Tonga: a new bibliography - further items

These additional entries supplement my book Tonga: a new bibliography (University of Hawai’i Press, 2009). Some are of older material not noted then, but most are of new books and articles published since.

Information about the book can be found on the University of Hawai’i Press website, www.uhpress.hawaii.edu

© Martin Daly 2013

The Country and its People

In search of the Friendly IslandsKalafi Moala. Kealakekua, Hawaii: Pasifika Foundatiion Press and Auckland, New Zealand: Pacific Media Centre, 2009. 148pp.

Surveying the Tongan scene seven years after his previous book (item 688), Moala is troubled by the violence he observes within families today, in the history of Tonga, and in the riots of 16 November 2006 when much of the central business district of Nuku’alofa was destroyed, with particular hostility to the Chinese community. He considers Tonga’s place in the world’s economic systems, the role of the monarchy today and political reform, the meaning of Tongan culture and the place of the elite in the Tongan polity. He concludes with a strong plea for a spiritual reformation to recover moral values as a basis for society, without which political and economic reforms will not achieve the results that people expect.

[After 9]

Tonga - land, sea and peopleEdited by Tangikina Moimoi Steen and Nancy L. Drescher. Nuku’alofa: Tonga Research Association, 2011, 247pp.

This volume contains papers presented at several conferences of the Tonga Research Association.

ForewordHRH Princess Sālote Mafile’o Pilolevu Tuita, ‘Ko hoku tofi’a: defining and interpreting Tonga’s cultural heritage’HistoryNiel Gunson, ‘The dynastic evolution and functional role of the Tu’i Tonga as master shaman’Stephen Donald, ‘Fefakalaitaki - Working to achieve one’s ends?: The Anglican Church and Tongan politics 1899 to 1913’I.C. Campbell, ‘A history policy for Tonga’Wendy Pond, ‘Cook’s observatory at Point Holeva, 1777’

Helen Lee, ‘Missing Persons: children in the history of Tonga’Adrienne L. Kaeppler, ‘Contributions of Tupou II to Tongan art and society’Environment and technologyWendy Pond, ‘An introduction to Tonga’s natural history’Kik Velt, ‘Astronomy in Tonga - an astronomical viewpoint’Tangakina Moimoi Steen, ‘Questioning technology: way forward for a more informed Tonga technological community’Makiko Nishitani, ‘Mobile phones and the internet: transnational and local networks of second-generation Tongan females in Melbourne, AustraliaCulture and languageMele Ongo’alupe Taumoepeau, ‘Ko e Loyo’i Tonga: a crowning jewel’Viliami A. Taumoepeau, ‘Fa’u: prearranged marriages: the essence of all Tongan creations’Mele Ongo’alupe Taumoepeau, ‘Proverbial reflections’Hūfanga ‘Okusitino Māhina, ‘Comedy and tragedy in myths, poems and proverbs: a ta-va time-space art and literary criticismSvenja Völkel Hartung, ‘Linguistic means expressing social stratification in Tonga’Malia Talakai, ‘Intellectual property issues and challenges in the work of cultural institutions in the Kingdom of Tonga’Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine and Hūfanga ‘Okusitino Māhina, ‘Kula and ‘Uli: red and black in Tongan thinking and practice’Michael Poltorak, ‘Comedy, stigma and fakasesele: contesting “mental illness” in Vava’u’Tupou Hopoate, ‘My life in three cultures’

[After 25]

Geography and Environment

Niuatoputapu: story of a tsunamiCompiled by Laura Jeffery. Nuku’alofa, Tonga Books, 2010, 24pp.

In September 2009 a disastrous tsunami struck Niuatoputapu. Nine lives were lost and there was widespread destruction. Three inhabitants tell their stories of their remarkable survival from waves up to 17 metres high. Graphic colour photographs show some of the devastation of property and vegetation.

[After 45]

Travellers’ Accounts

A midshipman’s journal, on board H.M.S. Seringapatam, during the year, 1830; containing brief observations on Pitcairn’s Island and other islands in the South Sea J.Orlebar. London: Whittaker, Treacher and Co., 1833. 83pp.

Orlebar was impressed by Tonga. In Tongatapu he compared the Tongans favourably with the Tahitians. He notes, as other visitors had, the neatness of the countryside, ‘the modesty and gentle behaviour of the women - the independency and uprightness of the men.’ He mistook the Methodist missionaries for Baptists. He heard and tells the story of James Read, shipwrecked in Tonga in

1820 and happily married and settled. He then visited Vava’u. He was ‘very much in favor’ of the inhabitants, and saw great prospects for them, though concerned about increasing European influence. A facsimile reprint was published by Tofua Press in 1976.

[After 74]

Narrative and successful result of a voyage in the South Seas, performed by order of the Government of British India, to ascertain the actual fate of La Pérouse’s expedition, interspersed with accounts of the religion, manners, customs, and cannibal practices of the South Sea islandersP. Dillon. London: Hurst, Chance, 1829. Volume I, 302pp., Volume II, 436pp.

In the course of his expedition to establish the fate of La Pérouse (item 78), Dillon visited Tonga in August 1827. He found a number of European residents, including a survivor of Mariner’s ship the Port au Prince (item 69). Relations with Tongans were largely friendly. His European seamen performed jigs and reels to fife and drum, which delighted a visiting chief. Supplies were obtained and gifts given. He met John Thomas, who told him of the precarious state of the Wesleyan mission, and the Tongan woman who had adopted Mariner as her son, and obtained information on the visit of La Pérouse. He then describes the ‘manners and customs’ of the Tongans, based on Mariner and confirmed from his personal observations: rank and religion, morals and conduct, family relationships, the kava ceremony, sacrifices, funerals, taboo (tapu), omens and curses, medicine and surgery, canoe building, and making ropes and ngatu. He was clearly fascinated by Tonga and regrets having to ‘take leave of my worthy friends in Tonga, and resume my journal.’

