Premium
Kanengamah and Pohnpei's Politics of Concealment
Author(s) -
Petersen Glenn
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1993.95.2.02a00040
Subject(s) - interdependence , politics , habit , sociology , quality (philosophy) , epistemology , social psychology , psychology , law , political science , social science , philosophy
Kanengamah is an abstract quality and a manner of behaving fundamental to social life on Pohnpei, in Micronesia's Eastern Caroline Islands. It entails the habit of concealment; most social interactions are conditioned by the expectation that all parties are engaged in dissembling. Kanengamah enables Pohnpeians simultaneously to exalt their leaders and to remain remarkably free from their authority. As a consequence, “hierarchical” and “egalitarian” social forms are interdependent rather than mutually exclusive categories.