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Untitled edit
Be aware of the royal ark
There is no doubt that the one who made this site http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Tonga, Christopher Buyers, has done a lot of work on it. But it seems that the quality is inversily proportional to the size. Many names and places are utterly miss spelled. Several, especially older, pre-European data seem to be consisting of largely wishfull thinking, contradicted by most historians who really have investigated these periods. I would not recommend that Wikipedians take it as their only source. --Tauʻolunga 08:09, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
- Does the Palace or government have an official history? Perhaps the museum can help. Are you in Tonga? --Scott Davis Talk 15:01, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
- I am in Tonga, but any records have been taken away from here already a long time ago to universities overseas. And their scholars are overseas too. So the sources I mention, I do not have access to them myself. Everything from before the 19th century in Tonga is oral only, with a snapsnot (like Captain Cook) at most. The 19th century itself is written down by missionaries, but their records are tainted by whom told it them. An informant stressing what he finds important, bending the truth where he likes it, just ignoring what he does not. As such another missionary may obtain almost an opposite version of the history from someone else. Only what they have in common, that probably is real, and that is the type of detective work Tongan historians do.
- Therefore a 'historian' who comes with something completely different from other historians, without giving a good reason is suspect. Like the royal ark I am afraid. --Tauʻolunga 06:05, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
- Fair enough. Discovering Australian Aboriginal history is also difficult, for some of the same reasons, coupled with there being many separate groups, each with their own language and history. My impression (from a week in Nuku'alofa in 2004) was that the museum attempted to have a copy of the best-available history and research. --Scott Davis Talk 14:11, 15 May 2006 (UTC)