Betel Nut: Cultural and Social Aspects
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Betel nut, known to CHamoru/Chamorro as pugua, can be viewed as a rich marker of cultural and social practice. This nut has played a key role in CHamoru/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 CHamoru/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 CHamoru/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.
Areca catechu in the Mariana Islands
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 CHamoru/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 CHamoru/Chamorro chewers, although reasons for its disuse are unclear. While tobacco is a common ingredient of the quid in the wider region of Micronesia, CHamoru/Chamorro rarely add it and have not generally done so throughout history.
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 CHamoru/Chamorro. 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 CHamoru/Chamorro. 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 CHamoru/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 CHamoru/Chamorro 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,
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 CHamoru/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 CHamoru/Chamorro. 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 CHamoru/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.
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 CHamoru/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 CHamoru/Chamorro. 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 CHamoru/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
For further reading
Guam Homeless Coalition and The Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority. Guam Homeless Point-in-Time Count, 2013. By Margaret Hattori-Uchima, Maosheng Ren, and Ana Joy Mendez. Mangilao: University of Guam School of Nursing and Health Sciences Faculty, 2013.
Hattori-Uchima, Margaret. “Chuukese Migrant Women in Guam: Perceptions of Barriers to Health Care.” Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal 2, no. 1 (2017): 19-28.
Hattori-Uchima, Margaret, Wood, Kathryn. “Nursing Leadership in Guam.” Nursing Administration Quarterly 43, no. 1, (2019): 19-25.
Hernandez, Julianne. “Margaret Hattori-Uchima: University dean, health care advocate, ‘great’ mom.” Pacific Daily News, 27 December 2022.
KUAM News. “UOG Charter Month 2022: School of Health Dean Dr. Margaret Hattori-Uchima.” 23 March 2022.
Pacific Daily News & Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce. “Top 25 Most Influential Women on Guam 2025: Dr. Margaret Hattori-Uchima.” 7 March 2025.
Paulino, Yvette, C., Margaret Hattori-Uchima, Laura E. Buback, Teofila P. Cruz, Annette L. Aguon, Carlos R. Taitano, Michael J.A. Reid. “Guest essay: Guam experience and lessons for responding to epidemic threats—Academic institution fosters collaborations/multisectoral approach for COVID outbreak and vaccine preparedness.” In Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Health Security: COVID-19 and Ensuring Future Pandemic Preparedness in Ireland and the World. By Sebastian Kevany and Aoife Kirk. Cambridge: Elsevier Academic Press, 2022.