Ingjerd Hoëm

Through an ethnographically based study of local communicative practices in the Pacific atoll society of Tokelau, the book adds to our understanding of how systems of governance are constituted by minute acts of social interaction, and are informed by our conceptions of the nature of sociality. It combines a social anthropological approach to postcolonial studies in which local and trans-national communicative practices related to governance and conflict management are analysed as different language games. The book offers an experience-near approach to local modes of conflict management and patterns of leadership, and documents how micro-level communicative practices have an impact on macro-political processes.

Negotiating democracy in Tokelau

Languages of Governance in Conflict

Even Hovdhaugen

Arnfinn Muruvik Vonen

Kupa mai te Tutolu or "Words from Tokelau" is a collection of oral texts covering a wide range of genres from the most formal to the informal. All the texts are presented in Tokelauan, a Polynesian language spoken by about 1600 people on the three Tokelau islands and by about 3000 Tokelauans living in New Zealand, and are accompanied by English translations and extensive notes. Great care has been taken to ensure that the particular characteristics of the oral performances have not been lost. The book combines a traditional philological analysis with empirically oriented, modern linguistic, and anthropological approaches. The combination of in-depth textual studies and a sensitivity to features of performance and context makes this study an original contribution to the field of Polynesian studies.

Tokelau Oral Literature

The Argonauts in the Pacific, famous through Malinowski's work, have not been exempt from general historical developments in the world around them. By focusing on two plays performed by the Tokelau Te Ata, a theater group, the author reveals the self-perceptions of the Tokelau and highlights the dynamic relationship between issues of representation and political processes such as nation building, infrastructural changes and increased regional migration. It is through an analysis of communicative practices, which the author carried out in the home atolls and in the diasporic communities in New Zealand, that we arrive at a proper understanding of how global processes affect local institutions and everyday interaction.

Ingjerd Hoëm

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