By Santy Asanuma —-
Fixing the floor is the literal translation of meruul ra ulaol. This expression is used in referring to a marriage between two people who by cultural norms should not be allowed to wed because of their blood relations or membership to the same lineage (telungalek) or clan (kebliil). But as human experience in this case has shown throughout Palauan history up to this day this kind of combination seems to defy all efforts to stop it. As a matter of fact, those who want to separate this unholy union do admit that the attraction between these people is comparable to the timeless love between Romeo and Juliet that not even death can split them apart.
In spite of this love, Palauan society still places a higher value or regard to the sanctity (kerresel ma chedolel) of kinship vis-à-vis being relatives (de kauchad) over this kind of love that may cause disruptions (tomall a klauchad) in family, lineage, or clan where all forms of cultural practice are based upon. Therefore, the proper thing to do is to meruul ra ulaol. This would seek to mitigate and to put to rest sentiments, especially shame, shared by all the relatives and to accept this unusual mating of two relatives as an isolated case and not to be mistaken as the norm. This is not without consequence or punishment for the couple. The couple will be referred to as “ameiu” (kissing cousins as Americans would call them) from time to time by family members just to let them know that their union undermines what Palauan culture define as the main basis of our value system.
Another current social trend that may in some ways contributing to reducing the circle of relationship is the practice in listing names of siblings only for donating money in funerals as opposed to being listed under lineage or even a larger grouping as the clan. As a matter of fact, the ideal (sel kot el ungil) would be to just announce the name of lineage or clan like a Rengalek Ra Rois (children of house of Rois) without having to list individual contributors. Besides the premise (uchetemel a uldasu) on which our cultural traditions operate upon is based on the collective identity of one’s lineage or clan and not so much on individual identity including that of the deceased whose funeral is being held. That is why most of us have often attended a funeral for a person that we have never seen in our entire life.
As a result of this very individualistic attitude, the view of kinship is ever shrinking. This has in turn make it necessary to call out the names of all relatives in all funeral radio announcement for fear of no shows due to lack of personalized (derta el chad) recognition that is expected so much over and above lineage or clan. This phenomenon has led to announcing names (a remetmut ma kikaid) of all lineage or clan members even after names of patriarchs and matriarchs have been called out which was not case before.
So now that people are beginning to lose sight of the extended family model it is quite common to see interbreeding (kauchad el kaubechiil) within clans even lineages today without meruul ra ulaol. Really the floor needs to be fixed before the house falls apart.
