Tongans

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Tongans

PRONUNCIATION : TAHN-guhns
LOCATION : Tonga
POPULATION : 119,000 (July 2008 estimate)
LANGUAGE : Tongan; English (both are official languages of the country)
RELIGION : Christianity (Free Wesleyan Church)

INTRODUCTION

The Kingdom of Tonga is an important independent nation located in western Polynesia in the South Pacific. Tonga is one of the world's last remaining constitutional monarchies, currently ruled by His Majesty Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. The current population of Tonga is approximately 119,000 of which 99.9% are Polynesian. Tongans have well-established international family networks that span an entire ocean. Family members often relocate to the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, purchasing property, gaining employment, and, as a result, being able to financially aid their relatives back in Tonga.

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

Tongans are the indigenous inhabitants of the islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. The Kingdom of Tonga is made up of around 170 small islands with a total land area of 718 sq km (277.2 sq mi). The climate of Tonga is sub-tropical with the warmest months being January, February, and March. Because of its location, Tonga is prone to cyclones.

Tonga has been a constitutional monarchy since 1875, when George Tupou I tried to stave off European colonization in Tonga. Although Tonga was a British protectorate until 1970, when full independence was gained, Tongans are fiercely proud that they belong to one of the few Pacific Island groups that were not a colony of any European nation. Large Tongan immigrant communities are located in the cities of Brisbane and Sydney in Australia and Honolulu, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the United States. It is estimated that there are as many Tongans living overseas as there are still living in the Kingdom of Tonga.

LANGUAGE

Tongan is the indigenous language of the islands within the Kingdom of Tonga. Tongan is a Polynesian language very closely related to the Samoan language. The official languages of the kingdom are Tongan and English. English is taught in both elementary school and secondary schools. Most Tongans have some understanding of spoken and written English. The lyrics of the national anthem of the Kingdom of Tonga are in Tongan and the first four lines are reproduced with English translation below:

    'E 'Otua mafimafi,
    Ko ho mau 'Eimi koe,
    Ko koe ko e falala 'anga,
    Mo e 'ofa ki Tonga;

    Oh Almighty God above,
    Thou art our Lord and sure defense,
    In our goodness we do trust Thee,
    And our Tonga Thou dost love;

FOLKLORE

Tongans have a rich body of folklore, mythology, and oral history. The Tongan creation myth recounts the division of the universe by the offspring of the two original twins. One of the later descendants of the original twins, Maui, is credited with the creation of Tongatapu, the main Tongan island. According to the story, Maui went fishing and hooked something on the bottom of the sea. Thinking he had hooked a very large fish, Maui pulled with all his might and eventually saw that he had brought a large piece of the sea floor to the surface. Th is was Tongatapu. Maui is also thought to have "created" many of the islands of Samoa and Fiji. There is a large body of stories that recount the various battles of cultural heroes within Tongan history.

RELIGION

Christianity is the dominant religion in the Kingdom of Tonga. The largest church denomination on the islands is that of the Free Wesleyan Church, which claims to have over 30,000 members.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

The most important secular holiday in Tonga is the King's Birthday on July 4. There are a number of celebrations, competitions, and cultural events that take place during the time around his birthday. Emancipation Day is a national holiday that occurs on June 4. It celebrates Tonga's succession from the Commonwealth and complete independence from Britain.

RITES OF PASSAGE

Birth in traditional Tongan society was an event that men did not participate in. Children were taken care of primarily by their mothers, although soon they were socialized according to sex. Activities and behaviors were learned according to the status of the family. Children formed play and activity groups with other children of a similar social status. They would remain a part of these groups for life. Tattooing was part of the passage into adulthood for both adolescent boys and girls. Young men were more extensively tattooed than women. Men were tattooed in the area that extended from the lower torso, just above the navel, to the lower thighs, just above the knee. Tattooing is no longer practiced in Tonga.

