Title Ceremony

Hello all! It's Taylor. I meant to write this up a while ago, and it just popped into my head the other day, so I guess getting around to it late is better than never, neh?

Now I'm not an expert on the title system of Pohnpei, but here goes nothing...
The Pohnpeian culture is built on a hierarchy of titles, with each of the five municipalities (Madolenihmw, U, Nett, Sokehs, and Kitti) having their own mini-system of titles, and each having their own Nahnmwarki and Nahnken- the man with the highest title and his second, respectively. Madolenihmw is the largest and the "highest" municipality, so the Nahnmwarki of Madolenihmw is the most powerful traditional leader on the island. At kamwadihps and other ceremonies, tribute is paid to the Nahnmwarki by bringing sakau (kava) plants, yams, and pigs. Therefore, a man's wealth is measured in the amount, size, and age of his sakau, yams, and pigs. As men acquire more wealth, they can apply for higher titles and therefore gain higher positions in society and the traditional government. Recently, money has been added as a tribute. Wives receive a complementary title to their husband's.

Anyway, I bring up my own botched understanding of the culture to explain the ceremony Pete and I were invited to wherein our host father was receiving a higher title. It was back in our old neighborhood, Nahnponmal in early December and 12 men were receiving titles as part of this ceremony. It was an all-day event, and Pete and I showed up somewhere near the beginning of it, around noon. It was an extremely hot day, but everyone was in good spirits. Sitting in the nahs was the Nahnmwarki of Sokehs, other high titled men, and their wives. The sakau rocks were already in use when we showed up and didn't stop until well into the night.

To the right of the nahs was a collection of yams. The yams are dug up, strung up between two or more poles for carrying, and propped up by a series of old oil cans. As you can imagine, these yams are supposed to be a statement of how wealthy you are and how much you respect the Nahnmwarki, and thus they are huge. Then there was some other random tribute items, including pillows, mattresses, chickens, rakes, just many household items.

To the left of the nahs was the pig area. These pigs, also huge, are hogtied and brought to the ceremony early in the morning and then remain hogtied and lay around in the heat without water or food, waiting to be slaughtered. When their time was up, I watched as men walked up to the prone pigs, some already dead from heat stroke or exhaustion, and stabbed them inceremoniously in the side with machetes. The pigs were very much still alive after the initial cut, alive enough to attempt to run away and make the more horrible raptor-like sounds I've ever heard, and had to be stabbed again and again with the machete. When they finally succumbed, a man walked through the hog crowd with a blowtorch and sizzled them. Removing the hair? Getting the skin ready for pig skin treats? I have no idea. But it was kinda cool to watch. Then the professionals got in and started gutting and dismembering the pigs. At the end of the ceremony, everyone left with a piece of pig. The higher your title, the bigger piece of choice meat you left with. The whole head, even, if you're lucky.

Much of the ceremony was sitting around, waiting, but there was some entertainment and no shortage of food. At pretty much any event you go to, your lunch will be a "take-out" which is basically a huge platter or bucket filled with food and ceran wrapped, or sometimes a modest takeout container packed to its brim with food. All the women involved in the event prepare a large amount of their delegated food/drink and put a little in each takeout bucket. At the appropriate time, the woman picked up the largest buckets and danced in a long line to deposit them at the feet of the Nahnmwarki in the nahs. After the highest title holders had their food, every last person at the ceremony was handed a box of takeout.

Afterwards, it was time for the presentation of the yams and sakau. The men grabbed their offerings and lined up to bring in their yams, one by one, and present them to the Nahnmwarki. They started with the smaller ones, and eventually were bringing in yams so large that four or more people had to carry them. They removed these from the nahs and began the same process with the sakau plants. For traditional ceremonies, it is important to leave the whole plant intact, even though it is only the roots that are pounded. I had seen larger (meaning older, and more potent) sakau plants before, but these ones were just absurd. The last sakau brought in were as large as two people crouching together on the platform they were carrying, and I'm sure whoever drank them in the end got messed up.

Finally, the men and women getting new titles were invited up into the nahs. They sat facing each other, got smeared with coconut oil on their neck, shoulders, and arms, and a coconut shell of sakau was passed along them as they were given their new names.

After that, the official ceremony petered out, as did our energy. No amount of water was enough to keep us hydrated, and we were glad the whole ceremony was taking place just down the road from our host family's house. Our host father's title when we arrived was Sedin and his wife's was Sehd Pein. The ceremony was to gain the higher title of, what sounded to us, like Nano RRRrrrRRRrrrr en Sokehs (we'll definitely have to get them to write that down for us...) and Sehd Pein is now Nanopei. At the same time, though, everyone still pretty much always calls them Sedin and Sehd Pein. But that title's there, waiting for when they need it.