BOOK REVIEWS 239

Islands, Islanders and the World: TheColonial and Post-Colonial Experiencea/Eastern Fiji, by T. P. Bayliss-Smith,Richard Bedford, Harold Brookfield,Marc Latham, and Muriel Brookfield.Cambridge: Cambridge University

treat either American or Haluk con­cepts as underlying entities. Basically,she argues that her explanation isricher, not that Spiro's is necessarilywrong.

Lutz goes on to distinguish amongseveral varieties of emotion theories.These concluding remarks make ex­plicit what the preceding anecdotes andanalysis made vivid: theories of emo­tions as things separate from humanmoral activity presuppose alienation ofthe individual or the body from experi­ence and relatedness. Lutz argues thatemotional activity and talk illuminatesocial life in both Haluk and Americanworlds, so academic emotion theorymust be considered a product of West­ern ideas, rather than a reflection ofexperience.

Lutz has largely succeeded in pre­senting Ifaluk lives and discourse ashaving meaning apart from Westernpreconceptions of them. She has identi­fied ways in which Americans are aptto reduce others' communications tonatural behaviors or drives and proce­dures to resist such reduction. She pro­vides a model of self-conscious andother-respecting ethnography that, Idevoutly hope, will be followed andamended by anthropologists in thenext few years.

JOHN KIRKPATRICK

University ofHawaii at Manoa

::. *

Press, I988. ISBN 952I-26877-X, xvii+ 323 pp, illustrations, tables, notes,appendix, references, index. US$49.50.

Few works of scholarship, especiallythose resulting, as this does, from themultiple endeavors of a large team ofresearchers over many years, haveabout them so refreshing a sense ofhumility as this useful volume. It is thepublicly available fruit of a project thatbegan in I974 under the auspices of theMan and the Biosphere (MAB) programinitiated by UNESCO in I97I. It drawstogether the most important aspects ofresearch on the islands of Lomaivitiand Lau in eastern Fiji that were previ­ously published in a difficult-to-obtainseries of project working papers, islandreports, and general reports (obtain­able from the Australian National Uni­versity).

The distillation benefits, however,from a return visit to eastern Fiji inI983 by the chief investigators and theirdecision to write a book "about whathas happened in Eastern Fiji, and whatthis might add to the sum of knowledgeabout the colonial and post-colonialexperience of the developing world"(xv). It also benefits from their conclu­sion, as a result of the military coups ofI987, that their analysis had been moreculturally conditioned than they hadrealized. "Even when a real effort ismade to 'understand' the minds of apeople being studied," the editorwrites, "social scientists inevitably findthemselves asking questions whichderive from their own disciplinary sys­tems of theory, and moreover reason­ing from the norms of their own soci­ety" (IO). The team was fascinated byyoung people who had experienced the

THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· SPRING 1991

conveniences and stimulations ofurban society yet returned willingly tothe harsh material environment of anisland like Kabara in Southern Lau andspoke around the yaqona bowl in theevenings of the deeply satisfying senseof autonomy and self-esteem that theyenJOyed. Like many orhe-r vIsitors, theteam was also initially puzzled by theambivalence of Fijians who exercisedtheir prerogative of private criticism ofthe authority of the chiefs yet humbledthemselves in their presence. Theybelieved they had discerned the increas­ing dependence of the periphery on thenatioQal economy and saw the perpetu­ation of the "Fijian way of life" in theouter islands as the result of theimposition of central authority thatsucceeded only in the absence of some­thing better. They had seen the begin­nings of a new politics in which classmight soon become more importantthan race. "The fact that we werewrong," writes editor Tim Bayliss­Smith"... throw-sinto question allour interpretations in this book" (6).

However, being wrong does nothingto diminish the value of the detailedresearch that the book contains, and itsuggests that the implications of whathas happened in eastern Fiji for ourunderstanding of "the colonial andpost-colonial experience of the devel­oping world" may be different fromwhat it might have been, but no lessimportant.

Chapters on the historical geogra­phy of eastern Fiji, derived largely fromsecondary sources, are followed bydetailed work on externalities such asdroughts and hurricanes, physicalresources of the reefs and islands, andthe interlocking economies of the vil-

lages, islands, regions, and widerworld in which individual Islandersparticipate. Patterns of populationgrowth, age structure, and migrationare selectively tabulated, mapped, andanalyzed. Comparisons are madebetween energy expended and nutri-

-- tiona} value obtained through partici­pation in subsistence, local market,and export economies, and the relativeimportance of wage-labor opportuni­ties and remittances from Suva andoverseas is quantified. In spite of RatuSukuna's advice that hurricane reliefwas unnecessary in southern Lau­"The people affected are about thehardiest in Fiji and no distress is antici­pated" (I43)-the increasing impor­tance of hurricane relief in subsidizingthe mixed economy of the outer islandsis demonstrated.