The death of a relative was accompanied by self-abuse by the surviving members of the family. Bruising, burning, beating, stabbing, and other practices were performed by both men and women. Women had patterns of concentric circles burned into their arms. Men would hit themselves in the head with clubs until they bled, knocking out their own teeth, and even stab themselves with their own spears in the thigh and arm. Th is practice disappeared quickly after European settlement and missionization of Tongatapu.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

A common Tongan greeting is malo e lelei, which roughly translates as "a warm welcome to the Friendly Islands." The "Friendly Islands" was the name given to this chain of islands by traders, explorers, and discovers in the Pacific region. Traditional greetings in Tongan society involved a mutual touching of the lips by persons of equal status, and among persons of unequal status the inferior would kiss the hand of the higher-ranking person. In some cases, if the person was of very high status, the inferior person would kiss the feet of the high-ranking person. Western handshakes have replaced traditional greetings except in highly formal ceremonial contexts.

Traditional forms of sitting for men and women of Tonga differ. Men sit cross-legged, while women sit with their legs doubled up and under one side. Mats are the traditional seating items.

Premarital relationships for young men and women in traditional Tongan society did not often lead to marriage, since most marriages were arranged. Courtship did take place and involved an interested young man providing small presents to a young woman. If the woman was of high status, she was expected to remain chaste and refuse his sexual advances. If she was of lower status, then she was less constrained in terms of her response to his advances. The importance of virginity at the time of marriage has been promoted in modern, Christian Tongan society.

LIVING CONDITIONS

Each traditional Tongan village is loosely organized around a central, grassy area for public gatherings. A series of pathways link the households. Household structures vary in shape, size, and decoration depending on social status. Some houses have thatched roofs that come to within 3 or 4 ft of the ground. Some houses have mat walls on some or all sides, while others have none and are open except for the roof that covers much of the side areas.

Modern Tongan homes of the towns and cities are like most of those in the Pacific area and are made with either block or wood frame with a corrugated iron roof. Affluent Tongans have larger homes with many of the comforts that Americans are accustomed to.

Government-provided medical care is available to all Tongans in the Kingdom of Tonga. Traditional Tongan society viewed illness as being brought about by the acts of supernatural forces. The most common method that Tongans used to propitiate the gods to cure either themselves or a relative of higher status was finger mutilation. Typically, the smallest joint of the little finger was removed. In the cases of chiefs, more severe measures were eventually taken to sway the favor of the gods. The strangulation of small children was reported by early European observers of Tongan life.

There is a road system on the inhabited islands of the Kingdom of Tonga and six airports on the islands, although only one of these has paved runways. Products are transported by trucks to the airports and sea ports. There are no railways on Tonga.

FAMILY LIFE

Marriage patterns in traditional Tonga society differed according to social classes. Girls were often betrothed prior to adulthood. Once a premarital agreement was reached between two families, the girl was expected to remain a virgin until she took up residence with her husband. Marriages in almost all cases were decided by parents. The marriage ceremony itself involved no formal rituals beyond a feast put on by the bride's family. Tongans are now married in Christian ceremonies. In the pre-Christian culture of Tonga, men of the chiefly class often had more than one wife. Although divorce was strictly a male prerogative in precontact Tongan society, both sexes have that option in modern society.

CLOTHING

Traditional clothing styles are still worn by both Tongan men and women. Tongan males wear a wraparound cloth called tupenu on all formal occasions. Tupenu are also worn to work and for leisure. Tongan women wear a long, wraparound skirt that extends to the ankles. In precontact Tongan society this wraparound cloth, called ngatu, was the same for men and women and measured around 8 ft in length and 6 ft in width.

FOOD

One of Tonga's major imports is food from New Zealand. Canned fish and meats, flour, sugar, tea, and coffee are some of the more important food imports to the islands. Traditional foods are still prepared and eaten in the Kingdom of Tonga. Traditional feasts involve extensive menus and tremendous amounts of food. Traditional Tongan foods include fish, yams, breadfruit, coconut, arrowroot pudding, bananas, and cooked plantain. Pork and fowl were usually only consumed by the chiefly class or were served if foreign visitors were present. Food was cooked by a variety of methods including the use of pit ovens, boiling, and stewing.

