Habitus and social change in Fiji

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyse social process in Fiji, with reference to Bourdieu, Giddens, Sahlins, Thomas and Toren. We can find quite peculiar characteristics in phases of Hie distinction derived Som a criterion of "urban / rural" in Fiji. There is a considerable contrast in the standard of living, lifestyle, economic system, ritual institution and values between urban and rural sphere. Taking account of the events in Waidracia village in Naitasiri Province and in Nasilai village in Rewa Province, in which the author had conducted his fieldwork, the tradition in Fiji is examined. The indigenous people, encountering various kinds of "objects", "ideas", "situations" and "acts", would objectify such circumstances in their own practical senses to make practices. There could occur some deviations or differentiae in their practices. As a result, some "objects", "ideas", "situations" and "acts" will persist, while others might be innovated It depends on the interaction among the agents' practices whether the tradition is persisted or innovated. Social process is understood as the accumulation of the agents' practices. The individual embodies various numbers of "distinctions", which depend on his or her position in society. Distinction provides the individual with a certain habitus. The individual as an independent agent chooses his or her own "purposive acts", led by the "practical sense" derived from habitus. On the other hand, we can construct a conceptual idea of "sphere", in which certain "purposiveness" is shared. Field research shows there is a common "spheric purposiveness" in a sphere, and the thesis examines how the forms of the practices yielded by the individuals in the sphere converge. The particular tendency of practices will reflect on the reproduction of individual habitus. Simultaneously, the individual habitus is also reproduced and transformed through the interactions between practices in different spheres.