Understanding Tongan Aesthetic

Ethnoscientific Structuralism is the belief with which Adrienne Kaeppler writes “Melody, drone
and decoration: underlying structures and surface manifestations in Tongan art and society.”
Through the Structuralist way of thinking, she identifies the basic principles of Tongan society
through analyzing their aesthetic beliefs and the hierarchical structure of what is most valuable in
Tongan art forms. Kaeppler’s research was done through the Structuralist approach, but also
through applying Saussure’s linguistic techniques to the structure of the Tongan society rather
than to a grammatical structure. Also, the etic/emic approach was used so that Kaeppler was not
only an athropologist watching their society from the outside, but she aimed to obtain the Tongan
people’s perspective just as Colin Turnbull clearly was aiming to do in his ethnography “The
Forest People.” By taking the emic approach, Kaeppler is able to understand the Tongan culture
from their perspective, and there by understanding the Tongan aesthetic and art the way they
intend it to be seen. To understand this, first more research and understanding of other aspects of
the Tongan society necessary. The main questions Kaeppler inquires in order to figure this out is
what characteristics are relevent in the organization of society and how they are applied within
the “artistic and social domains” including music, dance, material culture and social organisation.
Kaeppler finds that these concepts in the society apply most clearly to Tongan music. The
melody is the primary part of music, and parallel to the melody in other spheres of Tongan
culture is the fasi in vocal music, which is the “main conveyor of text,” and in dance the Haka or
arm movements most clearly allude to the story as well. The parallel aspects of material culture
relate in a slightly less direct way. Kaeppler describes items of ceremonial use as being parallel
to melody. One such item of value is bark cloth, which, in the process of creating bark cloth, the
print design process koka ‘anga and the “named motifs” of the bark cloth designs are within the
same category as all story-conveying parts of Tongan culture. Finally, the Tamai kin group, the
“father and father’s brothers” are an important and essential part of society. Even though melody
is a necessary and important part of cultural concepts, even more important is the decoration.
Decoration is not essential; it does not carry the story, but without the decoration the music is not
complete. “Decorative parts are preferred by many Tongans and the fasi sometimes disappears
entirely (263).” The decorative parts such as the fakateki, or leg movements, in dance are not
choreographed but are performed from inner feeling instead. While the instruments in Tongan
music are structured by their importance parallel to the other aspects mentioned, they are less
clearly ranked. Instruments have a more functional role in society than the other forms of art.
The musical instrument which parallels the essential melody are those which are used in place of
words, when they are perhaps “tabu.” A certain function of musical instruments may be to wake
a chief in a preferable manner than a voice. Functionalism, as Radcliffe Brown explains in his
essay on the Andaman Islanders, is when multiple individual aspects of society work together to
maintain the organism of society working as a whole. To explain this he focuses on the Andaman
dances and all parts, like drums, that are included in and create a whole dance. The function of
musical instruments during a performance “was not to convey meaning but to hold a
performance together and decorate it (264).” Musical instruments serve a primarily functional
purpose, although they are understood to be an art as well. This is justified as Kaeppler
intricately describes aspects of Tongan life intertwined with aesthetic preference. In all of the
different spheres of Tongan culture, Kaeppler shows that they each have parallel levels of
importance. Between the standard piece of importance that carries the story line; the most
important element, which is not essential but important for completion of the object; and the
drone which is least important but provides “a reference for placement of the leading part (274)”.
Aspects of Tongan life do share “conceptual similarities in their underlying structure (273).”
Kaeppler points out that shapes such as rectangles, squares, curved or straight lines, are
incorporated by the Tongan people into their art in different ways that can show grace or
structure, etc. It is clear that because of the way Tongan people have made structures within their
society, they are predisposed to have certain aesthetic beliefs. Kaeppler concludes that outsiders
cannot immediately understand the Tongan aesthetic because the objectives are not clear on the
surface of their work, and they are not exactly like a Westerners idea of aesthetic. These concepts
provide beauty as well as order in all aspects of the lives of the Tongan.