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.
Tales and poems of TongaBook 1928 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source, by a missionary and educator among the Tongans, is a collection of stories, poems, and songs. Collocott's aim was '… to allow the Tongan to interpret himself through the mouths of his story-tellers and bards' (p. 3). Some of the subjects...Tongan astronomy and calendarBook 1922 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This is a brief account of Tongan knowledge of astronomy and time reckoning. Aboriginal navigation depended upon the stars, but today, the compass has allowed most star lore to be forgotten. The description of the reckoning of time includes the names...Notes on Tongan religionarticle 1921 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source is a collection of miscellaneous notes on Tongan religious practices, mythology, and gods. The author was a missionary to the Tongans. The source appears to be primarily a memory ethnography and it is based on material gathered in Tongata...Sickness, ghosts and medicine in Tongaarticle 1923 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This short article is a discussion of Tongan concepts of sickness. It is by a missionary of long residence among the Tongans (p. 142) and contains information on theories of disease, the relation of ghosts to disease causation, diagnosis, treatment (...Marriage in Tongaarticle 1923 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This is a description of Tongan marriage practices. It covers the marriage ceremony, choice of a partner, courting, elopement, polygamy, rights of chiefs and kings over the women under their jurisdiction, cousin marriage, ideas about sexuality, and t...An experiment in Tongan historyarticle 1924 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This is a reconstruction of Tongan history based on lists of Tui Tongas and traditional history. It covers the Tui Tongas from Ahoeitu, ca. 950 AD to the last Tui Tonga, Laufilitonga, who died in 1865....Kava ceremonial in Tongaarticle 1927 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This is a description of the various aspects of the ritual involved in the use of kava, from the most formal ceremonial at the installation of the king, to informal friendly gatherings. In this extremely class-conscious society, the etiquette of the ...The supernatural in Tongaarticle 1962 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source discusses various aspects of two key Tongan religious concepts: tabu and mana. Tabu refers to sacredness and prescriptions for proper behavior. Under the heading of tabu are prescriptions referring to: birth and puberty, social tabus, dea...A Tongan theogonyarticle 1919 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source contains a Tongan version of the creation. It is unclear whether it is the text of a tradition or an account put together by the author....Legends from Tongaarticle 1921 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source contains five legends from Tonga including 'How fire was brought to this world,' 'How the sky was placed at a distance from the earth,' 'Maui Atalanga and Maui Kijikiji rid the earth of certain dangerous creatures,' 'The great dog in Fiji...Tongan myths and legendsarticle 1924 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source contains a translation of two Tongan oral traditions, one concerning the creation of the world, the other, the origin of the Tui Tonga....Tongan myths and legendsarticle 1924 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan)
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source contains a translation of the Tongan oral tradition about Takalaua and Vae. The researcher is referred to document 37:Collocott in this file for traditional tales leading up to the tale on Takalaua....Proverbial sayings of the TongansBook 1922 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan) & Havea, John
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This source is a collection of 633 Tongan proverbs, pieces of folk wisdom and commonly used phrases. It contains the Tongan phrase, a close, nearly literal translation, and a discussion of its meaning and context of use. It includes proverbs on over ...Supplementary Tongan vocabularyarticle 1925 • Collocott, E. E. V. (Ernest Edgar Vyvyan), b. 1886
Tongans • Oceania > Polynesia
This document contains a far from exhaustive list of words that Collocott felt had not been adequately covered in previously printed Tongan dictionaries. In addition to the word list, Collocott includes some information on Tongan cloth measurements, ...