Continuing to be a mother: grandmothering on Pollap

Perspectives from human evolution and life cycle development frame this paper on grandmothering in a Micronesian setting. On Pollap Atoll in the Central Caroline Islands, being a grandmother is part of a developmental process that involves aging and a changing parental role. Being an older woman is interwoven with being a grandmother in much the same way as being an adult woman is interwoven with being a mother. Much of the work of a grandmother toward grandchildren involves continuing responsibilities to one's adult child. Today's grandmothers continue to carry out these responsibilities in the context of adaptation to migration. The result is a degree of contact with and awareness of the wider world Pollapese have become part of. Grandmothers are not isolated, out of touch, or seen as irrelevant. Reprinted by permission of Institute for Polynesian Studies