WHAT'S BEAUTIFUL?
BODY IMAGE AND THE SOCIOCENTRIC SENSE OF SELF IN FIJI
by Emily Sparks

Extended Table of Contents

Note on the Pronunciation of Fijian Words

Introduction

The Chapters

The Methods

Chapter 2 - Literature Review

Body and Self in Western Culture

Mind and Body Dualism

Mind Body Dualism and Weight Control

A History of Anorexia in the West

Non-Cultural Theories on Anorexia in the West

The Non-Western Sense of Self

Cultivation of the Body

Chapter 3 - A Background to Fijian Communal Values

"The Chiefly Way": An Introduction to Fijian Ideas about Community

Communality in Social Structure

Gender

Tavale

Communalism Seen Through Economics

Yaqona

The Women's World -- Prescribed by Men

Conclusion

Chapter 4 - Discourse on "Attractiveness" and What It Means to Be a "Good Person" in Fiji

Young Women's Views of Attractiveness

Young Men and Women Go for the Heart

Older Women's Views on Attractiveness

Conclusion

Chapter 5 - Cultural Scenarios: A Window into the Fijian Ethos


[NOTE: The final three chapters (Chapters 6, 7 & 8) of this thesis are not posted here to respect the privacy of informants]

Conclusion

Appendix A: Fijian Kin Terms

Appendix B: Elaborations on the Terms "Attractive" and "Uro"

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

During the third week of my stay in Fiji, I noticed that my host mother, my "Nana," began looking at my body, and smiling, while she pinched my calves, upper arms and rear end. One night, as I cleared the eating mat, she commented to my host father on how fat I was growing. For the next two months at every meal, she told me to eat a lot, because I was now starting to get fat, as if I now had the capability to eat more and thus put on more weight. Taking the finished dish away from my host brother, and listening to him make the comment to his peers, levulevu, ("fatty fatty"), as they all chuckled, were slight blows to my western-oriented self esteem. As an American college student of the middle class, I have been less concerned with my weight than many of my peers; however, these comments were threatening to the core of my sense of self. Soon other comments such as, "You are getting as round as a pumpkin," further increased my discomfort. The Fijians' tone in these comments did not seem serious; however, at least at first I tended to take them seriously. Why? Because as an American I have a set of culturally-bounded beliefs that suggest that those who gain weight are morally flawed -- for me, this was a serious judgement to make.

Thankfully one day, one of my friends described why people were starting to comment on my body, and on my weight. She told me, "It is very good for you to gain weight while you are here, Emily. It is important mainly for us, because you can go back to your father and mother and other relatives, and they will look at you and say, 'What have you been eating over there in Fiji? You must have lived happily with your family in Fiji, they must have taken good care of you.' " This friend spoke clearly and confidently as she explained to me this part of the Fijian ethos of care.

In all societies, human beings act in accordance with the roles that their culture dictates to them. In American society, our culture tells us that we must cultivate a sense of our self based mainly upon the individual, and we must express, and try to display, this individually cultivated self to our community. In her book, Body, Self and Society: The View from Fiji, Anne Becker argues that one way Americans display this individually cultivated self is through the presentation of our bodies. Becker says that:

The legitimization of and interest in cultivating bodily space is rendered meaningful against the backdrop of the basic tenets of the Western experience of selfhood. Where there is a cultural validation of expression of autonomy through the body and authorization of a congruity of body with identity, bodily cultivation is permitted and even celebrated. (Becker 1995: 34)

In other words, Becker is pointing out here that in a society where the individual must cultivate a definite sense of him- or herself (such as in Western societies), the idea of working on one's body -- trying to create it as a reflection of one's personality, is celebrated. The "congruity of body with identity" -- the idea that one's body is a reflection of one's individual personality, is emphasized.

