essay
Remembering freedom and the freedom to remember: Tongan memories of independence
Cultural memory: reconfiguting history and identity in the postcolonial Pacific • Honolulu • Published In 2001 • Pages: 37-57
By: Lee, Helen Morton.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this paper, Lee examines the official history of modern Tonga and the people's own memory of that history, and what she calls the tension between historical reconstruction and social memory. She focuses on the history and memory of Tonga's modern monarchs, especially their founding father King George Tupou I (d. 1893), who established Tonga's constitution. Tongans truly regard their modern constitutional parlimentary government and legal code as the underpinning of their freedom, sovereignty, and identity. However, this history has been recvently challenged in response to rapid social change and the rise of prodemocracy movements.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Cultural identity and pride
- Government institutions
- Ethnosociology
- 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
- essay
- 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
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard; 2004
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- unknown
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1830-1997
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Tonga
- NotesAdditional notes
- Helen Morton
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-57)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 00049758
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Tongans