Betel nut, known to Chamorros as pugua, can be viewed as a rich marker of cultural and social practice.  This nut has played a key role in Chamorro cultural dynamics and family relationships. Its treatment since colonization has revealed tensions of cultural identity. Pugua can thus serve as a lens through which a variety of Chamorro cultural and social issues can be understood. 

International Areca 

Areca catechu is the scientific term for the nut, although people worldwide use the term “betel nut.” This is due to the nut’s association with the betel leaf, Piper betle. Known to Chamorro as pupulu, the betel leaf serves as the wrapper when preparing a package for chewing. Areca catechu thrives in tropical climates and adapts to a wide range of soil types. It can be found in East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, across tropical Asia, and the Pacific Islands.  

Numerically, most of the world’s chewers are from the heavily populated region of South Asia. This includes the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka where millions of chewers live.  Many chewers can also be found in China’s Hunan Province, as well as in Taiwan and across Southeast Asia. The Indian diaspora has transported the Areca nut across the world. Chewers can today be found in countries from South Africa and Tanzania to England and Canada.  

In Oceania, Areca catechu is believed to be native to Melanesia. Chewing across that region can be seen especially in the Solomon Islands, northern Vanuatu, and in Papua New Guinea’s coastal villages. Within the northwest Pacific, natives of Palau, Yap, and the Mariana Islands have long chewed the Areca nut.  

In the Mariana Islands, the nuts are grouped into two cultivars, red (ugam) and white (changnga). The mature ugam nuts are far more popular among Chamorro chewers.  For much of Guam’s history, the typical chewing quid, or mama’on, was comprised of three parts.  Typically, pieces of the husked nut would be topped with a small quantity of slaked lime (åfok). This would then be wrapped in pupulu, the piper betel leaf.  Explorers’ accounts since the 1500s describe this three-ingredient quid.  In recent years, however, the addition of lime is not common among Chamorro chewers, although reasons for its disuse are unclear. While tobacco is a common ingredient of the quid in the wider region of Micronesia, Chamorros rarely add it and have not generally done so throughout history.   

Areca catechu in the Mariana Islands

Archaeological data from Guam’s Orote Peninsula area establishes that Areca catechu was an indigenous plant. It was present even before human settlement. Yet these studies suggest that pugua chewing was not common among pre-latte Chamorros. One study of burials dating from AD 590-1000 found only three percent of the human remains with betel stained teeth.   

Excavations of latte era sites, on the other hand, demonstrate high rates of pugua stained teeth. Human skeletal remains show pugua stained teeth among almost all Chamorros. Chewing was enjoyed by both males and females, from teens through adults. These studies date the chewing of pugua then to at least 1,500 years ago.   

Moreover, the staining of the teeth was regarded as a sign of beauty. Evidence from written accounts over a 400-year span confirms this. Observations by priests in the 1600s and 1700s identify stained teeth as a mark of beauty and majesty. An 1850 account by a visiting whaler stated that Chamorro women prided themselves on the bright-red appearance of their teeth, and a 1925 dental report shared the same observation.   

Social aspects of pugua

Extensive archival descriptions of pugua chewing among the Chamorros come from the 1819 account of a French explorer. Louis Claude de Freycinet described pugua as something of necessity. It formed an important part of everyday life. It also appeared in ceremonial festivities surrounding birth, death, and marriage. As Freycinet documented in 1819, 

As soon as a marriage union was planned, the mother of the would be bride-groom or, in case of need, his grandmother or closest female relation, would arm herself with a box for betel (saluu) and pay a visit to the mother of the girl he had in view.  On arrival, she would hasten to offer some of the betel she had purposely brought with her, before the hostess had time to offer her any of the usual betel.  By starting her visit in this particular way, she immediately gave her hostess to understand that a marriage was to be discussed. 

By accepting the pugua offering, the bride’s family signified their approval of the marriage proposal. 

The nut and betel leaf also function in the medicine chest of yo’amte, traditional Chamorro healers.  For example, both the betel leaf and nut are ingredients to help treat infant teething.  The nut and leaf are boiled to make a tea to sooth sore mouths or diarrhea. In another medicine, the boiled juice from the young green nut can be used to treat vomiting. Commonly, chewers proclaim its benefits as an appetite suppressant and as an aide to alleviate stomach aches and headaches. 

Negative remarks by colonial officials display their general disapproval of the custom. From the early 1900s, US Navy officials opposed the practice, even US Navy Lieutenant William Safford. While generally admired for his cultural sensitivity, Safford described pugua chewing as a disagreeable habit. By 1939, visiting anthropologist Laura Thompson observed that pugua chewing was becoming less popular with younger Chamorros. She stated that due to the American influence, young people were now chewing gum instead. A Navy dentist in 1952 reported that many of his patients denied chewing because of social and cultural pressures to quit. These were part of the navy’s Americanization campaign.  

Pugua has been present in the everyday life of the Chamorro people since the latte era.  Its presence has been noted at births and deaths, marriages and funerals. Its use extends to herbal medicine, both among healers and the general population. In its versatility and easy portability, pugua opened doors to hospitality among strangers as well as among family and friends. Sharing pugua has been a common way to break the ice and slow the pace so that social interactions could occur.  

Editor’s note: Parts of this essay were previously published as Hattori, Anne Perez, “Betel Mania, from Culture to Cancer: Digestive and Discursive Uses of the Betel Nut (Areca catechu) on Guam.”  Pacific Studies, Vol. 41(3), 2018, 199-223. 

By Anne Perez Hattori, PhD

For further reading

Freycinet, Louis C.D., An Account of the Corvette L’Uranie’s Sojourn at the Mariana Islands, 1819. Supplemented with the Journal of Rose de Freycinet. Trans. Glynn Barratt. Saipan: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Historic Preservation, 2004. 

Haddock, Robert, ​A History of Health in Guam. Tamuning, GU: Crushers Football Club, 2010. 

Hattori, Anne Perez, “Betel Mania, from Culture to Cancer: Digestive and Discursive Uses of the Betel Nut (Areca catechu) on Guam.”  Pacific Studies, Vol. 41(3), 2018, 199-223. 

Paulino, Yvette C., ​Describing and Measuring Variability of Areca Catechu (Betel Nut) Chewing in Micronesian Populations in Guam. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, 2009. 

Paulino, Yvette C., Novotny, R., Miller, M.J., & Murphy, S.P., “​Areca (Betel) Nut Chewing Practices in Micronesian Populations.  Hawaii Journal of Public Health 3 (1): 19-29, 2011. 

Thompson, Laura T., ​Guam and Its People. New York: Greenwood Press, 1941.