Tongan Chiefdoms
The Tongan archipelago, located in Polynesia, extends to about 300 kilometers and includes from 150 to 200 islands. The largest islands within the group are Tongatapu, ‘Eua, and Vava'u. Only three other islands are inhabited; Eva, Niuafo'ou, and Niuatoputapu (Goldman 1970: 281).Tonga is on the western side of the international date line. Radioactive carbon dating of a Tongan specimen gave us a date going back to about the 5th century B.C. This date is the oldest of all of Polynesia (Lieb 1972: 79).
Among the Polynesian chiefdoms, Tonga is unique because of its level of political development and extensive travel and exchange (Kirch 1984: 217). The entire archipelago was controlled by a pair of sacred and secular paramount chiefs. The placing of the islands in a south- west to north-east position made traveling easy. During the trade-wind season traveling up and down the chain of islands was easy (Kirch 1984: 219).
Despite the lost coral islets and atolls, the islands have extremely fertile soil. However, certain conditions do affect development. The islands are small with fixed boundaries and are occupied by tens of thousands of people. Irrigation is not possible, limiting their agricultural capabilities to dryland field systems. Being in the middle of the ocean leaves them susceptible to natural disasters such as cyclones and droughts (Kirch 1984: 221).
The rainfall is about 1500 mm to 1800 mm a year which made the islands flourish. Animal husbandry was well developed as was agriculture. The Tongans used swidden agriculture raise yams, aroids, and bananas. Although the land was not allowed to lay fallow for very long, it was kept fertile through mulching. There was also an emphasis on land division...
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... over males of the same generation. The father is the head of the household with authority over his wife and children. Even so he still must answer to the wishes of his older sister who in some ways is a "chief" (Lindstrom and White 1997: 49).
REFERENCES CITED
Gailey, C. W.
1987 Kinship to Kingship. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Goldman, I.
1970 Ancient Polynesian Society. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Kirch, P. V.
1984 The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdom. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Leib, A. P.
1972 The Many Islands of Polynesia. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
Lindstrom, L. and G. M. White (editors)
1997 Chiefs Today. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.
Sahlins, M. D.
1958. Social Stratification in Polynesia. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
A small archipelago off the northwest coast of Britsh Columbia is known as the “islands of the people.” This island is diverse in both land and sea environment. From the 1700’s when the first ship sailed off its coast and a captain logged about the existence, slow attentiveness was given to the island. Its abundance, in both natural resources physical environment, and its allure in the concealed Haida peoples, beckoned settlers to come to the island. Settlers would spark an era of prosperity and catastrophe for the native and environmental populations.
... harvest fruits and berries and grains from the island. This will supplement the food that can be grown and harvested on the island. Everyone on the island will share the food available equally. If a point comes where there is more food than what the people can eat, at that point we will dry grains, fruit, and vegetables for use later. Even meat can be thinly sliced and smoked and dried to preserve it.
Foreigners also brought diseases over to Hawai’i and the Hawaiians did not have a sufficient immune system therefore they died. The population went from one million people to 134,000. This was in a span of forty-five years. Since the haoles were immune to the disease they were able to carry on and grow stronger. Hawaiians thought that since the foreigners were not getting sick they must be considered gods. Lies were repeated over and over by the haole and this is how they built there civilization.
McKeon uses the term 'patriarchalism' because it attaches itself to a "traditional regime" which will in later centuries be replaced by the "modern conception of gender" (296). This term is mainly identified with as traditional because it is not normally questioned nor objected to; people interpret it as the natural order of things. McKeon's patriarchal system is founded on the belief that there was a "hierarchical notion of authority" which existed not only in Britain's government, but in the family as well. The oldest male figure of the household was most often looked upon as the leader; he simultaneously played the roles of father, husband, and ruler of the house. His word was absolute law for the family.
“If all of this seems long ago and far away, it is worth remembering that the past is never past.” (Faulkner cited in Ellison, P.274)
It is believed that the Polynesians were explorers that were looking for new homes and migrated to Hawaii. When my people came from the Marquesas Islands, they brought many types of supplies. In addition to food for the journey, they brought at least a half dozen plant species to cultivate, like bananas, taro, and breadfruit. They also brought pigs, small dogs, and chickens to raise. Of course, no journey would be complete without handy items like medicinal plants, basic tools, vessels made of gourds, and ropes.
Swinburn, Boyd. et al. ‘Do Polynesians Still Believe that Big is Beautiful?, in New Zealand Medical Journal,1996, 109. 100-103
There is a diversity of tribes that the human society was once uninformed of its existence. Until the 1970, mankind was unaware of the Korowai society existence. The Korowai also known as Kolufu are from the southwestern part of the western part of New Guinea. The Korowai tribe follows a common language, economic system, and an exceptional lifestyle. They practice rituals and have incredible architectural knowledge. In the verge of extinction the Korowai tribe continues to practice their unique culture and traditional rituals.
How did the Polynesians find their way to Hawaii, over two thousand miles from any other land? Was it over population at home, or political turmoil? Whatever reason for leaving these people used amazing knowledge and skill of the ocean and of the sky to navigate them to this new land. They faced the unknown and braved into the wide-open ocean for long periods of time. The real focus in this paper is on the navigation techniques that they used in these voyages throughout the Pacific.
The Polynesian peoples have a lifestyle quite different than that of any other culture, as living on an island requires a level of flexible adaptability in order to cope with such a different, sometimes difficult environment. We see the way diverse cultures build their lives around their circumstances and how they respect them in their cultural myths and stories. The Polynesian legends emphasize the physical environment that they live in. They are quite different than any other region in the world, but the beauty and individuality of the Polynesian culture is prominent as seen in their mythology.
Maldives is a collection of about 1000 islands with a combined mass of 115 square miles occupied by approximately 330,000 people, which is in the Indian Ocean (Hannah, J. A., Muller, P. O., & Nijman, J., 2012). The rise in the sea level is a concern that all of Maldives shares, the islands only set eight feet above sea level at its highest point. Any rise in the sea level would disrupt the country’s economic balance. The rising sea level threatens the beachfront resorts for which most of Maldives economy depends on. Thousands of people every year travel to Maldives to...
ordinary difficulties for the families who live on these post-colonial islands. It can be argued that all
By rooting patriarchy in the family, patriarchal societies are able to maintain unchallenged, male dominance by embedding in people's minds that males are supposed to be in control. Male dominance is normalized by constantly presenting images of the husband as the head of the family and his wife and children as submissive and obedient, which Rowson's Charlotte Temple demonstrates throughout. Take marriage arrangements for example in which the father plays a key role. The consequences of marrying without the father's approval could be harsh such as those experienced by Mr. Temple. He “fought his father, declared his resolution, and was commanded never more to appear in his [father's] presence” (Rowson 15). Surprisingly, Rowson never mentions the mother having a say in the matter. Women in this time period were expected to side with their husbands, and a man whose wife contradicted him in public was seen as weak.
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