[After 75]

Prehistory and Archaeology

Archaeological demography and population growth in the Kingdom of Tonga: 950BC to the historic eraDavid V. Burley. In: The growth and collapse of Pacific island societies: archaeological and demographic perspectives. Edited by Patrick V. Kirch and Jean-Louis Rallu. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007, pp.177-202

From the evidence of archaeology, Burley attempts to estimate the population of Tonga from initial settlement onwards. He relates population growth and density to the potential for agricultural production and evaluates previous estimates of Tonga’s population. He suggests, from the archaeological record, that the population in the first period of Lapita settlement rose from a founding population of perhaps 100 to c.700 by 700BC, increasing by c.1000AD to between 30,000 and 40,000, with a transition from an economy based on reef and maritime exploitation to intensive dryland agriculture. Maps show the range of Lapita and Plainware sites.

[Before 103]

Triangular men on one very long voyage: the context and implications of a Hawaiian-style petroglyph in the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga

Shane Egan and David. V. Burley. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 118, no. 3 (2009), pp.209-32

On the island of Foa, in the Ha’apai group, a Hawaiian-style petroglyph has recently been found, of a style approximately 1400-1600. It has no precedent anywhere in Western Polynesia. The authors describe and illustrate the site and the motifs within the context of the histories of Tonga and Hawaii and of long-distance voyaging between West and East Polynesia. Many of the images closely resemble Hawaiian styles too early to have been carved by Hawaiian visitors in the nineteenth century. The authors suggest that there was indirect voyaging between Tonga and Hawaii in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Polynesian maritime technologies, and wind patterns made such long voyages possible.

[After 125]

History General Tonga

Shamanism in Tonga: an assessmentMeredith Filihia. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 117, no. 4 (2008), pp.383-97

Filihia examines the arguments of Niel Gunson (items [after 25] and 155) that indigenous Tongan religion evolved from shamanism and retained some of its elements well into the eighteenth century, and that the Tu’i Tonga himself was a master shaman. She believes that this is highly problematic. Its key elements are the shamanic trance, contact with spirits and a specific notion of healing. Mariner and other early writers tell of spirit possession, but she sees differences from the classic experiences of shamanism. The role of the dead, through visits to cemeteries, she sees not in terms of shamanism but of a disturbed social order. The Tu’i Tonga did not do many of the things that shamans are supposed to do. There is no evidence of spirit possession, trances, knowledge of esoteric lore or healing. The Tu’i Tonga was the sole paramount ruler, descended from the gods, but did not behave as a shaman.

[After 155]

History: Mission and Church

The Bible and the sword: John Thomas and the Tongan civil war of 1837Martin Daly. Wesley and Methodist Studies, vol. 4 (2012), pp.71-90

In 1837 the future King George fought and defeated his heathen enemies in battle. Some contemporary observers condemned the leader of the Methodist mission, John Thomas, for aggressively encouraging and supporting the war. He was cleared of improper behaviour by the WMMS, but the debate continues as to whether he overstepped the proper limits of his ministry. His journals reveal a man split between his responsibilities as a Christian minister to bring peace, and his need to support a Christian king through whose victory the gospel could be advanced. This paper examines Thomas’s journals, contemporary books and pamphlets, later writings and related events elsewhere in the Pacific at that time, in order to re-evaluate his role.

[Before 165]

Tomasi: for islands far awayHarrison Bray. Palmerston North: Nagare Press, 1990. 101pp. 1 map

Four episodes in the life of John Thomas are portrayed in a drama with music: his selection as a missionary, early discouragements at Kolovai, the baptism of Taufa’āhau at Ha’apai, and his final departure in 1859. The dialogue seems rather stilted and the play does not convey much of the real tensions of his ministry, but it is firmly based on historical sources, with explanatory notes. The music is presented in both Tongan and Western notation.

[After 181]

History Pre-1900

A history of Tonga as recorded by Rev. John ThomasEdited by Nigel Statham, No publisher, 2013, 442pp.

John Thomas, the founder of the Christian church in Tonga, began work on a history of Tonga in 1851 during a period in England. He continued work on it after his final return in 1859, completing it in 1865. His history finishes in 1842. He did not live to see it completed or published. The original manuscript is a massive work of 1318 pages. For the period prior to the arrival of the Duff in 1797 (item 75) he relies for the history and mythology on oral traditions related by Tongans. Vason (item 20), curiously spelled Veeson although he quotes from the printed book, is one source for the period until his own arrival in 1826. Thereafter it seems that he closely follows his own journals. This edition is developed from a typewritten transcription completed in 1983 of a photostatic facsimile of a microfilm copy of the original, in the Methodist Missionary Society archive at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The transcription was digitally scanned to produce this printed text. Statham has lightly edited Thomas’s text to clarify his sometimes erratic syntax and punctuation. He has added an index of proper names, and a CD containing the original unadjusted transcription. This edition makes a large and fundamental source for the history of Tonga readily accessible.

[After 197]

A letter from Tāufa’āhau: Tonga and Samoa are related so stop upsetting usSioana Faupula and Geoff Cummins. The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 45, no. 3 (2010), pp.357-70

In a letter to the Rev. Charles Tucker of 4 July 1844 King George Tupou I tells of a visit to Samoa and pleads for the Christians of Samoa and Tonga to be free to choose how they worship, in the light of conflict between Wesleyans and the London Missionary Society. In 1830 it had been agreed that the Wesleyans would concentrate on Tonga and Fiji, while the LMS would take Samoa, but Wesleyans had continued some work in Samoa. In 1839 they agreed to withdraw but the king was strongly opposed. He had been close to Tucker and his wife. When in Tonga they had played an important part in the development of education and literacy, and the king had seen the importance of this. The previously unknown letter is reproduced in facsimile with Tongan text and English translation, and commentary.

