Introduction to Relations in Multicultural Fiji: The Dynamics of Articulations, Transformations and Positionings

Abstract

Focussing on three historically constituted domains of relations of great importance to all inhabitants of the Fiji Islands, this essay draws attention to cultural modalities and political strategies implicated in shaping these. By way of introduction to six papers which together with this preface and an epilogue are presented in the form of a collection, we distinguish three domains of relations: those between past and present; those between people and land; and (not least) those between people. We argue that social actors in Fiji reflect on and deal with such relations in all of which they are simultaneously embodied, i.e. they articulate, transform and position these relations with a view to shaping their identity and place in today's multicultural (and indeed intercultural) Fiji. We conclude that there operates a complex of dialectical processes: while social actors work on relations that exert influence on them, there is also a dynamic in play between articulations, transformations and positionings of relations.