Elizabeth Bott Spillius field notes and papers.

Collection

Identifier: MSS-Archives-A-265

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of research material, correspondence, drafts, photographs, field notes and copies of Tohi Hohoko, the outcome of anthropological fieldwork undertaken in Tonga 1958-1960 by Elizabeth Spillius (nee Bott) and James Spillius. Material in the collection dates from April 1958 to 1981.

The collection is organised into five broad subject areas or sections within which material is arranged in a roughly chronological order.

I. Research material pertaining to the study of psychoanalysis and ceremony, Tongan Society at the time of Captain Cook's visits, social structure and kinship.

II. Papers and Correspondence, 1961, 1962, including James Spillius's Ph.D thesis draft.

III. Field work in Tonga, 1958-1960, which includes valuable ethnographic research on hingoa, hohoko and observations of taumafa kava, and information collected in the course of work on the Environmental Sanitation Project for the WHO: data on geneologies, kinship, rank, history, political structure, weddings, funerals, fonos and family life. This section includes a valuable collection of photographs, 43 field notebooks and materaila concerning the 1959 filming of the taumafa kava ceremony for the Tongan Traditions Committee.

IV. General miscellaneous.

V. Confidential material - some items in this section are partly restricted.

This collection also includes James Spillius' notes and field reports on water sanitation in Tonga for the World Health Organisation.

Abbreviations

E.J.S.: Elizabeth Spillius
J.S.: James Spillius
H.M.: Her Majesty Queen Salote Tupou
H.V.: Honourable Ve'ehala
TT: Tu'i Tonga
TK: Tu'i Kanokupolu
TH: Yu'i Ha'atakalaua
TTC: Tongan Traditions Committee
WHO: World Health Organization
ESP: Environmental Sanitation Project
Hw: Handwritten
?: Uncertain
p: Page, both sides used
l: Leaf, one side used
n.d.: No date

Glossary of Tongan words relevant to this inventory.

faikava: kava ceremony.
faifekau: minister.
fakanofo: appoint; ceremony where the new title holder's title is issued for the first time in faikava, kava being given to him first, regardless of the usual order of serving.
fakamatala: description, explanation, report.
fanua: children.
fatongia: duty, obligation.
fono: chief's meeting; no discussion.
hingoa: name, title.
hohoko: genealogy.
kainga: kin group.
koloa: goods, wealth, riches.
lakalaka: action song, standing.
liongi: to go into mourning; involving haircutting.
lo'au: an assembly of the Queen and her matapule; a meeting to discuss kava matters.
ma'u: extract, quoted from speech or book.
ngaue: food brought in for pongipongi.
pongipongi: ceremony for new titleholder where subjects present their homage to the Queen or King - a presentation of food and kava followed by kaumafa kava.
sino'i ieiki: the body of aristocrats.
taumafa kava: royal kava ceremony.
tohi hohoko: genealogy book.
toutai: navigator, fisherman.
vahe: district; vahe Hihifo - western division of Tongatapu.
'api: area of land held by one man (8 ¼ acres).
'eiki: aristocrat of very high rank.
'Ene Afio: His/her Majesty.

Dates

1958 - 1960

Creator

Spillius, Elizabeth Bott (Person)
World Health Organization (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

PARTLY RESTRICTED. Access to Box 26, folder 5; Box 26, folder 6; Box 26, folder 7 requires the permission of the Special Collections Manager.

Copyright

The permission of the Elizabeth Bott-Spillius estate is required for publication of material from this collection, other than for the purposes of criticism or review .

Biographical Note

Anthropologist James Spillius worked with Raymond Firth in Tikopia in 1952-1953. He arrived in Nuka'alofa, Tonga, in March 1958 to work as an anthropological consultant to the World Health Organisation on an environmental sanitation project investigating village water supplies. His contract with the WHO was from 1 April 1958 to 30 June 1960. For the first nine months of the project James Spillius organised the construction of the WHO office and WHO public relations and undertook intensive fieldwork with officials and the public. A survey of social aspects of Tongatapu villages lead to a study of Houma village as a pilot study for the project. Quarterly field reports were written for the duration of the projects, copies of which are included in the collection.

Elizabeth Spillius (nee Bott) trained in anthropology in Canada, the U.S and London, England. After the publication of her doctoral research (Elizabeth Bott: 'Family and Social Network '. 1957,1971) she was granted a Fellowship buy the Foundation Fund for Research in Psychiatry. She postponed this to join her husband, James Spillius, in Tonga on 28 April 1958.

On her arrival in Tonga Elizabeth Spillus wrote a brief study of mother -child relationships for the WHO project and in November 1958 began work as an anthropologist for the Tongan Traditions Committee under the guidance of Queen Salote Tupou and the Hon Ve'ehala. The aims of the Committee were to collect and make a systematic record of old traditions and to write a history of Tonga. An enormous volume of work on titles and genealogies was accomplished with the help of interviewers Ula Matatoa and Tupou Posesi. Queen Salote gave Elizabeth Spillius the honour of the name Nua. Similarly James Spillius had a Tikopian name Kolofau.

