WEAVING THE COMMUNITY:
AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF A FIJIAN VILLAGE
by Stephanie Sienkiewicz

Chapter 3
Village Economics:
The Distribution of Trust

Chapter 3

Daily Life and Occupation in the Fijian Village

Sources of Income

Expenditures

Payment Procedures Confirm that Saving Money is Not a Main Goal

Give and Take, Kerekere Solesole

Conclusion

The village economy is not driven by strong personal motivations to achieve wealth. Instead, Fijians focus on social relations as they give and receive money and things of monetary value. This is evident when one notes the casual attitude the villagers in Narewa have about spending money on village and mataqali functions. The number of people that receive remittances from abroad demonstrates how human interaction rather than a money-oriented attitude provide villagers with what they need. It is also evident that goals of wealth do not drive the village economy when one contemplates the payment methods that Fijian villagers follow as they deal with each other on an economic level. It seems that most villagers do not worry about saving up money; they are content to have enough money to live each day. And while they say that they would like to have more money and be rich, most seem content with an undemanding lifestyle with plenty of leisure time. This method of living is acceptable as villagers maintain satisfying social relations and trust in these. It is this trust which allows them to give and take money freely from one another and to focus on social rather than economic interaction.

R.R. Nayacakalou, in his book Tradition and Change in the Fijian Village, noted that the Fijian economy moved from one of subsistence agriculture to a partially monetary economy. His study aimed to prove that with this change in economy came change in the social structure of Fijian life. He predicted that villages with more monetary infiltration would experience a greater degree of social change than those with less monetary infiltration; the more a village is in contact with money and less reliant upon subsistence agriculture, the more that village will adopt Western style exchange and distribution. He said,

The Fijian village economy works on different principles [than the exchange of goods and services for money, as in a Western style economy] as the assumptions behind the processes themselves...and the whole range of social and economic relationships within which these actions take place, differ greatly. But the situation is changing. Concepts akin to, and derived from, a Western industrial type of economy are found...alongside traditional concepts, particularly in regard to exchange and distribution. (Nayacakalou 1978:37)

Traditional exchange took place in a social framework rather than an economic framework. While Nayacakalou predicted that exchange which is used to promote social ties would die out with the shift to a money-based economy and individuals would act according to personal rather than social motivations, the findings presented in this chapter dispute his argument. Nayacakalou performed his research in 1954. The village economy discussed in this chapter, researched more than 40 years after Nayacakalou's study, shows that social relations are still the motivation of exchange and the means by which villagers survive.

Daily Life and Occupation in the Fijian Village

As I interviewed residents of the six households that I surveyed, I asked them what they do on a daily basis; how do they spend their days? This inquiry revealed that villagers have plenty of leisure time. Their reliance upon and trust in social relations allows them to live comfortably, meeting their economic needs. A large portion of people remain in the village on a permanent basis during the day. Some stay home to do domestic work while others are of retirement age and relax for the majority of their time. One of the women and two of the men who act as heads of their households in the economic surveys are retired.

The village economy allows for those over sixty to relax while meeting their economic needs. The woman in household #1 is past retirement age and considers her daily life to be occupied with domestic work. She has a small home compared to the other village houses. And, the only other resident of the house is her 16 year old granddaughter. She cooks meals, which her granddaughter sometimes helps her with (her granddaughter attends school most days however), sweeps the house, does some laundry and washes dishes. Her daughter-in-law, who lives in the house next door with her son, helps her with some of these chores as well. Her son provides her with food from the garden. This woman, therefore, spends much of her time relaxing as do the men of retirement age.

The two men of retirement age are brothers. They live adjacent to each other in the village and both sit on a bench underneath a mango tree for extended periods of time each day. The elder of the brothers, in Household #2, has a four year old daughter that he watches during the day; she is usually near the mango tree as well. The younger brother, in Household #3, is retired from the Public Works Department. He goes to the garden sometimes during the day with this wife. He also tends to the pigs and drives his car to town about once per week to do the shopping at the grocery store and market. The three retirement aged people in the economic surveys spend almost all of their daily life within the village, much of it at leisure.

Non-retirement age people also spend a great deal of their time in the village and have a relatively relaxed life. These are women in the economic surveys. The wife in Household #3 is younger than her husband and could still be working if she had a wage job. She used to work at the Rakiraki Hotel but quit when she married. Since then she has stayed home in the village or on the Public Works Department grounds (where the family lived at times before the husband retired.) She lists her daily activities as domestic work. She sometimes prepares meals and sweeps the house. This work is usually done by their teenage daughter however.

I had two other women informants who stay in the village daily. Again they consider their days to be occupied with domestic work. One told me that she cooks, washes clothes, and sweeps and cleans the house and the yard most days. She also sews clothes. She does this for her family and also for profit. The other spends her days doing housework, cleaning and cooking. During her spare time, she told me, she crochets and spends time reading the Bible.

