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

Chapter 3
Economics

Chapter 3

Household Surveys and Background Information

Sources of Income

Family Expenses

The Cost of Kinship

Opinion and Personal Feelings

Household Surveys and Background Information

The first house that I surveyed was of a woman named Elesi Ranuinui. She was living with family in Vitawa with her two-year-old son while her husband worked as a police officer in Nadovi station about two miles away. She lived with her grandfather and cousins for four days out of the week, but the rest of the time she had a house in Rakiraki village that the government provided. The economic survey that I performed on her family was about her house in Rakiraki and the economic status of her and her husband. Their wages and expenses are listed in an upcoming table. Their situation was unique, however, because the government pays for such expenses as water and electricity. None of their children are schooling, and they seem to be financially stable. The only source of hardship and conflict is with the husband's drinking habit and excessive spending of money on alcohol and yaqona.

The second household that I interviewed was my own. In my household my Tata and my brother Semi are fisherman. Semi, however, does most of the fishing now due to Tata's poor health. In the case of fishermen the income fluctuates daily. I was told that the best time to fish is at night and during a new moon, which makes good fishing hard to come by. You cannot fish when the weather is windy or stormy, and they are only up to going fishing once or twice in a week. There has also been a large problem with people using dynamite in the past to kill the fish. This method killed most of the fish in the area so it is difficult to catch larger fish today. When they are not fishing, the men must do other jobs such as servicing the engine and the fishing net. Both my sister and other brother Pudgy work as well but their money is limited and used for their expenses only. In comparison to the other households in the village my family has a very low income and buys only what is absolutely necessary to survive.

The third household that I interviewed was of a woman who was living alone with her two children. Her husband passed away a few months ago leaving her with all the expenses to be paid. The older child is in form 6 at Rakiraki District School while the younger one is attending Penang High School in form 3. The woman herself works in Wananavu Resort, which has decent wages, and she was now receiving insurance money as well. The extra expense of having two children schooling, however, uses up most of their weekly income making the family appear to have a low income as well.

The fourth household that I interviewed was of an older man, Waisea Balia, and his wife. They live alone in their house due to the fact that all their children have grown up and moved out of the house. He is a retired civil servant and is on pension now but she works in the village growing vegetables and root crops for sale so that he can make a little extra money. This used to be quite profitable, but this year there was a problem with pests and birds so the profit was much less. In that past he has planted Sugar Cane on his land; however, due to the drought last year he was not able to produce any sugar cane but he hopes to grow another two to three acres this year. He too is considered to have a low income in the village.

The fifth household that I interviewed was the wealthiest that I found in the village. The head of the household, Alofereti Waqawai works for the Fiji Sugar Corporation in a high status position and often gets overtime as well. There are six people living in the household, including him and his wife, two children, a nephew and his mother. His two children are schooling and the nephew lives with them during the summers when his is not at training camp for the military. I could see by observing their household that they were able to afford household items that other families could not and they were considered to be more towards the high income end of the village.

The last house that I surveyed was of a younger man, Serevi Nauvi, his wife and their two small children. They had one of the lowest incomes of the six houses that I interviewed. Serevi works for the Fiji Sugar Corporation as well from Monday through Friday going from farm to farm and checking for diseases or parasites among the crops. His wife remains at home during the day like most women in the village, and one of his children is attending the village kindergarten while the other is still too small. It seems to me that this family is just starting out and they have not established themselves financially yet.

Sources of Income

When evaluating the economic information for the six houses that I surveyed I discovered that four families received their income from the Fiji Sugar Corporation or sugar cane harvest, one family relied on fishing and the last two depended on government funds for their wages. From this information it can be concluded that most of the income is earned during the 6-month sugar season and the others depend on factors such as tourism seasons and the weather for fishing. All the financial figures in this ethnography are in Fijian dollars, which are worth roughly half an American dollar. Thus, F$2.00 is the same as $1.00 USD. Wages are paid by fortnight, and for most occupations the average wage is F$200.00 every two weeks. In some cases when people are receiving insurance for the death of a family member or they work in a resort a family might earn anywhere from $300.00 to $400.00 every two weeks but this kind of income is rare in the villages. There was little variation in the income of the houses that I surveyed. I have included a table of the six household surveys that I completed, these are just estimates by the people that I interviewed, however, none of the figures are exact:

Five out of six families earned approximately $200.00 every two weeks, which seems to be the norm in the village. This is considered low income by the Fijian government. The highest income among the houses that I surveyed was about $400.00 every two weeks and that was due to a higher status job in the Fiji Sugar Corporation including overtime. The second family had no set income due to the only source being from fishing. In jobs such as this one the income depends on the weather and how much fish they actually are able to catch. The money earned varies from month to month.

