If Magellan Had Balutan...
An Exploration on History Single Use Plastics in the Marianas
By Moñeka De Oro
Micronesia Climate Change Alliance
Abstract: If Magellan had used any styrofoam or polymer blend products that are common in our modern day fiesta culture, remnants of that trash may still be degrading in our shores, five centuries later. This presentation explores our island's consumption habits and our heavy reliance on imported goods. The introduction of single use plastics is fairly recent for our islands (PostWW2 era), yet it has transformed our lives in innumerable ways. So much of our food and goods are packaged in ways that are wasteful and take a lot of space in our landfills. The island of Guam alone on average creates over 30 tons of trash a day, with our lands so small and finite, its is imperative that we curb our wasteful habits and this history presentation raises community consciousness around this issue. It also will be capturing the behavior changes that are needed, so that more people will adopt more sustainable lifestyles.
After the Marianas History Conference in February 2021, MCCA produced a 5 part webseries on the waste crisis in our region. Here is the link to our youtube channel.
Pottery Making Skills Came with First Settlers
Guam has a history of pottery-making that is more than 3,000 years long. The first people to arrive in the Mariana Islands apparently had brought with them pottery-making skills; the broken remains of their pots, called sherds, have been found at archaeological sites dating back to circa 3500 BP (Before Present). While the earliest Guam pottery shares some characteristics with similarly aged pottery collections from the Philippines and Southeast Asia, its specific place of origin remains unknown. Traditional methods of manufacture continued until the widespread introduction of new manufacturing techniques and Western manufactured vessels during the eighteenth century.
Guam’s prehistoric period, spanning at least 3,000 years, witnessed significant changes in pottery styles and techniques of manufacture. Analysts on Guam describe these changes according to distinct types and specific attributes. These types and attributes are compared with radiocarbon dates taken from the same sites to develop a pottery chronology that encompasses the changes in manufacture over time.
Because the historic literature lacks descriptions of the traditional pottery making techniques and materials, archaeological research provides the basis for what is now known. Researchers
