align="right">23

Conclusions                        25 Literature cited                  26 Plates                            27

MAP

Simplified map of Fiji showing four regional divisions of population made by the author ... frontispiece

A RACIAL STUDY OF THE FIJIANS

BY

NORMAN E. GABEL

INTRODUCTION

This paper concerns itself with a physical survey of the native male population of Fiji. The main objective is a description of these people by means of anthropometric procedure.[1] The treatment includes, first, a description of the Fijians as a whole, second, a comparison with neighboring people, and third, regional differences among the Fijians themselves.

THE PROBLEM AND PROCEDURE

The data used in this survey were secured in 1954 during a stay of seven months in Fiji. My plan was to obtain anthropometric samples from several parts of the archipelago; this plan was only slightly altered as time and transportation facilities directed. Each of the three main administrative districts into which the islands are divided were visited and within each district samples were secured from most of the constituent provinces. The original sample consisted of 880 subjects. Later, 65 subjects were excluded for various reasons: some were part Samoan or Tongan, a few were Rotumans, and others were immature. The number finally used stands at 815.

A limited amount of comparative material has been included in order to help locate the Fijians in the overall Pacific picture. These data were drawn from W. W. Howells, "Anthropometry and Blood Types in Fiji and the Solomon Islands" in The American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, volume 33, part 4, 1933, and from L. R. Sullivan, "A Contribution to Tongan Somatology" based on the field studies of E. W. Gifford and W. C. McKern, in Memoires of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, volume 8, number 4, 1922. The latter report provides comparison with what may be termed western Polynesians who are also the nearest Polynesians to the Fijians. The Fijian data in Howell's paper make it possible for me to check some of my own Fijian material, and the Solomon Island data in the same report provide a Melanesian measuring stick.

Since an over-all description of the Fijians is the initial concern of this paper, each physical trait measured or derived from measurement is tabulated according to range, average, and deviation. Traits observed but not measured are presented according to degree of development, e.g., absent, medium, and pronounced, and according to percentage of occurrence. Further statistical manipulation is not deemed necessary for the writer's purposes.

It is well established that the Fijians are a mixed people. They are regarded, and with good reason, as a hybrid of, mainly, Melanesian and Polynesian components. Their geographical location, their history, and their physical appearance bear this out.

The proportions of Polynesian and Melanesian elements are, of course, not evenly distributed throughout Fiji. Even superficial observation indicates that the natives range from strongly Melanesian to markedly Polynesian. To demonstrate how this variability follows certain regional trends, the data have been broken down into four geographical areas. This subdivision rests on several considerations and merits further comment.

One of the subgroups represents the people of the mountainous interior of Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji (see accompanying map). This region may be regarded as something of a refuge area. Fijians from this relatively isolated locality might reasonably be expected to exhibit more of the earlier racial elements of the total composition. It should be pointed out, however, that the degree of isolation associated with this; interior; group is not extreme. Fiji tradition and history indicate extensive interregional movement. Particularly in early historic times, when the advent of firearms and other Western culture greatly stimulated intergroup warfare and cannibalism, there was much moving about from one region to another. With all this, the interior people still remained, as indeed they are today, more apart from the rest of the population and less subject to outside influence.

The second segment chosen for interregional comparison is in the central Lau Islands and is designated in this paper as the "eastern" group. Lying as they do, at the eastern end of Fiji, they are closest to Tonga, the nearest Polynesian neighbors. Tongan contact with Fiji in prehistoric as well as more recent times is well established. [2] It is in the Lau Islands that Polynesian cultural affinities are most marked. Hence, it seems a logical choice for a second and separate glance in the racial history.

The third comparative sample might be termed an intermediate group. It is taken from the coastal villages of eastern Viti Levu, largely from the provinces of Rewa and Tailevu. This area is geographically between the "interior" and "eastern" groups and is referred to in this paper as the "coastal" group.

The final regional division represents the northwestern parts of Viti Levu. This is the place where, according to Fiji tradition, their ancestors first landed after migrating from the west. [3] Fijian legend, which gives this hint of their ancestry, does not include a physical description of these immigrants. Nor does it define the physical appearance of the earlier people whom the newcomers encountered and with whom they mingled. On the rather slim hope that anthropometry might shed a little light on this questionable phase of Fijian history, this area, along with the first three, has received separate treatment.

THE HABITAT

The islands of Fiji are centrally located in the southwest Pacific. Over three hundred islands and islets make up the archipelago, which spreads between latitudes 15' and 22' south of the equator for 300 miles. The international date line runs through Fiji at the Koro Sea and the Moala Island group.

The total land area of the islands is about the equivalent of the state of Delaware, somewhat over 7,000 square miles. Two great islands account for nearly 95 per cent of the total area: Viti Levu, the largest, is over 4,000 square miles, and Vanua Levu, about half as large. Over 90 per cent of the native population lives on these two islands although nearly a hundred other islands are inhabited.

Most of the islands are made up of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The largest islands rest on a submerged portion of an ancient land mass, sometimes called the Melanesian continent, which goes back in time to the Paleozoic and, in its prime, intermittently connected Fiji with southeastern Asia and Australia. Subsequent submergence, followed by cycles of volcanic upbuilding, erosion, and more submergence over eons of time, gave the big islands their upper foundations. The last extensive volcanic activity and land uplift occurred in the Pleistocene and accounts for many of the present mountain masses. The