Straddling the edge of the global -- Tonga's modernity -- Consumption and cosmopolitanism -- When gifts become commodities -- Modern bodies on the runway -- Coloring and straightening -- Shaping the modern body -- Reconfiguring the modern Christian -- Conclusion : sites of modernity
Summary
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 means
