Book

Pangai, village in Tonga

The Polynesian Society18Published In 1941 • Pages: iii-iv, 3-145, [1]

By: Beaglehole, Ernest, Beaglehole, Pearl.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
During the summer of 1938-1939 -- in the South Temperate Zone summer begins on December 21 -- the author and his wife visited the Tonga Islands for a two months' period, of which seven weeks were spent in the commoner village of Pangai, Vava'u, on the island of Pangaimotu. This monograph is the result of their field efforts in that village, which they believe '… is fairly typical of other commoner villages where there is no high chief or noble in residence and where there is about the same measure of isolation that characterizes Pangai' (p. 4). An important point that the author tries to make is that despite years of contact with European culture, Pangai culture has been very successful at adapting '… to the strains and tensions thus engendered' (p. 4) in the process of acculturation, and even though new cultural elements have been introduced into Tongan society, pre-contact cultural elements have not been extinguished, but instead the two -- old and new -- have blended in a reasonably harmonious fashion to create the type of culture observed by the Beagleholes in the village of Pangai. The source is divided into eight major divisions dealing with the geography and people of Pangai village, their economic life, social life, life cycle, and to somewhat of a lesser degree to their practice of medicine, kava drinking, crime, and religion. The conclusions at the end of the source, pages 135-141, present much data on various aspects of acculturation and socio-cultural trends in Tongan society.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Acculturation and culture contact
Sociocultural trends
Fishing
Tillage
Diet
Mats and basketry
Felted and other non-interworked fabrics
Recreational and non-therapeutic drugs
Dwellings
Real property
Division of labor by gender
Daily routine
Rest days and holidays
Visiting and hospitality
Household
Arranging a marriage
Nuptials
Kinship
Death
General character of religion
Congregations
Religious denominations
Reproduction
Sickness
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.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle; 1978
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1938-1939 (2 months)
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1938-1939
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Village of Pangai, Island of Pangaimotu, Tonga
NotesAdditional notes
by Ernest & Pearl Beaglehole …
'The material embodied in these notes is the result of co-operative work. The monograph was written by Ernest Beaglehole.'-- p. 5
Includes bibliographical references
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
42051512
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Tongans