[429]
Hezel 1984, 1985; 1987; 1989; Rubinstein 1981; 1982; 1983; 1985; 1987; 1989; McCabe & Walker in press. As Purcell (1991) has shown, suicide was also high during the Japanese Period, and had its roots in similar transitional problems. Hezel (1989:64) argues that the transition from a subsistence to a monitary economy, which took place after World War II, but increased momentum in the late 1960s and especially in the post-compact years in late the 1980s, disrupted traditional family and social structures. [back]
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Spennemann in prep.; Spoehr 1949. A similar indicator is substance abuse, mainly of alcohol, which is common throughout Micronesia (Hezel 1981; Marshall 1979) including in the Marshalls. Again it is the young adult male population which is affected and in two thirds of the Marshallese suicide cases alcohol has been implicated as the facillitator (Hezel 1989).
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