Conflict, ritual, and social structure on Yanuyanu Island, Fiji

Abstract

Conflict management on Yanuyanu island in the Southern Lau Group of Fiji is accomplished by a variety of means, some traditional and others of recent introduction (Arno 1978).1 In general, however, traditional methods are dominant, and whatever procedures might be used in the course of a conflict, a final resolution almost always involves reference to the principle of hierarchy ? usually, although not always, expressed in a ritual of apology and reconciliation called the i soro (Arno 1976b). Hierarchy is also a central principle of Fijian social organization; because hierarchy operates, by definition, to minimize competition and to deny at the normative level the very possibility of conflict within the group, conflict management is very closely related to social structure, and traditional rituals serve to emphasize the con nection. A more precise understanding of the way conflict, ritual, and social structure may be related in Fijian culture requires an analysis of the particular kinds of conflict that arise within the group and the specific techniques that are employed to deal with them. Victor Turner, in his classic analysis of Ndembu society, distinguished between two species of conflict, each requiring its own mode of manage ment (1957). Certain conflicts are built into the social organization