AN OBSERVATION OF FIJIAN SOCIETY:
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN INDIVIDUALITY AND COMMUNALISM
by Apryle Pickering

Chapter 2
Social Structure and Organization in a Fijian Village

Chapter 2

Kin Terms and Relations

Name Avoidance

Social Structure of the Village

Vitawa Village

History of the Bua Yavusa

Marriage

Schooling

Religion

Kin Terms and Relations

The kinship and family relationships in Fijian society are very complicated and are often times confusing. They consist of strict patterns of avoidance with some relatives and relaxed, joking, behavior with other family members. All males who are either brothers or parallel cousins refer to each other as brothers. In Fijian it would be tuakana for an older brother or tacina for a younger brother. All of the female siblings and parallel cousins are referred to as sisters or the term ganegu would be used to refer to a sibling of the opposite sex. This makes it very difficult when are attempting to figure out how two different people are related. If you were to ask about someone's relations most people would be referred to with the same sibling term making it hard to distinguish how the person is actually related. The largest distinction is between those cousins that are parallel and those that are cross cousins.

A parallel cousin is one who is the daughter or son of your mother's sister or father's brother. Older parallel cousins and older siblings of the opposite sex must be respected and in the sometimes avoided. This is also the case with sisters and brothers in ones immediate family. Brothers and sisters must have a greater respect for one another than with siblings of their own sex. The avoidance pattern tends to be stronger for those people further out genealogically as well. You must present more respect to your parallel cousins of the opposite sex than with your immediate siblings. I have encountered the avoidance of the veitacini a few times in my village with my sister and her cousin brothers. She does not look up when walking by a male parallel cousin and is reluctant to speak in their company. I have even seen young men in my village who approach each other but stand one behind the other to hold their conversation to follow this avoidance and respectful pattern. This shows the respect that each must carry for one another. This is not the case however with siblings of the same sex. You must respect your elder siblings but you are allowed to converse and hold relationships with them due to their similar gender. My host sister is always laughing and conversing with her female cousins and it appears as though her relationships with them are genuine.

Conversely, a cross cousin or tavale is the daughter or son of one's mother's brother or father's sister. These are also referred to as "kissing cousins" because in Fijian society they are allowed to marry. My sister has made this apparent with her constant flirting and calling of "darling" to her male tavale in our village. These men have come to know me as their tavale as well and are not afraid to call me sweetheart or demand a kiss on the cheek when we meet. It is rather convenient for the people in the village to find a suitable mate, however, I believe that such close encounters with relatives are dangerous because they might lead to incest, although first cousins are traditionally not allowed to marry. In American society there is little difference with a parallel or cross cousin but in Fijian society they are very different indeed. The relationship that they hold with each other is completely different and due to the strict avoidance patterns created by Fijian customs these relationships must remain distinctly different. Due to the fact that parallel cousins are called brothers and sisters, their female children whom we call nieces would be daughters, luvequ yalewa (or my female child), and the nephews would be called sons or luvequ tagane (or my male child). Children of opposite sex siblings, however, have a special term vugoqu.

The Fijian term for a person's spouse is watiqu; however, they most often times refer to each other by their first name when calling each other. In Fiji your father and mother would be referred to as Tata and Nana and out of respect you would never refer to them by their actual names. The kin term for grandmother in Fijian is bubu and grandfather is tutu. These terms, however, are used for any person with the same name as their grandparent because to show your respect for your elders you cannot say their name. The term yaca or namesake may also be used in this situation.

As I have stated earlier there is much emphasis on the respect shown to older kin verses younger kin. The people whom we would refer to as our aunts and uncles are given separate categories in Fiji due to the order of birth. All those siblings of the same sex who are older than a person's parent, along with their spouses, would be referred to as the eldest father or mother, Tata levu and Nana levu, and all those who are younger than a person's parent would be referred to as the younger father or mother Tata lailai and Nana lailai . On the other hand the siblings of your parents of the opposite sex would be referred to as your aunt and uncle, Nei and Momo. These terms demand more respect and the manner in which you present yourself to these relatives must be more reserved in nature. Often times, however, these terms are interchangeable and if a person is unsure how they are related or the extent of the respect they should convey they call the elder Nei or Momo as a sign of respect. The term Nei is also used by a married women in referring to her mother-in-law because in this situation the utmost respect is required.

