Drawing upon multiple lines of research in and about Tokelau - ethnography as participant-observation and conversation/discussion, documentary research in all available published sources (few) and unpublished materials in offices and archives, Tokelau narratives and texts, conversations with other scholars of Tokelau, and relevant anthropological literature - the late Antony Hooper and I have aimed to create a narrative of Tokelau over time and in places that speaks to both differences and continuities in Tokelau lifeways - their activities and beliefs, ideas and relationships. This essay is a contribution to and illustration of our endeavours, focusing on those particular things that Tokelau people treasure: their emblematic resources and the valued things they make from them, and their supreme valued treasures - pearl-shells ('tifa'), and the lures ('pa') and pendants ('kahoa') fashioned from them.

中文翻译：

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托克劳的珍贵事物

借鉴托克劳内部和关于托克劳的民族志研究作为参与者的观察和对话/讨论，对所有可用的公开资料来源（很少）和办公室和档案馆中未公开的资料进行文献研究，托克劳的叙述和文本，与托克劳其他学者的对话以及相关的人类学文献-已故的安东尼·胡珀（Antony Hooper）和我旨在在时间和地点上叙述托克劳的故事，这些故事讲述托克劳生活中的差异和连续性-他们的活动，信仰，思想和关系。本文是对我们的努力的贡献和例证，着重于托克劳人民珍视的那些特殊事物：他们的象征性资源和他们从中获得的有价值的东西，以及至高无上的珍宝-珍珠贝壳（'tifa'），