Book
Tongan society
The Museum • Honolulu, Hawaii • Published In 1929 • Pages: iv, 366
By: Gifford, Edward Winslow.
Abstract
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.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2006
- Region
- Oceania
- Sub Region
- Polynesia
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Martin J. Malone; John Beierle; 1978
- Field Date
- 1920-1921
- Coverage Date
- 900-1921
- Coverage Place
- Tonga
- Notes
- by Edward Winslow Gifford
- 'Bayard Dominick Expedition. Publication no. 16'
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-353)
- LCCN
- 29017752
- LCSH
- Tongans