Table 1. List of Kin Terms in Vitawa

Name Avoidance

As I briefly discussed earlier, in Fijian culture many of the names are used more than once in a family. It is very common for people to be named after their older relatives and in this case they would not be addressed with that name but with the term yaca, which means someone's namesake. This is due to the avoidance rules that are used when referring to the names of your elders and the fact that to refer to someone by their elders name is disrespectful to that elder. This is a common occurrence due to an abundance of people with the same name. When referring to married people with children people may also be called the mother or father of their eldest child, tinai (child's name) or tamai (child's name). If that child has children as well then they would instead be called the grandmother of their first born grandchild, bui (child's name) or the grandfather of the first born child to their eldest child, tukai (child's name). When people are single with no children than they are often addressed by their first name or a shorter nickname. I have found the system for naming children and the rules that one is to follow when dealing with relatives to be very confusing and hard to adjust to.

Social Structure of the Village

In Fijian society the villages are organized into patrilineal groups with a chief governing the whole of all the groups. The chief and his spokesman, the Matanivanua, would be in the highest ranking group and have authority over the village members. The largest groups in the village are called yavusa, the yavusa are the differing clans and in each clan there is a head the Liuliu-ni-yavusa. In Vitawa the highest-ranking yavusa Navatu is located furthest back from the highway followed in front by the second ranking yavusa, Burelevu, and then the third yavusa, Bua. Within these yavusa are the various mataqali (sub-clans or lineages). In each mataqali there is a headman or woman the liuliu-ni-mataqali and within the mataqali are the tokatoka or extended families. The number of mataqali and tokatoka differ in each yavusa. When anybody has a complaint or suggestion for the village they must first inform the head of their household, who will in turn go to the liuliu-ni-mataqali, who will go to the liuliu-ni-yavusa, who will inform the Matanivanua. He will then evaluate the situation and bring it to the chief. This system has been very efficient and productive when necessary. The chief in Vitawa village is also known as the Tui Navatu. He has authority not only over our village, but over the whole Navatu area which covers the other villages Narewa and Naivuvuni as well. Above the Tui Navatu reigns the Tui Navitilevu. He has authority over the whole Ra province and currently resides in Rakiraki village.

Ideally, villages consist of members of patrilines, meaning that they trace their decent through the male line. Traditionally, when two people are married they live with the husband's family in his village. In a society such as this one a tokatoka would consist of a grandfather, his brothers, his sons and all of their spouses and children. This concept of belonging to the father's group emphasizes the power of the males in Fijian society. The eldest male in any household would be the main "breadwinner" and has the responsibility to provide for and protect his family as well as his mataqali. The women in the families would traditionally be married off to other villages to serve their husband's family. This concept is changing however, and more couples are choosing to live with their mother's clan in her village. This has both economic and household advantages.

As I stated before in each household the head is typically the eldest male. He has the highest ranking followed the eldest son. In each mataqali the men are ranked according to age, with the eldest brother at the top. These men have the highest status in the mataqali followed by their sons. The sons may also be ranked due to the status of their fathers. The women then follow in the ranking of the men with the eldest at the top and the youngest women at the bottom. The men with the highest ranking deserve the most respect. The manners with which you conduct yourself when in their company are often times very different from those that you would use otherwise. In most cases it is easier just to avoid the people of highest rank because the fear of disrespecting them is so great. This causes the environment in such households of high ranking elders to be much more reserved with fewer visitors. The houses at the bottom of the ranking scale are much more relaxed and often times these are the houses with the most action. It is through this system of respect and mannerisms that the kin terms in Fiji have derived.

Vitawa Village

Vitawa village is a very large village compared to others around it. It consists of 80 houses with the average number of people in each house at five. This makes for a village of about 350 people. There are three yavusa in Vitawa the highest ranking being Navatu, followed by Burelevu then Bua. In each yavusa there are approximately three mataqali and in each mataqali there are anywhere from five to twenty households. The yavusa to which my host family belongs is the Yavusa Bua. This yavusa contains three mataqali, the highest ranking being Tobuniuca followed Navakacacara and lastly Namasaga. We are members of the mataqali Namasaga that contains 17 households.

