Drinking to mana and ethnicity: trajectories of yaqona practice and symbolism in Eastern Fiji.

Drinking to mana and ethnicity: trajectories of yaqona practice and symbolism in Eastern Fiji. INTRODUCTION On the evening of the 28th June 1875, at the start of the returnleg of his collector's journey to the interior of Viti Levu Viti Levu(vē`tē lā`v)or Naviti Levu(nä–)island,the Baron Anatole von Htigel arrived in the large chiefdom of Serea(Roth and Hooper 1990:39ff.). A chicken was killed for his feast, awarrior-like meke (dance) was organised in his honour, and a huge yaqona(i.e. kava) plant uprooted and brought into the village. The Barondescribes how 'the great yaqona root was then carded by twocrouching attendants from the back of the house and respectfully laidbefore me' (Roth and Hooper 1990:41). His herald touched andaccepted the yaqona root on his behalf. A semi-circle of young men thenmasticated bits of the root, handing balls of the substance to an'officiator' who, then, mixed the yaqona with water.Accompanied by much chanting, gesticulating and bodily swaying, theBaron was served the first drink. His herald was served the next drink,the bowl of which he sent spinning along the mat towards the tanoa (alarge serving bowl). All of the men were then served their yaqona inorder of rank. One hundred and one years and one month later, I pitched up in thesame chiefdom to carry out my fieldwork. This stay in Serea began withmy installation at the sacred top of the yaqona ceremony in thechief's house (Abramson 1993). And, mastication mastication/mas��ti��ca��tion/ (mas?ti-ka��shun) chewing; the biting and grinding of food. mastication(mas´tikā´sh of the yaqonaapart, (this being a practice prohibited on hygienic hy��gien��icadj.1. Of or relating to hygiene.2. Tending to promote or preserve health.3. Sanitary. grounds by theformer colonial administration), and with the more frequent use ofpowdered rather than fresh yaqona nowadays, the ritual was to allintents and purposes Adv. 1. to all intents and purposes - in every practical sense; "to all intents and purposes the case is closed"; "the rest are for all practical purposes useless"for all intents and purposes, for all practical purposes the same as that held for the Baron in 1875. On the basis of this observation, it is tempting to conclude thatyaqona use in Fiji has remained essentially stable over one hundredyears. This conclusion would be erroneous. Rather, in the chiefdoms,farmsteads, hotels and towns of Fiji significant changes inyaqona's meaning and application have occurred. Thus, the chieflyceremonial described above derives from an older priestly usage, whilstthis same chiefly yaqona has itself been adapted over the long term inquite different ways by contemporary sorcerers (purportedly) and byhealers (demonstrably). Moreover, throughout the Fijian touristindustry, yaqona ceremonies that bear only a tenuous relation to thoseorganised for the Baron and myself in our respective centuries areregularly put on for tourists. It seems, therefore, that yaqona meaningand use is significantly unstable across a range of contexts in spite ofthe observation that, in one particular ceremonial context, at least,familiar rites deliver an enduring core of meanings and procedures. Theoretically speaking, this finding strengthens both of the mainanthropological discourses on the history of Oceanic cultural practices:or, at least, lends support to some of their respective elements. Thus,in dwelling upon the purposeful modification of yaqona practices bysorcerers, healers and hoteliers, the observation ethnographicallyre-captures and re-affirms the creative agency that ethnic Fijiansroutinely exercise over their Fijianness. Such creativity is oftenbrought to bear symbolically in the 'novel articulation' offorms like Fijian yaqona when it is re-fashioned and used as 'anemblematic custom' (Thomas 1993:868) to culturally counter theobjectifying stereotypes of competing ethnic neighbours (Linnekin 1990).This finding also enhances the work of Borofsky (1987), Linnekin andPoyer (1990), Jolly (1982, 1992) and Thomas (1992). In such complex,asymetrical circumstances, ethnic identity and cultural difference arecarefully re-invented by Fijians and other indigenous Pacific Islandgroups as boundary markers and symbolic vehicles of their own defiantautonomy. At the same time, in recovering from inventiveness a core ofenduring meaning, this initial finding also sustains the theoreticalpremise of the centrality of the longue duree. Sahlins (1981a, 1993,1994), in particular, has productively elaborated this position in aseries of powerful studies, as have, influentially, Toren (1988) andTurner (1997) and, with some considerable originality, Pomponio (1990).This considerable body of research brings out the symbolic continuitiesand cultural constants hidden--and sometimes not so hidden--withinchanging traditional practices. And, on the strength of this work therecan be little question of under-estimating the degree to whichmanifestly purposeful and creative processes of change in Oceaniccontexts are also heavily shaped and constrained by underlyingontological frameworks. All of which is to say that, at its most abstract level, like theplay of grammar in language, structures of enduring meaning have to beunderstood in terms of dynamic possibility as well as axiological ax��i��ol��o��gy?n.The study of the nature of values and value judgments.[Greek axios, worth; see ag- in Indo-European roots + -logy. constraint, and as the inscribed limits to a transforming system ofthought rather than as categorically inscriptive habitus habitus/hab��i��tus/ (hab��i-tus) [L.]1. attitude (2).2. physique.hab��i��tusn. pl. . Expressed, forexample, by Valeri in relation to the pre-modern Hawaiian kingship, thestructured tradition was not a '... mere stereotypedreproduction' but a set of '... past potentialities for thepresent that could be actualized ac��tu��al��ize?v. ac��tu��al��ized, ac��tu��al��iz��ing, ac��tu��al��iz��esv.tr.1. To realize in action or make real: "More flexible life patterns could . . . in many different forms' (Valeri1990:68). In fact, this Hawaiian past appeared in the present '...as a process which invited and legitimated its creativecontinuation.' Gambit-like on a chess-board, '... it waspossible to creatively select those precedents that best fitted changingsituations in the present ...' (Valeri 1990:68). By the same token, it is important to see that the tacticalinvention of custom in the cause of modern ethnicity lies at the pulsingheart of a specifically structured world-view as well as in the hands ofhuman autonomy and creativity. Thus, ascendant, if not dominant, inFijian towns, this emerging world view today tacitly assumes the gradualdisconnnection of persons from ancestral powers and the objectificationof processes and relations that might otherwise cognitively encompassactors and subject them. Moreover, this is a sphere in which, amidst arepertoire of manipulable objects and relations, ethnic symbols andperformances are regularly given to slip and slide about each other,before being politically tied down in emblematic contrast. Here, inspite of much practical entanglement and subjective hybridity, actorsrecruited to ethnic and religious groupings are pressed to view andposition themselves as essentially distinctive, progressively bounded,freely active entities (Thomas 1991). And, in fact, freely expressive oftheir ethnicity, Fijians drink yaqona as a customary practice ratherthan an alteration of state, achieving quintessential Fijian-nessagainst the grain of the complex articulations, entanglements andimpingements which criss-cross the lived spaces they co-inhabit withFiji Indians, Fiji Banabans and others. Consequently, the account describes two heavily signified pathwaysof Fijian tradition in which yaqona is routinely drunk, each pathwayascribing to dynamic tradition radically different articulations ofpersons, objects and Fijian powers. In the older of these pathways,ethnic Fijians look backwards towards ancestral sources, and looktransversely across indigenous contexts, strategically deploying yaqonato modify their embodiment of clan ancestors and their relations withthe mana of external gods and stranger chiefs. Here, yaqona is drunk foror against mana, to alter familiar states of Fijian-ness asintra-culturally derived. Whilst, along the second of these pathways oftradition, looking backwards to their ancestors and outwards towardsother ethnic groups, yaqona is prepared within distinctly moderncircuits, transforming contemporary ways of being disconnectedly modernand autonomous into modern ways of being autonomous yet loyal toancestral tradition. As a result, the argument in this paper has to be that manifoldforms of yaqona use appear within imagined worlds as the creativerealization of cultural possibility before they further develop--if theydo at all--as the inventive product of tactical reason. This is not tosay that the external ethnic relations of Fijian-ness play no part inrealizing the ritual logic of yaqona use. They do, as is witnessed bythe fact that, for essentially political reasons, ethnic Fijians tend toconsider the chiefly yaqona rite to be the 'authentic' ritualand for other less collectivising forms described in this account to bederivative and less traditionally Fijian. Much, though, has already been written of the circumstances(political, economic, constitutional and legal) in which Fijiantraditions have been re-invented and instrumentally pressed into serviceby Europeans and Fijians (Clammer 