Tongans in Niuean oral traditions: A critique

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 32, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 103-108

  Pepa, Kimi ^a  

^a SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 6544249478     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00223349708572830     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. S. Lātūkefu, 'Oral traditions: an appraisal of their value in historical research in Tonga', Journal of Pacific History (hereinafter JPH), 3 (1968), 141.
2. P. M. Mercer, 'Oral tradition in the Pacific: problems of interpretation', JPH, 14 (1979), 130-53;
3. T. Spear, 'Oral traditions: whose history?', JPH, 16 (1981), 133-48;
4. N. Gunson, 'Understanding Polynesian traditional history', JPH, 28 (1993), 139-58.
5. Mercer, 'Oral tradition', 134-5.
6. The standard collections of traditions are E. M. Loeb, History and Traditions of Nine (Honolulu 1926)
7. and S. P. Smith, Niue: The Island and Its People (Suva 1983).
8. T. F. Ryan, 'Prehistoric Niue: an egalitarian Polynesian society', MA thesis, University of Auckland (Auckland 1977), 51ff, provides a useful history of research on Niuean oral traditions.
9. J. M. McEwen, Niue Dictionary (Wellington 1970), 344.
10. See Ryan, 'Prehistoric Niue', 12, 34.
11. For a discussion of the Anderson list see P. Geraghty, 'Linguistic evidence for the Tongan Empire', in T. Dutton and D. T. Tryon (eds), Language Contact and Change in the Austronesian World (Berlin 1994).
12. See, e.g., A. H. Wood, A History and Geography of Tonga (Auckland 1943), 10;
13. J. Guiart, Structure de la Chefferie en Melanésie du Sud (Paris 1963), 661-79;
14. J. Poulsen, 'Archaeology and Prehistory', in N. Rutherford (ed.), Friendly Islands: A History of Tonga (Melbourne 1977), 24.
15. Among the several studies that have attempted to better define the Tongan maritime empire' scheme are P. V. Kirch, The evolution of the Polynesian chiefdoms (Cambridge 1984), ch. 10;
16. 'O. Mahina, 'Religion, politics, and the Tu'i Tonga Empire', MA thesis, University of Auckland (Auckland 1986);
17. P. S. Herda, 'The Transformation of the Traditional Tongan Polity; A Genealogical Consideration of Tonga's past', PhD thesis, Australian National University (Canberra 1988).
18. W. Gill, Myths and Songs From the South Pacific (London 1876), 167.
19. S. Ella, 'The war of Tonga and Samoa and the origin of the name Malietoa,' Journal of the Polynesian Society, 8 (1899), 231.
20. B. Thomson, The Diversions of a Prime Minister (London 1968), 301-5.
21. Lātūkefu, 'Oral traditions', has discussed this issue with regard to validating traditions about civil disputes within Tonga.
22. Thomson, The Diversions, 304.
23. B. Thomson, Savage Island: an account of a sojourn in Niue and Tonga (Auckland 1984), 20.
24. E. W. Gifford, Tongan Society (Honolulu 1929)
25. and E. Bott, Tongan Society at the Time of Captain Cook's Visits: Discussions with Her Majesty Queen Salote Tupou (Wellington 1982), being the principal references on Tongan oral traditions.
26. See Ryan, 'Prehistoric Niue', 55.
27. E. G. Burrows, Ethnology of Futuna (Honolulu 1936), 49-52;
28. Herda, 'The Transformation', 50.
29. See Ryan, 'Prehistoric Nine', 11-13.
30. A. W. Murray, Missions in Western Polynesia ... (London 1863), 359-60;
31. J. L. Brenchley, Jottings During the Cruise of H.M.S. Curacao among the South Sea Islands in 1865 (London 1873), 34-5.
32. T. Powell, Savage Island: a Brief A ccount of the Island of Niue and the Work of the Gospel A mong the People (London 1868), 24-6.
33. Thomson, Savage Island, 88.
34. Smith, Nine, 85.
35. I. C. Campbell, 'The alleged imperialism of George Tupou I', JPH, 25 (1990), 159-75;
36. N. Gunson, 'The Tonga-Samoa connection 1777-1845', ibid., 176-87;
37. J. Young, 'Lau: a windward perspective', JPH, 28 (1993), 159-80.
38. Loeb, History and Traditions, 55;
39. Smith, Niue, 38f.
40. B. G. Trigger, 'Monumental architecture: a thermodynamic explanation of symbolic behaviour', World Archaeology, 22 (1990), 119-32.
41. D. V. Burley, 'Settlement pattern and Tongan prehistory, reconsiderations from Ha'apai', Journal of the Polynesian Society, 103 (1994), 379-411;
42. J. M. Davidson, 'Preliminary Report on an Archaeological Survey of the Vava'u Group, Tonga', in R. Fraser (comp.), Cook Bicentenary Expedition in the South-West Pacific (Wellington 1971), 29-40;
43. P. V. Kirch, Niuatoputapu: The Prehistory of a Polynesian Chiefdom (Seattle 1988);
44. C. Sand, 'A Preliminary Study of the Impact of the Tongan Maritime Chiefdom on the Late Prehistoric Society of 'Uvea, Western Polynesia', in M. W. Graves and R. C. Green (eds), The Evolution ir Organisation of Prehistoric Society in Polynesia (Auckland 1993), 43-51.
45. D. V. Burley, 'Chiefly Prerogatives Over Critical Resources ...', in R. W. Jamieson, S. Abonyi and N. A. Mirau (eds). Culture and Environment: A Fragile Coexistence (Calgary 1993), 437-43.
46. M. M. Trotter, Niue Island Archaeological Survey (Christchurch 1979).
47. The issue is explored in detail in K. Pepa, 'Me'a Lahi Mo'oni: Tongan and Niuean prehistoric monuments', MA dissertation, University of Auckland (Auckland 1995).
48. Ryan, Niue, ch. 9;
49. P. B. Roscoe, 'Practice and political centralisation: a new approach to political evolution', Current Anthropology, 34 (1993), 123n10.
50. See Gunson, 'The Tonga-Samoa connection';
51. Pepa, ' Mo'oni', chs 6 & 7.
52. For a summary of the linguistic situation, refer to A. Pawley, 'Polynesian languages: a subgrouping based on shared innovations in morphology', Journal of the Polynesian Society, 75 (1969), 39-64;
53. R. Clark, 'Language', in J. D.Jennings (ed.), The Prehistory of Polynesia (Canberra 1979), 249-70.
54. See also Kirch, Niuatoputapu, 4-6, 12.
55. Clark, 'Language'.
56. R. C. Green, 'Some basic components of the ancestral Polynesian settlement system: building blocks for more complex Polynesian societies , in P. V. Kirch (ed.), Island societies: archaeological approaches to evolution and transformation (Cambridge 1986), 50-4.
57. R. C. Green, 'Community-level organisation, power and elites in Polynesian settlement pattern studies', in Graves and Green, The Evolution & Organisation, 9-12.
58. A study that has already gone some way towards explaining this Niuean anomaly within the Wesl Polynesian context is R. Walter and A. Anderson, 'Archaeology of Niue Island: initial results', Journal of the Polynesian Society, 104 (1995), 471-81.