On the edge of the global : modern anxieties in a Pacific island nation / Niko Besnier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Besnier, Niko.

Series:

Contemporary issues in Asia and the Pacific.

East-West Center Series on Contemporary Issues in Asia and the Pacific

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Culture and globalization--Tonga.

Culture and globalization.

Tonga--Social life and customs.

Tonga.

Tonga--Civilization.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (327 pages)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Life in twenty-first century Tonga is rife with uncertainties. Though the postcolonial island kingdom may give the appearance of stability and order, there is a malaise that pervades everyday life, a disquiet rooted in the feeling that the twin forces of "progress" and "development"-and the seemingly inevitable wealth distribution that follows from them-have bypassed the society. Niko Besnier's illuminating ethnography analyzes the ways in which segments of this small-scale society grapple with their growing anxiety and hold on to different understandings of what modernity means. How should it be made relevant to local contexts? How it should mesh with practices and symbols of tradition? In the day-to-day lives of Tongans, the weight of transformations brought on by neoliberalism and democracy press not in the abstract, but in individually significant ways: how to make ends meet, how to pay lip service to tradition, and how to present a modern self without opening oneself to ridicule. Adopting a wide-angled perspective that brings together political, economic, cultural, and social concerns, this book focuses on the interface between the different forms that modern uncertainties take.

Contents:

Contents; Figures, Tables, Charts, and Maps; Note on Tongan Orthography and Transcription Conventions; Preface; 1. Straddling the Edge of the Global; 2. Tonga's Modernity; 3. Consumption and Cosmopolitanism; 4. When Gifts Become Commodities; 5. Modern Bodies on the Runway; 6. Coloring and Straightening; 7. Shaping the Modern Body; 8. Reconfiguring the Modern Christian; Conclusion: Sites of Modernity; Notes; References; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804777643

0804777640

OCLC:

742367612