Village women weave a basket and cloth for a lava. Lavas are the traditional loincloth worn by many Micronesian men. Today handwovencloth is being replacedby imported manufactured fabric.
culture, but these too are essentiallytransplantsof U.S. programs. A more general basis for historic and cultural preservationexists in the form of conventionsand recommendations of the United Nations and its Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Crganization (UNESCO). For instance, the U.N. (JniversalDeclaration of Human Rights, at Article 22, assertsthe right of every individual to the "cultural rights indispensablefor his dignity and the freedevelopment of his personality". UNESCO's Recommendation Concerningthe Protection, at National Level, of the Cultural and Natural Heritase statesthat:
of comprehensivehistoric preseruationprograms in all nations, and the specific protection of historic properties threatenedby constructionprojects: its Recotnmendation Concerning the Safeguarding and Contemporary Role of Historic Areas calls for maintaining historic properties as living parts of the modern environment through sound local and regional planning. In the Trust Territory Code itself, there is presently a singlechapter of six sectionsdealingwith historic preservation,and nothing dealing with the preservationof intangibleaspectsof culture. Title 67. Chapter ll, Sections 252-256 deal with "historic sites,buildings,and objectsof territorial significance". The Deputy Director for Resourcesand Development is authorized by these sectionsto survey and studl' historic sites, to acquire them, restore them. administer them, manage them, grant concessionsto operate them, place tablets to commemorate them. and develop educational programs about them. Sections252-256haye neverbeenimplemented.
"each item of th e c ult ur al and nat ur al her it age i s unique a nd . . . th e dis appear anc e of any one it e m constitu tes a de finite los sand an ir r ev er s ibleim pair m e n t of (a na tion 's) h erita ge ".
UNESCO's Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of Cultural Property Endangered by Public and Private Works calls for the establishment
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