People also augment their main income in various ways. There are three different houses in my village that act as stores or what the Fijians call "kantin" as well. These houses sell products such as sugar, rice, tin fish, razors, butter, cigarettes, etc. I was able to talk with one man whose house that acted as a village store and from calculating the profit from each product I determined that the total earning each week from the store was $20.00 but it depended on the demand for the product.

It is very common in the village to obtain money from relatives as well. This is due to the variation in earning amongst families. Most people are happy to help out their kin. From evaluating the surveys I determined that these donations by family members are usually around $20.00 per month from family members who have jobs outside of the village in other areas of the island. This was the case with my family; they obtain about $20.00 a month from their son who works as a police officer in Suva. These donations are given by both the mother's and father's side of the family and often times they act as loans and are eventually paid back. Children that have moved out of the village are almost required to give money to their family and sometimes this may be seen as burdensome since their wages may not be large either. You are required to fulfill this obligation, however, when asked and any hint at reluctance would be seen as offensive in Fijian culture.

I only interviewed one younger woman in my survey of the village; however, from interacting with the other women of the village I can conclude that it is very common for the women to lack independent sources of income. Most women participate in what they call domestic duties and do all the chores and cooking as well as tending to the children. If a younger woman were to become pregnant instead of working to support herself she would generally move in with her parents or other family members. There are a few cases that I discovered in my village, such as the third household survey, where the women worked but it was in a resort and sometimes in the market. These working women had no other choice, however, since their husbands had passed away. Also, I have found through talking with women in the village that it is nearly impossible to obtain a job unless your children are already schooling and able to take care of themselves.

Family Expenses

I have included a table of the various expenses for each of the six households that I surveyed along with the household income every two weeks for comparison, the communal demands are listed by function, however there may be one or two functions every two weeks:

Table 3. Sample Expenses, Vitawa Village

This table makes it appear as if villagers have a surplus of money but this was not the case in my experience. The discrepancy probably reflects the fact that people do not keep track of their expenditures very well. Much of the money that is earned during the week by the villagers is spent on the necessities of life. People are unable to save their money due to the constant obligations to their family and their village as well has the high costs of schooling and other expenses. In doing the surveys I concluded that the average amount of money spent of food every week was $30.00. This could be more in the case of family functions such as funerals where people need to purchase more food but overall this was the norm. Most of the people in the village try to be self-sufficient and grow their own food. They limit their spending in the supermarkets and rely solely on the root crops and vegetables. Fijians are required to pay for their electricity, which is $20.00 a month for most families and the houses who own a telephone must pay for that as well. There are fewer than ten houses in the village out of 80 that do in fact have telephones, however. Two of the families interviewed had taken out loans from the bank to pay for costly items such as a television and were paying that off in monthly installments just as we would do back home. Other families chose to buy on credit, which involves a small down payment along with monthly payments. Our family chose to do this with the recent purchase of our new stove. This is the most common method of buying costly items and works out well for the villagers.

Schooling is also one of the most costly expenses for the Fijians. Most of the children attend one of three high schools in the area. The Rakiraki Public High School which costs $20.00 per term (three terms in a year), the Nakauvadra High School which costs $15.00 per term or the Indian school in the area Penang High School which costs $35.00 per term. Penang High School is considered to be more prestigious and is mostly attended by Indians with very few Fijians in the higher forms. The head of the household in my fifth survey told me that the cost per year for one child to attend a school, including lunch and bus fare would be $200.00. So it can be concluded that for households three and five where two children are schooling this is a great expense.

After doing the six different surveys I was surprised to hear that the average amount of money spend on yaqona and alcohol each week is much less than I expected. Some families do not drink yaqona or alcohol due to their religion, and those that do only spend about $5.00 a week. Most people say that they try to limit their spending by drinking other people's yaqona and chipping in as little as possible. The expense of yaqona and alcohol was only a problem in one household where I interviewed the wife. She said that her husband was somewhat of an alcoholic and he would spend any money that he could to support his habit. Otherwise, drinking yaqona and alcohol is just a way of life and most people accept it as part of their economic situation.

The idea that one must donate to the church was a constant belief of all the households. They set their donations at about $2.00 each week but the overall expenses depended on church that they attended. In the case of my family, who belong to the Christian Outreach Center, their requirement is that they give 1/10 of each week's earnings to the church. Tata told me, however, that if the family does not make enough money to fulfill this requirement then they are excused for the good of the family. He told me that there were many weeks that his fishing did not contribute to the income so their donations to the church were next to nothing.

