Violence

"Violence and Warfare in the Pre-Contact Caroline Islands" is a controlled comparison of population levels, population density, social structure, and levels of violence and warfare across Micronesia before significant European contact.

Overview

The article "Violence and Warfare in the Pre-contact Caroline Islands" by Stephen M. Younger examines the levels and causes of violence and warfare among the Caroline Islands before European contact. The Caroline Islands, known for their interconnectedness due to exceptional navigation skills, displayed varying levels of violence across different islands and atolls. While some areas like Chuuk were notably violent, others like Kosrae experienced prolonged peace. The study distinguishes between interpersonal violence and warfare, with the latter defined as armed aggression between political communities. Causes of warfare included competition for resources, population pressure, cycles of revenge, and prestige, among others. The research employs a "controlled comparison" method to analyze these phenomena within the context of the islands' unique geography, ecology, and social dynamics.

Framework

Younger utilized Irving Goldman’s (1955) scheme of social hierarchy to categorize pre-contact social organization:

Level 1 corresponds to a society with a strong egalitarian ethic and a chief or chiefs with highly circumscribed powers; Level 2 corresponds to a society with stronger chiefs and where violence was used to seize and maintain power.; Level 3 refers to a society with several levels of social stratification, a feudal relationship wherein lower chiefs owed tribute and service to higher chiefs. Cordy (1986) has shown that social stratification in Micronesia was strongly correlated with total population.

Then, Younger divided violence into two types: interpersonal violence (relationship between individuals who are frequently, but not always, known to one another.) and warfare (armed aggression between political communities or alliances of political communities). For each he employed a numerical scale.

Rates of lethal violence per thousand people are assigned using a numerical scale: (0) none – no recorded instances or very few per century; (1) rare – violence very rare, perhaps one death per decade; (2) occasional – one or a few deaths per year; (3) frequent – several deaths per year, but lethal violence socially disdained; (4) chronic – violence was a major part of the culture. The scale for warfare parallels that of Ember and Ember (1992), and Ember, Russett and Ember (1993): (0) none – no recorded instances or only a few over several centuries; (1) rare – war very rare, perhaps several times per century; (2) occasional – wars every few years; (3) frequent – wars every year but not continuous; (4) chronic – warfare essentially continuous.

Trends in Population, Island Size and Social Order

Total population, rather than population density, was the primary demographic determinant of violence in pre-contact Micronesia.

Small populations exhibited a range of warfare from none to chronic, whereas all populations exceeding 1,000 individuals experienced moderate to high levels of warfare. The level of interpersonal violence on large islands was more than double that on small islands, and the incidence of warfare was over 50 percent greater. Large islands experienced internal conflict, whereas small islands were more prone to external battles.

Warfare was less frequent at the highest levels of social stratification than at intermediate levels, reflecting the concentration of power in the hands of one or a few chiefs who could suppress inter-group violence. Stratification itself was influenced by population size). Smaller populations, which were less stratified, may have experienced lower levels of violence due to the necessity of maintaining a viable population in ecologically challenged conditions.

In contrast, larger islands, characterized by higher stratification, tolerated higher levels of violence, including harsher punishments imposed by rulers. The constrained ecosystems of the small Caroline atolls, coupled with their proximity and the residents’ voyaging skills, led to violent competition for land. In these societies, internal conflict was minimized out of necessity to maintain a viable population. On larger islands, land was seldom a cause of conflict, with the exception of Yap, as the islands rarely approached their carrying capacity. Prestige and control motivated chiefs to engage in warfare, and revenge was a cause of warfare on islands of all sizes.

The Paper

Younger, Stephen M. “Violence and Warfare in the Pre-Contact Caroline Islands.” Journal of The Polynesian Society, vol. 118, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 135–64, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20707479.