Fijian Traditions and Ceremonies - Relationship Terms Within Fijian Society

Relationship Terms Within Fijian Society

A first question generally in Fiji is “Where are you from?” so people may ascertain what relationship they hold with you and how will they interact with you. There are various relationship terms in Fiji. These include:

"Tauvu". Tau (friend); Vu (Spirit); having the same Vu, root or founder. Basil Thomson (1908:113) suggests “that groups in Fiji who are tauvu or kalou-vata ie worshippers of the same god, have a common origin”.

Tauvu are allowed reciprocal rights of taking each other’s goods and coarse joking with each other, though this is not used inland in Viti-Levu. The following are some Tauvu groupings:

  1. Lomaloma and Moturiki also to Yadrana village on Lakeba Island and also to Moala Island
  2. Lomaiviti and Cakaudrove
  3. Cakaudrove and Bua
  4. Lakeba and Noco
  5. Lau and Rewa
  6. Cakaudrove and Tailevu
  7. Ra/Nadroga/Kadavu/Ba
  8. Macuata/Naitasiri
  9. Serua/Kadavu
  10. Nadroga/Kadavu
  11. Nadi/Kadavu
  12. Ono-I-Lau/Bau Island
  13. Ono,Kadavu/Ono-I-Lau
  14. Ono-I-Lau/Oneata

Read more about this topic:  Fijian Traditions And Ceremonies

Famous quotes containing the words relationship, terms and/or society:

    “In contrast with envy, which usually occurs between two people and is focused upon another person’s qualities or possessions, jealousy occurs when a third person becomes a threat to a dyad. Jealousy involves the loss or the impending loss of a relationship that one wants to hold onto, a relationship that is vital to personal fulfillment and claimed as one’s own.”
    —Carol S. Becker (b. 1942)

    “Books have their destinies like men. And their fates, as made by generations of readers, are very different from the destinies foreseen for them by their authors. Gulliver’s Travels, with a minimum of expurgation, has become a children’s book; a new illustrated edition is produced every Christmas. That’s what comes of saying profound things about humanity in terms of a fairy story.”
    —Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    “The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.”
    —C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)