Being a Palauan

Palauan men praise women and state with pride, "Women are strong; men are weak." But men do the planning and make the decisions. This is no more strange to a Palauan than the fact that many children whose biological parents are still alive are adopted many times, and that material advantage should accrue from these transactions to several kinsmen of the child.

Dr. Barnett lets the reader discover the answers to such seeming puzzles by taking him to the scene. Through the author's inductive approach -- a particularly appropriate one for a cultural case study -- Palauan life and behavior, and the reasons being that behavior, unfold before the reader.