Whereas the presentation of self through the cultivation of the body -- a very individual endeavor, is how Americans present themselves to their world, Fijians think of themselves as extensions of the community. Consequently, rather than working to display their unique personality to the community, Fijians work to show their peers and elders how well they comply with the community ideals. Thus, a different attitude toward the body emerges. As Becker explains, "What distinguishes the Fijian attitude towards the body is the relative absence of self-reflexive interest in matching an ideal. One does not assiduously cultivate his or her own body to project a particular image because the body identifies one with a community more than with a self image" (Becker 1995: 56). In other words, Fijians read the body as a reflection of how well an individual is cared for by a community rather than a product of individual character. These cultural differences explain why I, as an American, took the comments directed towards me about gaining weight more seriously than the Fijians meant them to be taken. I took these comments about my weight personally -- as if they had something to do with my character, or my sense of self. Instead, to Fijians, my fattened body reflected the fact that I was loved and well taken care of and did not reflect a negative aspect of my personality.

In the following pages I will explore the relationship between body image (and particularly attitudes about body weight) and cultural conceptions of the individual. I will examine this issue through exploring people's ideas about their body and their appearance in Fiji -- a society where, reputedly, people place greater value on cultivating and maintaining a network of social relations than on displaying individual personality through cultivation of the body.

My interest in studying views of attractiveness in Fiji began the summer before I departed, when I read an article in the New York Times about Anne Becker's study of Fijian girls dreaming of getting thin. Unlike the book, the article focused simply on the spread of the primarily Western eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, affecting young Fijian girls who are now exposed to American television shows like "Melrose Place" and "Beverly Hills 90210." Reading the article, I immediately became interested in a world where this disorder was uncommon as it was so prevalent in my own world. Growing up, and going to middle school and high school, and now college, I have seen countless girls and young women (as well as some young men) obsess over their body image. In my experience, close friends who have let the issue of their body image dominate their lives at ages as young as twelve and thirteen can never fully let go of the disorder titled "anorexia nervosa." I often wonder why so many of my American peers have been "plagued" with anorexia, or a more mild compulsion about "working" on their body. What is it about our society that makes them worry so about their appearance? After reading the article about young Fijian women, I thought, what is it about their society (traditionally at least) which does not lead them to feel that they need to "work" on their body? This article sparked my interest, and I picked up Becker's book.

After reading Body, Self and Society, I became interested in studying these questions, and I focused on the issue of how Fijians and Americans think of their bodies, as well as themselves, differently. Unlike the article in the New York Times, which is concerned with the fact that the influx of Western television is influencing young Fijian women's body image, Becker's book, Body, Self and Society, deals with the impact of cultural views of the self on attitudes towards body weight. I was interested in Becker's suggestions that American preoccupations with their bodies stemmed from an individuated concept of self that was not typical of all cultures. My attempts to explore the relationship between concepts of self and body image in Fiji then led me to a broader interest in Fijian conceptions of the self, which will be explored in this thesis.

I found that it is a Fijian ideal to not be concerned about one's own body, as "there are specific taboos preventing women from attending to appearance in the postpartum period," and in general worrying about appearance is frowned upon (Becker 1995: 55); Fijians believe that spending too much time on one's body goes against the prescribed roles people in the community are expected to play. Accordingly, most of the people I talked to were not very concerned about their weight and did not diet. I did, however, find that some women, particularly younger women, dieted and wanted to stay slim. I argue that this dieting is not due to Western television. Instead, I felt that dieting was linked to how satisfied women were with their role in the community. While some groups in society see exemplifying communal ideals as a valid role to play out, others (specifically young women, who generally feel that their role does not match their personal status) feel constrained in the community and act against this expected role -- by spending time caring about how they individually present themselves to the world.

I will argue that Becker is correct in seeing a strong relationship between conceptions of the self and body image. However, I will also suggest that her view of Fijians as all sharing a sociocentric view of the self is too simple. Indeed, I found that individuals had different reactions to a cultural ideology emphasizing communal ties over individual desires. Ideas about weight and the body, in turn, reflected the level of overall commitment that individuals had to their culture of communality. In the following chapters, I will explore both the relationships between body image and ideas of the self and the factors which influenced individuals' level of commitment to the ideology of communality. I have found that those individuals who are satisfied with their role in the community are those who have some sort of autonomy. Those who feel that they choose to commit themselves to the community also then value these communal ideals, including putting the community first, before one's individual needs. I have found that older women, who have a secure, and somewhat autonomous role in the society, have a carefree attitude about one's appearance -- embracing the culture's ideal. In contrast, young women in Fijian society, who have little autonomy, often reject the societal idea to not think of one's self at all. They have few rights with in the society, and I would argue, as a result, do not embrace communal ideals, and thus focus not on their relationships with others, but on their individual selves.

