Book
Kinship to kingship: gender hierarchy and state formation in the Tongan Islands
University of Texas Press • (14) • Published In 1987 • Pages: xviii, 326
By: Gailey, Christine Ward.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a sophisticated analysis of the modern transformation of Tonga society, which gives a central role to gender relations. According to Gailey, women held a privileged position in traditional Tonga society, both as producers of valuables (KOLOA) for the gift economy and as conduits of sacred power ('EIKI), which complimented and buttressed male chiefly authority. The most sacred and highly ranked person in Tonga was the older sister of the paramount chief. In general, all sisters and especially fathers' sisters (FAHU) had power over their brothers and nephews, respectively, in terms of rights to labor and produce. Gailey shows how Christianity, an emerging household-based commodity production, and constitutional government curtailed these privileges, diminishing women's status and power and helping to inaugurate a class society.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Exchange and transfers
- Status, role, and prestige
- Gender status
- Classes
- Kin relationships
- Kindreds and ramages
- Form and rules of government
- Chief executive
- Missions
- 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
- Ian Skoggard; 2004
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1986
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1450-1971
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Tonga
- NotesAdditional notes
- Christine Ward Gailey
- Although the first part of this book is theoretical, it is indexed for subjects. Tonga's stratified society is indexed differently for each period: STATUS, ROLE, AND PRESTIGE (554) and TERRITORIAL HIERARCHY (631) for traditional chiefdom and CLASSES (565) and CHIEF EXECUTIVE 643 for the post-constitutional, class society
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-315) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 87010804
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Tongans