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.Tongans practise subsistence farming on smallholdings, with coconuts and bananas as themain cash crops.There are no extremes of wealth or poverty.For the past 100 yearsgovernment has assumed the form of a constitutional monarchy.Anyone who saw QueenSlote of Tonga at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 will not be likely to forgether.She is as memorable in Tonga as she is in Britain.She died in December 1965 andwas succeeded by her eldest son, the present King Tufa hau Tupou IV.Description of the ceremonyThe basic form of the kava ceremony is always the same, though it may vary from asmall informal gathering of four or five people to a huge assemblage of several hundredpeople.It can be dressed up or down as the occasion requires.It takes place on manydifferent sorts of occasion: when men visit each other just to talk; when welcoming homerelatives who have been away; in courtship; at weddings; at certain points in a funeral; atthe appointment of a king and later on at his coronation; and similarly at the appointmentof a chief and on the occasion when he first presents himself and his villagers to his king.Figures 1 and 2 show the seating at an informal and at a formal ceremony.Theparticipants sit cross-legged, with the chief whose title is genealogically the most seniorat the head of the circle.He has an official called a matpule on either side of him.Thesematpule are the hereditary ceremonial attendants of chiefs, their duties being to conduct Melanie Klein today 216their chief s kava ceremony and to give and receive gifts on his behalf.The matpulehave never held political authority.The chiefly title holders, on the other hand, used tohave political authority, though nowadays much of it has been transferred to the centralgovernment.The rest of the main circle ( alofi) is composed of other chiefs and matpule sittingalternately.There are always more matpule than chiefs, however, so that after the firstfew places matpule sit next to one another.In the part of the main circle nearest the bowl(fast tapu and fasi tou a) some chiefs and matpule sit in pairs, and some minor chiefs siton their own.In theory the seating of the various chiefs in the main circle demonstrates thegenealogical position of their titles relative to that of the presiding chief.The title of thepresiding chief is supposed to be genealogically senior, and the other chiefly titles in themain circle are supposed to have been derived from his line at later points in time.Although each chiefly titleholder sits as an individual, he also represents the village overwhich he has titular authority.In Tongan idiom he is more than a representative; the titleis the embodiment of the village and its history.In a large formal ceremony all the people in the main circle have to have been formallyappointed to chiefly or matpule titles.Women, who do not normally hold titles or wieldpolitical authority, thus do not sit in the main circle.(The Queen, who held the rulingtitle, Tu i Kanokupolu, was of course an exception to this general rule.In the traditionalsystem kings and chiefs were almost invariably men, but British rules of succession to thekingship were adopted in 1875.) In a small informal ceremony the people in the maincircle do not have to have been formally appointed to titles; they can use the name of amatpule title they are descended from, or, failing that, they can use their personal names.Women can therefore sit in the main circle on such informal occasions if they want to.The kava bowl is opposite the presiding chief.The bowl is three or four yards awayfrom the chief in a small ceremony, some two hundred yards away in a large royalceremony.The kava maker sits behind the bowl with an assistant on either side of him.There is a group of people behind the bowl who help to make and serve the kava (the outer group tou a).In a small informal ceremony the outer group is often very small.It is sometimes reduced to the bare minimum necessary to carry out the ceremony thekava maker, one assistant, and someone to serve the kava.In a large formal ceremony theouter group is larger and more elaborately structured [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Tongans practise subsistence farming on smallholdings, with coconuts and bananas as themain cash crops.There are no extremes of wealth or poverty.For the past 100 yearsgovernment has assumed the form of a constitutional monarchy.Anyone who saw QueenSlote of Tonga at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 will not be likely to forgether.She is as memorable in Tonga as she is in Britain.She died in December 1965 andwas succeeded by her eldest son, the present King Tufa hau Tupou IV.Description of the ceremonyThe basic form of the kava ceremony is always the same, though it may vary from asmall informal gathering of four or five people to a huge assemblage of several hundredpeople.It can be dressed up or down as the occasion requires.It takes place on manydifferent sorts of occasion: when men visit each other just to talk; when welcoming homerelatives who have been away; in courtship; at weddings; at certain points in a funeral; atthe appointment of a king and later on at his coronation; and similarly at the appointmentof a chief and on the occasion when he first presents himself and his villagers to his king.Figures 1 and 2 show the seating at an informal and at a formal ceremony.Theparticipants sit cross-legged, with the chief whose title is genealogically the most seniorat the head of the circle.He has an official called a matpule on either side of him.Thesematpule are the hereditary ceremonial attendants of chiefs, their duties being to conduct Melanie Klein today 216their chief s kava ceremony and to give and receive gifts on his behalf.The matpulehave never held political authority.The chiefly title holders, on the other hand, used tohave political authority, though nowadays much of it has been transferred to the centralgovernment.The rest of the main circle ( alofi) is composed of other chiefs and matpule sittingalternately.There are always more matpule than chiefs, however, so that after the firstfew places matpule sit next to one another.In the part of the main circle nearest the bowl(fast tapu and fasi tou a) some chiefs and matpule sit in pairs, and some minor chiefs siton their own.In theory the seating of the various chiefs in the main circle demonstrates thegenealogical position of their titles relative to that of the presiding chief.The title of thepresiding chief is supposed to be genealogically senior, and the other chiefly titles in themain circle are supposed to have been derived from his line at later points in time.Although each chiefly titleholder sits as an individual, he also represents the village overwhich he has titular authority.In Tongan idiom he is more than a representative; the titleis the embodiment of the village and its history.In a large formal ceremony all the people in the main circle have to have been formallyappointed to chiefly or matpule titles.Women, who do not normally hold titles or wieldpolitical authority, thus do not sit in the main circle.(The Queen, who held the rulingtitle, Tu i Kanokupolu, was of course an exception to this general rule.In the traditionalsystem kings and chiefs were almost invariably men, but British rules of succession to thekingship were adopted in 1875.) In a small informal ceremony the people in the maincircle do not have to have been formally appointed to titles; they can use the name of amatpule title they are descended from, or, failing that, they can use their personal names.Women can therefore sit in the main circle on such informal occasions if they want to.The kava bowl is opposite the presiding chief.The bowl is three or four yards awayfrom the chief in a small ceremony, some two hundred yards away in a large royalceremony.The kava maker sits behind the bowl with an assistant on either side of him.There is a group of people behind the bowl who help to make and serve the kava (the outer group tou a).In a small informal ceremony the outer group is often very small.It is sometimes reduced to the bare minimum necessary to carry out the ceremony thekava maker, one assistant, and someone to serve the kava.In a large formal ceremony theouter group is larger and more elaborately structured [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]