The conclusions that might bedrawn from this mass of informationabout "the colonial and post-colonialexperience of the developing world"are different now from what theywould have been when the study com­menced. The context then, as GisbertGlaser indicates in his introduction,was that created by the early work ofPaul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome, inwhich the environmental crisis wasperceived as the product primarily ofoverpopulation, mostly in the ThirdWorld. Inequalities, both internationalandwithin rich and poor countries,were not yet seen as relevant to theenvironment, and economic growthwas seen as a universal panacea for theills of the world. Population, re­sources, and environment were thecomponents of the vital equation thatwas up to social scientists to solve sothat "rational" decisions could be taken

BOOK REVIEWS

by fully informed politicians and plan­ners. Islands were seen as having spe­cial advantages for research because oftheir small size and isolation, thenearest thing to a laboratory the socialscientist was ever likely to get.

One consequence of this was thateastern Fiji became something of amagnet of research in the 1970s. Apartfrom the sixteen foreign scholars whowere associated with the MAB project,there was a group of medical studentsfrom the University of Cambridge,Stephen Hooper living for two years onKabara, A. C. Reid on Lakeba, BruceKnapman on Vanua Balavu, andmyself on every island south as far asOno-i-Lau. Simon and Rosemary Bestworked for several successive years onLakeba as well as other islands, andGarth Rogers both supported SimonBest and did three months of indepen­dent work on Ono-i-Lau in 1982.Another expedition was led by GilbertS. Grosvenor of the US National Geo­graphic magazine in 1974.

In retrospect, it seems extraordinaryas well as unfortunate that there wasno formal collaboration. Though therewere some incidental contacts andplenty of gossip from our toleranthosts, our subsequent theses, papers,and publications take little account ofour common experiences. Transport isa major problem of research in areas ofthis kind and one that collaborationmight have solved. As it was, the MAB

project was, of necessity, focused onthose islands that could be reached atthe opportune time by commercial orgovernment shipping, and the timespent on anyone island was deter­mined often by the logistics of shippingrather than academic judgment.

Given such constraints, a degree ofsubjectivity was inevitable. Bayliss­Smith points out that geographers havelong wanted to establish their expertisein the integrated study of populationand environment problems and havetherefore made the implicit claim thattheir work produces "value-free" .insights that possess universal "scien­tific" status. He confronts the problemof inescapable subjectivity in this pro­ject by a discussion of the methodologi­cal debate between Winch (AmericanPhilosophical Quarterly 1964; 1970)and Jarvie (in Explanation in the Beha­vioural Sciences, 1970).

Winch argued that it was necessaryfor the researcher who wished tounderstand the institutions of a primi­tive (sic) society to accept the internalrationale of that society, a principlethat has long been accepted by mostPacific historians. It means, usually, aperiod of prolonged fieldwork andlearning the language well. Jarvieargued, on the other hand, that the useof the norms of one's own society (pre­sumably industrial society) as a neces­sary instrument or sounding board is"the principle way in which sociologi­cal understanding of alien societies isreached." While no one can work in Fijifor any length of time without comingto believe they are a successful discipleof Winch, the anxiety of geographersto achieve the status of objective scien­tists makes them vulnerable to thearguments of Jarvie. It was consistentwith an inclination toward Jarvie'spoint of view, to which Bayliss-Smithretrospectively confesses (8), to discernin the Islanders' rejection of what Su­kuna called "the octopus of the modernworld" evidence of their irrationality.

THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· SPRING 1991

For example, in one of the earlyreports (1978), Bedford concluded thatthe people of Kabara had by then lostthe optional relationship with the mar­ket economy that Laura Thompsonhad recorded in 1940 and Hooper wasto confirm again in 1982. Migration toSuva had become, Bedford thought,the preferred response to natural disas­ter rather than a revival of the subsis­tence culture.

Similarly, on the island of Koro, theword stagnation rather than stability isused to describe a situation in which"the vast majority of village producersdo not seem to perceive any advantagein a commitment to greater dependenceon any particular cash crop, let alonethe market sector as a whole" (206).Yet, in view of the figures for calorieand protein intake from subsistence(66.2% and 70.8% respectively onKabara in 1975) compared with thatderived in return for cash (33.8% and29.3% respectively), the rationality ofless than full commitment to the casheconomy is self-evident.

