Page 24 - French Polynesia

lasses and Castes. The class structure socially prominent. motu Archipelago between 1966 and 1996.
In August 1999, France maintained a force
C closely mimics that of metropolitan S ymbols of Social Stratification. Class of 2,300 military personnel and a police
structure is most evident in the display force of six hundred.
France: small upper class, large middle and
lower-middle classes, and a small number

of poor people. The upper class includes of imported goods such as automobiles and M arriage. Residents recognize several
wealthy Polynesian-European families, clothing. There is residential segregation of kinds or degrees of marital union.
Chinese merchant families, and foreign resi- social classes in the urban areas of Tahiti,

dents. The middle class includes members with oceanfront and ridgetops dominated At one end of the continuum is the union

of all ethnic groups. These families typically by the upper classes, the flat littoral plain of a couple instituted by civil (French)

own their own homes and have at least by middle-class households, and the inte- and church ceremonies and celebrated

one wage earner in the household. The rior valleys by lower-class households. On by wedding feasts for relatives, officials,

Polynesian hierarchy of ranked titles and the outer islands, house style and size also and friends. At the other end are couples

chieftainship has disappeared, but Polyne- mark social stratification, while location is that live and eat together without a civil

sians continue to keep detailed genealogi- less indicative of class. ceremony who are committed to raising a

cal records and the descendants of chiefly M ilitary Activity. France tested nuclear family together and are considered by their
families are aware of their history. The weapons at Mururoa Atoll in the Tua- neighbors to be married.
descendants of the Tahitian monarchy are