The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of CustomThomson, Basil
History
The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of Custom
Thomson, Basil
Ethnology -- Fiji; Fijians
It is not a little remarkable that the two extremes of vitality should
occur in the two classes in which in-breeding prevails. The larger class
of the concubitants (in which class also is found the highest fecundity)
shows the highest vitality of the four groups. The smaller class, the
relations other than concubitants, second in point of fecundity,
discloses the lowest vitality, and yet the proportion of these marriages
which would be regarded as incestuous by our system is small. It is not
to be forgotten, however, that in marriages which are regarded by the
people as socially right and proper, more care may be bestowed upon the
offspring both by the relations of the parents who nurse the mother and
child and by the parents themselves. By the same reasoning it is
probable that the offspring of marriages regarded as incestuous are
neglected by the relations of the parents, and, as a consequence, that
less pride is taken in them by the parents themselves.
It has not been found that concubitants marry either earlier or later in
life than the members of the other classes, and it is to be remembered
that concubitants are very often natives of different villages, which
may tend to prevent the relations attending upon the mother in her
confinement. One of our native witnesses assured us, moreover, that the
union of concubitants was seldom a happy one. Quarrels between husband
and wife would certainly outweigh any advantages in favour of
child-bearing which the social propriety or fitness might be held to
create. But even supposing that the influences at work to make
concubitancy so satisfactory a procreative element in the population are
of a moral nature, the difference is so marked that there is a balance
over to be accounted for by some other explanation. That they rear a
larger proportion of their children may be partly or wholly due to the
fact that their relationship to each other gives them a higher sense of
responsibility, but that they bear more children capable of being reared
argues a superior physical fitness for procreation. I am aware that the
figures are far too small to allow of any generalization from them, but
at the same time it is to be remembered that the inhabitants of these
twelve villages represent a fair sample of the population, and also that
we found the relative positions of the married classes to be generally
the same in each village taken individually.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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