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

Filter by

1 Item

Item details
Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	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.

Subject

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