos. Chest tattoo of a young chief from Mile Atoll (left) and a back tattoo from a young chief from Jaluit Atoll (right)

Apart from the shoulder zone, the tattoos on the men's back consist of three ornament fields, the back triangle and upper back band and the lower back field. Neck and head tattoos were restricted to males of chiefly rank. The neck tattoo (eoten-boro) consists of horizontal bands running around the neck, leaving only the area of the Adam's apple free. Above the level of the lower jaw, this tattoo continues at the back of the neck all the way up to the hairline, but ends at the ears, to make space for the face tattoo. This tattoo has the meaning of a magic necklace.

Head tattoo of irooj Laninat (Mile). Note the pierced and extended earlobes.

The face tattoo (eoon-maj) consists of vertical lines running from the eyes to the rim of the lower jaw. In the front these lines can also extend onto part of the neck. Forehead, face and chin are commonly free of any tattooing. Often, the frontal parts are the cheeks are also left unornamented.The tattooing of the arms is very variable. It can consist of a few lines and in its full extent can reach from the armpits to the wrists. A full tattoo is traditionally divided into three main areas: the area of the upper arm, the area of the lower arm and the central part in between. Unlike in other areas the inside of the arms was commonly not tattooed in the Marshallese tattoos. The area of the upper arm covering the deltoid muscle is bordered by a line drawn between the armpit and the shoulder (onset of the caput humerus), while the lower border is less well defined, but often matches the upper margin of the upper back band. Very common is the tattooing of only a couple of bands around the upper arm. These bands, mainly using the zigzag line, go all around the arm in the form of a bracelet (lukwo or rojanpe).

The area of the lower arm extends about halfway between the elbow and the wrist to the wrists itself. Tattoo motifs are arranged vertically and are aligned in small horizontal groups, giving the arm a ringed appearance. Leg tattoos (wünne) are commonly restricted to the front and the middle of the outside of the upper thigh. Most leg tattoos are restricted to a few double lines or bands of the wavy-line or zigzag motif on their thighs and their calves.

In addition to the main tattoos mentioned, men were sometimes tattooed next to the armpits, the buttocks, and the penis. The buttock tattoo consists of a rectangular band which covers the lower os sacrum area and the occasionally the side of the buttocks. The tattoo next to the armpits was executed on the person's back. It was a small triangle with a base pointing upwards and the tip pointing towards the side. This tattoo, which was very rare even at the end of last century, was primarily a chiefly tattoo, but may have been permitted for other men as well.

WOMEN'S TATTOOS

The data available on women's tattoos are, overall, less frequent than data on men's tattoos. This is mainly due to the fact that the ethnographers were mostly men, who of course had little access to the female world-both by inclination and by cultural opportunity. Few, like Erdland, would expressly state that their knowledge of women's tattoos is limited. Others such as some German government officials, would simply deny that women were tattooed, which nicely reflects the gender bias in their reports:

"Men in the entire group are tattooed on the back and breast, varying according to rank. Tattooing is not practiced in the case of women."In fact, those Marshallese who maintained the practice of tattooing after the intervention of outside forces were women, rather than the men. One exception in recording was that done by Elisabeth Krämer, who accompanied her husband Augustin to the Marshalls, and who could break through the gender barrier. According to all descriptions, women's tattoos are substantially more uniform than men's. "Women's tattoos are also laid out in a fixed system of ornament zones, and the tattoos are restricted to the shoulders, arms, legs, and fingers."

According to Father Erdland, the Marshallese placed great importance on the female shoulder tattoo, "because as it is explained in sorcery rhymes and chants, the popularity of a woman is placed in her shoulders." The shoulder tattoo is very complex and consists of a number of motifs. The female shoulder tattoo is also the only tattoo where pigment is used in a more surface-covering manner. Tattooing motifs seen in this ornament field include almost exclusively the bwilak motif of which several variations and combinations have been used.

Tattooed Marshallese women (after Kramer);

We can distinguish two major types of women's shoulder tattoos: Type I consists of the bwilak motif both on the back and the chest, while type II has this motif only on the back.

Type I has on either shoulder four sets of the bwilak motif of the back, ending at the shoulder ridge in a single set of triangles. On the chest side, there are again four sets of bwilak motifs on either shoulder, again with the little triangles added at the shoulder ridge. These sets of motifs, however, have a different lower end, where a double set of lines is added creating a zigzag border, from which small triangles are suspended. Two variants are known, one where the zigzag lines are made up of double lines with a space in between and one where the zigzag line is a broad pigment band. At another variant the back also has the small triangles suspended.

.Female shoulder tattoo Type Ia (top) and Type II (bottom) (the arrows indicate the shoulder line);

The arm tattoo consists of two main parts: the decoration of the deltoid muscle and the decoration of the remaining arm to the wrist. The wrist area itself has another small ornament band. The deltoid muscle is commonly tattooed with a multiple zigzag band, which runs across the arm, then downwards at the side, across the back of the arm and up again on the inside. There can be three or four parallel bands of zigzags. Hasebe, relying on information by the tattooed person herself, identifies the deltoid muscle ornamentation as eo idikdik, or small tattoo. The area between the wrist and the deltoid muscle is tattooed with vertically aligned looj motifs. The E-shaped motifs commonly open towards the front of the person. On occasion the looj motif may be present, but the zigzag lines may be absent. The wrist area was tattooed with ornament bands running at right angles to the arm, providing the appearance of cuffs or armbands. Tattooing motifs seen in this zone are predominantly zigzag and wavy-line bands. Often the complex arm tattoo was replaced by some simpler armband-like tattoos.

On the whole, documented women's leg tattoos were fairly rare. If recorded they consisted of a tattoo of the thighs and a separate and unconnected tattoo of the calf. The tattoos of the thighs were apparently confined to thin bands or single lines and were restricted to the front of the leg. The calf was decorated with horizontal lines only. Tattooing motifs seen in this ornament field include the zigzag tattoo. The tattoo on the back of a hand (eo in peden-pa) consists of wavy-line (kodo) and zigzag lines, the kein kom motif running across the back of the hand. Hand tattoos were apparently not only restricted to women of chiefly rank, but were also very personalized, so that women could be identified by the tattoo of their hand. A folk tale speaks of an ogress, who had died during childbirth and had come to annoy people. She detached her hand and sent it to steal bananas, but was recognized by the tattoo.

Marshallese Finger Tattoos

The finger tattoo (eoon-addin) is restricted to women of chiefly rank and consists of small ring-like bands around the entire finger, or, more commonly, only on the backside of the middle digit. Tattooing motifs seen in this ornament field include zigzag bands (eodikdik). The most commonly tattooed finger is the middle finger, and only occasionally the ring finger or the little finger are tattooed. The ring-like motifs mentioned for the first digits, appear to be a European-influenced design motif, imitating European finger rings. Traditionally, the Marshallese had no rings on their fingers.

In addition, women could have a "secret" tattoo (bõd en Lõbõllõñ;) which is "commonly invisible to the eyes". It appears that this tattoo covered the mons veneris, similar to the tattoos in other parts of Micronesia.

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