Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs [Paperback]

Cathy A. Small (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0801484367 | ISBN-13: 978-0801484360 | Publication Date: November 1997

"Small's commentaries are graceful, informative, and seasoned by a very deep knowledge of Tongan culture. This book includes one of the sanest and most convincing arguments that I have read for experimentation in the writing of ethnography, which is supported by the text itself as an exemplar of a modest, theoretically unpretentious experiment that works very well indeed."--George E. Marcus, Rice University

"While a few Californians may be aware of the Tongan immigrant population in their midst, most Americans are unaware that the United States is a major terminus for the people of Tonga, an island nation in the South Pacific. Small examines Tongan migration to the United States in a 'transnational' perspective, stressing that many of the new migrant populations seem successfully to manage dual lives, in both the old country and the new. To that end, she describes life in contemporary Tongan communities and in U.S. settings."--Library Journal

This book documents the momentous social phenomena of mass migration from agricultural ex-colonies and ex-protectorates to the industrial world. Cathy A. Small provides the poignant perspective of one extended family and one village in the Kingdom of Tonga, an independent island nation in the South Pacific which has lost one third of its population to migration since the mid-1960s.

Moving between Tonga and California, Small chronicles the experiences of a family from the village of 'Olunga. Some members stayed and some migrated to California, in successive waves in the 1960s-1990s. Through their lives, she presents a striking picture of Tongan culture in the United States. Returning to 'Olunga with family members and their American-born children, Small shows what happened to village life and to kin relationships thirty years after migration began.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

While a few Californians may be aware of the Tongan immigrant population in their midst, most Americans are unaware that the United States is a major terminus for the people of Tonga, an island nation in the South Pacific. Small (anthropology, Northern Arizona Univ.) examines Tongan migration to the United States in a "transnational" perspective, stressing that many of the new migrant populations seem successfully to manage dual lives, in both the old country and the new. To that end, she describes life in contemporary Tongan communities and in U.S. settings. Although this does not add much that is new to the anthropological literature, the chapter on "The Meanings of Tongan Migration" will show many nonspecialists why immigrants are willing to live in "hovels" in the United States and work two or more jobs: "these same people have fine houses and are important figures in the village when they go home for two or three months each year." For academic and larger public libraries.?Glenn Petersen, Baruch Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Most Americans are unaware that the United States is a major terminus for the people of Tonga, an island nation in the South Pacific. Small examines Tongan migration to the United States in a transnational perspective, stressing that many of the new migrant populations seem to successfully manage dual lives, in both the old country and the new. To that end, she describes life in contemporary Tongan communities and in U.S. settings." --Library Journal (reviewing the first edition)

"The central idea of Voyages-that Tonga and all Tongans exist at this moment in time in a transnational space-comes through vividly and powerfully, and the durability of this image is testimony to the success of Small's experiment in ethnographic writing." --The Contemporary Pacific (reviewing the first edition)

"Voyages is a valuable contribution to the literature on immigration and on Asian Americans. Its clear, informal prose style also makes it an ideal book for undergraduate or graduate classes in anthropology, sociology, cultural geography, or Asian American studies." --International Migration Review (reviewing the first edition)

"The central idea of Voyages-that Tonga and all Tongans exist at this moment in time in a transnational space-comes through vividly and powerfully, and the durability of this image is testimony to the success of Small's experiment in ethnographic writing." --The Contemporary Pacific (reviewing the first edition)

"Voyages is a valuable contribution to the literature on immigration and on Asian Americans. Its clear, informal prose style also makes it an ideal book for undergraduate or graduate classes in anthropology, sociology, cultural geography, or Asian American studies." --International Migration Review (reviewing the first edition)

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801484367
• ISBN-13: 978-0801484360
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that informs and also is a helluva good read., January 19, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (High Point, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs (Hardcover)

I highly recommend Voyages to anyone who cares about people and families. It's amazing how a non-fiction book about Tongans living here in the US or in their own country can be so interesting to read. But it is! That's because the author helps us see these recent immigrants to the US as people-in fact, as people very much like those of us whose families came here a longer time ago. It even helped me to better understand what motivated my own family to come here a century ago. The book is not technical at all. It is written in style and language that is accessible to everyone.

<B> Migrants or immigrants seem to be on everybody's mind these days. Mostly we are led to think of them as a group of "others" who we need to regulate and be suspicious of. This book is important because Small draws us away from this kind of distancing and helps us to understand and be sensitive to the individuals. One can imagine relating to these people-perhaps because Small does and we can relate to her.

<B> Since reading it, I find myself seeing and hearing the flow of foreign languages in airports and restaurants, etc. I find myself thinking that these people whom I now am noticing are just like the ones I met in Small's book. That we share a common humanity is a message that we can't hear too often. And Small gives it to us so gently and in such an absorbing way that I think Voyages is a book that should be read very widely.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nofo'a, July 26, 2000

By 

Patricia Hutchinson (AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs (Hardcover)

Cathy Small has intimate knowledgeable of the culture and people of which she writes. She presents a very problematic but accurate picture of a culture that has emigrated from its source and roots in search of income and opportunity in western cultures. An ethnographical response is natural to this topic because it reads smoothly and allows for humanization of the topic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just about Tonga!, December 24, 2010

By 

S Sylvester "Optimist" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs (Paperback)

While Dr. Small has written a book specifically about Tonga and of her "full circle" experience of living in Tonga, of returning to the US and now having her Tongan family living in the US, it is an excellent work on immigration in general. I was Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador (1988-1990) and found this book very helpful in understanding the "remittence" economy that I experienced in the village of Guamote. This scholarly work is very readable and it explains in depth a universal desire to have at least one family member migrate away from a poor country to a richer county in order provide remittence to help the family members remaining have a much better life. This is a double edged sword that can cut deeply in to the hopes and dreams of maintaining native country culture. This book will make you think about the why of immigration. I recommend this book highly.