Marine shell ornaments and the political economy of gendered power in the Mariana Islands

Abstract

Documentary accounts by Spanish visitors to the Mariana Islands during the seventeenth century describe the native Chamorro as a stratified society that was organized into ranked matrilineal clans. Such writers note that while men served as the titular heads of households, women exercised significant power in domestic contexts. The recent excavation of an ancient cemetery (ca. 730 BC to AD 1600/1700) and its grave-good assemblage at Naton Beach on Guam offers an opportunity to independently evaluate Spanish documentary accounts with the archaeological record. A distributional analysis of more than 1700 marine shell and shark tooth ornaments associated with more than 360 burials confirms that adult women were more frequently interred with grave-good ornaments in comparison to adult men. Moreover, women were also buried with a greater number of ornaments and greater diversity of ornament types. We conclude that this archaeological pattern corroborates Spanish documentary accounts of a society wherein women enjoyed significant power in their matrilineal clans for at least 2000 years.

Keywords:

• Shell ornaments
• political economy
• gender
• Guam
• Micronesia

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge various contributions of our many colleagues including Mike Carson, David DeFant, Joanne Eakin, Lynn Leon Guerrero, Rosalind Hunter-Anderson, Darlene Moore, Nicolette Parr, Fiona Petchey, Kat Szabo, Eleanor Wells, and William Whitehead. Moreover, we sincerely appreciate the constructive comments and suggestions that we received from Boyd Dixon and an anonymous reviewer on an earlier draft of this paper; their insights were invaluable. We alone, however, are responsible for any (and all) flaws in our analysis or interpretations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).