The Chapters

Chapter two of this thesis will give an overview of some of the research that is relevant to this particular topic. I will address the concept of the self within the Western context, the phenomenon of eating disorders in the West, and why, indeed they are primarily a Western occurrence. The second area that will be discussed is literature on the non-Western self, including the concept of self in Fiji. Since this thesis is addressing concepts of the self, and how that affects one's roles in the community, and thus one's body image, we must examine what has previously been written about the Pacific sociocentric self.

In order to explain Fijian views of people's role in society, as well as their thoughts on presentation of their physical and metaphysical self, I will first give a background to the Fijian cultural system, and describe how Fijians relate to one another. In order to describe the ethos of relatedness in Fiji (how Fijians relate to each other and the community), chapter three will discuss kinship, and give a brief background on the collective economy. This will show how Fijian culture celebrates collective interests and idealizes the cultivation of self through social relationships. In this culture, individual roles are conceptualized in terms of preserving a harmonious community. I will also describe the place of women in Fijian culture. I will argue that young women are expected to be particularly self-sacrificing and have very little autonomy in Fijian society. In fact, young women, as a group, are the group that is most likely to be unhappy with Fijian society. However, as women grow older they gain more autonomy.

In chapter four I will explore differences in ideas about attractiveness across the age groups. Young women mention that they find certain physical attributes attractive, as well as behavioral attributes. They said that they pay attention the physical build of a man, as well as how he treats others. Older women, on the other hand, have very little interest in physical appearance and said that attractive people are ones who played their role in the community well. While young women's views differ from those of older women, even young women do not embrace an "individuated self," typical of Americans. Instead, younger women embrace communality but put more emphasis on people caring for each other than on everyone performing a role to preserve a harmonious and traditional Fijian community.

These findings led me to reconsider Becker's ideas about the sociocentric self in Fiji. I wanted to see if younger women's greater concern with appearance went along with a more individuated sense of self which, perhaps, resulted from Western influence. In doing my research I gave informants of both genders and all ages hypothetical scenarios designed to uncover their ideas about the relative importance of individual rights and commitment to community. Chapter five will present the results of administering these scenarios. Overall, I found that Becker was right -- that people generally emphasize the community over the individual. But I found distinct variations in people's ideas about the individual and the community, with younger people generally thinking that individual rights are more important than do older people. I also, however, suggest in chapter five that perhaps people's satisfaction with their role in the community is more important than age in determining their attitudes. Overall, younger women tend to be more unhappy with their role in the community than are older women. Their unhappiness leads them to turn to Western ideologies emphasizing individual rights. Along with this emphasis on the individual comes a greater concern with body weight. However, there are some young women who are happy with their lives, who do not espouse Western ideals. This suggests that this was not just a generation shift with younger women being more influenced by Western ideologies than older women. Instead, it seems like people, young and old, are committed to Fijian communalism if they are happy with their lives, and, conversely, are attached to Western ideologies if they are unhappy. I also found that, when looking at the big picture, these young women are only going through a stage within the life cycle. I saw that although in some ways they feel constrained in their community, young women also display interest in the community. Thus, even the younger women find their community to be important. This topic will lead into a discussion about how there are different ways of playing out communal ideals at different stages in life. Here, I will explain how the roles women play at different stages in their lives affect how happy they are and, thus, how committed they are to the Fijian communal ideology.

Chapters six, seven, and eight will give life histories of women in order to explore their feelings about communal ideals. These case studies show how individuals have different attitudes toward Fijian communalism and how, in general, those who are more satisfied with their life are more committed to the communal ideology. In chapter six, Siteri displays how as an eighteen year old young woman in the village, she has individualistic dreams which include leaving the community, while she still deems it important to take care of her parents -- thus she still is attached to the community in some way. Siteri expresses ambivalence about village life. While it is clear that she feels close to her family, she prefers to not live in the village, because the communal pressures bother her. Chapter six will also explore Lani's life history. A twenty-one year old young woman who recently married into the village after growing up in Suva, Lani represents the extreme among the young women interviewed of perceiving the community as constraining to her individuality instead of personally fulfilling. There are several reasons for this. First, she is new to the village and has not yet had a chance to form relationships with others. Second, because she has not previously occupied a traditional Fijian female role, she experiences pressure to conform to village ways as very inhibiting. Finally, Lani's stage in her life (early marriage) is one where many women have little control over their lives. Thus, she is not freely choosing to play her role in the village and thus feels constrained by not expressing her individuality.

