ABSTRACT
Making copra and coconut oil for sale had been introduced by traders and reinforced by missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century. From the Second World War onwards Nanumean copra sales averaged about 27 metric tonnes annually and, in the 1970s, most households made some copra. Selling fish involves more than simply an incorporation of new resources, a response to new opportunities or an increase in subsistence efficiency. This choice also challenges core tenets of Tuvalu culture. Of course, all areas of Tuvaluan life have now become more deeply embedded in the globalised world. During the colonial period, which began in the early 1890s and lasted for nearly 90 years, the Ellice and the Gilbert groups were jointly administered from Banaba (1909-1942), then after the Second World War from Tarawa, a large atoll in the northern Gilbert Islands. The attractions and perceived opportunities of Funafuti have exerted an ever-increasing pull on Nanumeans and other outer islanders.
