pn919. Understanding Fijians

 Fijian language and culture: from Ronald Getty: Fijian-English Dictionary, 2009.

From his introduction (my emphases) :

Fijian conversation is very sensitive as to who is talking to whom. Relationships of regions, tribes, clans, extended families and nuclear families are all relevant but usually invisible to outsiders. There are privileges, courtesies and taboos that depend on those relationships. Some people may not speak with certain others, brothers and sisters for example or in some cases, children and a parent. Virtually everyone is related to everyone in some way that determines the conditions of mutual speech. Formal Fijian speech has an overload of verbiage with protocol and politesse. It may border on a mannered preciosity that can be quite boring.

Still today, though, Fijian patterns of thinking and feeling are very different from anything foreigners might expect. Fijian culture and social interconnections are difficult if not impossible for an outsider to penetrate. Fijian openness is never as open as it would seem. Questioning a Fijian on any sensitive issue is rather like peeling an onion. Layers are removed but nothing much is revealed at the inside.

Fijians usually pretend their thoughts and feelings are congruent with those of a stranger or a foreigner. They avoid disclosing potential discord of their different motivation, different social aims, very different manners and private behaviour. And some can be masters at hiding their self-interest. The Fijian smile presents a disarming front. The smile serves to charm, disarm, and put the visitor at ease. Sometimes it is a mask for dissimulation and manipulation. More often perhaps, it may be genuine, especially in the case of children.

A Fijian individual living in a traditional Fijian context exists within a social system that is much more structured than a European usually experiences. Within Fiji, the system leaves little room for an individual to act independently of the group. At the same time, for the individual, that system can be helpful and supportive emotionally. Emphasis is on human relationships, extended family, and clan, and to a lesser extent, the tribe and territory, and quite importantly, their church with their own Fijian versions of Christianity. But these social involvements and committments can be preoccupations that limit an individual’s development as an individual and dissipate the personal resources. Social demands can exact enormous amounts of time, effort, energy, even money, food and other consumables.

Commoners have been restrained by their elders and by their chiefs who with very few exceptions, have little education, and all too often, are marked by self-interest. Young people are discouraged from expressing opinions or openly asserting themselves as individuals. Still now, Fijians hardly dare “talk up” directly. Many men, especially, have been very considerably repressed. From early childhood all Fijians are taught severely not to ask questions and not to speak their minds. It is understandable that Fijians might become secretive about their own feelings and thoughts. They have had so little personal privacy.

It is not easy to understand Fijians and the common fallacy of foreigners is to think they do.