Wife Beating in Micronesia

Hoff, Lee Ann (1992). "Wife Beating in Micronesia". ISLA: A Journal of Micronesian Studies. 1 (2): 199–222. ISSN 1054-9390.

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Abstract: This review essay addresses wife beating in Micronesia as discussed by Carucci, Nero, Lewis, and Counts in a special issue of Pacific Studies, July 1990, on domestic violence. The incidence, dynamics, and explanations of wife beating in three societies—Palau, The Marshall Islands, and Tungaru—are compared cross-culturally with wife abuse as observed and explained in Western literature across several intersecting dimensions: violence and sex-role stereotypes, women's magic and "battered" husbands, colonial influences on violence in Palau, violence and class relations, violence and traditional family relations, and violence and social structure. Contextual analysis is proposed as a more appropriate explanation than psychological and medical frameworks for the distinctive and common features of wife beating cross-culturally. Recommendations for further research include fieldwork in which violence is the primary topic and victims are the key informants. Such research would compensate in part for the lag in worldwide analysis of this problem