| Abstract: |
Fieldwork on the island of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, has resulted in the recording of the largest "rock art" site in the northwest tropical Pacific islands. The site consists of over 700 motifs pecked on a large rock outcrop and nearby boulders. Interviews during fieldwork and a review of the literature dating to the so-called "ethnographic present" have revealed inconsistencies in the local understanding of the history of the site. The preliminary analysis of the site reveals features which fix the site as having meaning in a larger landscape and seascape context, while some of the motifs may be interpreted by analogy as having broader western Pacific links. Much of this contradicts the ethnography and early writings regarding this place. If a rupture in the community history exists, as I suggest, then this rupture may have preceded the first recordings of Pohnpei culture commonly regarded as the ethnographic present. This scenario is proposed through a broader understanding of the role that Pohnpei played in inter-island interaction prior to prolonged encounters with exotic, but literate, aliens. Ethnography provides multiple understandings of the place in the present and this multiplicity, as a theme, serves to inform interpretations of the social context of the place in the past.
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