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Modekngei: A New Religion in Belau, Micronesia, by Machiko Aoyagi. Tokyo: Shinsensha Press, 2002. ISBN 4-7877-0207-6; xi + 378 pages, tables, figures, photographs, maps, appendix, glossary, place names, notes, bibliography, index. Y3500.
Originally published in Japanese in 1985, this is an ethnographic account about the Modekngei religion of Belau (the Republic of Palau) in western Micronesia. The religion was founded around 1914, during the Japanese occupation of the islands. Until now, most scholars who conducted research on Modekngei have characterized it as an anticolonial social movement, from its beginning and throughout the Japanese administration period, which took on the guise of syncretic religion. In this book, Machiko Aoyagi challenges the prevalent notion by providing counterhistorical narratives collected from Belauan people, and detailed descriptions of Modekngei theology and religious practices among the followers. She argues that Modekngei was not an anti-Japanese movement, at least at the time of its rise and in the early developmental stage, and has been a religion of Belau.
The outstanding characteristic of this book is no doubt the amount of information about Modekngei religion that Aoyagi makes accessible to readers. Perhaps due to the nature of Modekngei, most former researchers reported difficulty in obtaining much information about it; thus, very little has been written, especially with regard to its religious aspects. In this sense, the 128 Modekngei kesekes (hymns) presented in the appendix in both Belauan and English are a collection of extremely important and rich oral accounts for exploring Modekngei history, cosmology,...