All of these people who stay in the village during the day rather than performing work for wages rely on other people or past work (such as pensions) as their sources of income. Their social relations with others are integral to their income. The next section of this chapter will explain the villagers' various sources of income. None of the people interviewed in the economic surveys had a wage labor job. There are some who have independent sources of income however. But, as will be apparent below, those who worked also enjoyed relatively relaxed lifestyles. This is in part due to their reliance upon family members for economic help.

The husband and wife in Household #5 provide their family with an independent income. The two of them go to fish in the sea in their boat Monday through Saturday. They go out with the tide, either during the day or at night. They stay out on the water approximately six hours each time. The wife told me that they bring their kerosene stove to cook their meals on the boat. When they are done fishing for the day, they bring their fish to the market in Vaileka. She does not go to the market with her husband. She stays home to attend to the canteen which the family runs out of their home. He must bring the fish in the morning, regardless of whether they have just returned from being on the sea at night or in the day. The fish have to be fresh to bring to the market; they will go bad if they are not sold during the day. Their youngest son might also accompany his father to the market. If the father is too tired, the son may go alone to sell the fish. The couple's daughters sweep the house, do the laundry and dishes, and cook during the daytime; both of these women have finished their schooling.

Only two villagers I interviewed had work days of eight hours or more. The woman in Househould #2 is one of these people. Her husband is one of the men of retirement age. She sells in the market. Her daily routine consists of collecting, cooking, and selling food. She told me that she rises at 3:00 a.m. every day. She starts cooking the food which she or her daughters have collected from their plantation; this is a plot of land which the village has provided for the family to farm upon. She goes to the market each day, Monday through Saturday, at 8:00 a.m. She rests on Sundays as well as holidays. She stays at the market selling the food which she has cooked until approximately 5 p.m. each day, or when she has sold all or most of the food.

Household #4 has one of the women who stays home during the day to attend to domestic work; her husband provides his family with income. He is a sugar cane farmer. He wakes at 5:30 a.m. each day. He has his tea and leaves the house by 6:00. He works on the farm until 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. and then returns home to have his breakfast. He goes back to the fields at 10:00. During these morning hours on the farm, he is cutting the cane. He may be cutting cane on his own farm (his father's land) or helping another farmer cut his cane, as he is part of a cane-cutting gang.

Sources of Income

Social relations make the leisurely lifestyle of many villagers possible. Those with jobs share their income with numerous unemployed relatives. As many people in the village remain there during most of their time, they are usually not working for money. Some of the people described above, who spend their days outside of the village, therefore, support their spouses and household. Much of the time, these dependents perform domestic labor in return. This is not a direct exchange however; villagers have a social duty to share their earnings with their family members. Not only do villagers financially support other villagers, but people who are not living in the village often contribute to the income of villagers. Many Narewa villagers receive money from relatives outside the village. It is the responsibility of family members to care for one another; a social framework is the basis of exchange. The economic surveys probed into the sources of income for each of the six households. This information demonstrates how villagers often rely on others, those with whom they have social or familial ties, for income.

The case of Household #4 well illustrates that villagers are embedded in a web of social ties. This network, in which they share resources and labor, allows them a comfortable relaxed lifestyle. The husband is one head of a household with an independent source of income. He supports his wife and their children who live at home. This is not the only source of income, however. They receive remittances from the wife's brother who lives in Australia. He sends money specifically if she asks him to or periodically if he "just thinks of [her]." She told me that her brother sends F$300 or F$400 approximately three times per year. This amounts to F$900 to F$1200 per year. At the time of fieldwork, the Fijian dollar was roughly half the US dollar, equal to $.50 US. One may see the importance of this source of income as it compares to the money her husband makes from harvesting cane and supplementary income sources.

The husband makes the most money during the cane cutting/harvesting season. This runs from May to November. He tends to his father's land. This land belongs to the turaga ni mataqali, the head of the mataqali. His father is the turaga ni mataqali. He and his father split the profits; the father told him to take a larger portion of the profits because he is the one that works the land.

They get four checks per year from the sugar cane. Fields are usually harvested two times per year. Each time, men cut until they have 40 tons of cane. Gangs of men cut. Each man who owns land or farms a field is required to help other men cut their field; they are formed into gangs to do this. They bring the cut cane to the sugar mill and in fourteen days receive payment for it. They only get some of the money from this however. The government keeps the rest of the money. The first harvest from this year was F$378; Vili received F$200 from this while his father received F$178. This was the first check of the cycle. They will get another, the second, check similar to this also during the season.

