AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF A FIJIAN COMMUNITY
by Erinn Gregg

Extended Table of Contents

Note on the Pronunciation of Fijian Words

Introduction

Methods

Layout

Chapter 2 - Social Structure and Organization in Drana

Social Hierarchy and Kinship

      Table 1. Fijian Kin Terms in Drana

Life History Interviews

Social Organization in Drana

Religion

Chapter 3 - Economics

Income

   Table 2. Household Income in Drana

Expenditures

The Burden of Money

Aspirations to Acquire Wealth

Conclusion

Chapter 4 - Life Cycle Rituals

The Sevusevu

Birth

Naming

Birthdays

Marriage

Observing Life Cycle Events: A Funeral

A Fundraising Festival at Navutulevu

   Preparations and Guests

   Opening Ceremony

   Sheds and Fundraising

      Table 4. The Men Who Cut Cane to Support Joele's Contribution

      Table 5. Contributions from Vatucere Shed

   Vakavinakavinaka

   Meke

   Closing Ceremony

   Final Totals

      Table 6. Total Contributions to Navutulevu Fundraiser

   Vatucere Shed

   Disassembling the Sheds

Conclusion

Chapter 5 - Religion

Christianity

The Church

The Services

Features of the Methodist Religion

Reflection of Religion

Culture and Religion

Conversion

Assembly of God - Features and Services

Spirits

Conclusion

Works Cited

NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF FIJIAN WORDS

Fijian orthography generally follows an pattern that fits with an English speaker's intuitive understanding, but some distinctive devices have been used to render Fijian in a systematic way.

More conventional orthography:

"a" as in "father"
"e" as in "bed"
"i" as the "ee" in "beet"
"o" as in "hope" but with no diphthong
"u" as in "tube"

The unconventional features of Fijian orthography are as follows:

"b" refers to the sound "mb" as in "tomboy"
"d" refers to "nd" as in "find"
"c" is a voiced "th" as in "the"
"g" is the "ng" as in "singer"
"q" is the "ng" as in "finger"

INTRODUCTION

The research for this paper took place over the course of my ten-week stay in the small Fijian village of Drana. It is located outside the town of Rakiraki which is in the northern part of the Viti Levu island in the Fijian islands. Drana is a very small village having a total of eight houses and only forty-eight residents, though the number tends to vary with the coming and going of numerous relatives. Throughout the ten-week period I lived with a thirty-three year old widow named Savu and her three young children. She along with numerous others in the village were the backbone of the research, explaining much of the information included on Fijian society and the structure of life.

With each field assignment the importance of the network of community and kin that shapes Fijian society became more visible. Through investigating kinship, social structure, economics, ritual and religion I became aware that Fijians see themselves as embedded in networks of kin. Fijian culture also stresses that each person have a defined role in the community and should be more concerned with the good of that community than with pursuing individual desires. The role that each person plays within the community and importance of support for one another were more prominent as I became enmeshed into the network week by week.

Methods

Over the course of the ten weeks my fieldwork was broken down into specific topics which I focused on each week. They included a census of the village, genealogy charts, economic surveys, life cycle interviews, life history interviews, and religion interviews. The information gathered was either tape-recorded or written in the form of notes which were all transcribed at a later time. In addition to interviews I immersed myself in local life and observed events. This was an important aspect of the research because through participant observation I was able not only to witness the events first-hand but I was able to understand the rationale behind each of the events. I observed how groups of people were brought together and the interactions which occurred between them. In addition to this I was able to understand the culture by participating in the events. This is important because through participation and understanding it lessens the biases against the culture which may otherwise affect the research.

The first field assignment was a census of seven houses in the village of Drana. With the help of one of the young girls in the village I went to seven houses and spoke with at least one member of each of the households. The questions were focused on the relationship of the people to the village, including their mataqali, yavusa and tokatoka, terms which will be described in detail in the Chapter Two. In addition the names, ages, religion and schooling of the people were gathered as well as information from the women about where they were born. With the census I was able to get a better sense of the people living in the village not only through the questions but also by moving from house to house. In addition to this I began to get a sense of how the community was related as a whole and the emphasis on the family in the village.

The second field assignment entailed gathering a genealogy chart and kin term list from two people in the village which went through their relatives and then labeled them as they would be addressed in Fijian language. The charts were done with two women in the village who went through their siblings, including in-laws and grandparents. The Fijian kinship structure plays an important role in the interactions between relatives. A great deal of respect is expected for males and elders. There are specific terms of address for every person in the family. The relationships which develop among family members are molded around the kinship system. Those relationships which are given more respect are often more distant, and in some cases, such as the interaction between a woman and her mother's brother, is complete avoidance. The relationships where people can be more open with one another, for example with their tavale (cousins), are more relaxed and include joking and teasing one another. In this case I was trying to understand the way the Fijian kin system was structured. I was interested in understanding how people were related to one another and the relationship that existed between them. It was also interesting to look at how well people knew their families, thus uncovering the importance of the family in Fijian lives.

