Book
Tongan society
The Museum • Honolulu, Hawaii • Published In 1929 • Pages: iv, 366
By: Gifford, Edward Winslow.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a general ethnographic introduction to Tongan society and culture based on nine months of fieldwork. It covers population, family and kinship, the kingship, social classes, kava drinking, land, property and inheritance, law, life crises (birth, marriage, funeral, etc.), warfare, cannibalism, entertainment, etiquette, keeping genealogies, personal names, and religion. Tongan society is socially and politically complex. The social structure is based on a combination of feudal regulations within and between ranked lineages. The king is the head of the dominant lineage, but each lineage contains chiefs, matapules (similar to an aristocracy) and commoners. Much of this source concerns these class and status relations. Numbers in parentheses refer to the sources in the bibliography which begins on page 351.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Place names
- Sociolinguistics
- Personal names
- Status, role, and prestige
- Classes
- Nuptials
- Family relationships
- Kinship terminology
- Avuncular and nepotic relatives
- Lineages
- Community heads
- Chief executive
- Executive household
- Revolution
- Spirits and gods
- Priesthood
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Tongans
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2006
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Polynesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Martin J. Malone; John Beierle; 1978
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1920-1921
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 900-1921
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Tonga
- NotesAdditional notes
- by Edward Winslow Gifford
- 'Bayard Dominick Expedition. Publication no. 16'
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-353)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 29017752
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Tongans