MARSHALL ISLANDS

By: Czarina Kristine G. Vasquez316B

Basic Information

• Republic of the Marshall Islands• Culture Name: Marshallese or Marshall Islander• Alternative names: Rālik-Ratak, Marshalls;

formally known as the Republic of the Marshall Islands

• Capital: Majuro• President: Kessai H. Note• Monetary Unit: U.S. Dollar

History

• Settled by Micronesians in the 2nd millennium BC• It was the Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar in

1526 who became the first European to sight the Marshall Islands.

• Arrival of British Captain John Marshall in 1788• In 1885, a German trading company settled on the

islands and some years later, they became part of the protectorate of German New Guinea.

• The islands were occupied by Japan in World War I.

• After the World War II, the United States occupied the islands in 1944.

• Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 66 nuclear weapons on the Marshall Islands.

• Castle Bravo- the largest nuclear test the United States ever conducted.

• In 1979, official formation of the Government of the Marshall Islands.

• In 1986, sovereignty was granted to Republic of Marshall Islands.

• Independence was formally completed under the international law in 1990.

Performing Arts

• Marshall Islanders are great orators and at first birthday celebrations and other public events, elaborate speeches are always given.

• There is a budding song recording industry, and musical and dance performances are an important part of Kūrijmōj .

Music and dances• The roro is a kind of traditional chant,usually about ancient

legends and performed to give guidance during navigation and strength for mothers in labour. Modern bands have blended the unique songs of each island in the country with modern music.

• The national anthem of the Marshall Islands is "Forever Marshall Islands", by Amata Kabua.

• There is a traditional Marshallese dance called beet, which is influenced by Spanish folk dances.

HandicraftsMarshallese Kili bags are crafted with the finest, white outer skin of the coconut frond. The tighter the weave, the better the bag.

Woven hat

More casual-style handbag has a shoulder strap and a woven

Handicrafts

zippered woven clutch bag

Shells are found in nearly all Marshallese necklaces

Marshallese “wut” or headband, made with colorful weaving and decorative shells

Industry and Business

• Garment Manufacturing• Main exports include fish and fishing rights in

Marshallese waters and products derived from dried coconut.

• Foods, fuel, automobiles, machinery and transportation equipment, manufactured goods, materials, and beverages and tobacco

• The largest industrial operation is a copra-processing mill under a government and private-sector joint enterprise.

• Coin making, furniture making, handicrafts, and boat making.

• In 1986, a government-owned dairy factory was established in Majuro, producing liquid milk, ice cream, and yogurt from imported milk powder and butterfat.

• In 1987, a small tuna cannery began production in Majuro but did not survive the economic downturns of the late 1990s.

• Manufacturing output increased rapidly in the early 1990s climbing from $853 million in 1991 to a peak of $2.7 billion in 1995, a 215% increase. The growth was not sustained, and by 1998, manufacturing output had fallen almost 45% to $1.48 billion.

• At the end of 1999 a tuna loining plant was opened in Majuro, an operation that performed all but the canning of tuna, which was done at a StarKist cannery in American Samoa.

Agriculture

• Main cash crop is copra (dried coconut)• There was a 16 percent fall in 1996 as a result of

El Niño rains, but this was followed by an 11 percent fall in 1997.

• The long-term problem is that the coconut trees are declining in productivity as they become older and, with lower prices, the growers have little incentive to replace the tree stock.

• Fish exports appear substantial and fast-growing, but much of the catch is in fact caught by Chinese and Japanese vessels, taken to land, and then shipped from the islands in refrigerated cargo boats.

• Food and livestock production has grown modestly in the period from 1993 to 1997.

• Local food producers are hampered by poor transportation, which raises the cost of their products.

• The main food crops are bananas, breadfruit, pandanus, taro, vegetables, and tropical fruits.

Education

• By the age of four or five, children become nursemaids.

• Young boys are given freedom to explore beyond the village, and they frequently accompany older siblings, fathers, or mother's brothers on fishing and gathering expeditions.

• Outer atoll schools include grades one through eight with curricula focused on reading, English, and arithmetic.

• The most skilled students pass an examination to enter high school in Majuro.

• Others who can afford schooling beyond grade eight continue in one of several private Majuro high schools.

