Culture of Tonga
The Tongan archipelago has been inhabited for perhaps 3,000 years, since settlement in late Lapita times. The culture of its inhabitants has surely changed greatly over this long time period. Before the arrival of European explorers in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Tongans were in frequent contact with their nearest Oceanic neighbors, Fiji and Samoa. In the 19th century, with the arrival of Western traders and missionaries, Tongan culture changed dramatically. Some old beliefs and habits were thrown away and others adopted. Some accommodations made in the 19th century and early 20th century are now being challenged by changing Western civilization. Hence Tongan culture is far from a unified or monolithic affair, and Tongans themselves may differ strongly as to what it is "Tongan" to do, or not do. Contemporary Tongans often have strong ties to overseas lands. They may have been migrant workers in New Zealand, or have lived and traveled in New Zealand, Australia, or the United States. Many Tongans now live overseas, in a Tongan diaspora, and send home remittances to family members who prefer to remain in Tonga. Tongans themselves often have to operate in two different contexts, which they often call anga fakatonga, the traditional Tongan way, and anga fakapālangi, the Western way. A culturally adept Tongan learns both sets of rules and when to switch between them.
Any description of Tongan culture that limits itself to what Tongans see as anga fakatonga would give a seriously distorted view of what people actually do, in Tonga, or in diaspora, because accommodations are so often made to anga fakapālangi. The following account tries to give both the idealized and the on-the-ground versions of Tongan culture.
Livelihood
Traditionally, fishing and farming have accounted for the livelihood of a majority of Tongans. The main food crops include sweet potatoes, bananas, yucca, taro and giant taro. Cash crops include squash and pumpkins, which have in recent years replaced bananas and copra as the largest agricultural exports. Vanilla is another important cash crop.Life passages
Male circumcision
In post-contact Tonga, newly pubescent males were kamu, or circumcised by cutting one slit in the foreskin, on the underside of the penis. This is a Christian practice of biblical context. Afterwards, the family held a feast for the new "man". Circumcision is still practiced, but it is now done informally. Sometimes it is done at home, with relatives present. More commonly a boy, or a group of boys, go to the hospital, where the operation is done under sanitary conditions.First menstruation (Menarche)
In pre-contact Tonga, a girl's first menstruation was celebrated by a feast. This practice continued up until the mid-20th century, at which point it fell out of favor.Death
Contemporary funerals are large, well-attended occasions, even for Tongans who are not wealthy. Relatives gather, often traveling long distances to do so. Large amounts of food are contributed, then distributed to the crowds during and after the funeral. Funeral practices are a mix of introduced Christian rites and customs, and older indigenous customs that survive from pre-contact times. For instance, mourners wear black but also wrap mats around their waist. The type and size of the mat proclaim the mourner's relationship to the deceased. Immediate family members might also choose to wear a worn or frayed ta'ovala to show respect and love for their family that has passed on.Tongan families do not necessarily compete to put on the largest, grandest funeral possible, but they do strive to show respect for the deceased by doing all that is customary. This can put great strain on the resources of the immediate family and even the extended family. Sometimes the funeral is called a fakamasiva, an occasion that leads to poverty.
Crime
Violent crime is limited, but increasing, and public perception associates this with returns of ethnic Tongans who have been raised overseas. A few notable cases involve young men who were raised since infancy in the United States, whose families neglected to obtain citizenship for them and who were thus deported due to confrontations with the American justice system. At this moment crime is increasing faster than the police force is able to counter, and is expected to become a serious problem in the years to come. Increasing wealth has also increased the gap between the rich and the poor, leading to greater numbers of burglaries.Currently, most prisons in Tonga still abide by the old laissez-faire attitude. Often, these prisons have no fences, no iron bars, and lax security, which makes escape very easy for inmates. This system is slowly changing, due to the influx of foreign born/raised criminals who may treat such goodwill-based incarceration systems with contempt. Traditionally, there is little social stigma regarding incarceration, which means that imprisonment does not serve as a strong deterrent against crime.