Chapter seven offers narratives of two young Fijian women who claim to enjoy their role within the community and thus embrace Fijian ideals. Like Siteri, Rosa stresses the feeling of being cared for in her family. But unlike her sister Siteri, she does not experience the village as being constraining, perhaps in part because she does not have the non-traditional academic career aspirations that Siteri has. In fact, Rosa comes close to fulfilling the ideals described by Fijian scholar Ravuvu of the individual who does not feel constrained by communal obligations but instead feels fulfilled as an individual through her relationships with others. However, Rosa conspicuously lacks any interest in the idea of playing her proper role to preserve the traditional community. Thus, I will make the point in these chapters that communalism means different things to individuals in Fiji.

Katerena, another young woman, says that at first she was not comfortable in the village, but then she comes to understand that she has an obligation, or a proper role to play in the village. Then she comes to experience playing her proper role as fulfilling and finds learning the traditional ways of the village personally rewarding. She feels worthwhile because she is passing on traditions instead of just pursuing individual desires. At first she experiences these things as pressures from the outside but now finds that she is choosing to learn these things to contribute to traditions. Thus, like Rosa, Katerena approaches the ideal of finding personal happiness through playing her part in the community. It is significant that both Katerena and Rosa are not married. They feel satisfied in part because they feel that the care they give to others is freely given and that they are in control of their lives. They stand in contrast to other young women (like Lani) who are married, who feel deeply unsatisfied, believing that they have little control over their lives.

Chapter eight gives two narratives of older Fijian women, who have grown to enjoy their respective roles within the community. Naibere displays how as a young woman she felt constrained and unfulfilled with her role in the community, yet as she has matured to become an older woman in the society, she feels as though she is respected, and now enjoys communal life. Akisi further emphasizes this point, depicting how as an older women, her life is consumed with taking care of her family, as well as the community. Akisi also notes that younger Fijians are more interested in physical appearance than is her generation, but that when she was young, this was important to her as well. Akisi thus illustrates how caring about one's individual physical appearance is not necessarily a sign of modern times, but rather something that changes with one's role within Fijian society.

Chapter nine will offer a reevaluation of Becker's ideas about the sociocentric self and body image in Fiji. I found in general that Becker was correct in thinking that Fijians place a higher value on preserving a harmonious community than on displaying individual personality. I also found that she was generally right that these values led women away from controlling their weight. However, although younger women are still interested in communality, they are also more inclined to cultivate their individuality as a response to not wanting to adhere to their expected, non-autonomous role in society. This chapter will also reiterate the idea that there are different ways to display communal ideals at different stages in life. I will address the fact that the younger women, particularly the ones most unhappy with their role in the community -- those that display the least bit of wanting to be a part of the community -- do indeed think about their individual cultivation. However, those that are not as concerned with their appearance are those who have a role in the community with which they are relatively content.

The Methods

The research for this project was done in and around the village of Navolau #2, in the Ra Province of Viti Levu Island. A village of twenty-seven houses, it is nestled between Uluisuvani Mountain, which lies south of it, and the King's Highway, and Viti Levu Bay, north and to the east. The view from this hillside village is quite spectacular, especially on a clear day. The seaside bay is lined with coconut trees, and one can see the reefs in the sea from the top of the village. Sugarcane fields line the highway approaching Navolau #2, and the two closest villages, Nakorokula and Navolau #1, are a ten minute walk away, and a twenty minute walk, respectively. Within the village, the plants include breadfruit trees, mango trees, a cotton tree, cassava, rourou, bele and flowers. Also, roosters, hens, and chicks, dogs and cats, as well as pigs, cows, goats and horses, (seen on the outskirts of the village), geckos, and various other critters can be seen at almost any time during the day.