Once the season is over, the Fiji Sugar Board (FSC), a department of the government, determines what the world market price is and then determines how much money a farmer should receive for his X number of tons of sugar. Once this total is determined, they subtract money from this total. They subtract the amount of the two checks the farmer has already received during the harvesting season. They also subtract the cost of things that the government supplies to farmers; this includes fertilizer, sugar, and rice (they only get sugar and rice if they harvest at least 20 tons of sugar cane). Sugar and rice are approximately F$30 per bag. After the season is over and the mills close in November, they will get this other check in December. Since the government took out the cost of fertilizer and other things, this is the smallest check that they will receive in the year for the sugar cane. They might get F$80 or F$100; this is F$40-F$50 for Vili. Some years they may not get anything. At this point in my interview with the wife in Household #4, she told me, "Last year we had only 28 cents in the bank."

Farmers get one more check then, in March. This fourth check is usually bigger than the December check yet smaller than the combination of the two received during the cutting season. This same woman said that the March check last year was approximately F$300; her husband's portion was F$175. Her estimates lead to an income of around F$615 to F$625 per year, from cane.

The husband sometimes gets carpentry work during the sugar cane harvest off-season to provide another independent source of income. The wife told me that if he builds a whole house he will take about F$10 per day. She said he usually makes F$50 per week doing carpentry. "But it's up to them, who want to build the house, the quicker they bring the materials the better. The house will be completed." If someone needs a job, they ask him. Some off-seasons he doesn't get work, unless he goes and works somewhere. Most years he makes around F$200 doing carpentry.

Her own crocheting is another source of income. She makes four piece sets for lounge seats and charges F$60 for the set. It takes her about three months to complete one, because she can do it only when she has spare time. She said that there are women in Naivuvuni who have orders piled up for her. She makes about three a year and so earns F$180 per year.

Another small supplementary income is her occasional sale of sasa brooms. She makes these from coconut tree fibers and brings them to the next village to sell. They cost F$3 each. She does this when she needs money for something. "When really in need...when you need to feel money in your hand (laughing)."

The husband also receives money from his mataqali's land lease. This is every six months. How much money the mataqali gets is up to the people leasing the land however. The average is F$100 plus at each payment. The head of the mataqali, the turaga ni mataqali, gets more money than, and separately from, the rest of the mataqali however. What is left is divided among ten houses. The wife told me that the mataqali even shares this money with sisters who have married out of the mataqali. Each of the ten houses in the village gets approximately F$3 each time they receive a paycheck.

The family's total income for the year is generally between F$1905 and F$2205. That which comes from both husband and wife's independent sources of income is approximately F$1005 per year. When one compares this to the F$900 to F$1200 which her brother sends her from Australia each year, it is evident that the family relies greatly on their familial relations for support. Her brother contributes about one-half of the family's yearly income. Since they depend on family members for such a large portion of their income, they are not actively working to attain wealth. They are making/receiving the money which will meet their needs only. This point will be reemphasized as the next section of this chapter examines household expenditures.

The sources of income for the family of Household #3 also show how village families rely on a network of social relations to survive, including their relatives living abroad. The husband receives F$200 every three or four months, three or four times per year, from his younger brother who is living in Australia. This is F$600 to F$800 per year. While this is not the main source of income for the family, it is a large portion when one looks at the amount of money that the family earns independently during the year.

The family's main source of income is the sale of items out of their home. They sell grog (yaqona), packets of beans (snacks), cigarettes, and lollies. The wife told me that after three or four days the supply of these items is gone and they have to purchase more. They buy yaqona for F$15 per one-half kilogram. They sell this amount for F$25, receiving a F$10 profit every three to four days. They buy ten packs of cigarettes for F$15. They make a F$1.50 profit on cigarettes. They buy a large bag of beans; the beans are packaged in individual portions inside the bag. The bag costs F$2.20 and they sell the packs for F$0.10 each. The profit is F$3 per three/four days. The family cannot calculate the profit, if any, they make on the other items they sell since family members routinely take these without paying. The total yearly income for this small scale business is approximately F$1325 (I divided 365 by 4 and then multiplied this number by the profit she reported to me. I rounded the result to the nearest five dollars.)

The second largest source of their independent income is his pension. He retired from the Public Works Department in Vaileka last year and receives F$83 per month now. This is F$996 per year. The third largest independent source of income for the family is the money which he receives from his mataqali's land leases. Fijian mataqali collectively own land. They lease this land out and receive payments twice per year. The wife told me that they get these paychecks in March and December. Last March, her husband's check was F$40. The March check is usually smaller than the December. When this is small, the December check makes up for it. The average check, twice per year, is F$100; this is a F$200 per year in land lease income. A fifth and minor source of income is her own crochet work. She sells pieces, for F$20 each, about once per three months. This is F$80 per year.

