Book Report Tongan Villages to American Suburbs written by author and Anthropologist Cathy A. Small

From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs written by author and Anthropologist Cathy A. Small begins in 1981 with a field trip to Tonga. Small's initial study was the difference between Western and Tongan ways. The study transforms into the history and migration of a South Pacific Island kingdom named Tonga. In the first year of her study, 1981, she seeks advise from a volunteer she meets in town. The volunteer offers some wise advise as well as …

…what it was like to be a Tongan American. One families journey from Tonga to American does not reflect the entire Tongan experience. I realize that in the Ethographic process you are to immerse yourself into a culture for a true understanding, but to write a book on what it was like to be a Tongan American more data was needed. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I felt it fell short of its goal.