An email discussion about the origin of a word for Micronesian marching dances.
From Takuya Nagaoka, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, to ASAO List, May 25, 2005:
- I am looking for the origin of one word, which is used in calls of
Micronesian marching dances. In Pohnpei, for example, the leader calls
"left, right, astailong, one, two, stop" to coordinate dancers' steps. In
Yap, they call "maas, maas, mastailan" ("maas" is the name for the marching
dance, a loan from English "march" or German "marsch") between verses.
Variants of "astailong" or "mastailan" seem to be widely used on other
islands (e.g., Chuuk, Palau). I am suspecting it might be originated from
German or Pidgin, as the marching dance spread in Micronesia during the
German period in the early 1900s. Any thoughts?
From Peter Black to Justin Andrew, Huan Hosei, Marcus Hangaripaii,Sebasian Marino, May 24, 2005:
- Here's a message that is kind of interesting. I can't remember what words people use for dancing/marching in Hatohobei.
From Peter Black to Takuya Nagaoka, May 25, 2005:
- Greetings:
I have sent your question along to four friends from Tobi (Hatohobei)
one of the Southwest Islands of Palau. They are all interested in language
and in dance and may send you some information. Best wishes
From Justin Andrew to Takuya Nagaoka with copies to Peter Black, Huan Hosei, Marcus Hangaripaii, Sebasian Marino, May 25, 2005:
- This is my take on this "marching" dance or word issue. Micronesians did not have marching dances before. The kind of marching dances we see now was invented during or after WWII. We often hear the words "nep" and "roi" when Palauans do their "matamatong" or hamonica dance---and I strongly suspect that these marching phrases or commands were borrowed from the English words for Left and Right like the military sergeant would bark out at his group. And I think it is probably the same all over micronesia, except far reaching islands like Tobi where military influence was little or none. Although we have the word for walk, we do not have the word for March.
From Sebastian Marino to Takuya Nagaoka with copies to Justin Andrew, Peter Black, Huan Hosei, Marcus Hangaripaii, May 25, 2005:
- Well, here is my take on this issue. The marching dances are contemporary Micronesian dances. Throughout all the Micronesian Islands , there are traditional dances that are unique to each island, but don't have the marching phrases. Palau for example, the traditional man and woman's dance don't have the marching phrases. However, the contemporary dance "matamatong" that has the marching phrase is not traditional dance of Palau . If I can remember, matamatong dance used to be called "ruk". I am suspecting that this dance may have been borrowed from Chuuk. As Justin said, many of the far reaching islands, (Tobi is one) don't have these marching dances and that's because of lack of influence from the previous colonial areas.
From Takuya Nagaoka to Justin Andrew, Peter Black, Huan Hosei, Marcus Hangaripaii, Sebasian Marino, June 4, 2005:
- Kaselehlie maingko from Auckland!
Thank you for your comments on the marching dance. I have joined a Japanese
ethnomusicologist, Junko Konishi's research project on the origin and
diffusion of Micronesian marching dances. As far as we know, this kind of
dance spread into western Carolines at the phosphate mining on Angaur during
the German to early Japanese period. As Justine suggested, Chuukese had a
role in this spread. In addition, we know Palauan word "matamatong" is a
loan word from Pohnpeian "mwadong" or "mwadomwadong", meaning 'to play,
dance', we suspect that exiled Pohnpeians in Palau from so-called "Sokehs
Rebellion" in 1911 also had a key to this diffusion. According to my
Pohnpeian friends, Pohnpeian learned it from Marshallese who worked in
Pohnpei during the German period and Marshallese learned it from Nauruan.
We still don't know the precise process and hopefully will understand it
more fully later. Anyway, thank you for your information. Kalahngan.
From Takuya Nagaoka to Justin Andrew, Peter Black, Huan Hosei, Marcus Hangaripaii, Sebasian Marino, September 12, 2006:
- Hi Palauan friends,
I hope you would remember me. Peter forwarded my email on Palauan marching dance last year. Thank you for your comments at that time. We are still working on this project to examine the history of marching dance in Micronesia.
Today, I am writing you to ask about commands used in Palauan matamatong. In Pohnpei, for example, the leader calls "left, right, astailong, one, two, stop/dance" to coordinate dancers' steps. In Yap, they call "maas, maas, mastailan" ("maas" is the name for the marching dance there, a loan from English "march" or German "marsch") between verses. I suspect that a similar word to "astailong" or "mastailan" is used in matamatong too. Please write me the Palauan commands in your spelling.
If you like, you can forward my message to your friends too. Thank you for your information. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.
From Justin Andrew to Takuya Nagaoka with copies to Peter Black, Huan Hosei, Marcus Hangaripaii, Sebasian Marino, September 13, 2006:
- Hi, this is Justin. Your topic is interesting. To help with Palauan matamatong commands, this is what I've always heard from the late "palauan matamatong master, Abau". When he barks the left and right commands out, he says "nep" "roi". Nep for left and roi for right...so he goes nep, roi, nep, roi etc... and when he is about to stop, he says "di wani stop"---the "o" in this word "stop" is not pronounced as the same as the "o" in its original form....but an "o" that sounds like the "o" in Tobi. And when he is about to begin another number...he calls the nep roi command out and says..."siwe" and the title of the next number. This word "siwe" I think is borrowed from the East Carolines--possibly Chuuk. Now that Im is Saipan where there is a large Chuuk community, I see and here similar commands and movements in their dances as the ones they do in Palau.
Hope this helps....I may have missed something...anyone??