ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the challenge to Anuta's chiefly system and the islanders' response. Anutans quickly converted and, within a few years, the community became almost entirely Christian. Still, communication with the outside world was, at best, sporadic until the 1960s. Increased interaction with the outside world has brought new opportunities. Metal tools and imported fishing line mean higher productivity with less expenditure of effort. At the same time, islanders have struggled to retain those aspects of their lives that offer meaning – that provide them with a sense of order in the world and of their place within it. In addition to Anuta's small size and geographic isolation, its terrain is unsuitable for commercial agriculture, and the island lies outside of normal shipping lanes. For all these reasons, Anutans have been spared much of the disruption – social, economic, political, and psychological – experienced by islanders in many parts of Oceania.
