Yapese Stone Fish Traps
Hunter-Anderson, R. (1984). "Yapese Stone Fish Traps". Asian Perspectives. 24 (1): 81–90. doi:10.2307/42928049. ISSN 1535-8283.
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Abstract: During a year-long settlement pattern study on Map Island, Yap, I found that prehistoric use of the lagoon was intensive and left many physical traces (Plate I). Traditional fishing within Yap's fringing reef was characterized by heavy dependence upon weirs, nets, and traps of bamboo and stone. In this article I present a summary of the information obtained about Yapese stone traps, combining data from Mueller (1917) and my own observations. This will be followed by some suggestions about the selective context for the first use of these facilities on Yap. Information follows on five basic types of stone trap: arrow traps; V-shaped, lagoon traps; V-shaped, reef-crest traps; piled-rock traps; and rectangular, surround traps. Of these, only the arrow trap and the piled-rock trap have been described previously. THE ARROW TRAP Arrow traps (in Yapese, arch) are the most common permanent fishing facility seen today in Yap's lagoon, although very few are still maintained (Fig. 1). They were usually built near the shore, with the tip of the arrow (actually a chamber) pointing away from the shore in the direction of the outgoing tide. Others were built around deep holes in the lagoon floor, with the tip pointing toward the hole's center. Still others were built in protected areas such as Tamil Harbor, on the edges ofthe reeffacing the main channel. Arrow traps were designed to trap fish in the shallow parts of the lagoon. These fish must evacuate the near-shore zone during low tide. As they swim toward the reef, they are guided by the sides of the trap through its primary and secondary gates, thus entering its primary (kengin na arch) and secondary (may) chambers. The walls were approximately 1.5 m high and 1 m thick. Traps at the margins of deep holes caught the fish retreating Rosalind L. Hunter-Anderson is a research associate ofthe Pacific Studies Institute, Guam.
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MAG: 2250139502 OpenAlex: W2250139502 CorpusID: 56447399
