title: Sickness experience and language : aspects of Tongan and Western accounting

authors: Parsons, Claire D.F.

abstract: In this study of Tongan healing practices, the author has chosen not simply to record participants’ roles or medicinal preparations but rather, the concern of this study is to understand the ‘doing’ of sickness as a social practice. 

Two main sociological techniques have been applied. Firstly, a hermeneutic - phenomenological approach was used to attain recordings of, and to analyze, the sickness theorizing of members of Tongan society. The ‘sickness talk’ of these members provides a record of some aspects of contemporary Tongan healing practices. The ‘sickness talk’ is also analyzed using Wittgenstein’s concept of ‘rule-usage’ in the ‘language game’ of sickness. This form of analysis indicated certain individual and public relevances which are grounded upon the Tongan way of life. Thus speakers’ accounts are analyzed in terms of what sickness talk ‘shows’ as well as what it ‘says’, disclosing cultural process instead of simply cultural product.

Discussion on ‘diagnosis’ shows that in order to define the problematic situation of sickness, the phenomena are organized into a classification, that is, members have to ‘capture’, ‘fix’, ‘concretize’ the confronting transient phenomena and apply a sickness label as a ‘working definition’. Tongan sickness ‘types’ are shown to be not only different from Western ‘types’, but aspects of the process of constructing that difference are also shown to be implicit in the sickness talk. Diagnosis as a social process is not seen as the labelling of an ‘objective fact’, ‘a sickness’; nor is therapy understood as being some ‘thing’ that gets a person ‘better’. Tongan explanatory models, developed to explain sickness causation, differ essentially from Western explanatory models of sickness in that Tongans have developed a social model of prevention and cure while in the West, a biological model has been developed. Explanation is understood here not as the causal accounting of sickness but as the explanation of enigmatic consequences.

The latter sections of the study on doing sickness as ‘kinship’ and as ‘healer’ not only add to the record on contemporary healing practices but also emphasize the Tongan social model of sickness. This study therefore, is not only a record, albeit a partial one, of contemporary Tongan healing practices, it also shows how these particular Tongans define certain sickness situations and devise a strategy to resolve that problematic situation. That is, it shows how committing certain experiences to language ‘is’ the ordering process. Rather than any magico-religious or scientific-biological model providing the basis of sickness practice in Tongan society, kinship is proposed as the underlying organizing principle. 

The comparative mode of analysis, in relation to Tongan and Western sickness theorizing, avoids presenting Western explanation as a model by which Tongan theorizing can be evaluated. Instead, in analyzing Tongan healing practices showing knowledge and relevance(s), substantive dimensions of Western theorizing and practice are disclosed.

In selecting a limited number of members’ sickness accounts over a period of six and a half months in Tonga, I have not attempted to randomly sample the Tongan population in order to generalize my ‘findings’ to the whole of Tongan society. Instead my interest has been to give an interpretation of some aspects of Tongan sickness theorizing which may or may not be altered by similar and more extensive studies in the future.

Contrary to what may be seen as being medical and anthropological expectations, Tongan traditional healing practices have not declined since Western contact, rather, they have developed from reportedly limited skills at that time, to an extensive network of healing practice today.

text: Sickness experience and language : aspects of Tongan and Western accounting In this study of Tongan healing practices, the author has chosen not simply to record participants’ roles or medicinal preparations but rather, the concern of this study is to understand the ‘doing’ of sickness as a social practice. 

Two main sociological techniques have been applied. Firstly, a hermeneutic - phenomenological approach was used to attain recordings of, and to analyze, the sickness theorizing of members of Tongan society. The ‘sickness talk’ of these members provides a record of some aspects of contemporary Tongan healing practices. The ‘sickness talk’ is also analyzed using Wittgenstein’s concept of ‘rule-usage’ in the ‘language game’ of sickness. This form of analysis indicated certain individual and public relevances which are grounded upon the Tongan way of life. Thus speakers’ accounts are analyzed in terms of what sickness talk ‘shows’ as well as what it ‘says’, disclosing cultural process instead of simply cultural product.

