Islanders of the South : : production, kinship and ideology in the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga / / Paul van der Grijp ; translated by Peter Mason.

• Superior document: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; 154
• VerfasserIn: Grijp, Paul van der, 1952-
• TeilnehmendeR: Mason, Peter, 1952-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden : : KITLV Press,, [1993]; ©1993
• Year of Publication: 1993
• Language: English; Dutch
• Series: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; 154.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

Islanders of the South is an ethnography of the kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific. This is the first book to examine the interplay of Polynesian and Western ideas within contemporary social and economic practices, not from the point of view of Tongan aristocracy, but from that of the common people. The first describes contemporary Tongan society and the main means of subsistence: agriculture, fishing, and manufacturing. An analysis of the kinship system, with its economic, political, and ideological dimensions, is intertwined with a discussion of Tongan attitudes on life and death, marriage and divorce, social rights and obligations, migration and remittances. Later chapters deal with the crucial questions of land ownership and the circulation of gifts. A large number of genealogies, biographies, and case studies help convey how Tongans live together and how they experience their relationship to nature. Effects on Tonga of global developments-predominantly capitalist in nature-are expressed in the commercialization of the means of subsistence, bringing about changes often regarded as progress. The author raises doubts about this ideology of progress by referring to aspects of nature and culture in Tonga which are disappearing. Up to now Tongans have largely been able to preserve the circulation of gifts and economic self-sufficiency.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Symbols -- Theoretical Introduction -- Background -- Perspective and concepts -- Nature and culture -- Outline of this book -- Chapter I: Introduction to Tongan Society -- Ceo-ecological environment -- Subsistence resources -- Transport and communications -- Other primary facilities -- Political and judicial organization -- Religious denominations -- Chapter II: Agriculture: From Subsistence to Export -- Crops for personal consumption -- Slash-and-burn and intercrop cultivation -- Learning how to grow cash crops: a local-level project -- Local and foreign markets -- Problems in exporting agricultural products -- A rich orchid: vanilla -- The recent rise of the pumpkin -- The significance of coconuts -- Classification of the coconut palm -- The production of copra oil -- Adaptation of planting techniques and extent of coconut plantings -- Domestication of animals -- Significance of domesticated animals -- Methods of animal husbandry -- Location of the animals -- Government intervention -- Conclusions -- Chapter III: The Commercialization of Fishing -- The sexual division of labour -- Changes in fishing gear -- Fishermen of Nuku 'alofa -- Fishermen in Ha 'apai -- The commercialization of fishing -- Chapter IV: Manufacture: From Subsistence to Commodities -- Material culture and art -- The fabrication of tapa -- Mat weaving -- Basket weaving -- Case study on Vava'u -- Case studies on Ha'apai and Tongatapu -- The tourist industry -- Chapter V: Small-Scale Economics and Daily Life -- Differences between the islands -- Case in a village on Vava'u -- Land use -- Division of labour and domestic economy -- The Vava 'u case study four years on -- Case study on a Ha 'apai island -- Case study in a village on Tongatapu -- Kinship and relations of production -- Work teams: toungaue.

Chapter VI: Tongans as Western-style Entrepreneurs -- Introduction -- Kulueti and the time lag between investment and profit -- Mosese: my oldest son is our main shareholder -- Saipalesi: I don't like to spend the whole day alone at home -- There are not enough people willing to work: Labour relations in the three cases -- They always agree, they never argue -- Business success and the social obligation to give -- Conclusions -- Chapter VII: Kinship System -- The concept 'maison' -- Kinship in the past -- Contemporary kinship groups and categories -- The contemporary kainga -- The contemporary maison -- Genealogical examples and analysis -- The genesis of new maisons -- The 'ulumotu 'a -- Chapter VIII: Households, Moving House and Migration -- The flexible composition of the household -- Social morphology of the household -- Young people's ambitions and prospects -- Emigration to the West -- Chapter IX: Emigration to the West -- Social asymmetry, prescriptions and prohibitions -- Examples of conventions -- Social asymmetry at funerals -- The selection of the fahu -- The shift from extended family to nuclear family -- Fatongia: the obligation to give -- Aristocratic principles -- The flexibility of ha 'a membership -- Chapter X: Property and the Transfer of Land -- Relations of ownership -- Historical background -- Genealogical example of the inheritance of land -- Legislation on the transfer of land -- Reactions to the land shortage -- Intervention of money -- Chapter XI: Reciprocity and Social Inequality -- Perspectives on reciprocity and exchange -- Production of a ceremonial gift of food -- Other donations to the church -- Theoretical model: Ideology of gift exchange -- Dissident views and deviant behaviour -- The exchange of gifts between commoners and chiefs -- The exchange of gifts between friends and relatives.

Chapter XII: The Ambivalence of Progress -- The convergence of different modes of production -- Gifts and money -- Contradictions -- Appednix I: Genealogies of Maisons on Matuku -- Appendix II: Genealogies of Maisons in Taoa -- Bibliography -- Index.