EDUCATION

Overseas education for the children of well-to-do commoners as well as elite families has been taking place within Tongan society since the 1940s. Tonga has a literacy rate of nearly 100% for both men and women. Most Tongans over the age of 15 can read and write basic words and sentences in Tongan and English. Many children, adolescents, and young adults go to New Zealand to pursue their education.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Music and song are very important in Tongan society today. Tongans hold an annual National Music Festival in June. The Festival is a two-week competition that is open to all Tongans with over 10 different categories of performance. The entire event culminates with the national celebration of the King's Birthday on July 4. Traditional Tongan dance is called lakalaka; like other forms of dance in Polynesia, it is group-oriented, with the number of participants ranging from 20 to a few hundred. The gestures of the dancers recount the story that is sung. Traditional dances are never accompanied by musical instruments.

WORK

The Kingdom of Tonga employs Tongans in the range of occupations found in any modern society. Judges, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and other professionals are trained in schools, colleges, and universities overseas. Traditional work was segregated according to sex and social class. Certain occupations were restricted to individuals according to birthright, and this restriction has continued into the present as the norm. Individuals from high-ranking families have more access to opportunities than do those who come from lower ranking families. Nowadays, the majority of rural Tongans are engaged in subsistence farming with a limited production of export crops such as coconuts, bananas, and pumpkin squash.

SPORTS

Basketball, boxing, cricket, rugby, soccer, and volleyball are all popular sports in Tonga. There are a number of traditional children's games that are played in Tonga. One game, lanita, is a simplified form of cricket. Other games involve skill in tossing sticks of various sizes. Most children's games are group games in which the participants have to work as a group to win the contest.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

Music provides one of the primary forms of entertainment for Tongans. Singing and music are heard at almost every occasion and every venue in Tonga. American musicians and television and film stars are important icons for members of the modern generation of Tongans.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

Tongans produce more tapa cloth than any other Polynesian group. Tapa is a decorated textile produced from the inner bark of the paper mulberry and breadfruit trees. In the Tongan language, tapa refers only to unfinished or undecorated pieces of bark cloth. Finished pieces are called ngatu. Traditional clothing such as the tupenu was made from decorated bark cloth, or ngatu. The bark cloth is an important item for ceremonial occasions. Ngatu is given as gifts at weddings and funerals, used to divide household space at the death of a family member, and has many other important ritual and symbolic functions within the culture.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

There is a movement among some Tongans that calls for governmental reform and a change from a monarchy to a democracy. Elite rule on Tonga has always been the pattern and has left many of the commoners out of the financial development and financial successes of the island kingdom.

GENDER ISSUES

Rank and gender are important to an understanding of Tongan traditional society. Women always outrank men, and older individuals always outrank younger ones. Females are attributed with a mystical power that provides superior status for them in the rank order system. In the Tongan family, fathers are out ranked by their sisters and in particular by their older sisters. Inherited rank is crucial in determining the social roles and rights of specific women. Women of chiefly rank (hau'eiki) exerted considerable economic and political power and enjoyed a high degree of individual freedom, while those of commoner rank (tu'a) did not.

In precontact Tongan society, women participated in activities that they were prohibited from in other Polynesian societies. For instance, women could drink kava in public, eat with men, and go on ocean voyages. Cooking in precontact Tonga was the responsibility of men, except in those cases where a chiefly dish was being prepared. Men were also equally responsible for child rearing in precontact Tongan society. Since the Tongan household was composed of an extended family, grandfathers, uncles, and fathers all participated actively in raising and taking care of children. In modern Tongan society, cooking and child rearing are now within the social domain of women.

Obtaining equal rights and status for women is also seen as a goal by some sectors within modern Tongan society. Women must be 21 years of age and literate to vote. Men must only be taxpayers and literate to vote.