Tonga, the South Pacific island kingdom located east of Fiji and south of Samoa, is one of the world’s few remaining constitutional monarchies. Although Tonga has long been linked to the world system through markets and political relationships, in the last few decades emerging regional and global structures have had particularly intense and transformative effects. Today, because of greatly increased labour migration, people, money, and resources are in constant circulation among Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.
In Persistence of the Gift, Evans provides a detailed ethnographic and historical analysis of how, in spite of superficial appearances to the contrary, traditional Tongan values continue to play key roles in the way that Tongans make their way in the modern world. But this ethnography is neither that of a timeless “ethnographic present” nor of a remote coral atoll. Instead, like the inhabitants of Tonga themselves, the monograph begins in the islands, and works outward, tracing how Tongans seek to meet their own, culturally specific goals, within the constraints, challenges, and opportunities of the world system.
Tongan culture, like our own, continues to transform in the face of global change, but the changes experienced by Tongans everywhere are patterned and managed by the values of Tongan agents. Both creative and conservative, the emerging transnationalist system continues to be discernibly and proudly Tongan.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 306/.099612
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- poto---
- ISBN
- 0889203695 9780889209442
- LCCN
- DU880
- LCCN Item number
- E92 2001eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xii, 208 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)gtp00521613 (OCoLC)52729261 (CaOOCEL)402680
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Contents 7
- List of Figures and Tables 9
- Acknowledgements 11
- Chapter One: Introduction — Recentring the Periphery 13
- Chapter Two: Economic Development in Polynesia 25
- Chapter Three: Social Structure and Organization during the Contact and Early Post-Contact Period 39
- Chapter Four: European Contact and the Transformation of the Traditional Polity 57
- Chapter Five: Contemporary Social Organization among Village Commoners 73
- Chapter Six: The Island Economy 87
- Chapter Seven: Gift Exchange and Ceremony 139
- Chapter Eight: Conclusion — By Their Actions Ye Shall Know Them 163
- Appendice One: A Comparison of the Population and Demography of Ha'ano Island and the Kingdom of Tonga As a Whole 175
- Appendice Two: Glossary of Tongan Terms 181
- Appendice Three: Configuration of Households — Pila and Leti 185
- Notes 187
- References Cited 201
- Index 215
- A 215
- B 215
- C 215
- D 216
- E 216
- F 217
- G 217
- H 217
- J 217
- K 217
- L 218
- M 218
- N 218
- O 218
- P 218
- R 219
- S 219
- T 219
- U 220
- V 220
- W 220
- Y 220