The family's yearly total of independent income is F$2600. The F$600 to F$800 per year they receive in remittances, boosts this figure to F$3200 - F$3400. The husband's family abroad sends him around one-fourth of what his income would be without this addition. Thus, family relations have again provided a large portion of one family's income. Families accept this gift from their relatives, even when, in this case, they might have the same income of some of the other village households without this money. They have the fourth highest income of the six households. They would still have the fourth highest income of the houses in the survey if they did not receive money from relatives. One may see then how common is the practice of receiving money from family members. It is not an unusual concept to accept money from one's family. This demonstrates that giving money to family members who have less than you is one of many family and social obligations in Fiji.

The case of the woman in Household #6 also shows how villagers rely on a social network and how they consider improving social relations more important than making money. She is the head of a household that has an independent source of income which is supplemented to a great extent by her husband who is living away from the family. Her main source of income is sewing. When school begins she sews uniforms, charging F$2 per child. She sews other things such as bedspreads as well as crocheting. Women in Naivuvuni are the target market for this work; they give their orders every two weeks or so and she makes their things. It is ultimately up to the buyer however, if she wants to pay her or not. "If they just can give it to us, it's up to them whether they want to pay it or not." The estimated income brought in by sewing per month is F$60, or F$720 per year.

Her husband and father of her children left them in Fiji while he went abroad for ten years. He sent money back to her while away; this was the family's main source of income. He sent at least F$100 per month and sometimes F$100 per week, it varied. Since he has moved back to a nearby village, however, he cannot send such an amount of money. The wife now earns her main source of income for the family. Her daughter told me, for example, that last month her father sold his cow and gave the family F$150. Her father's family another village also sells their animals at times and shares their money. That family also gets money each year from their land lease; she told me that they have a lot of land. She said that "maybe after two months, they give," meaning every two months. They usually receive around F$75 or F$80 each time. This translates into approximately F$480 per year.

Another main source of income is the pension check which the wife's mother receives each month. Her mother lives with her and her children. Since the mother's husband was a soldier, she gets a F$40 check from the government each month. This is F$480 per year.

The family's yearly land lease income is much smaller than the amount which they receive from any of their other sources of income. When the wife's father died, she inherited his portion of revenue from the mataqali's land lease. They lease the land to Indians and get a payment every year. They must divide up this money 14 ways however. The payment should be F$1000 per year to the mataqali. But the daughter told me that they do not receive this amount every year. Sometimes they get a small amount. The smallest amount they might get, according to her mother, is F$85 per year, which is then be divided among the 14 people. When getting such a small amount though, the Fijians expect a big amount the next year. The average payment per year is F$450, which is then divided 14 ways. This means that Household #6 receives only about F$32 per year (rounded to the nearest dollar).

The wife also sometimes collects sea cucumbers, or beach-de-mers, in the sea. She brings these to Vitawa then, where Indians come routinely to pick up and pay for this harvest. Solei told me that this is Fiji's main export and that Chinese consumers eat a lot of them. Adi usually does this once a week and profits about F$10 per week, or F$120 per year.

So Household #6's total income per year is approximately F$1830 (rounded to the nearest five dollars). She receives about F$480 per year from remittances. This is a little less than one-fourth of her total income. The family therefore relies on others for a large portion of the money they receive. Their emphasis on social relations rather than on an idea of getting rich is more evident when one investigates her attitude about accepting money from villagers for her work.

Another household at which I performed the economic survey also received remittances from family members. In this instance, the majority of their income comes from remittances. This is Household #1, with a retired woman as head of household. She has three sources of income. The main source of the household's money is that which her daughter sends back to Narewa. The daugheter lives abroad in Europe with her husband. She deposits F$200 in her mother's bank account every month. This is F$2400 each year. The second largest source of income is the remittance from her son who lives in Suva. He is a lecturer at a local community college. He sends F$100 per month to the family; this is F$1200 per year. A third source of income is the check that she gets from the government each month. She receives this because her late husband was a soldier. This amounts to F$40 per month or F$480 per year. Her son also pays her granddaughter's school fees as will be recalled in the next section of this chapter on expenditures.

The total yearly income for the household is F$4080. Only F$480 of this income is independent income. Her family relies primarily on remittances from family members then. It is necessary that this household maintain familial relations because they could not survive economically without them. Since she is past retirement age, it is expected that her family will take care of her. This is one principle of caring in the Fijian village. One sees also how family members take responsibility in providing for another family member's child. This too is an expected aspect of life in Fiji. Since Fijians place such a strong emphasis on maintaining their extended family's economic well-being, it is obvious that they primarily focus on social relations as they deal with money rather than on saving funds and achieving wealth.

