Man long taon : migration and differentiation amongst the To'ambaita, Solomon Islands

Abstract

The To'ambaita people of North-West Malaita,upon whom this study is based, are already well known in the anthropological literature through the work of Ian Hogbin who did fieldwork on Malaita in 1933 (Hogbin, 1939). The monograph he wrote, Exnerirnents in Civilization, addresses itself directly to the many changes - political, economic and religious - then taking place amongst the To'ambaita after more than half a century of European contact. The fieldwork for this study took place between 1971 and 1976, during three trips to the Solomon Islands. Originally .. my main concern was the understanding of socio-economic, change on Malaita, taking into account the numerous.events affecting the To'ambaita in the nearly four decades between this period and the time of Hogbin's work. Amongst other things, major policy changes instituted by the British Administration immediately following the war (Bathgate, 1975), introduced an era of planned development specifically directed at village agriculture and village economic relations. A major concern of my original study was to provide a better understanding of the transformations taking place at the village level.