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→Culture Life of Palau
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==Government and Society of Palau== | ==Government and Society of Palau== | ||
==Culture Life of Palau== | ==Culture Life of Palau== | ||
Palauans have had a well-established matrilineal society. Clan lands continue to be passed through titled women and first daughters. Palauan women have always been endowed with land, titles, and money. Palauan villages are organized around 10 clans that are determined matrilineally. A council of chiefs from the ranking 10 clans governs the villages, and a parallel council of female counterparts plays a significant advisory role in the control and division of land and money. | |||
Members of the highest-ranking clans were also the wealthiest, controlling state and village as well as clan money and resources. Leaders were responsible for caring for their descendants and dependents. But the chiefly system is being replaced by social stratification based on educational attainment and wealth. | |||
The community meeting house, or bai, is an impressive thatched building that is still the center of political, social, and artistic life in many villages. The decorated bai gable is used in most national and state seals and to decorate Palauan buildings. The ceremonial image of a mother at the time of her first child symbolizes the wealth and fertility of their matrilineal society. | |||
The provision of food has followed a traditional division of labor between men and women. Men provide the protein, mainly in the form of fish from the sea, while women produce starch foods. Each clan has certain food taboos. There are special foods for titled individuals and for pregnant and lactating women. Food and related valuables are exchanged when building a house, receiving a title, and to mark births and deaths. Imported rice has become a staple food. A basic meal comprises a starch food, preferably soft or hard taro, tapioca, or rice, and a protein food, normally fish. Coffee and breads or cereal may provide a fast breakfast. Japanese and American foods, and the various cuisines of China, the Philippines, and Korea, add variety to the diet. There are many restaurants in Palau. Beer is commonly consumed and a local brewery has been established. | |||
Ninety-two percent of Palauans over the age of 15 can read and write. Families who can afford to, send their children to the United States or to Hawaii for high school and college. Many children who attend schools abroad do not return to Palau. As a result, there is a shortage of young professional Palauans. | |||
Palau Public Library | |||
There is a small public library in Koror, with a collection of about 17,000 books. The Belau National Museum, established in 1973, is also located in Koror. | |||
Until the 1800s, Palauans were tattooed, with the most ornate designs on women of the high clan. Men wore their hair in tight buns. Important chiefs wore bracelets made from vertebrae of dugongs. | |||
Palau’s musical heritage is Micronesian, but has been influenced by music from the United States and western Europe, as well as Japan. Modern Palauan pop music emerged in the mid-1980s. Palauan pop music includes elements of Japanese music, a legacy of the period of Japanese domination. The American influence can be heard in a distinctly Palauan form of country music. Popular performers include IN-X-ES, whose "Mousobes" was a major commercial success in 1999. Since 1980, the national anthem of Palau has been a song written by Ymesei O. Ezekiel. | |||
==History of Palau== | ==History of Palau== | ||