Two of the families in the economic survey receive no remittances. It is also evident though that these households value social relations since they were willing to lend money to other villagers and content to contribute money to various locations. One of these is Household #5. Husband and wife fish during the days as is explained above in the section Daily Life and Occupation. They sell fish at the Rakiraki market and sometimes within the village. Fishing is their main source of income. They estimated this income to be between F$100 and F$200 per week. This is F$5200 to F$10400 per year (based upon a 52 week year; 365 days per year divided by 7 days per week is approximately 52 weeks per year). Supplementing this income, they also have a small canteen attached to their house. The wife runs this. It is open all of the time, one just knocks on the door to get service. She estimated the profit from this to be approximately F$2 per day; this translates into F$730 per year (based upon a 365 day year).

The total yearly income for the family is approximately F$6330 to F$11930. This seems to be very large relative to other village household incomes. One may see, upon looking at the expenditures for the household however, that saving money is not the primary goal of the family. Villagers borrow money from this household more than any other household in the village. This demonstrates the sharing, social aspect that money has in the village as well as in this household.

Household #2 earns a completely independent income as well. They receive no remittances. The family's main source of income is the wife's market sales. As previously described, she cooks food and brings it to the market Monday through Saturday to sell. She picks tapioca and bele in their garden. She buys fish in the village and coconut at the market. She cooks fish and bele in lolo (coconut milk) and tapioca at her home and brings it in containers to the market where she sells this prepared food. She buys fish every day. On Mondays, the slowest market days, she buys two bundles. Tuesday through Friday she buys three bundles. And Saturday, which is the busiest day at the market, she buys four or five bundles. Fish costs F$5 per bundle. She buys this from a local fisherman in the village who also sells in the market (described above). She buys coconut in the market for F$3 or F$4 a dozen; one dozen will last her one week. She has 20 plastic containers which she brings to the market; these are single portion containers. She sells each container full of food for F$2. She usually sells all of them. Sometimes she has three or four left over. She keeps these containers to take home, wash and reuse every day.

This woman also sells banana and papaya at times. This is food that she gets from the garden as well. She doesn't sell these every day, sale depends on when they are ripe. She makes approximately F$10 per week selling papaya and banana; she makes more money selling the cooked food. The profit she makes selling cooked food is usually F$147 per week (I calculated that she spends F$93 per week on supplies and then sells the food for F$240 per week). This is about F$7644 yearly (based upon a 52 week year). She makes an additional F$520 per year selling papaya and banana in the market.

The family also receive money from land leases. The mataqali land leases provide money every six months. This amount is divided between eight families she told me. She said they usually receive F$50 per family each time. This is about F$100 per year.

This woman also told me that they personally own sugar cane fields which they get money from three times per year. This is still technically the mataqali's land; it is in the mataqali's name. But her husband is the only person who receives money from it. He has access to this land because he is the eldest of his brothers. There is a boy living on the farm, she told me. This is like a share farm, she explained. The boy living there is a member of Tata Levu's mataqali. When he harvests and gets money he splits this total evenly with her and her husband. The average amount that the harvest brings is F$300, meaning each party gets F$150. This is three times per year for a yearly income of F$450 for the two of them.

The husband also gets some money from the government. The reason for this is his age, he is retired and not working, and his children are still in school. This money comes from the welfare office. The check each month is worth F$78. The amount depends upon the number of children one has in school; when these children are no longer in school, they will no longer receive the money. They have four children in school at present. They receive F$936 per year from this source of income.

She also makes some money by going to the sea and fishing. If she catches a lot she might sell a bundle. She also sometimes collects beach-de-mers (sea cucumbers) and sells them. She only does this about once per month. The two activities bring in approximately F$10 per month or F$120 per year.

The total yearly income for the family is F$9690. This is near the income of Household #5. These two incomes are far above the incomes for the other four households. The third highest income, that of Household #1, is only F$4080 per year. Household #2 has more expenditures than other families in the village however. The income level in the village is leveled by expenditures and lending of money, as is the case with Household #5.

Expenditures

Investigating patterns of spending in the village shows that the majority of money is spent on necessities of life. Those with a higher level of income can afford some luxury, such as washing machines or ovens, but these people also give away a lot of their money. Low income villagers benefit from their contributing relatives while high income villagers often give away earnings. This movement of funds levels out economic differences among people. Each household thus exists at a comfortable but leisurely standard of living. Villagers' willingness to give away money shows that economic exchange is socially motivated and that villagers place consider social relations more important than material wealth.

As previously stated, Households #2 and #5's incomes are the highest of the six houses in the economic survey. They also have the most expenses however. These include debts, payments, and donations. The people in Household #5 told me that they have no debts. The kitchen on the house was built after receiving a bank loan. But that has all been paid back. The front rooms of the house, sitting room and bedrooms, were built after the husband received F$700 when he retired from working in the gold mine. There is no loan on their boat. The one mile long fishing net cost F$1500 when they purchased it; these payments have been completed. The family presently makes payments on two things, the washing machine and the brush-cutter. They told me that the washing machine payment is F$45 per month. The brush-cutter's payment is F$38 per month. These two items were purchased just last Christmas (1998). These add up to F$540 per year for the washing machine and F$456 per year for the brush-cutter.