[After 202]

Mafihape’s letter to William Mariner (1832)Nigel Statham. The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 43, no. 3 (2008), pp.341-66

In 1832 Mafihape, one of the wives of Finau ‘Ulukālala, wrote a letter to William Mariner, their adopted son (item 69) and gave it to an Englishman, J. H. Cook, who was visiting Tonga, to deliver to him. A copy of this letter found written in a copy of Mariner’s Account is here transcribed in Tongan and translated into English, with notes and analysis. The letter shows how much she still missed him over twenty years after he left Tonga, and hoped to see him again.

[After 203]

Uncertain times: sailors, beachcombers and castaways as “missionaries” and cultural mediators in Tonga (Polynesia)Françoise Douaire-Marsaudon. In Oceanic encounters: exchange, desire, violence. Edited by Margaret Jolly, Serge Tcherkézoff and Darrell Tryon.. Canberra: ANU E Press, 2009, pp. 161-73.

The author reviews the first European contacts with Tonga between 1796 and 1826, and their impact. The first missionaries, from the Duff in 1797, found six European beachcombers already settled there. Relations started well but then deteriorated, before the mission was abandonned. With the growth of whaling more arrived, some better educated, teaching chiefs to read and write, with some basic knowledge of the Christian faith, William Mariner among them. The missionaries who arrived in 1826 found that many young chiefs had already learned to read the Bible, and built on this in their evangelism, in which literacy was crucial. Douaire-Marsaudon concludes that the heroes of these uncertain times were not only the missionaries but also the beachcombers and castaways who prepared the ground, the first cultural mediators between Europeans and Tongans, who saw literacy as a privileged tool to access the Europeans’ world. The paper is largely based on secondary sources, particularly Gunson’s chapter, ‘The coming of foreigners’ (in item 143) and Lātūkefu (item 190).

[After 213]

Language

Changing scholarly representations of the Tongan honorific lexiconSusan U. Philips. In Consequences of contact: language ideologies and sociocultural transformations in Pacific societies. Edited by Miki Makahira and Bambi B. Schieffelin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp.189-215

Philips examines the way in which the use of the two forms of honorific language, for chiefs and royalty, has changed over the past two hundred years, noting in particular the transfer of honorific language from leaders human but sacred to the secular political authority of the king and titled nobles, as a result of collaboration between Wesleyan missionaries and Tongan leaders who together mapped a British concept of constitutional monarchy onto the traditional Tongan polity. The sacred Tu’i Tonga became the secular king. The specific honorific words have not changed, but their use has, and today is fluid and complex. For example chiefly terms are used for commoner members of

parliament and other authority figures such as judges. New and more egalitarian religious groups such as Mormons and Pentecostals use honorifics less than Wesleyans, and not for God.

[After 235]

How Tongans make sense of the (non-)use of lexical honorificsSusan L. Philips. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, vol. 21, no. 2 (2011), pp.247-60

Philips identifies two different kinds of realizations in Tongan language ideology about the use of lexical honorifics, which sometimes should be used but are not. She shows how Tongans draw upon their own and others’ ‘biographically determined situations’ to explain why why some did not use honorifics when they should, and suggests some reasons why, including religion (Mormons do not use chiefly language to refer to God while Wesleyans do), education and residence overseas. Chiefly families in particular are seen to become westernized and no longer know the traditional Tongan way of doing things.

[After 236]

Language, space and social relationships: a foundational cultural model in PolynesiaGiovanni Bennardo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 371pp. 18 maps. (Language, Culture and Cognition 9)

Drawing on fieldwork in Tongatapu, Vava’u and Niuatoputapu and a deep knowledge of the language, Bennardo employs a complex linguistic analysis to ascertain the relationship between language and the mental organization of knowledge. He applies this to the way in which Tongans understand the space in which they live and their social relationships. The book is rich in ethnographic data on many aspects of village life: the significance of space in the layout of the village and within houses and churches, family structure, village meetings, kava ceremonies, feasts and celebrations, church services, weddings and funerals. He suggests a way to understand how Tongans see their place in their physical and social worlds.

[After 239]

Semantic and intentional indirectness in TonganSusan U. Philips. Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 42, no. 2 (2010), pp.317-36

Chiefly language in Tongan consists of two levels of alternatives to everyday vocabulary items. They are considered by Tongans as ‘indirect.’ Tongan also has the concept of heliaki, ‘to say one thing and to mean another.’ Some terms are vague and have multiple meanings. Philips makes a basic distinction between the semantic indirectness of the Tongan lexical honorifics, the words themselves and the indirectness of their use in speech. She tabulates commoner, chiefly and kingly language terms as listed by other authors, but suggests that the use of honorifics is more complex and fluid than has been suggested. She provides detailed analysis of examples of speech used at meetings, feasts, funerals and the courts.

[After 248]

Social structure, space and possession in Tongan culture and language

Svenja Völkel. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2010. 272pp. 6 maps. (Culture and Language, 2)

The main concern of this study, a published version of Völkel’s Ph.D. thesis, (see after 268) is the close connection between language, culture and cognition in Tonga, focusing on the relationship between social structure, space and possession. An anthropological section leads to a linguistic analysis, examining whether there is a relationship between the linguistic particularities of the honorific system of a language of respect, and cultural structures. The anthropological research was conducted in the village of Niutoua, with a detailed description of its social structure and kinship systems, of land tenure, of space as shown in the kava circle, and in the economy and gift exchange. The linguistic data derives fro interviews around Nuku’alofa. She concludes that stratification is important and is expressed in many ways, among them land tenure, community support and gift exchange, kinship terminology and respect language. Language is deeply rooted in the sociocultural system.

[After 250]

Tongan ways of talkingMelenaite Taumoefolau. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 121, no. 4 (2012), pp.327-72

The author identifies ways of talking in Tongan which have not been previously described. These are for the king, for chiefs, for matapule (orators), for those of higher rank and for social equals, and also abusive talk. She believes that the number of registers described for Tongan should be six rather than the three usually identified. She examines the complex social and subtle social factors involved in speech, and notes that fewer Tongans now, particularly expatriates, are familiar with the higher forms. She provides and analyses in great detail specimen texts, some written and some spoken, to illustrate her thesis, showing the use of respect and metaphor. Yet, she concludes, the five ways of talking overlap and include one another as they interact.