The Cost of Kinship

A much more controversial donation, however, is to family and village functions. Each household is required to donate money and other goods at numerous occasions to support their mataqali and kin. These functions include such life cycle rituals as funerals, 100 night and one-year marker ceremonies after deaths, weddings, births and various other rituals. In talking with the people of the village, I found that it was customary to donate between five and twenty dollars at each of these functions but the donation may not be in cash only. For some occasions there is a need to donate drums of kerosene, material or mats and tapa and these products vary in cost. There is also a variation between families; those that earn more money will donate more than those who do not. In this way the economy of the village evens itself out to a certain extent and the functions are always very well prepared. There will always be those families who live better than others, however, as in all societies.

Fijian scholars have debated about whether the Fijian population has increasing desires for material wealth and now resents the demands of the community on their resources. In "Is Kinship Costly," for instance, Rika makes the point that the kinship obligations are costly; however, he goes on to explain that this is only a capitalist view point that sees this as problematic. He argues that putting money into kinship is a more rewarding vay to live. He states, "In a capitalist economy where great value is placed on accumulation and economizing, kinship is a very costly affair. The more extended the family system is, the more obligations and kinship responsibilities one acquires" (1975: 29). In a capitalist society the donations to the kinship functions appear to be very burdensome; however, in Fijian culture it is the system of their society. Rika respects their view of economics and hopes that various aspects of the kinship system could be adopted into our society as well. He states, "One thing is obvious: the longer we adopt capitalism, the more inhumane our society and relationships become" (1975: 31).

The interviewees in the surveys described to me how these functions have risen in expense. As one man stated, "The cost of living now a days is higher." Also what the families used to donate in mats and food products they now donate in cash and store bought goods. I believe that it is not the act of giving that the Fijian people find burdensome; it is the fact that the donations are now in cash and the costs are steadily rising. As Vusoniwailala states in his article "Communication, Social Identity and the Rising Cost of Fijian Communalism," kinship ties are also becoming more numerous and including more and more people since the men are marrying out of their mataqali and into other villages. This means more functions to attend and more money to donate. Vusoniwailala states, "The major factor which the expansion of the kinship field has added to the cost of kinship reciprocity is the increased number of kinship units which can turn to a Fijian individual for economic contributions" (n. d.).

Viewing this type of economic structure from a capitalist viewpoint, it seems as though kinship is a very costly affair. In a capitalist society the people pride themselves on saving their money and achieving great personal wealth. I do not view it in this manner; however, I admire what the Fijian people are striving to achieve. They value their relationship with their kin far more than their personal wealth. I wish that our society could be like this as well. We place too much emphasis on being wealthy and often do not take the time to enjoy the life that we are living. I do however see a problem with the increasing capitalist view emerging in Fiji. More and more people are striving to achieve more money and the balance of their kinship society is placed in jeopardy. If any person neglects to serve their duties to their family then this system as a whole is in jeopardy along with their cultural values. All of the people that I interviewed strongly expressed how they would like more money. One man said that "nobody was satisfied today," implying that the goal in most people's lives is to gain material wealth. He believes that this is due in part to the demands of social obligations as well as other financial stressors. I do not see any way to avoid this change in their economic point of view; however, I hope that they will realize that their family is most important and return to the values and customs that the Fijian people held once before.

Opinion and Personal Feelings

Overall, I believe that people are happy with their lives in Fiji and are content with their economic lifestyle. The men seem to take pride in their work and enjoy their day-to-day schedules, although the women express less satisfaction with their lives. They work extremely hard at their jobs around the house and never complain or express envy of others; however, when they get the chance to open up to someone (such as my sister-in-law) they hint at their dissatisfaction with their lives and tell of how they long to be more individualistic. Their lives are dictated by their husbands financially and physically and many times they are not allowed to pursue their own career. In a discussion my sister told me of the many women she knew who spent money schooling, and when they finally found a job they had to quit when they got married because their husbands wanted them at home. Tila stated, "Only good husbands allow a woman to work." She is looking for a husband herself; however, the chance of her finding one that will allow her to keep her job as a teacher in the kindergarten is very slim. This is not the case with all the women in the village, and I still believe that there are still a significant number of them who enjoy their lives here. People have often told me about how relaxed it is to live here and how they never have any problems. They stress the simplicity of their lifestyles and comment on how happy they are. I do in fact believe them and wish that my lifestyle could be more like theirs. They never have to comply with deadlines or worry about financial problems they just live their life day by day.

On to Chapter 4...