1973; Thomas 1992, 1993). Here, bycontrast, the specific aim is to show how a key emblem of Fijianexistence (yaqona) may indeed become a part of this wider ethnicpolitics but only in the broader context of other ritual transformationsof yaqona that, far from being banished by the invention of newtradition, continue to exceed, underlie and qualify ethnicity'sessentialist claims. YAQONA, ETHNICITY AND THE TRANSFORMATIONAL FIELD OF MODERNITY Tourism is now the largest industry in Fiji and much of thisindustry is devoted to catering for the cultural tourist. Most culturaltourists undertake a spot of island hopping Island hopping is a term that has several different definitions as it is applied in various fields. Generally, the term refers to the means of crossing an ocean by a series of shorter journeys between islands, as opposed to a single journey directly across the ocean to the , make a visit to a realFijian village, meet a real Fijian chief, purchase a bula shirt, acquirea supposedly authentic Fijian sword, participate in a real Fijian feast(magiti), and finally, always, participate in an authentic yaqonaceremony. To provide the tourist with this traditional package,entrepreneurs invest in the transfer of material culture from thevillage chiefdoms to the market place, a transfer that aestheticisespowerful ritual mechanisms in the name of Fijian 'culture' and'tradition'. A colourful leaflet published by the Sonaisali Island Resort, southwest of Nadi, in 1998, takes this transfer very lightly. Itreads:</p> <pre> Celebrate Fiji's joyful culture. TraditionalFijian ceremonies are a unique blend of the sacred, the serious andplain fun! Much of the time, Fiji's culture comes to you onSonaisali--local villagers entertain in our restaurant and perform Mekes (Fijian song and dance), followed by an authentic Fijian Lovo Feast [which willinclude a yaqona ceremony, A.A.]. </pre> <p>More sensitiveto the possible problem in transferring a sacred ritual to a luxuryresort, a brochure of the Fijian Visitors Bureau nonetheless assuresvisitors that:</p> <pre> The yaqona ceremony has greatsignificance in Fijian life but is now considered a social drink aswell as a ceremony. Yaqona drinking is common in Fijian villages andit is quite normal to see groups of men gathered around the tanoaswapping stories as the bilo, a half coconut shell, is passed around... All visitors can try yaqona as a social drink ... The FijiVisitor's Bureau will be happy to initiate you and present youwith a certificate of membership to the "Fellowship of Fiji Kava Drinkers".</pre> <p>Unlike the authenticity offered by the SonaisaliHotel, the Fellowship is consciously marketed as an invention (Hobsbawm1983; Thomas 1992). And, far from being troubled by its patentlyinauthentic status, the Visitors Bureau seems to take the view that thede-sacralised basis for the commodification Commodification (or commoditization) is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity, or, in other words, to assign value. As the word commodity has distinct meanings in business and in Marxist theory, commodification of yaqona ceremony hasalready been initiated not by themselves but by 'authentic'Fijians in the villages. Empirically speaking, how does the ceremony as a commodity differfrom the ceremony as a ritual? Gender provides the first difference. Inthe chiefdoms and outlying towns, women refrain from drinking yaqonacompletely or only drink it informally, sitting just outside theritually significant perimeter, often seated according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. the rank oftheir husbands (Toren 1990; personal communication 2005). By contrast,tourists are initiated into the Fellowship of Fiji Kava Drinkersindependently of gender and, consequently, women join their malecompanions in the symbolic upper half of the ceremony. The same goes forage. Whilst, in the chiefdoms, young men typically serve as'workers' within the ceremony, pounding and serving theyaqona, in the hotels, and in villages that offer tourists 'thetrue Fijian experience', young foreign men will be elevated as coredrinkers. And, who will officiate of��fi��ci��ate?v. of��fi��ci��at��ed, of��fi��ci��at��ing, of��fi��ci��atesv.intr.1. To perform the duties and functions of an office or a position of authority.2. To serve as an officiant. and who will be chief?. One or twotourists might well become chiefs for the evening, whilst junior chiefs,mixers, heralds and servers will all usually be drawn from the caucus ofFijian hotel workers or guides. Dressed in regulation patterned sulu(Fijian sarongs) and bula shirts, these professional Fijians will alsofrequently turn out in cotton-pointed sulu, their bare, muscular upperhalves draped with garlands of flowers and glistening glis��ten?intr.v. glis��tened, glis��ten��ing, glis��tensTo shine by reflection with a sparkling luster. See Synonyms at flash.n.A sparkling, lustrous shine. with coconut oil coconut oiln.A pale yellow to colorless oil or a white semisolid fat obtained from the flesh of the coconut, widely used in food products and in the production of cosmetics and soaps.Noun 1. ,and with their hair adorned with a hibiscus. This sartorial sar��to��ri��al?adj.Of or relating to a tailor, tailoring, or tailored clothing: sartorial elegance.[From Late Latin sartor, tailor; see sartorius. combination borrows from high chiefly ceremonial butalso takes aesthetic liberties so that wearers are suitably photogenic photogenic/pho��to��gen��ic/ (-jen��ik)1. produced by light, as photogenic epilepsy.2. producing or emitting light.pho��to��gen��icadj.1. .In fact, paid to convince and fascinate the European with an exotic showof Fijian-ness, waged Fijians not only stage the most aestheticallyphotogenic and culturally different performance imaginable (leaning onprevailing fashions within the industry), they also find the freedom tore-assemble the powerful ritual structures of ceremonial hierarchy in away that aesthetically democratises it for themselves and their clients.Many of the Fijians who take part in the ceremony will never be trueheralds or chiefs back in their own chiefdoms, but they can adopt theseroles at the heart of the tourist ceremony which, thereby, attains thecarnivalesque status of mock hierarchy and ethnic theatre. Two factors determine the degree of freedom open to individuals whoprofessionally manipulate and re-invent the tourists' yaqonaceremony. Firstly, of course, the delivery of a performance that sells.And, secondly, the ability to transpose trans��posev.To transfer one tissue, organ, or part to the place of another. a set of ritual actions fromwhich ancestral and divine powers have been extracted. Generally, what readily appeals and sells in the tourist sector areeasily performable, visually recordable, ideally portable instances ofOceanic otherness. These criteria are creatively met by the productionand sale of colourful pieces of 'tourist art' including woodentanoa (large serving bowls) and bilo (coconut cups), or by theproduction of performances that, photographed a hundred times,metamorphose into enveloped souvenirs of visual Fijian-ness. Theachievement of these criteria demands dispensing with the standard fourdays of exceedingly intense sociability that is the normal duration ofFijian ritual (veiqaravi) in favour of short 'camera bites' ofculture. Consequently, in this sector, at least, the transformation ofFijian ritual practice into Fiji tourist art is driven by the logic ofethnic contrast but also by the commemorative peculiarities of thetourist experience. In the second place, the market-responsive aestheticisation ofyaqona ritual can only take place at all because the ancestors, the godsand the mana of the village rites have all been perceptibly withdrawnfrom the yaqona in its town-bound transfer from the sacred centres of'the land' (Abramson 2000). (1) These ancient figures andpowers are routinely invoked for tourists but it is understood byFijians that, in the absence of a recognised chief, pastor or governmentminister, the invocations are rhetorical and the mana of the ancestralgods unavailable for tourists. It is the critical withdrawal and absenceof these singularly Fijian forces from the tourists' yaqonaceremony that makes possible within it both the symbolic twists andturns of ethnicity, and the satisfaction of tourist needs.Paradoxically, the yaqona ceremony must become less Fijian for Fijiansin order to become more Fijian for tourists. In the tourist industry generally, yaqona drinking is presented byFijians, with varying degrees of good faith, as a striking example ofauthentic Fijian culture (for tourists to observe, take home anddomestically consume) and as an objectified expression of sovereignFijian ethnicity (for Fijians to feel in the presence of other ethnicgroups). So secularised has yaqona become with this elaboration ofethnicity for self and others, that yaqona usage has recently alsopassed into the hands of Europeans themselves. Thus, tablets of yaqona,marketed as Kava Kava kava kava/ka��va ka��va/ a preparation of the rhizome of Piper methysticum, (kava plant), having muscle-relaxing, anticonvulsive, anxiolytic, and sedative effects; used for the relief of stress and restlessness, and for sleep induction; also used in or 'Ava 'Ava, have been on sale inhealth food outlets across Europe for the last five years or so. Bottlesof one brand on sale in the UK contain 100 300mg tablets and, amongstother ingredients, 'Kava Kava root powder'. The motif on oneof the jars is of a spray of yaqona leaves with a trimmed root of theplant inset on a