Hello. I'm in the process of writing a novel (have been for a while, put it on the back burner until I had more experience/confidence/an actual portfolio, and am finally ready to pick it up again) and one of the main characters is intended to be from Guam. I don't plan to have it featured too heavily in the actual story, but want to have enough information to portray anything that does need to be in a relatively accurate and appropriate light, and just for personal interest. I'm specifically looking for things around the mid to late 17th century, right around the period it was initially colonized by the Spanish (the story is taking place in the 1680-90's, and the character is 30-40 years old, and would have left Guam as a teenager/young adult) I've tried my hand online for quite a while, but it seems like anything I'm looking for either doesn't exist, or is contradictory to other sources, moreso than other cultures I've looked into. Things like the general culture, language, traditions both on a cultural and personal level, societal set-up, etc. Anything that could be useful to creating a functional, realistic character. What were the classes of society, and what defined them? Was there a varied tribal setup, or was the island all one community? If the former, how did the different communities interact with one another, were there hostilities? What about interaction with the neighbouring islands, if they were any? Were body modifications present? I've read that there's no evidence of tattooing, but I have seen things regarding staining teeth. Were these reserved for higher-class citizens? How did the people initially react to the Spanish? Any personal information or links to reliable sources would be incredibly appreciated, thank you! Sorry for the long post, and any formatting or spelling issues, I'm on mobile.
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.
For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.