1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456639303321

Autore

Besnier Niko

Titolo

On the edge of the global [[electronic resource] ] : modern anxieties in a Pacific island nation / / Niko Besnier

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California, : Stanford University Press, 2011

ISBN

0-8047-7764-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (327 p.)

Collana

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

Disciplina

996.12

Soggetti

Culture and globalization - Tonga

Electronic books.

Tonga Social life and customs

Tonga Civilization

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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 me