Introduction

The finding of radiality at the conceptual roots of the Tongan kinship terminology convinced me that the domain of social relationships needed to be the next step in my investigation. Kinship is fundamental to the establishment of a multitude of types of social relationships. Sometimes, in many cultures, it is kinship exclusively that provides the necessary and sufficient reasons to engage in any type of social relationships. Besides, a good number of ethnographic observations had already attracted my attention to this vital aspect of the Tongan cultural milieu.

Tongans position themselves socially in a distinctive way. In everyday conversations when trying to define their position in the social hierarchy, Tongans often make initial reference to a high status person as a fixed point of reference. They then trace their personal position from that person/point. Similarly, in a fono ‘official meeting,’ an individual's status is indicated and determined by the ‘distance’ – calculated in units represented by intervening individuals – from the highest status person present, for example, the local village chief, a noble, or the king (Bott, 1972; Marcus, 1980). This is true at the village, island, and national levels.

This conceptualization of social hierarchy and social relationships is reminiscent of the foundational cultural model I termed ‘radiality.’