The family told me that their diet consists mainly of foods from the farm and the fish that they catch; only sometimes do they eat food from the market. They usually eat fish, tapioca and breadfruit. They go to the supermarket once per week. They might spend F$40, F$50, or F$80. The average expense per week is F$50 though; this is about F$2600 per year (based upon a 52 week year). Household items such as soap are included in this figure.

The wife estimated that the family gets new clothing two times per month. She said they probably spend around F$60, for all six people, each time they do some clothes shopping. This means the family spends approximately F$1440 per year on clothing.

One of the children in the family attends school now. His bus fare is F$1 per day, around F$269 per year (this is based upon a 365 day year however, excluding 96 Saturdays and Sundays). School fees, to attend the school, begin after form 3. Since Sitiveni, the son, is in form 3, the family doesn't have to pay fees yet; they will start next year.

As with the other houses in the village, this family doesn't pay a water bill. They do pay an electricity bill. This they estimated to be F$15-F$20 per month; this is F$180-F$240 per year.

The family spends no money on yaqona, beer or cigarettes since they belong to the Assemblies of God church (AOG). They must, however, give a tithe, one-tenth of their income, to the AOG church. Each week, the family gives the church an envelope, with their name on it, which contains one-tenth of their week's earnings. This amount fluctuates as weekly income levels vary. There are also other offerings to the church required of its members. There is an offering to the preacher for instance. In the collection plate, the family usually contributes around F$5 per week; this is about F$260 per year (based upon a 52 week year). They also must give the F$250 per house per year toward the village festival fund.

"If we are related then we have to spend a lot," the wife in Household #5 told me when I asked how costly ceremonies, such as weddings and funerals are. Fijians incorporate an elaborate gift-giving/exchange procedure during ceremonies. Referring to weddings, she told me that if their family is related to the bride or to the bridegroom, they will spend "F$1200 or F$1000 something, like that... Because we have to buy everything. We have to give a cow." And otherwise, if we aren't closely related, "we just give whatever...because we are all related." Last year the grandmother and grandfather both from the mother's and father's sides died. The family then had to spend about F$1200 for each funeral, F$4800 total. The family told me that they had this money in the bank; they did not need to borrow it from anywhere. They usually spend F$100 per year on other types of ceremonies, the family told me. There are not a lot of ceremonies through their church and their mataqali is not from here so they have a limited number of those functions.

To calculate the family's yearly expenditures I used the following procedure. I figured one-tenth of the family's yearly income, as they pay one-tenth of their income to their church each week; this is F$633 - F$1193. I then added the cost of their appliance payments, grocery bills, clothing bills, bus fare to school, electricity bill, the weekly church offering, the village festival fund, and the F$100 per year which they estimated as their contribution to ceremonies. The total yearly expenditure figure is approximately F$7000. This is more money than the family's estimated lowest possible income for the year. The family is not saving money therefore; they are living on a day-to-day basis.

Following is the calculation of total expenditures for Household #2. The family has no loans to pay back. They do make some payments on appliances however. They pay F$52 per month for their refrigerator; the deposit was F$250 and the total price is F$1040. They pay F$30 per month for the stove. They pay F$38 per month for some bunk beds. The wife told me that she only had to pay a F$2.10 deposit because she was so good on her payments for the t.v. and v.c.r. These payments are F$624 per year for the refrigerator, F$360 per year for their stove, and F$456 per year for the bunk beds. (I also know that the family has received new appliances since I interviewed her.)

The family gets most of their food from their plantation, she told me. They plant tapioca and bele; they buy meat and fish. They buy meat once a week, every Saturday, and spend about F$30 every time. This is F$1560 per year. She said that they go to the grocery store once a week as well. She spends F$30 each time; this shopping includes soap, sugar, etc. This is F$1560 again.

The children in the family get new clothes. The family spends about F$40 per month on clothes. This is F$480 per year.

School fees are F$45 per year for two of the girls, so F$90 per year total. They only have to buy books because the government pays the term fees for them. Only the daughters in form three and form four have to buy books. Bus fare is F$2 per day; the wife told me that she sometimes gives bus fare to a relative as well. This is approximately F$730 per year. She buys her children four new school uniforms every year, two each for the girls in the higher forms. These cost F$15 each for a total of F$60 per year. The electricity bill is F$20 per month, or F$240 per year.

