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"Make A Joyful Noise Unto The Lord": Brass Bands And Cultural Identity In Tonga's Christian Kingdom, David Kammerer

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

This dissertation considers music's role in constructing collective identity and generating social meaning, with the aim of yielding new insights into the workings of indigenous agency in cross-cultural encounters. In the Pacific nation of Tonga a unique set of socio-cultural forces has shaped a distinctive contemporary identity. Tonga's government comprises the only monarchy in the contemporary Pacific and represents the only Polynesian group that was not colonized in the political sense. Although Western ideas permeated Tongan culture over the past two centuries, these transformations occurred largely as a result of Tongan choices. The introduction of Christianity in the nineteenth century …