Following this I carried out economic surveys in the village. A total of six surveys were conducted over a two-week period. The interviews were done inside the different households which were chosen randomly and a translator was present for five of the six interviews. The questions focused on income, expenditures and attitudes towards money in each of the households. The main point I was trying to understand was the economic system that existed in the village and how this affected the social structure within the village. In the village of Drana the economy is structured on a systems of redistribution in which the wealthier households redistribute money to those with less money, thus balancing the economic status of each household. As a result the wealthier families in the village often have even less than the poorer.

The fieldwork that came next was centered on the life cycle rituals in Fijian lives as well as the life histories of four different people. The information on life cycle events including birth, marriage and death was gathered from a variety of sources in the village. The point was to gather information about how the stages of life are marked both in terms of individual and the community. Following these discussions, four women of various ages, all of whom live in Drana, were chosen for life history interviews. This involved a one-on-one interview with each woman generally lasting a total of one hour. The idea was to talk to women about their lives and have them share any information they were willing to talk about. In addition I was looking to find any common themes that emerged in the lives of the women as they moved through different stages of their life and took on new roles within the community. The view from the Fijians is that men and elders are given the greatest respect and that each person has a role within the community. The interviews demonstrate the dislike for the system which is the backbone of the culture. People often find that the relationships which should be most respected are often the most difficult to maintain, resulting in more avoidance among individuals within the family.

In addition to interviews a life cycle event was attended and observed. I attended a funeral in the village of Vitawa, also in the Rakiraki District, and later, though it is not a life cycle event, a fundraiser in the village of Navutulevu also in Rakiraki. Both of these field assignments were focused on understanding the relationship among groups of people and the effect of an event on bringing together the community as a whole for a common affair. By attending the events I was able to generate an idea about how the different stages in life were marked.

Finally I turned my attention to religion which involved conducting a few interviews within the village. Three interviews were conducted with women in the village of Drana and a fourth from the village of Vitawa. The questions focused on the features of the Methodist religion as a whole as well as the role that religion plays in the larger community. In addition information was collected about specific aspects of religion including conversion and the belief in ancestral spirits. All information was focused on the importance of the religion within the community and the role it plays in the individual lives of the Fijian people.

Layout

The information that was gathered through each of the fieldwork assignments has been compiled into four separate chapters. They all draw on the theme of the interconnectedness of relationships among Fijians and the different ways in which they are interwoven in the community.

Chapter Two discusses the organization of the Fijian family, including the focus on patrilineal descent. It examines inheritance of family lands as well as the chiefly position in a village. In addition a review of the kin term system in Fiji and the proper terms of address for each relative in the family are included. Finally it focuses on Drana, including a brief history of the village as well as the way the traditional ideas play out in the village. This chapter gives the reader a general sense of how the larger community is structured and then how it works in the small village of Drana.

The third chapter examines the issue of economic organization. It explains the ways in which the economy and material wealth are affecting social relations within the village and weakening the acceptance for traditional ideas. The economic redistribution that occurs in the village of Drana has many of the wealthier households feeling burdened with the economic strains placed on them as a result of the social structure in the village. The wealthier families, often with more money, redistribute their money to those families with less money and the end result is that the families with less money have more material wealth. It also focuses on the impact of one's role in the community as affecting his or her role in the economy of the village.

Chapter Four emphasizes the importance of life cycle events in bringing together individuals from the community as they mark the transition in life not only for the individual themselves but more importantly for the community as a whole. The observed life cycle events demonstrate how groups of people are brought together and the focus on good relations through a series of exchanges.

The fifth chapter explains the basic tenets of Christianity and more specifically information on the Methodist Church. It includes a discussion on conversion to another religion as well as touching on the belief in ancestral spirits and witchcraft. Again the sense of community which the church brings through the beliefs and the actions carried out by its members provides a backbone of support for the village community.

The paper concludes by reviewing the system of kin networks that exists in Fiji. This refers to each individual's role in the community which may be strengthened or weakened through various aspects of the culture. It examines the change in social relations within the network of kin dissatisfied with the strains of heirarchical positioning and the social obligations within the community. It closes, however, with a consideration of the support from the community and the involvement of each individual regardless of resentment for the current structure.

On to Chapter 2...