• Recently, many Marshall Islanders have chosen to pursue higher education, usually in the United States where they are eligible for education loans.

• The Ministry of Education provides for public education at the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels.

• Public elementary schools provide eight years of compulsory education to students ages 6–14.

• A high school entrance examination is given to all eighth graders in order to determine the 300 or so students who will be admitted into the two public high schools each year.

• During the 1994–95 school year, a combined total of 15,755 students were enrolled in the Marshall Islands' 115 public and non-public primary and secondary schools.

• The pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level was estimated at 15 to 1 in 1999

• Higher education is provided through formal programs of teacher training and the provision of grants for university training abroad.

• In 1986, approximately 160 students received financial assistance for foreign training.

• The Majuro campus of the College of Micronesia opened its School of Nursing and Science Center in 1986.

Linguistic Affiliation

• Marshallese, an Austronesian language that shares numerous affinities with other Pacific languages, particularly those of eastern Micronesia.

• Marshallese dialects began to disappear after missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) arrived on Ebon, in the southern Ralik Chain, in 1857 and developed a transcription system.

• At least three mutually intelligible dialects remain: Ratak, Rālik, and an Enewetak/Ujelang variant.

• Many residents understand and/or speak a pidgin English, which has become a lingua franca in the west-central Pacific.

Activities

• Opportunities for diving include drop-offs, coral heads, black coral and World War II wrecks.

• Fishing expeditions• Fishing tournaments• Basketball, volleyball, softball and tennis are the

favorite sports.• Children play many indigenous games using

local materials.

Government

• The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) formed a constitutional government in 1979 and gained formal independence in 1986.

• The RMI is governed by a bicameral parliament with a president as the head of state.

• An upper house of government, the Council of Iroij (Chiefs) and a lower house, or Nitijelā (legislative body).

• Thirty-three senators elected from twenty-four atoll districts make up the Nitijelā.

• Twelve paramount chiefs on the Council of Iroij are advisors to the Cabinet and review land tenure issues and other matters of traditional concern.

• The two RMI presidents, parallel cousins, were selected by the Nitijelā from the group of high chiefs eligible to sit on the Council of Iroij.

Religious Beliefs

• In 1857, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missionaries (ABCFM), the ideological offspring of missionaries who traveled to Hawaii in 1819, began to convert residents to Christianity.

• Catholic conversion soon followed, and these two missionary enterprises have been supplemented by a plethora of new religious groups in the past twenty-five years.

Religious Practitioners

• Ancient Marshall Islands belief included a pantheon of chief-deities who lived in primordial times and are now represented as constellations.

• Local religious and medical practitioners provided access to life-giving powers, though specialists who controlled evil magic were not unknown.

Rituals and Holy Places

• Magic continues to be an important factor in the organization of daily life and in many ways characteristics of former deities have been infused in the current Christian deities.

• Elaborate churches, often the highest and most centrally-located buildings in a village, have replaced the sacred shrines of old, often sacred stones or particular coconut or pandanus trees.

Food in Daily Life

• Food is not only valued for sustenance, it is used to create and maintain cohesiveness.

• Meals always balance a drink with a food and use fish or meat to complement the staples.

• Local staples include breadfruit, arrowroot, pandanus, and taro, and are now supplemented with imported rice, flour, and sugar.

• Indigenous complements are seafoods, birds, and eggs, supplemented with pig, chicken, and an increasing variety of tinned meats.

• Coffee and cola have replaced coconut milk as the primary drink.

• There are several restaurants in Majuro, serving Chinese, Marshallese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, US and Western specialities.

• Consumption of alcohol is forbidden on some of the islands.

• Seafood are popular among the people of the island.

bu’ oy ni im seafood

jekoro

Marshall island resort

Hotel robert reimers

Famous Resorts

Reference:

• http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Marshall-islands

• http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Marshall-Islands-INDUSTRY.html

• http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Marshall-Islands-AGRICULTURE.html

• http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Marshall-Islands-AGRICULTURE.html

• http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Marshall-Islands-EDUCATION.html

• http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Marshall+Islands/Activities

• http://travel.mapsofworld.com/marshall-islands/cuisine-of-marshall-islands.html

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_flag_republic_of_the_marshall_islands.png

That In All Things, God May Be Glorified!