The family belongs to the AOG church and so spends no money on yaqona, alcohol or cigarettes. They give a tithe each week to the AOG church. This is one tenth of their weekly income. They give an additional offering of F$2 per week. This adds up to F$104 per year (based upon a 52 week year).

This woman also told me that her husband's mataqali keeps a bank account. Every time it receives money from land leases, it keeps some in the bank for mataqali functions. Where there are ceremonies to attend, they use this money and then each family also has to contribute some, F$5 or F$10 each. She estimated that the family spends F$50 a year on ceremonies and functions such as weddings, funerals, when the mataqali celebrates a birthday or a family has a new baby.

She told me that families are now paired up by houses to donate to the Adi Narewa (festival). The average amount each family should give is F$50. There are also sometimes bazaars in school. The family will donate about F$20 per year for these festivals.

I calculated the total yearly expenditures for the family as follows. I figured one-tenth of the yearly income, as they give one-tenth of their weekly income to the church; this is about F$1028. I added the following expenses: appliance payments, meat, grocery bills, clothing costs, school fees, bus fare, school uniforms, the electricity bills, weekly church offerings, ceremonies, the Adi Narewa, and school festivals. This total is F$6385. The total of yearly expenditures is F$7413. This family makes a little over F$3000 profit each year. I suspect that the family does not put this much money into the bank each year. I believe their income figures to be somewhat inflated. The weekly cycle the wife described is most likely not constant over the course of the entire year. The family has been making new purchases recently as well (as already mentioned)

Most of the households in the economic survey make little to no profit each year from their earnings. All of the families get a majority of their food from their village-allotted farm. And they usually go to the grocery store, buy clothes, and give to ceremonies. These are the commonly shared expenses of the villagers.

Household #4 spends money each year at the market, grocery store, on school fees, the electricity bill, yaqona, the Adi Narewa, offerings to the Methodist church, at the women's group monthly meetings, and also at ceremonies and mataqali functions. The total of these expenditures, based upon the economic survey interviews, is about F$2280. This is more than the income that the wife listed to me during the interview. These are not exact figures for many reasons, but it is evident from the results that this family does not plan their income for an extended period of time. They receive and spend money when they can; they live according to this uncertain pattern, without saving up and planning. This demonstrates their trust in the society they live in. They have faith that their social relations and surroundings will provide them with ample money to live.

The husband's mother died last year. Therefore, he spent F$850. Other members of the mataqali gave one cow and food for guests to eat. When the wife goes to other funerals, she collects money from people around the village to try and help out the family that has to pay for the funeral. She told me that the closer to the deceased you are, the more you give. Cows are much needed at funerals and weddings. If your daughter gets married, you have to give something big. One has to buy leaves to make mats as well. The leaves cost F$20 because they don't have the voivoi trees around the village anymore. She estimated that she and her husband spend an average of F$200-F$300 per year on ceremonies, "because us Fijians, we have so many." As has been shown by the proximity of the income and expenditures for the family, the couple would not have any certainty that they could make enough money to cover their expenses after paying such a large sum for his mother's funeral. Again, one can see that this family is trusting in their social relations, village and family community, to help their household economy.

Household #6's expenditures include the grocery bill, clothing costs, partial school fees (they receive some government financial aid), electricity bill, 10% of their weekly income as their tithe to the AOG church, contribution to the Adi Narewa, and contributions to ceremonies. As described in my interview with the family, this total would be about F$4905. This figure is more than double the family's yearly income. I suspect that the figures given for expenses were larger than the actual expenses of the family. That the family does not conceptualize their income and expenditures on a yearly (or long term) plan shows that the family is not worried about lacking the money they need to survive. Again this demonstrates a trust that the family has in its community and social relations.

Expenses for Household #1 include: groceries, household items, some clothing, bus fare, electricity bills, church offerings, the Adi Narewa, and various ceremonies. The total then is approximately F$1885. The total family income is F$4080. This leaves F$2195 left over. Since the granddaughter's mother is contributing to the income of the family, this excess money is in savings for her future.

Household #3 earns a yearly income of F$3200 - F$3400. The expenditures for the family include: groceries, market goods, a small amount of clothing, electricity bills, yaqona, a building fund fee for their grandson's school, the Adi Narewa, church offerings, women's club meetings and various ceremonies. The total of the expenditures is approximately F$3090. One may see therefore that the yearly income barely covers the year's expenses. This family is not saving up money, they too are earning and spending money at the same frequency. They are relying on social relations as they would not be able to meet all of their expenses without the contributions of his brother in Australia. This brother also sends packages of clothing and other goods to the family.

Payment Procedures Confirm that Saving Money is Not a Main Goal

Several things which the interviewees of the economic survey told me indicate that Fijians are not concerned with making as much money as they can. They are primarily concerned with fostering good social relations between members of the community and family.