[After 261]

PhD THESES

Ko e ako lea ‘a e fanau ta’u nima ‘i Tonga: Five-year old children learning language practices at home and school in TongaS.’U.T. Fonua. Victoria University of Wellington, 2003

[After 266]

Social structure, space and possession in Tongan culture and language: an ethnolinguistic researchSvenja Völkel. University of Mainz, Germany, 2007

[After 268]

Society

Ceremonial objects as signs of identity in Tonga and in WallisFrançoise Douaire-Marsaudon. In The changing South Pacific: identities and transformations. Edited by Serge Tcherkézoff and Françoise Douaire-Marsaudon. Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2005, pp. 207-29.

Significant occasions in Tonga, as in Wallis, are marked by ceremonial presentations, often massive, of food (kai) and mats and other articles of traditional wealth (koloa). The author describes some presentations which she observed and some from earlier records. She considers the relationship between the chief and those making the presentation. The mana of the chief was believed to cause crops to grow and children to thrive. The people must be generous to the chief, but he must be also to them. Kai is the gift of men, and is rapidly redistributed so that all share. Koloa is the work and gift of women and is often accumulated. It is symbolic of the life cycle - birth, marriage and death. Both kai and koloa are signs of promises of life, the future of the kin group. She considers how tradition has adapted to modern life, particularly the arrival of Christianity. With a food freezer the pork ceremonially presented can be kept rather than distributed. Koloa now has a monetary value, and in some cases money replaces it.

[After 298]

Elopement, kinship and elite marriage in the contemporary Kingdom of TongaGeorge E. Marcus. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, vol. 35, no. 63 (1979), pp.83-96

Elopement has become more frequent in Tonga, particularly among those for whom the perpetuation and increase of wealth, position and prestige are important. It is usually accepted, following reconciliation by the girl’s family, as it rarely conflicts with the family’s expectations. Marcus describes cases which he observed, relates them to the organization of Tongan kinship, and considers elite families where there is concern for their distinctive social position, and where paternal control is particularly characteristic. Tongans have adapted their traditional kinship system to the twentieth-century pattern of largely independent nuclear family households, where adolescent boys largely avoid close contact with sisters. He describes courtship, where an unmarried girl may make kava for a group of young men; elopement with immediate marriage which may be accepted by the girl’s family; and subsequent apology and reconciliation, with ceremonial presentations and the couple’s presence in church. He relates this to the analysis of Tongan kinship by Kaeppler (item 344) and Rogers (item 308).

[After 306]

Materialising the king: the royal funeral of King Tāufa’āhau Tupou IV of TongaFanny Wonu Weys. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 20, no. 1 (2009), pp.131-49

Weys’ focus is on the objects presented at the funeral of King Tāufa’āhau Tupou IV in September 2006. She argues that the traditional prestige objects (barkcloth, mats, baskets and coconut oil), what she calls modern objects (flowers and quilted bedspreads) and contemporary objects (cakes wrapped in clingfilm, plastic bags of crisps, chocolates and sweets, appropriate for a king who brought Tonga into the modern world) represented in material form qualities embodied by the deceased king, respectively as a descendent of a mythical ruler, as the fourth king of a modern Christian dynasty, and as a contemporary ruler who reformed both education and the economy. She describes ways in which objects were presented and the significance of each type, and relates them

to historical descriptions of earlier funerals. She notes the spatial distinction between goods presented by men and by women, and the protection offered both to the deceased and the people by wrapping and anointing. The traditional gifts presented reaffirmed and sustained the ties of the donors with the late king and linked him to his successor.

[After 327]

Modernity, cosmopolitanism and the emergence of middle classes in TongaNiko Besnier. The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 21, no. 2 (2009), pp.215-262

Following earlier studies by Benguigui (item 330) and James (item 320) Besnier sets out what seem to be the salient characteristics of the middle class in general, and then relates them to Tonga today. He questions the identification of the pro-democracy movement with an emerging urban professional middle class, but sees city-dwellers who occupy a position between tradition and modernity. They live in a cosmopolitan world of conspicuous consumption, owning large cars, eating in restaurants. They find creative and multiple ways of earning money. Increasingly they buy good and services which were once part of traditional kinship-based reciprocity, for instance employing cleaners and gardeners. Even funerals can now be organized by entrepreneurs. But they have no unity of political views, and social class does not replace rank.

[After 331]

On the edge of the global: modern anxieties in a Pacific island nationNiko Besnier. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011. 297pp. 4 maps.

How does Tonga, rich in tradition and with its hierarchical society, come to terms with the pressures of the modern world? Besnier takes six case studies to see how this works at grassroots level. These are the secondhand clothes market in Nuku’alofa, pawnshops, the Miss Heilala and Miss Galaxy pageants, a hair salon, a gym and a pentecostal Christian church. With his deep knowledge of Tonga, these case studies are full of fascinating insights. He concludes that Tongans ‘configure modernity in accord with the local.’

[After 335]

The social production of abjection: desire and silencing among transgender TongansNiko Besnier. Social Anthropology, vol. 12, no. 3 (2004), pp.301-23

Besnier investigates the annual Miss Galaxy beauty pageant in Nuku’alofa in which transgender men display their outfits, their talents and themselves to large audiences. He particularly analyses the jokes that the Master of Ceremonies makes at the expense of the contestants, setting them in the context of the ideologies of social relations in Tonga. They are rejected and excluded from mainstream society’s gendered relations, which produce what is possible, what is coherent and what is Tonga. He describes the position of the leitī (lady, as transgendered men are known), struggling with stratified Tongan society in which the traditional significance of rank is now being challenged. He describes their relationship with ‘straight’ men, married and single, the pressures to which this exposes them, and the cosmopolitan image which they cultivate. Many of the tensions between leitīs and mainstream Tongan society mirror those in the relationship between Tonga and the outside world.