In 1959 the Tongan Traditions Committee decided that a film of the Taumafa Kava, the Royal Kava ceremony, be made as an historical record for the people of Tonga. The Committee invited David Attenborough from the BBC to do the filming with the understanding that the part of the film concerned with the the Taumafa Kava would be presented to the Committee. Elizabeth worked with Queen Salote and the Hon. Ve'ehala in preparing scripts and participated in lengthy preliminary discussions. Filming took place in September 1959 at Nuku'alofa. Unfortunately the film was subsequently damaged by water in London.

Following the birth of her daughter, Sisifa in February 1960, Elizabeth completed an account of the history of Tonga from the time of Captain Cook until the end of the wars in Tonga in 1852. Records of interviews and discussions in Tonga about genealogies and the political events of this period, as well as copies of archival material are included in the Collection.

Elizabeth Spillius and James Spillius returned to London in June 1960. James Spillius resumed work on his PhD thesis, a comparative political study of Tikopoia, Samoa and Tonga, under the supervision of Raymond Firth and prepared papers on health and social structure for several conferences in 1961 and 1962 in Canada, the US and Hawaii. His research concentrated on Tongan political structures and writing a book on Tonga ...the first serious book on Tonga since Gifford (letter, 24 March, 1962). It is unclear whether his thesis or book were completed.

Elizabeth Spillius continued with her Tongan work from October, 1960 in London and undertook her training in Psychoanalytic theories. In February 1967 she presented a lecture to the British Association of Psychoanalysts on Psychoanalysis and ceremony, a psychoanalytical interpretation of the Taumafa Kava, and shared a generous exchange of ideas with colleagues including Edmund Leach and Max Gluckman.

Following the publication of her Tongan papers in 1981 and 1982 Elizabeth Spillius donated the papers in this collection to the University of Auckland Library. Copies of a large part of Elizabeth Spillius's Tongan research papers were deposited in the Palace Office Records in Nuku'alofa in 1959-1960 and have been used extensively by subsequent researchers. In later years Elizabeth Spillius worked as a psychoanalyst in a London hospital. 'Elizabeth Bott' was her publishing name. She died in July 2016.

The assistance of Wendy Pond, Garth Rogers and Richard Moyle in translating certain passages in the papers for identification purposes is acknowledged.

Brief chronology of events during period of fieldwork in Tonga, 1958-1960

31 March 1958
: James Spillius arrives in Tonga to take up position with WHO.
28 April 1958
: Elizabeth Spillius arrives in Nuku'alofa.
7 May 1958
: Queen Salote explained the objectives of the WHO project to a Lo'au on Tongatapu.; James Spillius went to Kauvai for a Lo'au with Ve'ehala and Vaea.
16 May 1958
: Fonos of Tu'i Vakano at Va'atu'u and Matahou.
7-14 June 1958
: James Spillius went to Lakemba Island, Lau Group, Fiji for funeral of the Tu'i Lau on the Hifofua.
17 June 1958
: First Bithday of Tu'i Pelehake's child Maelefelu.
18 June 1958
: First Birthday of Nuseilala, child of Haleavalu at Houma.
4 July 1958
: The new Tu'i Vakano's pongipongi.
3 August 1958
: Christening of Elisapesi.
20-31 August 1958
: Ha'apai visit.
15 October 1958
: 'Akau'ola's pongipongi.
11 October 1958
: Anniversary of Queen Salote's 40th year of ascension.
January 1959
: Funeral of 'Ele.; Marriage of Tuna Taulupe and Longolongo Fielakepa.
November 1958
: Visits Kauvai with Queen Salote.; Elizabeth Spillius starts work with the Tongan Traditions Committee.
January 1959
: Funeral of 'Ele.; Marriage of Tuna Taulupe and Longolongo Fielakepa.
February 1959
: Funeral of Tevita 'Unga.
March 1959
: Work with Soakai.; Visit to Ha'apai with Queen Salote.
June 1959
: Study of 'Ahau village begun.
August 1959
: Kapukava's fakanofo.; School Competition Day.
21 and 23 September 1959
: Preparation and filming of Taumafa Kava.
26 September 1959
: Funeral of Veikune.
October 1959
: Queen Salote's visit to Niuatoputapu and Vava'u.
January - February 1960
: Birth of Sisifa.
April - May 1960
: Elizabeth Spillius writes history of Tonga paper.
May-June 1960
: Visit to Niuatoputapu and Vava'u, with James Spillius and Fanamanu.
June 1960
: 'Tonga in Time of Captain Cook' completed.
20 June 1960
: Elizabeth Spillius leaves Tonga for London.
October 1960
: Elizabeth Spillius continued to work part-time work for the Tongan Traditions committee.

Extent

2 metres (26 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Dr Elizabeth Bott Spillius in 1982.

List of relevant publications by Elizabeth Bott Spillius.

Family and social network : roles, norms and external relationships in ordinary urban families. London : Tavistock Publications, 1957.
Psychoanalysis and ceremony. In J.D. Sutherland (ed) The psychoanalytic approach. Balliere, Tindall & Cassell Ltd. London, 1968.
Psychoanalysis and ceremony. In J.S. La Fontaine (ed) The interpretation of ritual. Tavistock, London, 1972.
Power and rank in the Kingdom of Tonga. Journal of the Polynesian Society. Col.90:7-81. 1981.
Tongan Society at the time of Captain Cook's visits: discussions with Her majesty Queen Salote Tupou; with the assistance of Tavi. Polynesian Society, Wellington, 1982.