Yap Outer Island Culture

The Cultural ties of Outer Islanders

The outer islands of Yap has a very unique culture. All the outer islands of yap has the same way of fixing houses, canoes, high chiefs huts, and huts for the men to enjoy tuba under at night or the nightly gathering of men. Even with songs or chants and dances they all have the same type. The cultural respects which means the girl when their cousins or brothers are sitting they can't just walk by they have to wait for them to stand up or they should walk by with their backs bended down and so it's almost like their crawling by but their not. They do this cause if they just walk by straight up it means that there walking over their brothers and cousins. When the older people sees the girls just walking by their brothers and not bending down they will scold them and tell them why they are doing that. The thing about bending down if they will do that they have to do it far away from them. But when they are just near them they have to wait until their brother or cousins stands up them they can walk by.

Fixing houses

The outer Islanders when they fix houses they all go and help out. Because it is a very small island so every body knows one another so when someone fixes their houses they all come and help out. When their fixing the house they let the little ones do it and they tell them how to fix it so the culture the ways of fixing house the local way does not fait away. They also have a name to every crossing woods and also every section of the house they have a name for it too. The old people or the father of the boy takes the boy aside sometimes and teaches him all the names of the parts of the houses so when their with people and thier fixing house and the old people or if they ask him to bring the wood for that section and he brings the wrong one and that's gonna really embarrassing. It's all so fun cause you'll be fixing the house and all the ladies are their fixing your lunch and also they will be making drinks for you and they also fix this kind of drinks called fifiye which can be made a from different things and they are breadfruit, the coconut meat, cobra meat, papaya which means all those fruits. They do this by bounding them until their really smashed and then they liquify it by mixing it with water.

Canoe Building

The canoe building is one of the most important part of the culture. The father most likely wants the son to ask his father to teach him about canoe building cause it is customery for the son to do so and if he wants to learn he has to bring something to his grandfather in order to get his wisdom on alot of things not only canoe building but to get his wisdom on life. The reason why canoe is a very important part of the culture cause that is what really describes them. They are voyagers and they love to voyage the open waters. Learning on canoes does not only stops at learning how to fix it. You have to learn how to operate it, how to not to get it dipped over or to learn how to get the water out of it when it's dipped over. On fixing he canoe you have to know how to carve it the right way to get it to be one of the fast sailing canoe. So it also depends on your carving capabilities.

Things Need to know to survive in the Outer Islands of Yap

As everyone should know for their own benefit

The Outer Islanders are now trying to make the culture even strong then it is now so they will never fear the culture fading away. The traditional leaders today are enforcing the teachers to teach more about our culture to the young generatoin so they will know it already and when they grow up they can teach the younger ones. Cause that is what the older ones are doing. Everytime their alone with a boy and their doing something and it's good for the kid to know so they will teach them how to do it cause they know that it will help them in the future. This generation of kids even know alot then those of us that went to the outside world to school cause they taught them alot of things and us those who stayed out in the world don't know much. If you ask those little kid to tell the names of the navigational stars they can tell you all of them. Which means if they get lost their flash light while fishing they can look at the stars and the stars will guide them home.