[After 346]

Ta fihi: from tangled web we weave anewLia Maka. In Lalanga Pasifika: weaving the Pacific - Stories of empowerment from the South Pacific. Edited by Arlene Griffen. Suva: Pacific Studies Programme, University of the South Pacific, 2006, pp.21-102

Maka examines two organizations working for the welfare and empowerment of women in a patriarchal and hierarchical society. ‘Aloua ma’a Tonga (‘two people paddling for Tonga’) works to improve basic living conditions and generate income by, for example, providing water tanks, campaigning for environmental improvements and developing crafts for sale. The Catholic Women’s League, opposed by some in the Catholic church, runs programmes on health, life skills and the rights of women, dealing particularly with domestic violence and child abuse. Maka describes their structures and projects, their successes and their failures and concludes that both, in different ways, have made a positive impact on those most in need of help.

[After 349]

Tā, vā and Moana: temporality, spatiality and indigeneityHāfanga ‘Okusitino Māhina. Pacific Studies, vol. 33, nos 2/3 (2010), pp.163-202

In the terms of his tā-vā (time-space) theory of reality which Māhina contrasts with linear western concepts, people are thought to walk forwards into the past and backwards into the future. He sees western education as turning out doers rather than thinkers, with Moana (the Pacific) being consumer rather than producer led. He considers how this applies to the study of anthropology and genealogy, the relationship of kin and gender groups. He records his own intellectual development, the scholars who influenced him and those who have taken up and developed his theories. He sees the form and content of artistic subjects (poetry, music, dance) as being transformed from a condition of chaos to a state of order, and relates this to Tongan art (performance, material and fine), all constitutive of time and space.

[After 349]

When gifts become commodities: pawnshops, valuables, and shame in Tonga and the Tongan diasporaPing-Ann Addo and Niko Besnier. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 14, no. 1 (2008), pp.39-59

The authors examine how past and future, continuity and change, and locality and extra-locality are observed in the exchange of women’s traditional textiles, of little practical value but enormous cultural significance. One way in which they circulate and acquire value as commodities is through pawning, which has emerged in recent decades as demand increases, not least from diasporic Tongans, and supply decreases. The authors describe the pawnshops of Nuku’alofa and Auckland, often very profitable, and the shame many users feel at needing to use them, as traditionally the kinship system should provide all one’s needs. Using them implies that one is poor, and poorly integrated into society. Anxieties about the place of tradition and modernity in individuals’ lives continue to be worked out at the pawnshop.

[After 358]

PhD THESES

From hyperghettoization to the hut: dilemmas of identity among transmigrant tipoti in the Kingdom of TongaJoseph W. Esser. University of Minnesota, 2011

[After 362]

Tauhi vā: creating beauty through the art of sociospatial relations T.O. Ka’ili. University of Washington, Seattle, 2007

[After 368]

Kava

Leaving anger outside the kava circle: a setting for conflict resolution in TongaErnest G. Olson. In Cultural variation in conflict resolution. Edited by Douglas P. Fry and Kaj Björkqvist. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997, pp.79-90.

Tongan society stresses the ideal of social harmony. Olson contrasts the peaceful kava-drinking circle with alcohol-drinking events which lead to violence. He describes and analyses the informal faikavas in which men gather late into the night, showing how elders reinforce community values and how, through humour and joking, inappropriate behaviour, particularly among young males, can be criticised and social tensions reduced as individuals conform to community norms. At the same time the kava circle can generate competition, for example in raising money, but within a controlled forum. It can also be a setting for courtship between young men and the female kava server.

[After 379]

Sustainability of the kava tradeNancy J. Pollock, The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 21, no. 2 (2009), pp.265-297

In her examination of the international trade in kava, its pharmaceutical use and its effects on the economies of the producing countries, Pollock takes Tonga as one of her four examples. She describes both its ritual and informal use, its value as a cash crop and the demand for it in Tongan communities overseas, serving as a symbol of Tongan identity.

[After 379]

Health and Welfare

A new vision for the health sector in TongaKaveinga Tu’itahi. Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2008. 19pp. (Capacity Development Series)

There was a serious challenge to health services in Tonga, with staff shortages as doctors and nurses migrated overseas and a reduced capacity to cope with demand. Money for additional facilities was scarce, and management was poor. Yet, with donor aid, a reasonable level of services was maintained and staff development was fostered. The control of communicable diseases advanced, but lifestyle problems such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and obesity created new challenges, while the health ministry needed reform. A new minister saw the need to develop management, finance and human resources. Tu’itahi outlines the aims of the Tonga Health Sector Management and Planning Project, set up in 1998. He describes its work and its achievements, and the key issues and lessons that emerged, with a spirit of change engaging staff in the new vision and objectives, more about management than about medicine.

[After 405]

Politics and Government

Accommodating monarchy and representative government: Tonga’s political reform processGuy Powles. Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 24, no. 3 (2009), pp.140-7

Powles reviews the process leading to plans for constitutional reform, with elections under a new system in 2010. He notes the importance of King George Tupou V’s unequivocal support for constitutional change, and sees that significant change will only be acceptable if proper regard is paid to the three pillars of society, royalty, nobility and people. He sets out the issues which need to be resolved for the executive, the legislature and the electorate, and describes the work of the Constitutional and Electoral Commission. The profound changes will need much discussion and explanation.

[Before 430]

Identity at stake in the present-day Kingdom of TongaMarie-Claire Bataille and Georges Benguigui. In The changing South Pacific: identities and transformations. Edited by Serge Tcherkézoff and Françoise Douaire-Marsaudon. Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2005, pp.230-44.

In tracing the progress of moves towards greater democracy in Tonga the authors (writing in 1995) particularly focus on the highly-charged issue of Tongan identity. For example the sale of Tongan passports to foreigners led many to feel that their very identity as Tongans had been sold. Tongan citizenship cannot be bought. In general it was the democrats who seemed most clearly attached to Tongan identity. Yet at the same time politicians and church leaders attacked aspects of the 1875 Constitution, the system of land-tenure and the status of the nobles, as well as the business activities of the royal family, and expressed concerns about rapid economic development generally, appealing to a prickly nationalism.

