Incest in Palau: "Delemumuu undressed".
Black (1978) and Shewman (1992) have written specifically about incest in the Palauan society however, these publications in some respect have fallen short of articulating the essence of incest as a subject of severe conflict in the traditional and contemporary Palauan society. This paper will attempt to lay out the cultural framework from which incest is defined, summarize actual cases of incest in Palau and finally discuss some future actions needed to clarify the definition as well as, detailing the "burden" of incest in the Palauan society. Information review reveals that incest is occurring in Palau in alarming rate however, most of the information are communicated through kelulau (whispers). Kelulau is a secretive and subliminal way for the Palauans to discuss some of these extremely mekull subjects especially, incest. It is the level of kebliil where incest is defined and could differ from clan to clan. Through kelulau one begins to understand that in the Palauan society incest is defined vertically and horizontally through the different units of the social structures. Kelulau reports higher rates of incest even before 1992. Current data bank does provide enough information for accurate prevalence rate incest in Palau to be determined. The article has attempted to provide some basic information about incest in Palau. In all of these incest is defined vertically and horizontally. The Palauan society must be held as the overall perpetrator if, it continues to neglect addressing the issue of incest in Palau.
Kuartei
Stevenson
S
Ministry of Health, Republic of Palau. skuartei@palaunet.com
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007179:Incest / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019029:Palau; D012919:Social Behavior