Building Sense Out of Households: Migrants from Chuuk (Re)create Local Settlements in Guam

Abstract

This article focuses on a newly created subdivision in the Territory of Guam made up mostly of migrants from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). It aims to discover how migrants, particularly those from Chuuk, interpret cultural and social change within a process commonly known as urbanization and modernization. This research looks to the built environment, in particular, the housing, as an important element in the study of migrant communities. I also explore gendered ideologies and how migrants conceive of their spatial arrangements and household dwellings. Through a consideration of ethnographic data on households and house forms, and organizational features of the origin islands of Chuuk, I argue that urban housing and space is socially produced.

Pre-Colonial Society and Identity

“…The idea is to allow the Satowanese to continue engaging with each other as if they were on their home island. 52 She observed how the Satowanese allocated cultural spaces between genders such as lenien maur (sleeping quarters), mosoro (cooking space) and a common area to accommodate everyday interaction in order to facilitate cultural practices. 53 A separate detachment like a faal, if it could be afforded, would also provide cultural space for young men to interact.…”

The Household in Flux

“…Lola Bautista (2011: 68) refers to households as 'a group of people sharing a common residence and engaging in shared activities of consumption and socialisation'. While families o en refer to specifi c kinship structures, most anthropological defi nitions and conceptualisations of households similarly include at least three main a ributes: families or kin, co-residence, and domestic functions (Bautista et al 2011;Bender 1967). In fact, as Donald Bender (1971) pointed out, not all members of a household were necessarily kin, and not all who resided in a household (e.g.…”

“…A newer strand of research in anthropological studies of the household focuses on the eff ects of global migration on the household and how migration is used as a coping strategy to confront various forms of hardship. Bautista's (2011) ethnographic research on Micronesian households demonstrates how migration aff ects marriage pa erns amongst Micronesian women, with more women leaving their island to marry, something that is considered to parallel men's migration to urban areas for work. Stephanie Nasuti and colleagues (2015) also explore how ruralurban migration is employed in Amazonian communities of Brasil as a way to diversify income streams into households by eff ectively combining households or creating stronger links between those involved in rural and urban economies.…”

Contradictions and Complexities—Current Perspectives on Pacific Islander Mobilities

“…Notable exceptions are the works of Rubinstein andLevin (1992, cf. Hezel andSamuel 2006) and especially Bautista's (2011) recent work that explores Chuuk people in Guam; the group of migrants who constitute the fastest growing diasporic community in Guam. In her work, Bautista focuses on urban households and how these units are socially organised.…”