article
A Good man is hard to find: overseas migration and the decentered family in the Tongan Islands
Critique of anthropology • 12 (1) • Published In 1992 • Pages: 47-74
By: Gailey, Christine Ward.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of migration and its impact on households in both rural and urban communities in Tonga, where migration increased dramatically after the mid-1970s, with a third of Tongans now living overseas. Through formal and informal interviews, Gailey collected information on which Tongans emigrate and why. She looks at migration's impact on marital stability, and kinship and gender relations within and between households. She has found that migration has reversed recent trends that had favored husband-wife relationship and the nuclearization of families. With their men working abroad, sisters and mothers have to depend on wider kin networks, reactivating traditional kin obligations and relationships, such as the FAHU. See her other article (document no. 117) about changes in social and gender relations in a prior historical period.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Foreign exchange
- Gender status
- Household
- Family relationships
- 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
- article
- 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
- 1975-1986
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Vava'u, Tonga
- NotesAdditional notes
- Christine Ward Gailey
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-74)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 78640439
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Tongans