Documents
eHRAF is comprised of thousands of ethnographic sources including monographs, journal articles, dissertations and manuscripts. Use this page to find relevant documents by searching or filtering. Each document in eHRAF also contains a Publication Information page with added metadata including brief abstracts written by HRAF analysts who have subject-indexed the file.
Kava'onau and the Tongan chiefsarticle 1991 • Biersack, Aletta
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This is a study of myths and practices surrounding the KAVA ceremony, which for Biersack is an important Tongan ritual used to demonstrate rank and authority among elite. In the first part of her article, she analyzes the Tongan creation and kava myt...Tongan exchange structuresarticle 1982 • Biersack, Aletta
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This is a very sophisticated anlaysis of Tonga kinship. Biersack first reviews the descent and alliance theories used to analyze Pacific islands kinship systems. Then she examines Tonga kinship terminology and behavioral norms, before proposing her t...