Death of a king: digital ritual and diaspora

Abstract

In an age of social networking, transnational diasporic communities are actively participating in the flow of new media and technology, becoming increasingly interconnected and in closer cultural proximity. With the death of the Tongan King Tupou V, Tongans are communicating, (re)connecting, exchanging information and cultural practices as they turn not just towards Tonga but towards diasporic spaces of connecting. Tapu as a cultural practice deeply rooted and situated within Tongan social life is being renegotiated digitally as digital ritual. This paper adds to the concept of digital diaspora by including a digital ritual component that reconfigures the formation and contestation of social space and proposes a distinct sociospatial orientation to digital technology. The ritual literature is engaged as digital rituals are considered a sub-genre of Couldry's media rituals. Distinct indigenous cultural practices within diasporic communities are reconstituted and structured through digital ritual engagement and participation in digital space. The Moanan (Oceanian) understanding of time and space as ‘tā’ and ‘vā’ lends to a genealogical theorizing of digital diaspora and social networking, resulting in a distinct sociospatial inhabitation of the Internet. Facebook for Tongans represents broad swathes of social connections we might conceptualize as a digital, portable homeland, which contests and rearticulates social relations through digitality.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benjamin Burroughs

Benjamin Burroughs is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media in the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). His work has been published in journals such as New Media and Society, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, and Games and Culture.

Tēvita O. Ka'ili

Tēvita O Ka'ili is from Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, with genealogical ties to Tonga, Sāmoa, Fiji, and Rotuma. He is an associate professor in the International Cultural Studies (ICS) and Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Studies at Brigham Young University Hawai'i. He is currently the chair of ICS. He teaches several courses in ICS-Cultural Anthropology and Pacific Islands Studies. His research interests include time and space, indigeneity, oral traditions, diaspora, globalization, and language.