skyblue background. And, the small accompanying leafletsuggests that 'Kava Kava' will be effective as an invigorating'pick-me-up'. The seal of approval on the jar on the turn, ajar, as a door.See also: Jar claims that thetablets have 'certified potency'. Much or most of the dry kavaroot output required for this industry is fanned in Fiji, though recentSwiss and German reports that concentrations of kava may contribute toliver disease Liver DiseaseDefinitionLiver disease is a general term for any damage that reduces the functioning of the liver.DescriptionThe liver is a large, solid organ located in the upper right-hand side of the abdomen. may have damaged this industry. (2} Indeed, alongsidesimilar foreign herbal products such as ginseng ginseng(jĭn`sĕng), common name for the Araliaceae, a family of tropical herbs, shrubs, and trees that are often prickly and sometimes grow as climbing forms. , Kava Kava tabletstarget the growing European market in homeopathic HomeopathicA holistic and natural approach to healthcare.Mentioned in: Ehlers-Danlos Syndromehomeopathic,adj medicines from theOrient and the Tropics. The relevant association is, of course, with thetropical rain forest (teeming with life and undiscovered localmedicines) and the desert island (flanked by virgin beaches, ringed bypalms, evocative of Garden of Eden Garden of Edenn.See Eden.Noun 1. Garden of Eden - a beautiful garden where Adam and Eve were placed at the Creation; when they disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were erotica erotica - pornography and virility VirilitySee also Beauty, Masculine; Brawniness.Fury, Sergeantarchetypal he-man. [Comics: “Sergeant Fury and His Howling Commandos” in Horn, 607–608]Henry, John ). In fact, onceinfamously signified by cannibalism cannibalism(kăn`ĭbəlĭzəm)[Span. caníbal, referring to the Carib], eating of human flesh by other humans. , war and death, Fijian-ness is nowglobally promoted through the inverse symbols of Life, Eros and Health.Hence, too, the French perfume, Fidjee, and the recent issue in the UKof a bottled mineral water called 'Fiji' said to derive from'... the last bastion of ecological sanctity ... an aquifer deepbeneath ... pristine tropical rain forests on the main island of VitiLevu' (www.fijiwater.com). It must be noted, too, that Fiji Indiansalso regularly drink yaqona or, to be more accurate, 'takegrog', often in their stores which typically serve as meetingplaces as well as sites of purchase and sale. This they do, no doubt, tosmooth the path of trading relationships with ethnic Fijians but alsobecause, against the thrust of the reductive re��duc��tive?adj.1. Of or relating to reduction.2. Relating to, being an instance of, or exhibiting reductionism.3. Relating to or being an instance of reductivism. stereotypes that areimposed upon them, drinking yaqona mildly asserts the hybridity of FijiIndian ethnicity in contemporary Fiji. (3) But, what is the general cultural nature of the ethnicityassociated with the invention and re-invention of yaqona? Two aspectsmay be valuably clarified. The first is that emblematic, as opposed toritually embedded, Fijian-ness is fashioned at the heart of a modernitywhose key principles and values are 'detachment' and'separation'. This means that, though typically compromised bycontinuing ritual attachments, a simultaneous desire to inhabit spacesdominated by market flows (rather than ritual transformations) urges theseparation of Fijian persons from embodied roots (vu) and powers (mana);their separation from the moral envelope of kinship and collectiveproperty; the separation of personal well-being from ancestralvisitations and sorcerer's magic; and, finally, the real politicalseparation of individual Fijian persons as citizens from thechiefdom's voting blocks and bodies. It is only with thepart-emergence of these modern separations in spaces peculiar to themthat Fijian-ness, still ritually embedded and transformed elsewhere, isalso transposed into elements of a possessibly objectified ethnicity. Having said that, objectified Fijian-ness does not transposeautomatically as ethnicity. Rather, its forms are constructed by actors,pushed by modern circumstances on a quest for Verb 1. quest for - go in search of or hunt for; "pursue a hobby"quest after, go after, pursuelook for, search, seek - try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the a new'meaningfulness' (Borofsky 1987:145). These are actors whowrestle simultaneously with both the freeing of modern presents and theconstraining essence of Fijian pasts. In fact, at this primary level,drinking yaqona as an emblem of Fijian ethnicity, contrasts not withother ethnicities (which it does do subsequently) but with thealternative modern Fijian trends of cosmopolitanism and Christianfundamentalism (Newland 2004). Thus, whereas ethnicity conservativelymediates the contradiction between ritual embeddedness and moderndetachment by splitting Fijian-ness at two parallel levels of being,Pentecostal and cosmopolitan transformations of modern Fijian-nessre-position a growing number of ethnic Fijians, quite outside the ritualtrajectory of tradition. Consequently, drinking yaqona to ethnic effecttriangulates Fijian identity not just with respect to other ethnicities,but also with respect to ritual transformations of Fijian-ness, andpost-traditional ways of being Fijian. YAQONA AND THE TRANSFORMATIONAL FIELD OF MANA Yaqona drinking in Fiji is usually associated with chieflyhierarchy (Hocart 1929, 1936, 1941, 1952; Toren 1988, 1990). Chiefs sitsymbolically 'high' (e cake), enter and exit the house by a'high' side door, and drink first, whilst commoners and otherranks sit symbolically 'low', enter and exit the house by adoor at the 'lower' end of the house (era). Commoners andother ranks drink afterwards. Raw yaqona and sacred tabua (whale teeth)move upwards during the ceremony. And, nobody may rise or lift any limbabove the chief's head where his special power (mana) is known tobe concentrated. Elder men sit higher than younger unmarried men (whotend to perform technically menial MENIAL. This term is applied to servants who live under their master's roof Vide stat. 2 H. IV., c. 21. roles in the ceremony), whilst,except for women who are exceptionally appointed chief (which doesindeed happen), women sit outside the ceremonial circle in the rankedorder of their husbands (Toren personal communication) or are absent. However, whilst symbols of rank, status and gender frequentlypredicate In programming, a statement that evaluates an expression and provides a true or false answer based on the condition of the data. the ritual use of yaqona, empirically there is more to theenduring rites of yaqona drinking than the symbolic expression ofhierarchy. Thus, the following sections of the paper identify andschematically outline the structure of five significant historicaltransformations of yaqona, each pivotally involving the embodiment andritual transmission of mana by extraordinary persons. One of thesetransformations results in a more hierarchical variant of the chieflyceremony, one in a less hierarchical variant, and one in a variant thatis positively anti-hierarchical. The Priestly Yaqona In pre-colonial times, a priest (bete) occupied the chiefdom'sbure ni kalou or 'god-house'. Each morning, the chief wouldenter the god-house to take yaqona, prepared by the priest. The yaqonawas mixed with water in a tanoa made of the hard wood of the vesi treeand set directly underneath a strip of masi (bark cloth bark cloth,primitive fabric made in tropical and subtropical countries from the soft inner bark of certain trees. It has been made and used in parts of Africa and India, the Malay Peninsula, Samoa, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Fiji Islands and perhaps reached its ), hanging fromthe rafters of the god-house. (4) The chief would drink, followed by thepriest. Subsequently, the god (kalou vu) would leave the highest pointof the bure, slide down the strip of masi, and enter the chief'sbody. Up until this moment, the people of the chiefdom were forbidden toleave their own houses (Sahlins personal communication). However, withthe god's descent from the highest physical point in the land andwith his extraordinary entry into the sacred person of the chief, normallife could begin again. In effect, the chiefdom was reborn on a dailybasis when, through the mediation of the priestly yaqona, and along thepathway provided by the bark-cloth, the unity of the god and thechief's sacred body was mystically re-constituted. In their exact pre-Christian form, the priestly yaqona rites nolonger survive in contemporary Fiji. However, a recognisable kernel ofthese rites continues to be transmitted. In the interior of Viti Levu,informants say that, in the old days, Fijian men just took only yaqonafor breakfast. And, still today, after breakfast, men, nearly alwaysstop off en route to their food gardens (veiwere or teitei) to drinkyaqona. A similar continuity affects Christian practice in the chiefdoms.