Discussion on ‘diagnosis’ shows that in order to define the problematic situation of sickness, the phenomena are organized into a classification, that is, members have to ‘capture’, ‘fix’, ‘concretize’ the confronting transient phenomena and apply a sickness label as a ‘working definition’. Tongan sickness ‘types’ are shown to be not only different from Western ‘types’, but aspects of the process of constructing that difference are also shown to be implicit in the sickness talk. Diagnosis as a social process is not seen as the labelling of an ‘objective fact’, ‘a sickness’; nor is therapy understood as being some ‘thing’ that gets a person ‘better’. Tongan explanatory models, developed to explain sickness causation, differ essentially from Western explanatory models of sickness in that Tongans have developed a social model of prevention and cure while in the West, a biological model has been developed. Explanation is understood here not as the causal accounting of sickness but as the explanation of enigmatic consequences.

The latter sections of the study on doing sickness as ‘kinship’ and as ‘healer’ not only add to the record on contemporary healing practices but also emphasize the Tongan social model of sickness. This study therefore, is not only a record, albeit a partial one, of contemporary Tongan healing practices, it also shows how these particular Tongans define certain sickness situations and devise a strategy to resolve that problematic situation. That is, it shows how committing certain experiences to language ‘is’ the ordering process. Rather than any magico-religious or scientific-biological model providing the basis of sickness practice in Tongan society, kinship is proposed as the underlying organizing principle. 

The comparative mode of analysis, in relation to Tongan and Western sickness theorizing, avoids presenting Western explanation as a model by which Tongan theorizing can be evaluated. Instead, in analyzing Tongan healing practices showing knowledge and relevance(s), substantive dimensions of Western theorizing and practice are disclosed.

In selecting a limited number of members’ sickness accounts over a period of six and a half months in Tonga, I have not attempted to randomly sample the Tongan population in order to generalize my ‘findings’ to the whole of Tongan society. Instead my interest has been to give an interpretation of some aspects of Tongan sickness theorizing which may or may not be altered by similar and more extensive studies in the future.

Contrary to what may be seen as being medical and anthropological expectations, Tongan traditional healing practices have not declined since Western contact, rather, they have developed from reportedly limited skills at that time, to an extensive network of healing practice today.

year: 1981

title: Cementation scenarios for New Zealand Cenozoic nontropical limestones

authors: Hood, Steven D.

subjects: Cenozoic

abstract: Cenozoic limestones are widely distributed in New Zealand, especially in the Oligocene-earliest Miocene in both islands, and the Pliocene-Pleistocene in North Island. A spectrum of limestone types exists, but all are skeletal-dominated (>70%), with usually <20% interparticle cement-matrix and <10% siliciclasts, and they have facies attributes typical of nontropical carbonates. The range of diagenetic features identified within the limestones is the basis for assigning them to a small number of “end-member” cementation classes that are inferred to be associated with four, broad, diagenetic settings. Class I limestones have very open fabrics dominated by abraded bryomol (bryozoan + bivalve mollusc) facies skeletons coated with isopachous rinds of typically nonferroan, dull to blotchy luminescent, fibrous to bladed spar, often with porosity occlusion by detrital and/or precipitated micrite. The limestones are usually thin and rare, of Oligocene — early Miocene age, and are interpreted to have formed by marine cementation at the seafloor under special environmental conditions associated with high energy levels and reduced sedimentation rates. Class II limestones have open fabrics with meagre amounts of dull to bright luminescent, ferroan to nonferroan, often substrate-specific, bladed to dog-toothed scalenohedral fringe or syntaxial rim cement. These porous, bryomol, echinofor (echinoderm + benthic foraminifera), and less commonly barnamol (barnacle + bivalve mollusc) facies 1 imestones are relatively common, especially in Oligocene— Miocene eastern South Island and in some Pliocene eastern North Island occurrences, where diagenesis occurred mainly under conditions of only shallow burial (<500 m) in the presence of essentially marine pore fluids. Class III limestones have open to moderately open fabrics with typically nonferroan to ferroan, variably luminescent, fine to coarse drusy equant spar, and often include a range of neomorphosed, formerly aragonitic, bivalve skeletal fabrics. Composed predominantly of barnamol and bimol (bivalve mollusc) facies, these usually rather porous Pliocene—Pleistocene limestones are especially common in eastern North Island, and were characterised by diagenesis initially in the shallow burial realm and subsequently under variable influence from meteoric fluids, both in the subsurface and following uplift. Class IV limestones are characterised by tight and highly pressure-dissolved fabrics, with scant pore spaces filled by usually ferroan, dull luminescent, clear drusy equant spar. These hard, flaggy, bryomol-dominated limestones are common, of Oligocene-Miocene (and also Paleocene-Eocene) age, and their diagenesis proceeded mainly under conditions of moderate to deep burial (500–1500 m) in the presence of marine-modified connate fluids. The spectrum of marine, shallow burial, meteoric, and deep burial spar cements recognised in the New Zealand limestones^ together with special diagenetic features such as neomorphosed aragonitic fabrics and polygenetic micrites, remains to be fully appreciated and incorporated into existing models of nontropical shallow-marine carbonate evolution. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

