Above: At the village limits begin extensive coconut plantings of pre-war years, when Kili was managed commercially by Japanese Nanyo Boeki
Kaisha. When ex-Bikinians arrived in 1948 the groves needed much thinning. Right: Women of Kili process pandanus leaf for floor and sleeping
mats and for saleable handicraft. Pandanus supplies were scarce on Kili in 1948, but intensive planting has since remedied this lack.
For several months the project manager had urged the island Council
to tackle the problem of land division
before extending rehabilitation work into
uncleared areas beyondthe village limits.
But the Council had postponed action
principally because of unresolved issues
relating to inequities in tenure on Bikini,
where some lineages had controlled far
more land than size of membership now
seemed to merit.
Finally Juda, elected magistrate of the
community as well as hereditary leader,
devised a plan for assigning Kili’s land
according to the number of individuals
in each of twenty households, the kingroups-in-transition. This he presented
informally to several lineage heads
whose holdings on Bikini had been dis-
proportionately large. When these men
agreed to support his proposal he took
the matter before the Council. Discussion resulted in unanimous approval of
Juda’s plan.
The well-ordered rows of coconut trees
that cover most of the island provided a
convenient measure of acreage, and were
tallied
against
the
actual
number
of
residents in each household group, beginning at the west end of the village.
Absentee members were counted as if
present, and the scribe (Council secretary) recorded the names of those
assigned to each of twenty parcels of
land, The village area, where all dwell-
ings are located, was reserved as communal property.
Family Relationships
The composition of the new land-
holding groups is no longer entirely consistent with the rule of matrilineality (in
which a man’s wife and children are
not part of his linear kin group), but
neither does it accord completely with
any other rule.
For example, kin group “X” (Kilians
sold to the Kili store. This alab share is
unit as a bamle, this being their rendition of the English word “family”)
as needed for emergencyby individual or
group if the alab approves. Periodic contributions required of each bamle by the
refer to the presently ambiguous social
comprises three sisters and their children
(also the sisters’ husbands!) and two
brothers; the younger of whom found a
wife on a nearby atoll where he lives
with her and their children (but only he
is included in the Kili bamie), while the
older brother, accompanied by his wife
and children, resides with the rest of
the bamle and all of them share in
the group’s land. Here the brother and
sister bond is still strong but operates in
combination with the factor of common
residence (this household is made up of
four dwelling groups living side by side
in one corner of the village).
In every
bamle the Kili residents commonly cook
and eat together and co-operate in production of copra and in other activities.
Then, too, there is bamle “Y” which
appears to abandon the rule of matrilineality though retaining a sense of
lineality in combination with a recognition of residence: thus, a man. his wire.
an unwed daughter with two children, a
married son with wife and children, and
a widowedbrother and his son. Although
land allocation on Kili was decided in
terms of residential affiliation on a certain
date, the existing residence had been
determined previously by a combination
of linear and bilateral relationships. the
precise arrangement within any hamle
having resulted from personal considerations of necessity and convenience.
Council Representation
Each kin group on Kili, following the
Bikinian tradition, has its male head. the
alab.
Bamle members
respect the
right of their headman to one-quarter of
the money income from every bag of
copra produced on the group’s land and
set aside as a reserve to be drawn upon
Kili
Council
for
community
projects
are Ordinarily paid from this fund. No
instance was observed by the writer in
which the headman employed the alab
share to personal advantage.
Not all bamle headmen are represented on the Council at Kili, member-
ship in the governing body having been
held to the ten lineage heads who served
on Bikini. The same men (except two
who died and were replaced) continue in
office, although the groups they represent have changed in composition.
Nine new headships have been created
in the present socio-economic organization (one additional position is associated
with land reserved for the use of the
native pastor who sometimes comes from
another island in the Marshalls and is
appointed for a two-year term). Most of
these new positions are filled by younger
brothers of Bikini alabs. This fractionation of kin groups in the course of the
1954 land allocation without some altera-
tion of the Council membership leaves
segments of the Kili population without
direct
voice
in
community
affairs,
a
situation that is fraught with potential
unrest, some of which is beginning to
be realized. Land ownership in the
Marshalls has traditionally been asso-
ciated with the privilege of political
participation.
The blurred nature of changing social
patterns on Kili is further evidenced by
the manner in which the two deceased
councillors were succeeded by their own
sons rather than by younger brothers
or by sons of their sisters, as would
have been the case on Bikini. Still
another
matter on which
Kilians_re-