Tonga also struggles with young offenders - "schoolboys who want to have money to show off" - who have been apprehended in burglaries. As there are no juvenile prisons, young offenders are incarcerated in the main prisons together with adult criminals. Previously, attempts were made to temporarily exile young offenders to Tau, a small island offshore Tongatapu but this was later abandoned.
In the 1990s Chinese immigration caused resentment among the native Tongan population. Some violent crimes have been directed towards these Chinese immigrants.
Art
Literature
Modern poetry and short stories
The genre of short stories in Tonga is most associated with 'Epeli Hau'ofa, whose most popular collection of stories, Tales of the Tikong, was published in 1973. Konai Helu Thaman was one of the country's earliest published poets.Traditional women's crafts
In pre-contact Tonga, women did not do the cooking or work in the fields. They raised children, gathered shellfish on the reef, and made koloa, barkcloth and mats, which were a traditional form of wealth exchanged at marriages and other ceremonial occasions. An industrious woman thus raised the social status of her household. Her family also slept soundly, on the piles of mats and barkcloth that were the traditional bedding. On sunny days, these were spread on the grass to air, which prolonged their life. The mats can also be worn as ta'ovala, which is worn around the waist. Wearing the ta'ovala is a sign of respect, and it is said that in early times men returning from a long voyage at sea would cover up these mats before visiting the chief of the village.Among the typical koloa are:
- Bark cloth, or tapa
- Mats
- Waist mats, called taovala
- Waist girdles, called kiekie
- And any other type of traditional clothing
Mat-weaving
Traditional men's crafts
Wood carving
Before Western contact, many objects of daily use were made of carved wood: food bowls, head rests, war clubs and spears, and cult images. Tongan craftsmen were skilled at inlaying pearl-shell and ivory in wood, and Tongan war clubs were treasured items in the neighboring archipelago of Fiji.Canoe-building
Tongan craftsman were also adept at building canoes. Many canoes for daily use were simple pōpaos, dug-out canoes, shaped from a single log with fire and adze and outfitted with a single outrigger. Due to a dearth of large trees suitable for building large war canoes, these canoes were often imported from Fiji.Traditional navigation techniques
Tongan navigators used wayfinding techniques such as the navigation by the stars, and observations of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns, and relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition. Anthropologist David Lewis, in the 1960s & 1970s, confirmed that traditional navigation techniques had been retained by navigators from Tonga in conversations with Fe’iloakitau Kaho, Ve’ehala and Kaloni Kienga.These wayfinding techniques were similar to those of other Polynesian navigators, which skills were also retained into the late 20th Century by navigators of the Caroline Islands and the Santa Cruz Islands.
Traditional architecture
The tradition Tongan fale consisted of a curved roof resting on pillars made of tree trunks. Woven screens filled in the area between the ground and the edge of the roof. The traditional design was extremely well adapted to surviving hurricanes. If the winds threatened to shred the walls and overturn the roof, the inhabitants could chop down the pillars, so that the roof fell directly onto the ground. Because the roof was curved, like a limpet shell, the wind tended to flow over it smoothly. The inhabitants could ride out the storm in relative safety.There are many surviving examples of Tongan stone architecture, notably the Haamonga a Maui and mound tombs near Lapaha, Tongatapu. And so several on other islands. Archaeologists have dated them hundreds to a thousand years old.
Tattooing
Tongan males were often heavily tattooed. In Captain Cook's time only the Tui Tonga was not: because he was too high ranked for anybody to touch him. Later it became the habit that a young Tui Tonga went to Samoa to be tattooed there.The practice of Tātatau disappeared under heavy missionary disapproval, but was never completely suppressed. It is still very common for men, to be decorated with some small tattoos. Nevertheless, tattoos shows one's strength. Tattoos also tell a story.