text: Cementation scenarios for New Zealand Cenozoic nontropical limestones Cenozoic limestones are widely distributed in New Zealand, especially in the Oligocene-earliest Miocene in both islands, and the Pliocene-Pleistocene in North Island. A spectrum of limestone types exists, but all are skeletal-dominated (>70%), with usually <20% interparticle cement-matrix and <10% siliciclasts, and they have facies attributes typical of nontropical carbonates. The range of diagenetic features identified within the limestones is the basis for assigning them to a small number of “end-member” cementation classes that are inferred to be associated with four, broad, diagenetic settings. Class I limestones have very open fabrics dominated by abraded bryomol (bryozoan + bivalve mollusc) facies skeletons coated with isopachous rinds of typically nonferroan, dull to blotchy luminescent, fibrous to bladed spar, often with porosity occlusion by detrital and/or precipitated micrite. The limestones are usually thin and rare, of Oligocene — early Miocene age, and are interpreted to have formed by marine cementation at the seafloor under special environmental conditions associated with high energy levels and reduced sedimentation rates. Class II limestones have open fabrics with meagre amounts of dull to bright luminescent, ferroan to nonferroan, often substrate-specific, bladed to dog-toothed scalenohedral fringe or syntaxial rim cement. These porous, bryomol, echinofor (echinoderm + benthic foraminifera), and less commonly barnamol (barnacle + bivalve mollusc) facies 1 imestones are relatively common, especially in Oligocene— Miocene eastern South Island and in some Pliocene eastern North Island occurrences, where diagenesis occurred mainly under conditions of only shallow burial (<500 m) in the presence of essentially marine pore fluids. Class III limestones have open to moderately open fabrics with typically nonferroan to ferroan, variably luminescent, fine to coarse drusy equant spar, and often include a range of neomorphosed, formerly aragonitic, bivalve skeletal fabrics. Composed predominantly of barnamol and bimol (bivalve mollusc) facies, these usually rather porous Pliocene—Pleistocene limestones are especially common in eastern North Island, and were characterised by diagenesis initially in the shallow burial realm and subsequently under variable influence from meteoric fluids, both in the subsurface and following uplift. Class IV limestones are characterised by tight and highly pressure-dissolved fabrics, with scant pore spaces filled by usually ferroan, dull luminescent, clear drusy equant spar. These hard, flaggy, bryomol-dominated limestones are common, of Oligocene-Miocene (and also Paleocene-Eocene) age, and their diagenesis proceeded mainly under conditions of moderate to deep burial (500–1500 m) in the presence of marine-modified connate fluids. The spectrum of marine, shallow burial, meteoric, and deep burial spar cements recognised in the New Zealand limestones^ together with special diagenetic features such as neomorphosed aragonitic fabrics and polygenetic micrites, remains to be fully appreciated and incorporated into existing models of nontropical shallow-marine carbonate evolution. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

year: 1996-01-01

title: An investigation by LA-ICP-MS of possum tooth enamel as a model for identifying childhood geographical locations of historical and archaeological human from New Zealand

authors: Cameron, Kristie Elizabeth

subjects: LA -IC P-MS

abstract: LA -IC P-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) has been used to analyse enamel from the teeth of brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) in order to model a method for identifying the childhood geographical origin of human remains within New Zealand. The model application of the method is promising for establishing locations of historical and archaeological human remains, including preserved heads, upoko tuhi.

text: An investigation by LA-ICP-MS of possum tooth enamel as a model for identifying childhood geographical locations of historical and archaeological human from New Zealand LA -IC P-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) has been used to analyse enamel from the teeth of brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) in order to model a method for identifying the childhood geographical origin of human remains within New Zealand. The model application of the method is promising for establishing locations of historical and archaeological human remains, including preserved heads, upoko tuhi.

year: 2012