[After 435]

The nettle grasped: Tonga’s new democracyI. C. Campbell. The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 47, no. 2 (2012), pp.211-25

Continuing his studies on the recent political history of Tonga (items 433, 434, 435, 440, 442, 449, 740), Campbell examines and evaluates the preparation and implementation of the amended constitution, by which King George Tupou V largely ceded his powers to a prime minister chosen by a parliament with an enlarged number of people’s representatives. He describes the various reports and proposals which led to the change. He notes that reform came from the top. ‘There had never been a consistent, clear or agreed outcome among the reformists’ demands,’ while King George Tupou V had a clear vision. Campbell quotes him as saying, ‘My father lived and died in captivity. I was also born in captivity. But these new democratic reforms will mean liberation for me as well.’ Campbell observes the short-sighted and incoherent nature of the pro-democracy movement and suggests that ‘the first year of the reformed government does not suggest that the quality or morality of parliament will be superior to that elsewhere in the Pacific, or to its oligarchical predecessor. Abuse of office, criminal charges, self-serving legislation and ineptitude have all been recorded.’ Subsequent events seem to bear this out.

[After 435]

Options for the election of people’s representatives in TongaJan Fraenkel. Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 24, no. 1 (2009), pp.197-208

Fraenkel considers the various voting options for elections under new regulations for the expanded Legislative Assembly in 2010: the present block-voting and first-past-the-post, single-member districts with first-past-the-post, and a single transferable vote (STV). He sets out the advantages and disadvantages of each and calculates a hypothetical example under STV. On balance he favours retaining the present block-voting system, but Tonga in fact now has single-member constituencies.

[After 436]

Shoot the messenger: the report on the Nuku’alofa reconstruction project and why the Government of Tonga dumped itTeena Brown Pulu. Nuku’alofa: Taimi Publishers, 2011. 171pp.

Dr. Pulu was asked by the Prime Minister of Tonga to investigate claims that money from the loan of TO$118 million from China for the reconstruction of Nuku’alofa after the 2006 riots had been misappropriated.. She found no evidence of this, but her report identified weaknesses in the management of the reconstruction. Her report was suppressed by the Government, which claimed that it was ‘inadequate’. Dr. Pulu justifies and defends her report, and prints the complete text of it, making it public for the first time.

[After 444]

Transnationalism and the development of the decentralised Tongan nation-stateJoanne Wallis. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol. 8, no. 3 (2008), pp.408-32

Wallis relates Tonga as a small island developing state to a decentralised nation state which includes the many Tongans living overseas. Nationalism can play a part in economic development. She sees globalisation as making Tongan nationalism viable in a way not previously possible. Improved travel and communications have allowed transnational Tongans to continue to live their Tongan identity wherever they live. ‘The state’ remains geographically bounded, while the ‘nation-state’

includes all Tongans everywhere. She considers how the economy has developed, the role of migration, remittances and aid, and the effects of Tongan transnationalism on migration and remittances, as Tonga still means ‘home’. She examines how this works in practice, in its social, cultural and economic dimensions. The Tongan government should cultivate nationalism among migrant Tongans, who should be given the vote in Tonga.

[After 451]

Unfinished business: democratic transition in TongaLopeti Senituli. In Security and development in the Pacific islands: social resilience in emerging states. Edited by M. Anne Brown. Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007, pp.265-286

Writing as one directly involved, Senituli traces the momentous events in Tonga leading to the giving by the king to the people in 2004 a role in the selection of cabinet ministers. He starts with attempts by the government in 2003 to control the media and the consequent conflict with the chief justice, public demonstrations for constitutional change, the various proposals for reform, and the appointment of the first commoner as prime minister. He considers the strengths and weaknesses of government at that time. He concludes that Tonga is managing a difficult transition by drawing on its own values and institutions, and that it is an example of political transition without violence. He wrote before the riots of November 2006, recorded in a subsequent note by the editor.

[After 451]

PhD THESIS

The legitimation of economic and political power in Tonga: a critique of kauhala’uta and kauhalalalo O.Taliai. Massey University, Auckland, 2007

[After 452]

Economy, Trade and Labour

Globalization, stateless capitalism and the international political economy of Tonga’s satellite ventureAnthony von Fossen. Pacific Studies, vol. 22, no. 2 (1999), pp.1-26

Tonga’s claim to and use of a disproportionate number of geostationary satellite slots is an example of stateless capitalism, similar to flags of convenience. This paper describes Tonga’s actions and discusses its implications, a dangerous challenge to the world regime in telecommunications. In 1989 the government registered Tongasat and in 1990 claimed sixteen slots, making Tonga the world’s sixth largest claimant. Tonga used cheap Russian satellites and leased them cheaply to American corporations. However other countries challenged Tonga over their positioning, and Tongasat had legal and management problems. The share of income due to the government never reached anticipated levels. Yet the author concludes that large sovereign states such as the USA

will probably have to learn to co-operate with small countries such as Tonga. (Subsequently in 2012 it became known that in 2008 the Tongan government received US$49.9 million from the government of China for the use of satellite slots. In 2011, in accordance with the agreement between the Tongan government and Tongasat, fifty per cent was paid over to Tongasat.)

[After 488]

Tonga: economic survey 2009Patrick de Fontenay and Siosiua Utoikamanu, Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol. 24, no. 3 (2009), pp.1-18

The authors see the Tongan economy as well on the way to recovery after the riots and the public-sector salary increases of 2005-6, inflation in 2007-8 and the effects of the global financial crisis. GDP has remained positive, the economy is stable, yet remains vulnerable. Both donor aid and the private sector will be needed to assist development. Pursuing these goals while maintaining the momentum for constitutional reform will be a major challenge. Detailed statistics and graphs set out the position.

