Sacred Space, Taboo Place: Negotiating Roang on Lamotrek Atoll

Metzgar, Eric (December 2004). "Sacred Space, Taboo Place: Negotiating Roang on Lamotrek Atoll". Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Albury, NSW: Letao Publishing. 3 (1–2): 3–18. ISSN 1449-7336.

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Abstract: In 1990, in the process of making a documentary film, three remarkable events were observed on Lamotrek Atoll, an Outer Island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia, which showed that the creation of sacred taboo space—called roang in the central Caroline Islands—was still a viable practice in the community. The events observed were as follows: 1) the resurrection of prohibitions relating to a sacred area of land called Lametag, 2) the performance of traditional massage healing techniques called sheosheo, and 3) the performance of a traditional navigator initiation and schooling ritual called pwo. This paper presents an ethnographic description of these roang-related events as witnessed by the author in the field, compares them to earlier reports of roang sites described in the anthropological literature, and discusses the status of roang as it exists today, making conclusions regarding the changing status of roang and the construction of community on Lamotrek.