Steadfast Movement around Micronesia

Satowan Enlargements beyond Migration

By (author) Lola Quan Bautista

Hardback - £88.00

Publication date:

04 August 2010

Length of book:

194 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739134771

Steadfast Movement examines how people from Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) move about and their cultural interpretations of movement itself. Special consideration is made of movement on the atoll of Satowan in Chuuk State as intimately associated with clan, lineage, and locality, as well as the influence of a system of local beliefs and attitudes based on combinations of age, marital status, and childbirth. Lola Quan Bautista also investigates the ways in which the current movement of citizens from Chuuk State and others from FSM to Guam fits within larger contexts that emphasize historical circumstances and more current political-economic considerations. Considering movement as being steadfast makes this study one of the few undertaken in the Pacific to self-consciously attempt to provide a sense of agency and interconnectivity between transnationalism and circular mobility.
Bautista's study of the movements of the people of Satowan Atoll in Micronesia is a valuable addition to our understanding of the complex drivers of human mobility. It demonstrates the value of combining insights from theories of circular migration and transnationalism to provide models of movement which better reflect the ways in which cultures and political economy interact in movement decisions. Its rich ethnography demonstrates the value of understanding how actors understand movement; why they employ opportunities to move at various times in their lives and the pattern of their movements.