Differences between micronesian and western values

Abstract

In 1986 an organisation called the Micronesian Institute was set up in Washington, DC. It followed the mutual signing of the Compact of Free Association between the US government and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The Institute was assisted by the US Department of the Interior. A small group of expatriate Micronesian college students, calling themselves the Student Program Committee, saw a need to explain some of the sociocultural differences between young Micronesians and Americans. They wrote the script of a radio play, calling it An Adventure Far from Home. The students recorded the play and sent a master open-reel tape to Ezekiel Lippwe, the Broadcast Chief of the FSM, with instructions to dub the tape to audio cassettes and distribute them to the four radio stations of the FSM states as well as those of the Marshall Islands and Palau. I first heard the tape when it was broadcast one evening on Truk’s (now Chuuk’s) radio the following year. It seemed a very handy expository device upon which to base the ethnographic observations made in the following article. It is not used as ethnographic or anthropological material per se.