Research Catalog
Unity of heart : culture and change in a Polynesian atoll society
- Title
- Unity of heart : culture and change in a Polynesian atoll society / Keith Chambers, Anne Chambers.
- Author
- Chambers, Keith Stanley
- Publication
- Prospect Heights, Ill. : Waveland Press, ©2001.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Use in library | GN671.T88 C43 2001 | Off-site |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Chambers, Anne Fauvre.
- Description
- xx, 283 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm
- Summary
- "Thousands of years ago, Polynesian voyagers discovered and settled Nanumea atoll, a tiny cluster of coral islets in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The community prospered, first evolving into a traditional culture finely tuned to the atoll's limited environment and then weathering new changes imposed by missionaries, colonial officials, and Westernization itself. Now one of eight separate island communities comprising the modern Pacific nation of Tuvalu, Nanumea faces new challenges: rising sea levels, globalization, and massive social and economic changes." "Using personal stories that evoke the difficulties and excitement of fieldwork, Keith and Anne Chambers draw on more than twenty-five years of ethnographic research in Nanumea to craft an engaging account of Nanumean culture and social organization. Readers will come to appreciate how the community's intense sharing obligations, service-oriented chieftainship, and a flexible system of extensive kinship reckoning define a lifestyle that differs fundamentally from modern Western society."--Jacket.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Texts.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-273).
- Contents
- Encountering Nanumea -- Learning to Speak -- Fieldwork Methods -- A Second Chance -- A Third Visit -- Seeking Feedback -- Looking Back over a Quarter Century -- "Of the Island" -- Tefolaha in the Cookhouse -- Family Corporations -- A Cookhouse Encounter -- Community Foundations -- Myths and "Reality" -- Emerging from the "Days of Darkness" -- Dating Tefolaha -- Precontact Society -- Themes in Nanumean Traditional History -- Explorers and Whalers -- Missionaries -- Traders, Beachcombers, and Sailors -- Under Colonial Administration -- The War Years -- Passage to Independence -- Coral and Sand -- A Marginal Human Habitat -- "What Do We Rely on for Life?" -- Shared Estates -- Working the Lands -- Coconut and Water -- Root Crops and Prestige -- Using the Sea -- Something for All -- Categorizing Exchange -- Sharing and Compassion -- Sharing in Practice -- The Local Cooperative Store -- Dilemmas Facing Entrepreneurs -- Group Selling -- Household Strategies for Making Money -- Changes in Cash Income -- Family Matters -- Networks of Kin -- Clues about Family Relationships -- Balancing Respect and Caring -- To Marry or Not to Marry -- Children as a Blessing -- Household Dynamics -- Community -- Community Organization -- Heart of the Community -- Service-Oriented Leadership -- Getting Along Together -- Heirs of Tefolaha -- Challenges of the Twenty-first Century -- Rising Sea Levels -- Local Identity, National Identity, and Pressures for Westernization -- Inroads of Capitalism -- Equality under Threat -- Leadership Issues -- Balancing Urban and Outer Island Opportunities -- Looking to the Future -- Unity of Heart.
- ISBN
- 1577661664
- 9781577661665
- LCCN
- 2001269429
- OCLC
- ocm45679971
- 45679971
- SCSB-1145160
- Owning Institutions
- Princeton University Library