[After 508]

Population, Migration and Remittances

The athlete’s body and the global condition: Tongan rugby players in JapanNiko Besnier. The American Ethnologist, vol. 39, mo. 3 (2012), pp 481-510

Tonga exports rugby football players. Two Tongan exchange students arrived in Japan in 1980 to study the abacus. One was a talented rugby player. Both stayed on after their studies to play rugby, and did well. Several hundred Tongans followed. Besnier examines the place of migrants in a country which has misgivings about immigration, the non-elite assault on elite dominance, and the playing out of class tensions through rugby and migration. He considers the role of the body, the rise of the professional migrant athlete and the beginnings of migration from Tonga in the 1960s. Rugby developed in Tonga in the early 20th century and embodies concepts of masculinity and controlled aggression. It is also a social leveller. But there are no prospects for professional players in Tonga. Many play in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Besnier describes the development of rugby in Japan, a minority sport, its social connotations, and the way in which Tongans became involved and operate and are seen and treated by the Japanese.

[After 514]

Tongan immigrants in JapanR.L. ‘Esau. Asia and Pacific Migration Journal, vol. 16, no. 2 (2007), pp.289-300

Not seen

[After 544]

PhD THESES

International migration and societal change in the Kingdom of TongaV.U. Latū. Ritsumeiken Asia Pacific University, Japan, 2006

[After 550]

Kakai Tonga ‘i Okalani Nu’u Sila: Tongan generations in Auckland, New ZealandTeena Brown Pulu. University of Waikato, 2007

[After 550]

Social protection role of remittances: the cases of Fiji and TongaE. Jimenez-Soto. University of Queensland, 2008

[After 552]

Industry, Commerce and Agriculture

Symbolic action and soil fertility: political ecology and the transformation of space and place in TongaCharles J. Stevens. In Political ecology across spaces, scales and social groups. Edited by Susan Paulson and Lisa L. Gezon. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005, pp.154-73

Stevens begins with an account of a feast for which a noble called for food from the reluctant commoners on his estates. He sees the feast as showing changes in political and economic relations in Tonga, as Tongan agriculture in increasingly related to global issues, and to the introduction of large-scale monoculture, particularly of squash for export. This in turn he relates to general changes to more intensive agriculture and a worrying loss of soil fertility, for which he provides detailed scientific analysis.

[After 571]

Education

‘Ilaisa Futa-’i-Ha’angana Helu: a remarkable TonganElizabeth Wood-Ellem. The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 46, no. 1 (2011), pp.103-15

This is an extensive obituary of the influential and unconventional Tongan philosopher and educationalist, founder of ‘Atenisi University (see items 221, 603 etc.) and an important influence in movements towards greater democracy.

[After 596]

PhD THESES

Fonoga ‘a fakahalafonoga: Tongan students’ journey to academic achievement in New Zealand tertiary educationT. Kalāvita. University of Waikato, 2010

[After 609]

Estimation in Tongan schools‘Ana Hau’alofa’ia Koloto. University of Waikato, 1995

[After 610]

Material Culture

‘Akau Tau: contextualising Tongan war-clubsAndy Mills. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 118, no. 1 (2009), pp.7-45

‘Akau tau (war stave) was the term used for Tongan war clubs during their period of actual use, until the 1870s, when European weapons displaced them. Many were collected on Cook’s voyages and are well preserved. Mills sets them in their cultural context and classifies their various styles. He describes the different ways of using them in battle, in sport and for punishment. They were seen almost as persons, acquiring mana through use and through being placed in temples. He describes and illustrates different styles, analysing over 250 dating from 1773 to the present, relating them to clubs from Samoa and Fiji, and placing them in chronological sequence.

[After 641]

Contemporary Tongan artists and the reshaping of Oceanic identityPaul van der Grijp. In Changing contexts, shifting meanings: transformations of cultural traditions in Oceania. Edited by Elfriede Hermann. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2011, pp.277-95

The author profiles five Tongan artists and vendors of art and crafts: their life histories, the social organization of their enterprises, the market for their products, their visions for their work and their views about the relation between art and craft. (Cartmail pointed out that there is no Tongan word for ‘art’ in the Western sense, see item 636.) They carve in wood, bone, black coral and shell. They are largely self-taught, following traditional designs and developing their own.

[After 641]

Designs of TongaFraser and Loisi Williamson. Gilsum, New Hampshire: Stemmer House, 2003. 41pp.

Each large page features drawn motifs, taken from ngatu, clubs and other artifacts. Plate descriptions identify the source of each, and a brief introduction describes the making and significance of items of Tongan material culture and their social significance.

[After 642]

James Cook and the exploration of the PacificThames & Hudson, London, 2009, 276pp. 3 maps

This is the catalogue of a major exhibition of artefacts from the three voyages of Captain Cook in Bonn in 2009-10, organized by a team of scholars led by Adrienne Kaeppler. Introductory essays on the voyages, and their general setting within the European Enlightenment are followed by detailed illustrated descriptions of every object exhibited. The section on Tonga contains 93 objects, including drawings by the explorers, flywhisks, kava bowls, neckrests, baskets, carved figures, ornamental items, combs, mats, barkcloth, noseflutes, panpipes, arrows, clubs and fishing implements. Many of these are seldom exhibited in public, and the catalogue forms a remarkably comprehensive record of Tongan material culture at the time of Cook. In a message of welcome HRH Princess Pilolevu says that one may be sad that these pieces are not in their homelands but recognizes that, if they had not been collected, they would have been used, worn out and discarded.

[After 643]

PhD THESES

Tufunga Tonga ‘Akau: Tongan club carvers and their artsA, Mills. University of East Anglia, 2008

[Before 664]

Performance Arts

Lakalaka: a Tongan masterpiece of performing artsAdrienne L. Kaeppler. Nuku’alofa: Vava’u Press, 2012. 64pp. Bibliog.

The lakalaka, poetry that is sung accompanied by dance, is a major art form of Tonga and has been declared by UNESCO ‘a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.’ Kaeppler has been studying Tongan poetry and music for nearly fifty years (e.g. item 673). Here she describes the structure and performance of the lakalaka, the place of speech and music, its origin in its present form in the nineteenth century, the nature of the performance, the varied styles of different villages, and the cultural and social values which it embodies, The book is richly illustrated with large colour photographs which vividly convey the scale and style of the dance.

