APPENDIY = o> EUOIOSTRE 2
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PRELIMINARY ANTHROPOLOGIST'S REPORT - BIKINI ATOLL SURVEY
1967
JackA.
Brief Historical Background
|
The Bikini people had lived on their atoll for many
generations.
They and their fellow Marshallese came under the
domination of foreigners less than one hundred years ago.
The
German regime was succeeded by that of the Japanese at the
onset of World War I.
The Japanese rule was terminated by the
American forces during World War II.
Contact with the Outside World
The people of Bikini Atoll were not the isolated twentieth
century "Stone Age primitives" as described by sensationalist
news reporters and other journalists.
- ever,
They were and are, how-
less sophisticated than other more acculturated
Marshallese, but they had been in contact with the rest of the
Marshall Islands, and had been exposed to at least some of the
aspects of Western culture.
Every two months a Japanese schooner visited Bikini to
purchase copra and to sell food, clothing, and other goods.
Every six months a Japanese official made a visit to the atoli. |
Some of the Bikini people visited other atolls, married out,
‘and attended school elsewhere.
Bikini.
Other Marshallese visited