(Or, at least, it affects Methodist and Catholic practice. Pentecostalchurches bar the drinking of yaqona and effectively banish the chieffrom religion (Ryle 2001; Newland 2004).) Thus, Sunday Methodist Churchseems to finish after the minister (vakatawa) administers his finalblessing in the church. However, after the service, the chiefs leavetheir separate pews at the 'high' end of the Church tore-assemble at the 'high' end of the minister's house.Here, turaga (chiefs) and vakatawa (minister) drink yaqona, togetherwith other, high-ranking members of the chief's clan. God (nakalou), Christ, the British Queen, the health of the chief, the ministerand the Church are all oratorically blessed at this drinking. Just as in the old god-house, this Christian continuationestablishes an elite rite from which most of the chiefdom and most ofthe congregation have been excluded. Only the chief, members of thechiefly clans, guests, a herald and the priestly minister remain todrink. Consequently, apart from the obvious fact that the god no longercomes down a strip of bark-cloth, and that only the spatial extension ofthe god's Christian mana is embodied, it seems that the old ritehas not been totally dismantled but reformed, relocated, transposed andgiven the final say in the Fiji-Christian order. In the process, theChristian institution not only reproduces Fijian categories andrelations internally (Toren 1988), it also recapitulates the priestlyand chiefly elitism e��lit��ismor ����lit��ism ?n.1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. of its pre-Christian precursor within a cumulativesequence of sacred forms. The Chiefly Yaqona (Vakaturaga) in Contemporary Time When high-placed chiefs are present and, especially, whenimportant, unrelated guests are to be looked after, yaqona drinkingassumes the status of a 'heavy' ceremonial event. Suchheaviness (vakabibi) implies a degree of procedural completeness,incorporating several essential elements that have survived the longueduree. The Divinity of the Chief and the Hierarchy of the Ceremony As Hocart pointed out long ago, the strong hospitality that isextended to guests can be put down to the categorical identificationwhich Fijians make between guests and chiefs (Hocart 1952; Sahlins1981b). Both are termed vulagi (or 'origin spirits of thesky') and both are ritually incorporated within the chiefdom. Thecrucial point is not that Fijians are an ethically hospitable people(which they are), but that the chiefs, themselves, are legendary guests,and that all guests, therefore, obligatorily receive quintessentialchiefly treatment. In this regard, clan (mataqali) and village (koro) histories tellof how the divine ancestors of the village chiefs came from otherchiefdoms, located far across the sea and the horizon. Consequently,too, the arrival of important guests who are without kinship bonds inthe chiefdom is ceremonially stage-managed to ensure that their comingsymbolically recapitulates the arrival of the first stranger chief.Thus, the presentation of gifts to both the chief and the chiefly guestis typically broken up and decisively labelled into the scenes: cavuikelekele ('shifting the anchor'), vakasobu('disembarkation') and qaloqalovi ('welcomingashore'), a symbolisation that can do nothing but recall themytho-historical reality of the chief's oceanic origin and arrival(Ravuvu 1987). Guests are led to the chief's house where they sitby his side, drink the first cup of yaqona, eat with him, stay under hisown roof or in the immediate vicinity. This chiefly treatment of theguest reminds the chiefdom not that they have a new guest but that theirchief--like his guest--is a permanent though venerable stranger. In thisguise, the chief materialises a divinity that originates in the sky or,at the very least, embodies this deity's mana. The chief then becomes '... the corporeal Possessing a physical nature; having an objective, tangible existence; being capable of perception by touch and sight.Under Common Law, corporeal hereditaments are physical objects encompassed in land, including the land itself and any tangible object on it, that can be god of the peoplewho make the offering' (Ravuvu 1987:239). And, it is in the overallceremonial structure of this symbolic context that, embodied by thechiefs and the men who drink to commune with commune withverb 1. contemplate, ponder, reflect on, muse on, meditate onverb 2. them, the deity's manais declared dina ('real' and 'true') after the firstround of drinking. Only then, can large-scale ceremonial exchange(solevu) and feasting (magiti) begin in earnest in the chiefdom, a feastthat is referred to, on its material redistribution to the mataqali('clans'), as ai wase ni yaqona vakaturaga, ('thedivisions of the chiefly yaqona'). It is at this stage, too, that,having been excluded from the actual drinking that produces the keyapotheosis apotheosis(əpŏth'ēō`sĭs), the act of raising a person who has died to the rank of a god. Historically, it was most important during the later Roman Empire. , the women and children partake symbolically of the yaqona(in the divisibly edible form of ai wase ni yaqona) to accede to accede toverb 1. agree to, accept, grant, endorse, consent to, give in to, surrender to, yield to, concede to, acquiesce in, assent to, comply with, concur to2. thesame collective, god-headed body. Consequently, conducted in the presence of the chiefs and theirguests, the yaqona rites take place with the deities, Fijian andChristian, stationed just behind the symbolic 'high' end ofthe ceremony. And, it is in relation to this juxtaposition of thearistocratic and the divine, that what the anthropologist then sees as'hierarchy' is the geometrically variable inscription andembodiment of divinity up and down the ceremonial space of the drinking. Hierarchy and Complementarity Notwithstanding the 'heaviness' of this hierarchy, itssymbolic expression and cultural assertion are not the purpose of theritual. Hierarchy is the inescapable starting point Noun 1. starting point - earliest limiting pointterminus a quocommencement, get-go, offset, outset, showtime, starting time, beginning, start, kickoff, first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the of these ceremoniesand a necessary condition of their ritual ability to positivelytransform states of imagined Fijian being. However, the rites alsopossess a procedural sequence, based upon a distinctive narrativestructure, the correct symbolic enactment of which progressivelytransposes and dissolves the hierarchy. Firstly, the hierarchical thread that weaves its way down throughthe drinking spirals left and right as it falls from e cake to era. Theceremony begins when the herald moves 'upwards' to face thechief (or chiefs, when more than one chief shares the upper end of theceremony) and eventually sit by him to his left. Then, his youngassistant, the cup bearer, who in some areas is called Ra Yaqona,'Lord Yaqona' (Hocart 1929:66), offers a bowl of liquid yaqonato the chief. And, the chief drinks. However, the next to drink (harabe, 'the kick', Hocart 1941:61) is not the second rankedchief but the herald himself: the 'talking chief' or mata nivanua (literally, 'the eye' or 'face of the land').In symbolic terms, the first bowl is drunk by the 'sky spirit'(ha vulagi), whilst the second is quaffed by this 'eye of theland'. After the chief has drunk, the company shouts'maca', ('It is empty!') but, after the rabe hasdrunk, the company is silent, though the rabe may clap (cobo) himself.The third cup is drunk by another chief, after which the company shouts'maca', and the fourth by a common man of no chiefly rank whois also a rabe and, therefore, symbolically, an 'eye of theland'. Consequently, the drinking occurs in descending order ofchiefly rank, rank however interrupted by the upwards intervention ofthe rabe who drinks, noiselessly noise��less?adj.Making or marked by no noise. See Synonyms at still1.noiseless��ly adv. , after every chief. The status orderis: chief, rabe, chief, rabe, chief, rabe and, in symbolic terms, sky,land, sky, land, sky, land. To emphasise the binary opposition In critical theory, a binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of theoretical opposites. In structuralism, it is seen as a fundamental organizer of human philosophy, culture, and language. involvedin this symbolic alternation alternation/al��ter��na��tion/ (awl?ter-na��shun) the regular succession of two opposing or different events in turn.alternation of generations? metagenesis. , collective percussion greets eachmanifestation of mana, whilst drinking by 'the land' is metwith silence. Why should the order of aristocratic rank be broken up in this way?What does the complementary opposition of symbolic sky and land in theyaqona drinking ceremony signify? As master of ceremonies, the heraldreceives offerings of yaqona and whale teeth which he passes'up' to the chief who, in turn, passes them back'down' to him. The herald also oratorically directs blessingssymbolically upwards to the chief on behalf of those who have offeredthese gifts. Via the flow of things and words, therefore, the ceremonyis focused on the person of the chief but pivots on the figure of theherald. So, who is the herald? In his pivotal role, and as 'eye'or 'face of the land', the herald initially faces the chiefand his gods with his back to the 'lower' domain ofautochthonous autochthonous/au��toch��tho��nous/ (aw-tok��thah-nus)1. originating in the same area in which it is found.2. denoting a tissue graft to a new site on the same individual. ancestors or vu. In fact, his title mata also designates afreshwater spring and, likened to a spring, the herald is conceptualisedas the embodiment of a force that (a) flows outwards from the land, and(b) progressively upwards to merge with the 'higher' powers ofthe external sea and horizon. Indeed, an old Lau Islands The Lau Islands (also called the Lau Group, the Eastern Group, the Eastern Archipelago) of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about one hundred islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited. song says thatthe yaqona '... bubbles up