Introduction
In Consumption and Cosmopolitanism: Practicing Modernity at the Second-Hand Marketplace in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, and Niko Besnier argues that it is possible for anyone to assert or articulate a modern self or enact modernity, not just wealthy elites or high ranking individuals in the society.
The fea markets attract types of customers across all genders. Women particularly love these markets since they can modern clothes for example that place them at par with their counterparts from more developed nations. In the market traditional gender restrictions are put away. Everybody irrespective of their gender is free to acquire anything that might distinguish them from traditional practices. A common example is the buying of trousers by women.
However, Besnier does not really explore how issues like age, race and ability affect the adoption of modernity. For example, it is clear that elderly citizens in any part of the world are not really into modernity aspects as the younger people. Since the larger population of the Tongan population is comprised of younger people, I wonder what impact this might have on the adoption of modernity in such a country.
In spite of these little discrepancies, Besnier’s is still significantly convincing. By comprehensively exploring the issue of modernity from the second hand items perspective, it emerges that modernity is not just for the society’s elite but is actually for everyone.
Works Cited
Besnier, Niko. Consumption and Cosmopolitanism: Practicing Modernity at the Second-Hand Marketplace in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. University of Los Angeles, Los Angeles. 2004.
