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.