heavenward ... [it] ... goes and seizesthe horizon' (Hocart 1929:64). Thus, within the ritual, and as itsprincipal objective, mata and mana are ushered towards each other, theirconvergence made cosmically possible by the suitable juxtaposition oftheir respective waqa ('vessels'), the herald and the chief.In these roles, the human chief and herald positively mediate the cosmicspirits of the sky and the land. And, it is the initial opposition andprogressive fusion of these personified powers that is symbolised by thealternation in drinking order of the chief and the rabe. Indeed, thefusion of chief and herald, sky and land, is the crucial objective ofthe chiefly yaqona rites, not the expression of hierarchy. Why? The result is the ritual formation of a unified ceremonial body,marked by its collective clapping and by pressure placed by allindividuals not to quit until all of the liquid is consumed from thetanoa and until the last offering of yaqona has been presented. Men whofall asleep are jokingly poked and harangued into waking up as if takingeither physical or mental leave of the ceremony weakens its essentialunity. Consequently, the symbolism of the drinking points to the ritualbirth of a unified ceremonial being, headed by the divine chief, backedby the gods behind him, and made flesh by the men of the land and theirlowly terrestrial ancestors. These ancestors are represented both by thebits of solid yaqona that remain undissolved in each bowl (ha kota), bythe men's genitals that are jokingly pinched by their cross-cousinsand by the ancestral animal or plant names (cavuti) that are regularlycalled out in jest for mere sport or diversion; not in truth and reality; not in earnest.See also: Jest . The yaqona is, thus, symbolically equated to theimminent virility and sexual excess of the autochthonous ancestors.Noticeably, as the fresh or dried root is mixed with water, and theplant transubstantiates, the herald declares: 'Yaqonabulabula', 'Yaqona, alive, alive!' The festive animal that is also presented by the herald to thechief and redistributed to the whole village also mirrors this unifiedbeing. This is an animal whose head is given to the chief, whose otherlimbs and organs are distributed separately to each clan, and which issaid to further divide the yaqona (see previous page). This unified bodyis referred to as na lomavata, ('the inside together' or'holding together', Ravuvu 1987:39-40), its holistic chieflyincorporation of live ancestors and living descent lines, ceremoniallydissolving divisions due to clanship and separate birth. The result is aseamless, second chiefly body (Kantorowicz 1957), made up of humans butmetaphorically likened to a fish or animal with a chiefly head. In theViti Levu interior village of Mataisau, the yaqona-induced unity of asingle sacred body with the chiefly mana as head is likened to being'... smothered smoth��er?v. smoth��ered, smoth��er��ing, smoth��ersv.tr.1. a. To suffocate (another).b. To deprive (a fire) of the oxygen necessary for combustion.2. together by one club' (Ravuvu 1987:91). And, tosignify this plural embodiment of the commoners, chiefs are alwaysaddressed kemudou, 'You', a very royal plural. Moreover, inthe heavily subsumed state that results in the birth of a new unifiedbody, individuals describe the mild stupor stupor/stu��por/ (stoo��per) [L.]1. a lowered level of consciousness.2. in psychiatry, a disorder marked by reduced responsiveness.stu��porousstu��porn. they each separatelyexperience as mateni ('deathly') as if some part of eachindividual's living being has been killed off by this chieflysmothering smotheringdeath by asphyxiation. Occurs where poultry are carelessly herded into a corner where they cannot escape and where they are piled four or five birds deep; they will die of asphyxia very quickly. See also crowding. . In sum, the objective of the chief's yaqona is the embodimentof the stranger god by the chief and the holistic accession of allmembers of the chiefdom to its chiefly body. By contrast with thepriestly rites, this is a dual event that makes the chiefly embodimentof the god in the village ceremonially subject to the chief'sembodiment of terrestrial clans and their descendants. Of Births and Brothers: The Life-Giving Properties of the YaqonaRites In fact, two other important layers of symbolism further signifythe unification of the chief and the herald, the sky and the land, andthe formation of the chief's second body. One of these layersinvolves women, the other invokes brothers. Scenario 1: The encompassment of women's mana. Unless, as isexceptionally the case, they are chiefs themselves, women do notnormally participate at chiefly yaqona drinking ceremonies. Women are,though, represented at the spatial centre of the rites, the wooden tanoain which the male ancestral broth of yaqona is mixed, poured, andbrought to life, being symbolically female. On the underside of thetanoa, a pair of women's breasts (sucu) is carved out of the woodwhilst a cord of coconut fibre (vau), tied to a small cowrie cowrieor cowry(both: kou`rē), common name applied to marine gastropods belonging to the family Cypraeidae, a well-developed family of marine snails found in the tropics. shell, saidto be an umbilical cord umbilical cord(ŭmbĭl`ĭkəl), cordlike structure about 22 in. (56 cm) long in the pregnant human female, extending from the abdominal wall of the fetus to the placenta. , is threaded through the 'high' end ofthe bowl. This is pointed upwards towards the chief. The symbolism suggests to drinkers the juxtaposition of aphallically potent ancestral broth, a chief possessed of mana, and anunderstated female presence represented by the wooden tanoa. So that, ineffect, during the drinking, the ritualised second body seems to emergeout of the female body of the tanoa. Traditionally, indeed, at theinstallations of (gods into) paramount chiefs, the stage-managedperformance suggests that '... the chief's old self dies andthe god takes its place as a new self which is born, nursed into life,and bathed to cleanse it of the impurities of the womb' (Hocart1941:38). In normal Fijian yaqona ceremonies at which a chief presides,this female symbolism is much weaker than in the analogous ceremony inTonga where it is usual for women to serve the drink and where, anyway,the kava plant is said to have originated from the island grave of aleprous lep��rous?adj.1. Having leprosy.2. Of, relating to, or resembling leprosy.3. Biology Having or consisting of loose, scurfy scales. woman (Bott bott?n.Variant of bot1. and Leach 1972; Douaire-Marsaudon 2001). The strongimage in both places is of kava being born of women, drunk by men, andconverted into a ritually encompassing male body which embodies thegenerative power of ancestors and the unifying power of the stranger. Scenario 2: Fraternal division and reconciliation. Hocart (1952)located yaqona rites inside of an imagined complex of life-giving mythand ritual In traditional societies, myth and ritual are two central components of religious practice. Although myth and ritual are commonly united as parts of religion, the exact relationship between them has been a matter of controversy among scholars. . Today, as he makes the offering of yaqona to the chief, theherald blesses the fertility of the chief's crops, extols his manychildren, and praises the vigour of both Church and British Monarchy This article is about the monarchy of the United Kingdom, one of sixteen that share a common monarch; for information about this constitutional relationship, see Commonwealth realm; for information on the reigning monarch, see Elizabeth II. .Since, in Fijian minds, the health of the chief and the health of thechiefdom proceed hand in hand, undoubtedly the yaqona rites areexperienced as regenerative. But how, precisely, do they revivify? Whatis their 'take' on life? Drinking yaqona is widely understood by Fijians to be pacifying aswell as unifying. Consequently, the bulk of the village or assembly whocluster 'below' the chief's mana exchange an acknowledgedcapacity for being rivalrous ri��val��rous?adj.Characterized by or given to rivalry or competition.Adj. 1. rivalrous - eager to surpass othersemulous and mutually belligerent for a unity inwhich the rivalry of rank is dissolved. This particular sort oflife-giving is, then, less a directly regenerative property of mana thanits ritual deployment in the exorcism exorcism(ĕk`sôrsĭz'əm), ritual act of driving out evil demons or spirits from places, persons, or things in which they are thought to dwell. It occurs both in primitive societies and in the religions of sophisticated cultures. of seriously aggressive qualities.In fact, birth order is identified as the locus of unavoidable jealousythat readily gives rise to serious quarrelling. Protocols of kinshipbehaviour, in which younger brothers are expected to automatically deferto elder ones, routinise the ideal pattern of fraternity. However, evenas they do so, Fijians know that, because the stakes of kingroupleadership politics are high, in reality many brothers frequently fight.This they are anticipated to do to the point when, as adults, youngerbrothers tend to break away from their elder brother's group toestablish lineal That which comes in a line, particularly a direct line, as from parent to child or grandparent to grandchild. LINEAL. That which comes in a line. Lineal consanguinity is that which subsists between persons, one of whom is descended in a direct line from the other. segments of their own (tokatoka or mata vei tacini).Moreover, after a generation or two, new lineal