History of the Bua Yavusa

The clan of people that my Tata belongs to originally came from the interior of Fiji in a village known as Vunisea. During the civil war they moved to the Nakauvadra mountain range and lived their lives happily there for a few years. Then a civil war reached the Rakiraki area and the Navatu people were fighting with people from Nalawa. At this point in time the chief of Vitawa was settled on the top of Ulu-Ni-Navatu (the mountain next to the village) watching over the land. He noticed that there were now people living in the mountain range and inquired about what they were doing there. He asked his Matanivanua who lived there and he told him who it was. The chief then told the Matanivanua to take one whale's tooth to the clan and ask them to come and help his people during the war. They agreed to do this and settled their clan at the base of the mountain next to the water. When the war was finished the people of Navatu had won. The chief did not want the Bua clan to leave, however, and asked them to stay so they made their village at the base of the mountain. The chief has given them 122 acres to grow their food, which is not very much to live comfortably. After a while a women from the village married a man from the chief's clan. This would have been fine except this women had and affair and was ashamed to stay near her village. She went to the chief and he told her that the village could move their location further from the mountain so she could stay with her husband and avoid humiliation. The clan moved as they were told and that is how they ended up in the location that they are in today.

Marriage

In Fijian society women tend to get married at a younger age than men. The common age for a women to get married would be in her late teens or early twenties whereas men may not get married until their middle to late twenties. In some cases the women do not formally consent to the marriage, and they are almost forced into it by the pressure from their family. In cases such as these the beginning stages of the marriage are then prone to heavy conflict and domestic violence. This is not the case in all marriages, however, as in the case of my host parents. Their marriage was by their choice and they have lived very happily together.

In Vitawa there is a significant number of marriages involving women from other villages. In looking at the census information the proportion of women from other villages to those from Vitawa is approximately 1/2. This number is higher than what it used to be due to the changing traditions and lifestyles. People are now obtaining jobs outside of the village, and there are more opportunities to meet women from other areas. Also, the fact that most other people in the village are somehow related to you or your family makes it more desirable to venture out of the village to find a spouse and avoid the possibility of marrying a family member. In some cases the women have come from far away places such as Malake Island and the opposite side of Viti Levu; out of the ten households that I interviewed in my census survey two of them had wives from other islands. This occurs mostly with the traditional arranged marriage and the possibility for a family to gain financially if the two families unite. For the most part, however, the women are either from the same village or from close surrounding villages.

The number of children that people are having is changing as well. By evaluating the census information, it can be determined that ten to twenty years ago the average number of children that a family would have would be five to ten children. Today most of the families are stopping at three children and it is rare to find a couple with more than five children. I believe that this is due to the poor economic status of the country and the unavailability of money to support a family properly. Children today are more expensive to raise than they used to be, and many families are not prepared for this. Also, today there is the opportunity to use a method of birth control. This was not the case twenty years ago and the possibility of conceiving children could not be avoided.

Schooling

Schooling in Fiji begins at the kindergarten level when the children are four years old. At the age of six they are then enrolled into a primary school where they complete all eight classes. When the child has completed her seventh and eighth class (which are equivalent to form one and two), then she must pass an entrance exam before attending secondary school. The secondary school holds forms one through six with an exit exam that allows you to enroll into form seven with a further studies program. Those who do not qualify for form seven can also do a "computer" vocational course.

The children in Vitawa and surrounding villages attend the kindergarten that is in Vitawa and from there most attend Navatu Primary School which is located outside of Naivuvuni (a nearby village). From there, however, they have a choice of attending an Indian or Fijian secondary school. There are two Fijian secondary schools in the region and one Indian secondary school. The Indian school, however, as a higher tuition fee and the quality of education is considered to be more advanced.

In doing the census research I found that in the last twenty years there is a significant change in the extent of schooling that the villagers are undergoing. Twenty years ago it was rare to find someone that made it past class eight or form 2. Most of the people actually stopped schooling around class 5. Today most of the kids are going all the way through high school through form 6, which would be the same as 12th grade back home. I have also encountered people in my village who have completed further studies programs in a specific trade or who have gone to a University or Technical Institute. The mind set of the youth is changing in that they no longer want to settle for being a cane cutter or house wife but they want to be able to find a better job and earn more money for their families. This was a positive modification and one that I hope continues to advance.

Religion

Religion plays a crucial role in the lives of Fijian families. They look to their methods of worship and to "God" for guidance in their every day lives and some devote their life to prayer. After evaluating the census information it can be concluded that the majority of the people living in Vitawa are of the Methodist Religion. Out of the 70+ households in the village only twelve that I encountered were of another affiliation, the first being my own host family. They belong to the Holiness Revival Church, which is a branch of the Assemblies of God chapter. One family that I encountered was Catholic, but I was told that they are the only Catholic household in Vitawa and the others belonged to various other branches of the AOG chapter the Kuriacos Ministry of Rakiraki, United Pentecostal Church and the Christian Outreach Center. I found this to be the case in other villages as well: a large proportion of the people in Fiji follow the Methodist religion.

On to Chapter 3...