Fijian Traditions and Ceremonies - Relationships Within The Fijian Family

Relationships Within The Fijian Family

There is great intricacy of social interaction among families and close tribes, between brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and the like.

Megan Lee, in her paper Life in a Fijian Village while studying social structure and organization of Naivuvuni Village states: “The kinship system is an essential aspect of Fijian life. The ways in which people interact with each other is based upon how they are related to each other within the family unit. Respect and avoidance relationships are critical to the kinship system. Respect is based on three main concepts: age, sex and social distance. The older a person is, the more respect they command, regardless of sex or social rank. The amount of respect displayed also depends on the amount of social distance between people. People who interact with one another on a regular basis tend to be more relaxed and less strict about the proper respect relationships. People who do not see each other as often and are less familiar with each other follow the expected rules more stringently.”

The following terms (with variation between provinces) are used among close family members:

The term "Yaca" is used to refer to one’s "namesake" when a child in memory of a relative who has passed on. Children are also named after a living relative. The term is even more loosely used today among friends if you share the same name, though this is not used in its correct context.

Anne E. Becker in her book Body, Self, and Society: the view from Fiji writes:

In the event that a kin relationship cannot be conjured from the meeting, the respective parties will invoke one of many other relationships that associate them in some way for instances they may be mutual namesakes (Yaca) or their respective regional ancestral spirits (Vu) May have been friends so by syllogism they are Tauvu and address each other as Tau.

The term "Tavale" is used by those who are cross cousins for example the son or daughter of a father’s sister or mother’s brother.

Megan Lee in her paper "Life in a Fijian Village", in Chapter 2, Social Structure and Organization of Naivuvuni Village, writes:

Traditionally, it was from this group of relatives that a man would choose his wife although today this practice is not usually followed. Male and female cross cousins are referred to as tavale. Men also refer to female cross cousins as tavale and women call men by the same instead of using their real name. A woman refers to another female cross cousin as "dauve", or sister-in-law, because a female cross cousin's brother could become a husband. Similarly, a female refers to her male cross cousin's wife as "karua", which means second wife, because if she were to die, a cross cousin could become his new wife. Cross cousins also have the responsibility of burying one another when they die.

Also William Halse Rivers in his book The History of Melanesian Society states:

In Fiji the term of the coastal people are determined by their cross cousin marriage, viz., Tavale, davola and dauve but among the mountain people there are number of other terms including daku, vitabui, vaidakavi, veilavi and vikila though Tavale of the coastal people is frequently used.

"Tata, Nana, Nei" and "Momo". Parents of cross cousins are treated the same as biological parents, a child’s mother's younger sister is referred to as nana Lailai or little mother. If she is older than the child's own mother, then she is referred to as Nana levu or big mother. Likewise, the child father's brothers are called Tata Lailai and Tata Levu according to seniority.

A child's father’s sister is referred to as Nei or aunt whereas a child's mother’s brother is referred to as Momo. The relationship with the parents of one's cross cousins is relaxed, while keeping in mind that respect must be shown Momo and Nei because they are older.

The above are but simple examples and further intricacies exist.