segments oftensurreptitiously sur��rep��ti��tious?adj.1. Obtained, done, or made by clandestine or stealthy means.2. Acting with or marked by stealth. See Synonyms at secret. begin to acquire new plant and animal totems (veicuti),'discover' new migration histories (itukutuku) and, especiallywhere control over land is concerned, begin to behave as independentlyexogamous ex��og��a��my?n.1. The custom of marrying outside the tribe, family, clan, or other social unit.2. Biology The fusion of two gametes that are not closely related. patricians (mataqali). Consequently, in most koro (villagechiefdoms), though official versions of clan histories are oft-repeatedin public just as they are officially recorded in government offices,behind closed doors and at night, visitors and kin will often be toldcontradictory versions, always turning on the highly political issue ofwhether particular mataqali are as independent as they claim or whetherthey are 'really' the rivalrous descendants of brothers. It isthe resentment that results from the ambiguity of clan claim andcounter-claim, and which constantly simmers below the superficiallyregulated surface of social life, that generates the rifts which areroutinely referred upwards symbolically to be dissolved by the unifyingmana of the chief. Usually, quarrelling individuals are taken to the chief'shouse at night to perform a soro (a 'reconciliation' or'exoneration', Ravuvu 1987:151) where, in a small, formallyconducted ceremony, mediated by the herald, they drink in order ofbirth. No shaking of hands, no apologies, no compensations:'merely' a ceremonial drinking in recognition of theprecedence of the chief and the sacredness of his mana, and inanticipation of their merging in the restorative second body. In effect,the soro heals the rift between the parties by re-enacting the arrivalof the stranger chief and the voluntary surrender of the primordial'flesh of the land' to the strange and extraordinary powerwhich the chief incarnates. As a result, the paths between kin-groupspreviously at logger-heads are 'cleansed' or'unblocked' (Ravuvu 1987:74-79). Further violence is avertedand the community is rescued from the splits that emanate fromtransmitted patterns of brotherly conflict, including the spectre ofsorcerous sor��cer��y?n.Use of supernatural power over others through the assistance of spirits; witchcraft.[Middle English sorcerie, from Old French, from sorcier, sorcerer; see fratricide frat��ri��cide?n.1. The killing of one's brother or sister.2. One who has killed one's brother or sister.[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin (Ravuvu 1987:151). This life-giving peace of brothers is promoted on the strength of afurther ritual mechanism, elucidated by a key narrative offered to merather matter-of-factly in the chiefdom of Serea at the end of the1970s. After nearly two years in the field, whilst re-mapping thevillage site, I was shown an old house-site foundation (yavu) in thesymbolically elevated, chiefly Waikalou section of the village. Nobodywas allowed to build on this ancient yavu because, 'long ago',it had belonged to the heralds who had formerly lived next to thechiefs. The extraordinary revelation was that the first Waikalou chiefand the first herald had been brothers (veitacini vata) and today,irrespective of irrespective ofprep.Without consideration of; regardless of.irrespective ofpreposition despitemarriages, members of their respective mataqali calleach other 'brother'. The brothers had fought and, as aresult, the herald had moved apart from the chief to live in Navatukea,that part of the chiefdom today occupied by the original taukei, thelowly 'owners of the village site'. Typically, this momentousevent and the scar it left on the village site was narrated in the'we' form, as though it had happened within living memory. Now, whilst this historical fragment meant little in and of itself,it did immediately reinforce the significance of another bit ofinformation, related to me a year earlier. Whilst I was systematicallycollecting the itukutuku ('tellings') of the Serean clans, theeldest man of the Nacaubouta clan, and official herald of Serea, hadinstructed me to write down in my notes that their ancestor Leka wasborn in paradisical Nakauvadra before his brother Rorogaca, the ancestorof the Waikalou chiefs. Leka, consequently, was appointed chief.However, as his name suggests (leka means 'short'), theancestral leader of the Serean heralds was too short to withstandchallenges from his jealous, younger, taller sibling. Under threat,therefore, Leka left Nakauvadra to take up his position as herald to hisyounger brother, who, subsequently, became chief in Serea. Since then,the descendants of Leka have been in the clan of the heralds whilstthose of Rorogaca have been in the clan of the Waimaro chiefs. Now, this text so closely mirrors the story of the abandonedhouse-foundations as to be a version of it. The two versions reinforceeach other, differing only in their understanding of where the momentousrupture took place: at the top of the world or at the top of thevillage! Both narratives tell of: a. primordial sibling rivalry sibling rivalryPsychology The intense, emotional competition among siblings–brothers and/or sisters that pits one against the other to obtain parental affection, approval, attention, and love. See Cain complex. Cf Oy child, Sibling relational problem. between first and second brothers b. envy between these brothers as to who would be chief c. the usurpation UsurpationAdonijahpresumptuously assumed David’s throne before Solomon’s investiture. [O.T.: I Kings 1:5–10]Anschluss Nazitakeover of Austria (1938). [Eur. Hist. of the elder by the younger brother d. the splitting of the sibling group, with the younger brotherremaining in a 'high' place as chief and the elder brotherquitting this 'high' place for a 'lower' place,along with the 'flesh of the land'. In which case, it is plain, that the chiefly yaqona ritual quietlyreverses the narrative order of this basic myth by bringing about, ateach session, the reunion, reconciliation and unification of primordialelder and younger brother in the personages of the herald and chiefrespectively. Interestingly, too, the fact that herald and chief arethought of as alienated halves of an original unity is reiterated todayby the routine separation of every guest from his or her herald and fromthe yaqona they are expected to bring to a village as a sevu or'offering'. Thus, guests are spirited 'up' by thechief, whilst the yaqona is taken 'down' by the herald. Thissplit is immediately repaired in the drinking that ensues when the sameyaqona is mixed and presented by the presiding herald firstly to thechief, then to the herald, then to the guest, then down to the companyagain. (This is where the Baron and I came in!) Here, as always, on theback of the core soro between a separated chiefly guest and his/herherald, primordial brothers once united and then divided, are againre-united, extraordinarily by the all-encompassing ritual embrace of thechief and the mana he embodies. On the basis of these narratives (which are very familiar to mostvillage-based Fijians), it is clear that, whilst Fijians do acclaim themana of the chief in the chiefly yaqona rites, the point of thisacclamation is not the simple celebration of hierarchy. Rather, thehierarchy is acclaimed at the point where previously alienated parts ofa fraternal whole are ritually united. This possibility is bothentertained and ceremonially shaped by the narratives that culturallysurround and embed the chiefly yaqona drinking. The next section shows how another narrative surrounds yaqonadrinking, embedding the practice in an alternatively malevolentpossibility. This structural possibility is marked by the refusal of theprimordial elder brother to surrender to the unnatural rule of theprimordial younger, an imagined scenario that is still, however, thoughtto be real and to continuously affect the efficacy of the mana today. Imagined Antithesis I: The Elfish elf��ish? also elv��ishadj.1. Of or relating to elves.2. Prankish; mischievous.elfish��ly adv. Contrary This text, also regularly told in Serea, recalls a primordialcontest, held between two autochthonous brothers, Rodriginivanua andRorogaca. The brother who was tallest, the brother whose dog wasfiercest, the brother who could successfully tell the difference betweena plantain plantain(plăn`tĭn), any plant of the genus Plantago, chiefly annual or perennial weeds of wide distribution. Many species are lawn pests and the pollen is often a hay fever irritant. P. and a whales tooth: he would be chief of Serea. The storyinsists that the younger of the two brothers, Rorogaca, won the contestbut that, because he was younger and because he feared the wrath of hiselder brother, he left the area to become a chief in another place. In fact, the presence of a contrary lineage that seems to incarnate in��car��nate?adj.1. a. Invested with bodily nature and form: an incarnate spirit.b. Embodied in human form; personified: a villain who is evil incarnate. this very same refusal of a junior chieftaincy chief��tain?n.The leader or head of a group, especially of a clan or tribe.