The village is made up of about two hundred people, including children, and it covers about ten acres. During the day, women are outside washing clothes, cooking in the outdoor kitchens, or tending to their gardens. Men are usually out working in sugarcane fields or gardens and plantations, and children are running around playing. Sounds of yadra (which loosely translates into "morning", or in this village's case, "hello") can be heard, as well as fast talking between the women. Homes are located about twenty or thirty feet from each other (except in the center of the village, where they lie closer together), and additional structures, like outdoor toilets and outdoor kitchens, add to the appearance of crowding structures. On top of the village, closest to the mountain, lies the Methodist church, and in the middle of the village is the community hall.

The field research described in this thesis includes data from observation, from asking using hypothetical scenarios to elicit cultural models, and from doing in-depth ethnographic interviewing. Analyses and conclusions were drawn from the cultural scenarios and the personal interviews, while other data collected was used to supplement this material. I found that the personal interviews were the most enjoyable, and most informative, as the informants, giving a narrative of their lives, were revealing what was important or unsatisfying about their roles in the community.

Administering cultural models in scenarios proved to be very useful as well. I asked the same questions of young women, older women, and men (since in a patriarchal society, men dictate what is accepted on a societal level), and with their different responses, drew conclusions about how each group thought about social pressures.

I also conducted interviews on people's ideas about what made others attractive. I asked people first just to say what qualities made others attractive. I then went on to ask specifically about physical appearance, for many people did not initially mention appearance when asked about attractiveness. Although the questions were quite useful, and the word-association tactic for developing cultural models was revealing, especially among different age groups, I found that the word-association was not the most useful tool, as the language barrier made it difficult for some informants to express descriptive words for such specific terms.

As usual in anthropological research, many of my ideas and hypotheses were formed from observing Fijian life on a daily bases. My host mother's comments (as well as other comments from various villagers) about how much weight I was gaining, led me to believe that going from thin to more plump was something that the community took interest in. Observing the way teenagers joked with one another about each other's weight as they were eating also provided a window for me to develop ideas about what they thought of gaining weight. For example, one sister in my household always told me that she used to be very thin, that over the past few years she has gained a lot of weight. When she sat down for meals, her other sisters often teased her by putting extra plates of food in front of her, saying "Fire!" when she began to eat. From observing these types of interactions concerning weight, and then following up with questions, I was able to determine Fijians' attitudes about weight, body shape, and how important these ideals are in the Fijian world view. Thus observation, as well as participant observation (when I was the subject of their observation), led me to develop a forum for asking questions about the importance of body image in the Fijians' world view. Living in the village, day in and day out, also allowed me to question things about Fijian culture every day. Arriving knowing so little about the culture, every day was filled with new stories and lessons for me in the field.

Fortunately, I developed a good rapport with the villagers, as well as friendships with some of my informants. These friendships led me to get to know some individuals on a personal level -- a level where they shared with me not only personal stories but revealed what their lives, as Fijians, are like on an emotional level. With them as my teachers, learning what it feels like to be a young woman in Fiji, an elderly man, or a middle aged woman, helped me get a sense of their feelings about the culture's dictated ideals.

Much of the beauty of anthropological research is that it may occur or be conducted at any time, almost at any place, and the anthropologist must be ready to learn when her informant is ready to share. For example, for weeks in the village I wanted to interview a young woman who had recently married into the village. She told me many times that her life had been difficult since she had moved into the village. On many occasions I asked the informant if she would be willing to share with me in an interview what had been the most difficult part about being a newly married young woman in a new village. The informant said that she would be willing to help, but continually made up excuses when the day of the interview came around. Finally one night she had someone send a message to me that she would be ready to do the interview the next day. She came over and confessed to me all of her problems with living in a new village as a young married woman, with me only asking a question or two.

With this said, I truly enjoyed studying body image in Fiji. I laughed with Fijians as we discussed different nicknames for fat and skinny people, and I cried when I listened to the goals and ambitions of young women who felt trapped by their societal expectations. I believe that this topic should be further researched, as so much more about the Fijian world view is revealed by asking people to talk about their attitudes about their bodies. I would, however, suggest that the Fijian language be learned, as I found it frustrating when my informants had to modify their thoughts in order to express them in English.

Now that I have outlined the body of this thesis, I will now explore the literature that is pertinent to my own findings.

On to Chapter 2...