The "rationality" that has led to anemphasis on copra production for thebenefit of the national economy onwhich the "pampered periphery" osten­sibly depends is belied by the compara­tive returns from copra production forexport and the production of yaqonafor the local market. The 7,250 tonnesof copra produced by the whole East­ern Division in 1981 were worth F$I.98million to producers. On the otherhand, 850 tonnes of yaqona, an out­growth of the subsistence economy andof ceremonial and social importance,brought in F$3 million in 1982. This inspite of an expensive superstructure­of Coconut Board, grading stations,

freight subsidies, and agriculturalextension officers-that supports thecopra industry.

Analysis of food energetics producessimilar results. While copra returns tothe producer have generally been low,fluctuating, and beyond the control ofindividual producers, the subsistencesector has usually been dependable andmore rewarding.

In spite of this evidence, a gradualWesternization is both perceived and,at times, applauded. Thus, "Wagelabour offers a secure and regularincome, and wherever that income isperceived as adequate it is widelysought. With it has come the unofficialbut clear beginnings of a 'market' inFijian land, and the emergence of tradein food among rural Fijians Theformation of a class structure .would perhaps be accelerated by such atrend" (263).

Despite the rhetoric of developmentthe writers occasionally employ, muchof the research points to the conclusionthat if the World Bank, UNESCO, hurri­cane relief, and the procession of aca­demics that the Islanders have encoun­tered in the last two decades hadpassed them by, they would probablybe no worse off than they are. In dis­cussing this realization, Bayliss-Smithasks, "Is not the real weakness of thecoconut industry the growing unsuita­bility of an export-based approach todevelopment? ... if so, is there anypoint in trying to replace one exportbase with another? Might not any realhope for future economic growth in theeastern region lie in another directionaltogether?" (266). What might thisdirection be? And what might this "addto the sum of knowledge about the

BOOK REVIEWS

colonial and post-colonial experienceof the developing world"?

In 1971, when the MAB projectbegan, the continued growth of theglobal economy seemed assured. Theproblem, in spite of the minority mis­givings of those on the left, was howthe undeveloped nations, among themFiji, were to be enabled to catch upwith the industrialized world. Howdated that perception seems now. Inspite of three decades of scholarshipand advice, pilot projects, conferences,aid, research, and copious governmentreports and development plans, thepoor are poorer and the rich are richerin both poor countries and rich, andthe gap between poor and rich coun­tries has grown.

The early successes in east Asia areunlikely to be repeated in Africa or thePacific. The current buzzword thatreflects that realization, sustainabledevelopment, will soon dissolve into itstwo inherently contradictory compo­nents, and the choice between themirage of development, as we haveunderstood that word in the past, andsustainability, which may yet be withinour grasp, will become apparent.

The value of such studies as this willthen be not what their ambivalent con­clusions can teach planners and politi­cians about development, but what theresearch that went into them can teachus about sustainability. Richard Bed­ford et al (The Small Islands and theReefs 1978, 33), quoting M. C.Howard, point out that the people ofKabara have cause to sympathize withthose in the industrialized world, whohave only one way of life to choosefrom. Kabarans "not only have yours,but our own as well," a choice they

243

have wisely continued to exercise. AsBayliss-Smith observes, the people ofthe eastern islands have stubbornlyresisted efforts to convert them towholly cash-crop producers. Theyhave retained control over their ownmeans of subsistence "whilst selectingamong the available alternatives forways of earning money in a rationalmanner." Tim McNaught's conclusionthat "in a world running out of easyanswers, no one will be surprised if theentire nation looks to its Fijian heritagefor some of the arts of living well onislands" (81) can also be extended, inthe context of the 1990S, to the widerworld. As industrialized society, botheast and west, reaches the limits of eco­logical tolerance and abandons itsclaims to control of the global periph­ery, the kind of rational opportunismthat this book documents so well mayhave lessons for the rest of us.

JOHN YOUNG

University ofAdelaide

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Towards a Pacific Island Community.Report of the South Pacific PolicyReview Group. Wellington: Govern­ment Printer, 1990. ISBN 0-477-01547­6, xv + 300 pp, map, tables, graphs,appendixes. NZ$35.95.

In September 1989 the New ZealandLabour government, headed by Geof­frey Palmer, took a controversial deci­sion to join Australia in a major andlong-term naval-frigate constructionproject. Part of the rationale for thisdecision was that it would enhanceNew Zealand's capacity to playa secu­rity role in the South Pacific. Since this