Bringing Back Individualism: Examining the Roles of Overseas Experiences and Personal and Social Obligations in Women's Pursuits of Good Health in Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Abstract

This thesis looks to the experiences of a small, but diverse group of women living in Nuku‘alofa, Tonga, and explores the varied ways in which they pursue good health, however they may define it. As these women engage in such pursuits, they demonstrate how physical health has taken on new meaning in Tonga, especially regarding shifting notions about the relationship between physical health and social obligations. While some women used physical health as a way to emphasize the importance of good health as an obligation to oneself—a kind of individualism—other women emphasized good health as an important demonstration of fulfilling one’s obligations to others. This thesis also considers the role of diasporic experiences in some women’s pursuits of good health, illustrating how overseas encounters provided them with new ideas about what it means to be healthy, and which some women incorporated into their lives once back in Tonga.