[Middle English cheftain, from Old French chevetain, from Late Latin was revealed to me bymembers of clan Nadaloi, a mataqali who reside next to the heralds inthe lower part of the chiefdom. Interestingly, clan Nadaloi eldersreported that they too used to live close by the chiefs where they actedas the latter's bete or 'priests'. (The 'lower'chiefdom is thereby full of exiles not just autochthons!) After nearlytwo years in the field, a group of men from this clan led me a couple ofmiles into the rain forest to see a set of legendary earth works whichthey said belonged to the veli, the real, tiny ancestors of the Sereanchiefs. Pride of place was taken by a mound, about 2 metres high,surrounded by a shallow ditch or moat, which was presented as theinstallation mound of the veli chief. Downhill from this mound was avery small creek, which we followed until we came to the first of threerocks, resting in the bed of the creek. This first rock was the velichief's ulai (or 'pig' in Waimaro dialect). A hundred orso yards downstream, we came upon another very flat, shield-shaped rockwhich was said to be the veli chief's vonu (turtle). Furtherdownstream yet again, was another rock with a hole in it which, it wassaid, was the veli's latrine la��trine?n.A communal toilet of a type often used in a camp or barracks.[From French latrines, privies, from Old French, from Latin l (vale vo). Each of these stones andthe mound had been cleared and kept visible, presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. by members ofthis clan since the earthworks in question lay on their land. The veli,themselves, were reputed to be very short, exactly like the mythicalelder brother of the chief, and identical to Leka, ('Shorty'),the ancestor of the herald's clan. Moreover, as taukei ni veli('owners of the veli'), members of clan Nadaloi claim to berightful substitutes for the heralds at chiefly yaqona ceremonies wherethe latter are absent. Additionally, as the 'true' ancestors of the chiefs, theveli are autochthonous rebels, contraries who, at every turn, challengethe powers of the visible chiefs. For instance, the veli make it rainwhen the chief wants dry weather. And, in response, the village chiefmust refrain from drinking any water ('not even brush histeeth!') to combat the veli. Or, if the veli chief has decreed adrought, the chief should pour water over a particular stone in one ofthe creeks (also pointed out to me) to reverse the situation. As a result, in the chiefdom's political imagination, the manaat the head of the chiefly yaqona rites is continually challenged by abelligerent presence from the nether regions of the forest, one thatseems to usurp u��surp?v. u��surped, u��surp��ing, u��surpsv.tr.1. To seize and hold (the power or rights of another, for example) by force and without legal authority. See Synonyms at appropriate.2. and pre-empt the conciliatory con��cil��i��ate?v. con��cil��i��at��ed, con��cil��i��at��ing, con��cil��i��atesv.tr.1. To overcome the distrust or animosity of; appease.2. mission of the herald. Thistendency is always expressed in the frequent claims by many in thecommon 'low' section of the village that they do not needtheir chiefs, that the veli chief is the only real chief, and thatrivalrous brothers, primordial or otherwise, never truly bury theirdifferences. This thought pattern is replicated even more damagingly inthe logic and practice of sorcery sorcery:see incantation; magic; spell; witchcraft. SorcerySorrow (See GRIEF.)sorcerer’s apprenticefinds a spell that makes objects do the cleanup work. [Fr. . Imagined Antithesis II: The Sorcerer's Yaqona The elicited response that I always received regarding the practiceof sorcery (drau ni kau) in the chiefdom of Serea, involved a crossbetween a ouijie board and a seance. Somehow, according to my Fijianinformants, sorcerers fingered their victims on a mirror on which theletters of the alphabet were written and then the victims became ill ordied. However, except insofar in��so��far?adv.To such an extent.Adv. 1. insofar - to the degree or extent that; "insofar as it can be ascertained, the horse lung is comparable to that of man"; "so far as it is reasonably practical he should practice as it offered the image of sorcerersoperating alone, this version was sharply contradicted by the vastlymore frequent allusions to a practice of sorcery that depended upondrinking yaqona. These allusions indicated that: 1. Many or, quite possibly, all chiefs are killed by sorcerers. 2. Sorcery crystallises and furthers rivalry and jealousy. 3. Brothers, especially, target each other with sorcery. 4. Sorcerers tend to live mai veikau ('in the bush')rather than in the village. And, it is in the bush that they practicedrau ni kau around a tanoa of yaqona. Here, they drink alone, typically,after stealing a peripheral body part of their victims such as afingernail or a hair. 5. People who steal land often kill their wronged victims bysorcery. 6. Elder brothers are frequently said to have stolen land offyounger brothers 7. Attending Methodist church services is the best way for anyoneto repel the malevolent attentions of sorcerers. In short, the sorcerer (tool) SORCERER - A simple tree parser generator by Terence Parr <parrt@s1.arc.umn.edu>.SORCERER is suitable for translation problems lying between those solved by code generator generators and by full source-to-source translator generators. is revealed to be a jealous rival,frequently an elder brother, who kills chiefs and younger brothers, andwho does so by drinking yaqona alone in 'lower' regions of theforest. Via this assemblage of traits, the sorcerer figuressymmetrically as an antichief: an unrequited elder brother who directsyaqona to kill rather than to enhance life. He separates human partsfrom bodies instead of uniting them. And, by widening the rift betweenbrothers, he exacerbates the naturally divisive effects of birth orderand rank rather than referring them to the hierarchical rites thatdissolve them. In these respects, and dispersed about the community,sorcerers appear as doubles of the veil chief, simultaneously more'grass-roots' and more lethal. In fact, probably, no one hasever seen a Fijian sorcerer. However, having seen them or not, armedwith the conviction that sorcerers augment veli contrariness from thenether regions of the chiefdom, and usually in jealous opposition to theusurpations of younger brothers, villagers can imaginatively deduce theessential properties and modus operandi [Latin, Method of working.] A term used by law enforcement authorities to describe the particular manner in which a crime is committed.The term modus operandi is most commonly used in criminal cases. It is sometimes referred to by its initials, M.O. of Fijian sorcery. This brings the account to a final transformation: that of thehealer's yaqona. The Healer's Yaqona Recently, a new category of healer has emerged in Fiji. Thesehealers heal mainly, but not exclusively, in the towns with the help ofyaqona and are called dauvagunu, (literally 'drinkingexperts'). In the villages, dauvagunu are nearly always older menthough in town, healers also include women and middle aged men. Thesehealers may address the same type of physical complaint that othertraditional specialists and doctors address but they are much morelikely to diagnose and treat pathologies that can be attributed tosorcerers and ancestral spirits than what doctors would see as physicalcauses. The identity and practice of these healers has been welldescribed by Katz (1993). Healers always sit at the symbolic top of the yaqona bowl (tanoa)and work from this otherwise chiefly position whilst patients sit'below'. Patients initiate the healing process by offering asevu of yaqona and another small gift such as a pack of cigarettes and,sometimes, though not usually, money. Many healers have an assistant whomight also be an apprentice. These are sometimes called liga ni wai('the hand of the water' or 'medicine') (Katz1993:182). Consequently, healing work with yaqona preserves the symbolichierarchy of the 'below' and the 'above' without,however, retaining the services of the chief; though a chief may, ofcourse, become a healer. In the shape of an assistant, it also retainsthe semblance of a herald, but not a herald, as such. Therefore, thetripartite structure of two poles and mediator is reproduced but with adifferent cast of players. Healers usually practice after receiving a revelatory andinstructive vision, which often comes to them in a dream. This visionarymessage may come from their own clan's terrestrial ancestor or vu,from another clan's vu, or from God (Na Kalou). However, where thevision is said to come from God, it emanates from the terrestriallyserpentine manifestation of Degei, the ancient Fijian god of themountain top (Katz 1993:82-83) rather than from the unequivocallyheaven-based Christian god. Healers treat patients by further directcommunication with their terrestrial vu and it is usually this vu thatis said to be responsible for the healing. Healers or apprentices maybecome a locus of possession by the vu (Katz 1993:77) in which case theyare referred to as waqawaqa, (literally 'vessels'), a termmore frequently used to describe the vehicular status of chiefs inrelation to the gods that they embody and socially transport. Moreover, healers are often required to interpret dreams (tadra)which, generally, '... are seen as descriptions or predictions ofevents that express the wishes and actions of the characters in thedream' (Katz 1993:161). In this context, they prevent dreams frombecoming true by directing their cures at those agencies whose presentand future influence upon the patient's life-world is mirrored inthe patient's dream world. In effect, in the yaqona rites of thedauvagunu, the dreams and visions of the patient are interpreted by wayof the dreams and visions of the healer. And, it is the lucidconjunction of the two sets of dreams and visions, led by thehealer's embodiment of