The woman in Household #4 used the term "veivuke vakaitaukei" to refer to her husband carpentry work during the cane-cutting off-season. This means he is "helping them through courtesy." She told me that he makes about F$10 per day doing carpentry. She said too that this is not what a carpenter is supposed to make. He rebuilt one house last year. They paid him F$200 for the job. His wife explained that he does not charge a large amount of money for his work because that is the Fijian way: "Because we Fijians are very generous like that." She was pointing out that he doesn't work solely to receive money. Since he receives less than what he "should" get, he is, in a sense, doing favors. He is expressing to his employer that he values the social relationship between them by not making the employer pay him much. She told me that I need to remember, whenever I hear that people have received money for what they've made or done, that the price should always have been higher. "Always remember, when a Fijian person says, 'I bought this from one Fijian,' this is the veivuke vakaitaukei." The price should always be much more.

Another example of the "Fijian generosity" is when villagers are lenient with people who are supposed to pay them. As previously mentioned, The woman in Household #6's father died and she inherited his portion of revenue from the mataqali's land lease. They lease the land to Indians and then receive payment each year. This payment should be F$1000 per year to the mataqali. But her daughter told me that they do not receive this amount every year. Sometimes they get a small amount. They might get F$85 per year instead. She said "So we are Fijian, if [the Indians] pay in that small amount, you know, we can't just force them to deliver that. We leave it then."

The mother is also lenient about receiving payment for her sewing and crochet work. Women in Naivuvuni give their orders every two weeks or so to Adi and she makes their things. It is ultimately up to the buyer however, if she wants to pay her or not. The mother told me that Fijians can't just ask for money for something they've made. "Some people they just come and ask for it. If they don't want to pay, that's fine. 'Cause we are in the same village and all; we are all related. Fijians are like that. They won't ask money directly to that person. If they just can give it to us, it's up to them whether they want to pay it or not."

Give and Take, Kerekere Solesole

Villagers borrow money from one another as well. One woman told me that only family members would ask for money. They would give money to family members especially if they did not have jobs. The couple in Household #5 told me that villagers borrow money from them. "They have to pay this back then," they said. They said that people usually pay half back and then the other half at a later date. This family thought that people borrow money from them more so than from other families. But this is "OK, it is not an uncomfortable situation." They said that they don't care if people ask them for money and they do not try to make it difficult for others to ask for money from them. The wife in Household #4 told me:

A person who doesn't see his or her relatives, is not a Fijian. I have to see everything you need, I have to do something to fulfill you, to help you. Because if I don't help you, when I am in need, you won't help me. It's like kerekere, solesole. Kere you ask for, sole you give. That's just how we live. I was in a girls' boarding school. And every morning our principle would say, "No more kerekere, No more solesole." Because you have to stand on your own two feet. They tried to teach us to be independent, not to be too dependable. Because, most of us just pay money like hell, and then kerekere, because she'll help me. If she's my friend she'll help me...It's a Fijian habit to borrow. If we don't give we feel guilty. And, to us, we give things anyhow. We just don't care. So you just accept it. It's no big deal.

Attitudes about giving to ceremonies and mataqali functions such as weddings, funerals, festivals, etc. also reflects the Fijian style of casual giving. The people I interviewed seemed to genuinely not mind this aspect of their culture. One woman told me that she doesn't mind paying money to the mataqali or to the school because that is her responsibility. "It is your responsibility when in the village; it is not a burden." She confirmed that it is getting a little bit harder to keep up with now as things become more expensive. She said she doesn't mind giving to the schools either because it is for the kids. Again she said it is her responsibility.

Another told me that she thinks that Fijians have to spend more money on ceremonies and for the mataqali now than in the past. She said the reason for this is that prices of things are rising. And Fijians have to go to these events because they are for their relations. They have to take something with them when they go as well. If they should but cannot buy a bull, then they should buy tinned fish. They have to bring something, whatever they can afford.

She told me that she didn't mind spending this money because, "That's part of our life... You feel shy if you don't give anything. So we have to look for it and give it."

Conclusion

This chapter has shown that Fijians in the Narewa village do not place a strong emphasis on material wealth. This is not a source of constant worry for them. They are not concerned because they trust in their neighbors and family. The village has provided an atmosphere whereby villagers interact socially while performing economic tasks. People will not ask for a specified amount of money for a job which they have performed. They leave the amount of payment up to the "customer." By doing this, Fijians demonstrate an attitude that money is not the most important thing. The important thing is to have good relations with your community, your village. And as this idea pervades Fijian life, so does it give Fijians a faith in their fellow Fijians. They do not need to spend time concentrating on whether they will have enough money to survive. They trust in their social ties. They trust in their family to help them if they need help as they trust that other villagers will continue to make it easy for them to live.

On to Chapter 4...