For years the Yapese language has been perceived to be on its way out. In this chapter, this perceived looming death of language is examined as a necessary tangent to traditional Yapese practices, specifically traditional Yapese dances. It examines how the preservation of the traditional practice of dancing is important to the survival of the language and how meaning is created. In this chapter, meaning is specifically gleaned from the body and the spaces from which the traditional Yapese dances emerge. Furthermore, this chapter illustrates how instances of failure to appropriately use meaning in association with dance has resulted in lost meaning.
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I geg Midil.
This phrase translates to “I am Midil”. At face value, this statement looks to reveal nothing more than just my name. But, for a Yapese, their name is more than just an identifier – it is the root of their identity. The word geg is a possessive pronoun that when spoken with an “e” instead of an “a” (gag), tells a Yapese audience that I am from the northern part of Yap. My name itself, Midil, tells the audience of my gender. It tells them that I am from the municipality of Rumung. For the elderly, Midil, is enough of a hint to tell them which village of Rumung, which estate within the village, and by default, my genealogy. For others who are not as knowledgeable of Yapese names and their corresponding estates, in the least, it tells them that I am Yapese. This is because in Yap, the land is central to everything – the society, the politics, and the language.
In this chapter, I examine traditional Yapese dances specifically as an extension of the language to identify ways in which changes to language forms have affected social practices and people’s understanding of their purposes. First, I define traditional Yapese dances – I explain their classifications in terms of gender and type and its significance. Then, I examine the choreography, attire, and chant of the traditional dance and how they act as supplementary texts to the primary story that is inspired through the dance. Finally, I illustrate how the current language form has distorted and distracted meaning to fit Western ways. This is not to say that change creates cultural impurity, but rather to point out the unconscious process of new meaning replacing the old, which often results in the death of cultural practices that are heavily associated with certain words. This will illustrate how the Yapese people have become complicit in mistranslations and misconceptions about traditional Yapese dances.