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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yalius" data-source="post: 3632165" data-attributes="member: 18855">Wealth and social status would be derived from the ability to make longer sea journeys to bring back materials that aren't available to some of the islands <a href="http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2005/09/yapping_about_m.html" target="_blank">See yap stones.</a> There would be very few land-based predators, most every dangerous monster would be either aquatic or amphibious. There would be surprisingly open tolerance of strangers and outsiders; when you might have dozens of linguistically and culturally distinct societies within a few days' travel, xenophobia is a little impractical. You can divergent languages on islands that are so close they can be literally waded between at low tide. A native speaker of one language might be able to understand easily half a dozen other, related languages, that might sound to an untrained speaker to be completely different, but are actually very similar. Offering food to neighbors or strangers is a way of showing hospitality; large, communal fishing expeditions are very common. It's rude to refuse an offer of food.The type of agriculture practiced is VERY fragile; a typhoon that floods a taro patch may affect food supplies for a decade. Socializing with others is a very high priority; finding a certain person you're looking for may involve stopping at half a dozen or more houses, because you don't know who he might be visiting; heck, even the guy you're looking for might not have an idea where he's going to be at any particular time.</blockquote>

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