THE CHURCH AS EMBODIMENT AND EXPRESSION OF COMMUNITY ON UJELANG AND ENEWETAK, MARSHALL ISLANDS

Authors

Laurence Marshall Carucci, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MTFollow

Abstract

The church as a culturally constructed location is constantly "unmade and remade" on Ujelang and Enewetak Atolls (Marshall Islands) with semantic values tied to wider social and historical changes. Stories about the original church represent it as a sacred site forming the physical, moral, and cosmogenic center of the Enewetak community. During World War II, Japanese military rule transformed the church into a location of resistance. During postwar exile to Ujelang Atoll, the village-centered church became a site where solidarity-enhancing practices allowed the community to confront isolation and suffering. A new church, built in 1978 as a symbol of reinvigorated identity, was abandoned within two years with repatriation to Enewetak Atoll, where church and town "center" were displaced and cohesive elements of community were unraveling. A foreign upstart church made the 1990s a contentious time as churches, new and old, were refashioned as physical and sociosemantic sites of significance in the ongoing negotiation of communal identity.

Recommended Citation

Carucci, Laurence Marshall (2003) "THE CHURCH AS EMBODIMENT AND EXPRESSION OF COMMUNITY ON UJELANG AND ENEWETAK, MARSHALL ISLANDS," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 26: No. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol26/iss2/3