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Culture

Chamorro

Peoples

The Chamorro (Chamoru) are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, today divided between Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, descended from Austronesian-speaking settlers who reached the islands roughly 3,500 years ago. Spanish colonization from 1668 brought Catholic missionization, and most Chamorros today are Roman Catholic, though customary respect for taotaomona, the spirits of the ancestral dead, is still widely observed in Chamorro tradition alongside it.

Facts
Origins
Origin Region
The Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, today divided between the United States territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 1
Language Family
Chamorro, an Austronesian language usually placed in its own primary branch of Malayo-Polynesian rather than grouped with its nearer Micronesian neighbors. 2
Traditions
Principal Religious Traditions
Roman Catholicism, introduced by Spanish missionaries from 1668, held today alongside continuing customary respect for taotaomona, the spirits of the ancestral dead. 1
Practice
Practice Status
Living, and practised in varied local forms 1
Connections

Associated With

Roman Catholicism, Denominations
Source Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization in the Central PacificGlenn Petersen

Found In

Micronesian Peoples, Culture Groups
Source Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization in the Central PacificGlenn Petersen

Originated In

Guam, Countries
Source Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization in the Central PacificGlenn Petersen
Micronesia, Regions
Source Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization in the Central PacificGlenn Petersen
In the Other Atlases

In Branch

Austronesian

Also in Language Atlas: the branch this subject belongs to.

Malayo-Polynesian

Also in Language Atlas: the branch this subject belongs to.

Micronesian

Also in Language Atlas: the branch this subject belongs to.

Polynesian

Also in Language Atlas: the branch this subject belongs to.

Sources
1. Traditional Micronesian Societies: Adaptation, Integration, and Political Organization in the Central Pacific
Glenn Petersen, University of Hawai'i Press, 2009
2. The Austronesian Languages
Robert Blust, Asia-Pacific Linguistics, Australian National University, 2013View the Source
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