[After 669]

Books, Media and Communications

The Tongan tradition of going to the moviesElizabeth Hahn. Visual Anthropology Review, vol. 10, no. 1 (1994), pp.103-11

At the time of writing screenings of films tended to be ‘raucous events of intense audience participation.’ But is the cinema experience an example of western media imperialism? Hahn

considers what aspects of their culture Tongans bring to the cinema, their own dance, music and story telling (faiva). A good story has multiple layers of meaning, events have a leisurely quality and are spatially spread. Silent films arrived in the 1920s, and film became very popular, with narrators to comment on their action and make the family audience a partner. Then audiences became increasingly groups of young male friends, while women and children watch videos at home, and audience reaction s changed. Since the time of writing, cinemas have disappeared from Tonga.

[After 698]

Video night in Nuku’alofa: disjuncture and difference on Tongan screensSaruna Pearson. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 118, no. 2 (2008), pp.165-78

The influence of the Bollywood films of Indian cinema in the Pacific has been little noticed, Pearson considers their popularity in Nuku’alofa, and the attraction of television serials and videos from other cultures. They appealed particularly to Tongan young women, who empathised with their narratives featuring patriarchal authority and filial submission. But Bollywood films are now losing popularity to Filipino material, rapidly introduced through DVDs.

[After 698]

General bibliographies

Manuscripts in the British Isles relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islandsEdited by P. Mander-Jones. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1972. 697pp.

This catalogue contains some references to Tonga, listing manuscripts in public, university and private collections. The extensive archive of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, important for Tonga, listed here as at the Methodist Missionary Society, is now at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

[After 723]

Serial publications of TongaSuva: National Archives of Fiji, 1975. 6pp.

This duplicated pamphlet lists the holdings, in the reference library of the National Archives of Fiji, of Tongan official government reports and publications. The earliest is the Gazette, an irregular run from 1886. Annual Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure date from 1890. Departments whose reports are listed include Agriculture (from 1950), Customs (from 1935), Education (from 1929), Finance (from 1937), Health (from 1939), Justice (from 1939), Lands and Survey (from 1950), Police and Goals (from 1950), Premier’s Department (from 1938)_and Public Works (from 1948). This could be a useful source for publications probably not readily available in Tonga.

[After 728]

Index of Authors Addo, P.-A. After 358Bataille, M.-C. After 435Benguigui, G. After 435Bennardo, G. After 239Besnier, N. After 331, 335, 346, 514Bray, H. After 181Burley, D.V. After 103, 104Campbell, I.C. After 435Cummins, H.G. After 202Daly, M.J. Before 165Dillon, P. After 75Donald, S. After 25Douaire-Marsaudon, F. After 213, 298Drescher, N.L. After 25Egan, S. After 103‘Esau, R.L. After 544Esser, J.W. After 362Faupula, S. After 202Filihia, M. After 155Fontenay, P. de After 508Fonua, S.’U.T. After 266Fossen, A. von After 488Fraenkel, J. After 436Grijp, P. van der After 641Gunson, N. After 25Hahn, E. After 698Hartung, S.V. After 25Hopoate, T. After 25Jeffery, L. After 45Jimenez-Soto, E. After 552Kaeppler, A.L. After 669Ka’ili, T.O. After 368Kalāvita, T. After 609Koloto, ‘A,H. After 610Latū, V.U. After 550Lee, H. After 25Māhina, H.’O. After 25, 349Maka, L. After 349Makihara, M. After 235Mander-Jones, P. After 723Marcus, G.E. After 306Mills, A. After 641, 664Moala, K. After 9Nishitani, M. After 25Olson, E.G. After 379

Orlebar, J. After 74Pearson, S. After 698Philips, S. U. After 235, 236, 248Pollock, N.J. After 379Poltorak, M. After 25Pond, W. After 25Potauaine, S.F. After 25Powles, G. After 430Pulu, T.B. After 444, 550Schieffelin, B.B. After 235Senituli, L. After 451Statham, N. After 197, 203Steen, T.M. After 25Stevens, C.J. After 571Talakai, M. After 25Taliai, O. After 452Taumoefolau, M. After 261Taumoepeau, M.O. After 25Taumoepeau, V.A. After 25Tuita, HRH Princess Salote Mafile’o Pilolevu After 25, 643Tu’itahi, K. After 405Utoikamanu, S. After 508Velt, K. After 25Völkel, S. After 250, 268 Wallis, J. After 451Weys, F.W. After 327Williamson, F. and L. After 642Wood-Ellem, E. After 596

Addenda and Errata

69 For - though he ignores Vason read - He dismisses Vason as giving ‘a very imperfect account of the people, himself being the chief subject of his narrative.’ Add - A French edition was published the same year, a German edition in 1819, and an American edition in 1820.

152 For The practice of Tongan traditional history read The poetics of Tongan traditional history

164 The thesis The transformation of traditional Tonga by R. Cowell is a Master’s, not a PhD.

190 Lātūkefu’s position is criticised by H. G. Cummins for his failure to use missionary sources, in a review article in The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 10, no. 1 (1975), pp.105-112.

545 The 2011 census showed that the population increased to 103,036. Tongatapu gained 3113, and now has 73% of the population. In all other island groups the population declined, particularly in Niuatoputapu and Niuafo’ou.

609 For Samata read Simate (also in author index)

691 The Tonga Chronicle was outsourced to a private publisher in 2009, and ceased publication in mid-2011. In April 2012 the government announced that it would resume publication. In the meantime a new weekly paper in English, Ko e Ita, was launched in March 2012.

710 Pacific Economic Bulletin ceased publication with the last issue of 2010.

Index of authors

Crozier, D.F. for 222 read 223Helu, ‘I.F. for 632 read 631

66 new items

Last updated 15 October 2013