Tongan cultural Diversity - Essay Example

Majority of the people are farmers or fishermen. There are no major metropolitan areas in Tonga and the numerous islands are dotted by closely located villages. The Tongans or the Polynesians are a group that inhabit about hundred and fifty islands lying to the east of Fiji. The human population is neatly confined on islands that are separated by vast expanses of oceans. These islands vary in size, resources and degree of isolation. Each of these settlements developed their distinctive features in isolation.

The wide variety of cultural differences found within the same group has been a cause of study by various ethnologists and archaeologists. Polynesia has been called a cultural laboratory because of the adaptive variation of a single culture on its far-flung islands and island groups (Davidson, 1977). Polynesia was isolated from other cultures but did have interactions with other cultural traditions. It developed some of its distinctive features through interaction with West Polynesia and Fiji.

Similarities between the various West Polynesian cultures have been found due to the same origin. According to D’Arcy (2003), the Pacific Islanders were highly localized in their affinities and expansive in their interactions. As a result they embraced multiple cultural affinities, both local and regional. Western Polynesia consisted of two archipelagos – Tonga and Samoa and a few other smaller more isolated islands. All of these islands shared many common features with Fiji. Interaction with other communities meant that change could be very rapid and changes to one community’s circumstances could have regional implications.

Distinct variants of the Polynesian language and culture can be noticed in each of the islands and even though the dialects differ, they can be recognized as dialects of a single language. in The Tongan island consists of smaller islands with a total