her/his spiritual insight, that is theobjective of the healer's yaqona drinking. This oneiric conjunction can only occur if the healer follows a'straight path': in which case, she or he will become aconduit and vessel for mana. By being possessed of mana, the healer willthen be able to truly see the meaning of the patient's dreams ofthe cause of his troubles. One healer told Katz that 'The amount oftruth in each individual determines the power of his healing' (Katz1993:92). Another located such truth in mana, and mana in his eyes:'Just look into my eyes. That's where you'll see plentyof mana' (Katz 1993:178). Whilst others also located the primarysource of mana in a box (a kato ni mana) at the bottom of the ocean(Katz 1993:22). Interestingly, this was also the source of the manaclaimed by 19th century successors of the Fijian millenarian mil��le��nar��i��an?adj.1. Of or relating to a thousand, especially to a thousand years.2. Of, relating to, or believing in the doctrine of the millennium.n.One who believes the millennium will occur. prophet,Navosavakadua (Kaplan 1995). However, when the dauvagunu deploys yaqona, the object is not tofacilitate a flow of mana from healer to patient, incorporating thepatient in the healer's restorative ritual body. In fact,symbolically speaking, the patient always remains somatically externalto the healer. And, whilst the rites, themselves, do not mysticallyreconcile Fijian patient and healer as incarnations of symbolic elderand younger brothers, ancestral messages conveyed by the healer dodirect the patient back to brother-related conflicts in thepatient's community and to the conciliatory power of thechief's yaqona. Moreover, Katz repeatedly reports that if dauvagunu do not commitwholly to 'the straight path' of their vu and, if they alsoattempt to become healers for material gain rather than because theyhave received an elective message from the vu, their yaqona basedpractices degenerate into sorcery. Thus, '... to serve the Vu forevil purposes ...' sorcerers '... may hold the bilo so thatone or two of their fingers go into the yaqona, or they may pick at someof the little pieces of yaqona which settle to the bottom of the bilo,so that some of the yaqona dribbles off their fingers before they drinkthe bilo. When their fingers touch the yaqona before they drink it, thentheir Vu are drinking the yaqona before they are' (Ratu Noa quotedin Katz 1993:170). Technically, therefore, healers and sorcerers arevirtual doubles, and only a strong moral commitment to the unificationof communities rather than to their division, and to individual gain ontop of this division, stops the dauvagunu from transforming into her/hisbinary opposite. In fact, the dauvagunu transforms the structure of manatransmission by pre-empting the sorcerer's mobilisation of contrarypowers of the land. S/he borrows from the sorcerer'sunceremoniously individual manipulation of the yaqona ceremony but, byfollowing the unifying path prescribed by his own ancestral vu ratherthan the divisive path perused by the veli, the healer displaces thesorcerer, and makes mana blocked by the sorcerer flow therapeutically inthe patient's broader network. CONCLUSION Consequently, it is clear that healers transform 'live'yaqona not to replace existing forms of embodiment and encompassment,but to 'creatively continue' the same enduringly productivetradition. Indeed the overall situation is one in which derivations ofthe enduring mana/vanua structure group, branch and accumulate, negateand complement, instrumentally modifying each other's respectiveeffects in a dynamic field of embedded ancestry and embodied mana. But beyond the ritualised intra-cultural transformation ofdifferent Fijian motivations and states, the drinking of'dead' yaqona to ethnic effect occurs as the apparently fixedexpression of a single state: that of being essentially Fijian. In fact,ethnic inventions of yaqona serially replace each other in a linearseries, each invention perceptibly seeking the best expression ofethnicity in and for a particular conjuncture con��junc��ture?n.1. A combination, as of events or circumstances: "the power that lies in the conjuncture of faith and fatherland"Conor Cruise O'Brien.2. , to then quietly slipaway. Here, unlike the cumulative propensity of the structural set,apart from creating a string of past events for historians toretrospectively record, the historical ethnic series exerts no aggregateeffect upon the contemporary sense of Fijian-ness. Indeed, it is thevery obvious disconnection of customary yaqona drinking from previousemblematic instances, as well as its complete separation from the fieldof embodied ancestry and mana, that frees Fijians to inventivelyexperiment with the form and to trans-culturally commodify com��mod��i��fy?tr.v. com��mod��i��fied, com��mod��i��fy��ing, com��mod��i��fiesTo turn into or treat as a commodity; make commercial: "Such music . . . commodifies the worst sorts of . . . or extendyaqona drinking as a 'custom' that Fijians possess. As far as theory is concerned, the structural history of yaqona isnot to be shunned by anthropologists who might otherwise be drawn intothinking that retaining structure in society takes everything away fromhistory. This is not the case. In fact, a structural history remainsvital in illuminating the imagined frameworks that constrain actors andshape action along particular trajectories of practice, and crucial inhighlighting the stubborn contradictions that typically arise betweenimagined frameworks and parallel trajectories even as they entangle en��tan��gle?tr.v. en��tan��gled, en��tan��gling, en��tan��gles1. To twist together or entwine into a confusing mass; snarl.2. To complicate; confuse.3. To involve in or as if in a tangle. .These enduring contradictions complicate the life of all social agency,pushing agents towards, more or less, mythological ruminations on thedouble-binds of socio-cultural practice (Levi-Strauss 1968:229) or, moreradically, towards additive or ruptural change. Fortunately for the multi-cultural perspective in contemporaryFiji, the ritualised transformation of embodied ancestral precedentscreates an underlying series of shifting states and relations thatdisturbingly contradicts the reductive play of ethnic essentialism essentialismIn ontology, the view that some properties of objects are essential to them. The “essence” of a thing is conceived as the totality of its essential properties. . Thisis especially important given that, today, though the land question inpolitics is truly dominated by the ethnic stereotype of a collectivepeople, an indivisible INDIVISIBLE. That which cannot be separated. 2. It is important to ascertain when a consideration or a contract, is or is not indivisible. When a consideration is entire and indivisible, and it is against law, the contract is void in toto. 11 Verm. 592; 2 W. land, and the unchallengeably unifying rule ofthe Fijian chiefs, the ritual trajectory continues to circulate otherfigures of Fijian-ness, variously at odds with this hegemonic image. The general point would seem to be that, analysing the complexarticulation of spheres, entities and relations in contemporary Fijiand, exposing the diverse positioning of the ethnic Fijian actors thatinhabit them, depends not only upon a consideration of theinter-cultural relations between different ethnic groups but upon prioranalysis of the intra-cultural relations between different Fijianstates. In fact, continually transforming as a logically juxtaposed setof oppositions and supports, intra-cultural relations of beingtraditionally Fijian will always outlive out��live?tr.v. out��lived, out��liv��ing, out��lives1. To live longer than: She outlived her son.2. and exceed the scale of ethnicFijian-ness in politics, and always, therefore, reverberate re��ver��ber��ate?v. re��ver��ber��at��ed, re��ver��ber��at��ing, re��ver��ber��atesv.intr.1. To resound in a succession of echoes; reecho.2. with thematerial possibilities--and hopes--of quite different Fijian futures. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This piece has benefited considerably from comments on earlierdrafts made by Marshall Sahlins, Steven Hooper, and Serge Tcherkezoffand by responses to the later effort received from Elfriede Hermann,Wolfgang Kempf, Michael Scott, and Eric Hirsch. I am also grateful toSteffen Herrmann for information relating to the ban on kava in Germany. REFERENCES ABRAMSON, A. 2000. 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Comparing the movement of yaqona with the contemporary, stillsacred circulation of tabua (whales teeth) in the current conjuncturehighlights the extent to which drinking yaqona socially in some contextsis so obviously secularised. (2.) See Ed Johnston, 'Awa and the Liver', availableonline at http://www.spc.org.nc/cis/documents/Awa%20and%20the%20Liver.pdf. (3.) On this point I am indebted to Jacqueline Leckie, Universityof Otago The University of Otago (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo) in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 20,000 students enrolled during 2006. , NZ. (4.) With the advent of Christianity, the tall, thatched,god-houses were pulled down, their substantial earth foundation moundswere flattened, and the bete priesthood was dissolved. Allen Abramson University College London “UCL” redirects here. For other uses, see UCL (disambiguation).University College London, commonly known as UCL, is the oldest multi-faculty constituent college of the University of London, one of the two original founding colleges, and the first British