Page 22 - Melanesia

iji was first settled about three and a part of the school curriculum. Indigenous complicated class system. Chiefs often had
Fijians have their own dialects and you tremendous personal power, which was
F half thousand years ago. The original
inhabitants are now called “Lapita people” can tell where one comes from, from their expressed in demands for tribute from con-

after a distinctive type of fine pottery they dialect. Indians too have their own, and quered tribes and in many bloody human

produced, remnants of which have been generally speak a distinctive Fiji-Hindi dia- sacrifices. To outsiders, the chiefs seemed

found in practically all the islands of the lect. This is not the same as the one spoken to have arbitrary and ruthless power based

Pacific, east of New Guinea, though not in India. Though scientists may disagree on ‘club law’. Each ‘tribe’ was broken up into

in eastern Polynesia. Linguistic evidence about exactly when the forebears of Fijians several clans, each with its own function in

suggests that they came from northern or first came to roost, they submit that these society. There were chiefly clans, priestly

central Vanuatu, or possibly the eastern people came from the New Britain area clans, artisans, fishing clans and diplomatic

Solomons. Before long they had moved (now belonging to Papua New Guinea) and clans whose purpose was to act as spokes-

further on, colonizing Rotuma to the north, were most likely ancestors of present-day people for the chief.

and Tonga and Samoa to the east. From Polynesians. They practiced agriculture, L eadership in the tribal units was strictly
there, vast distances were crossed to com- raised pigs and poultry, and fished. hereditary and succession often a sub-
plete the settlement of the Pacific to Hawaii ject of debate. Rank was inherited through
in the north, Rapanui (Easter Island) in the W omen worked hard and aged early. both parents, and in a polygamous society
east and Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the Men did intermittent hard jobs such

south. After the explorers, other Europe- as breaking in land for crops. They also this could be very confusing. A chief might

ans followed. For over half a century, Fijian performed occasional social duties like war- have five different sons from five differ-

culture enjoyed what has been called its fare, house building and ceremonial lovo ent wives, each with a different political

‘golden age’, as tools and weapons brought cooking in large underground ovens. In status. To complicate matters even more,

by traders were turned by resourceful chiefs other words, the more spectacular activities rank could be inherited from one’s moth-

to their own advantage. were usually in the man’s domain, whereas er’s brothers, and succession was usually

E nglish is the lingua franca, but Fijian the drudgery of weeding, washing and col- through brothers before it passed on to
and Hindi are also taught in schools as lecting firewood was (and still is) done by sons.
women. Fijian society was dominated by a