It is well established that the Fijians are a mixed people, derived
mainly from Melanesian and Polynesian sources. Both of these parental
strains in turn are commonly believed to be racial blends. Hooton
describes the Melanesians as Oceanic Negroes whose composition includes
Negrito, Australoid, "plus convex-nosed Mediterranean plus minor
fractions of Malay and Polynesian."[5] Birdsell sees the same three
strains in Melanesia which he believes contribute to the Australians,
namely Negrito, Murrayan, and Carpentarian, plus a small amount of
Mongoloid. He believes they differ from Australians in being "basically
negritic in their genetic composition as a result of the rain forest
environment."[6] Polynesians, however, are usually thought to be derived
from Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid strains in which the Caucasoid
component is more often the strongest.
The composite character of the Fijians has been variously explained as
far as order and time of the contributing elements are concerned. One
theory regards a Negroid stock as aboriginal to which a Polynesian
strain was later added. An early explanation of this sort is that of
Fornander who held that the ancestors of the modern Polynesians coming
from southeastern Asia via Indonesia in the early centuries A.D. made a
prolonged stopover in Fiji as they moved eastward. This left a
Polynesian imprint on the native Fijian physical appearance as well as
on their language and culture.[7] Later on, Churchill added a second
movement of Polynesians from the west about a thousand years later. This
was used to explain a certain amount of Mongoloid elements that needed
accounting for in western Polynesia.[8]
A differing interpretation brings the Polynesian influence into Fiji
from the east in relatively recent times. Thomson, for example, regards
it as mainly Tongan. There are many references in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries to Tongan presence in Fiji; they came to trade, to
fight, and merely to visit.
Hocart believes the Polynesians at one time occupied most of Fiji until
they were driven eastward to Tonga and Samoa by native Melanesians.[9]
Howells tentatively suggests another possibility: originally all of Fiji
was occupied by Polynesians except perhaps for some Melanesian tribes in
the mountainous interior of Viti Levu. Around the eleventh century a
wave of immigrants from the west reached Fiji. "The newcomers, taking
possession of the archipelago, partly amalgamated with and partly pushed
out the Polynesian tenants, just as did the hill tribes of Hocart's
theory, the refugees fleeing to Somoa and Tonga."[10] Howells associates
this immigration with the Fijian tradition of an arrival of ancestral
families from across the western sea.
This Fijian tradition of their own origin includes a landing on the west
coast of Viti Levu at Nandi by an ancestral chief and his sons who came
across the sea from the west. Several of his sons moved eastward and
eventually founded families with native wives in various parts of the
archipelago. These families ultimately became consolidated into
present-day tribes or federations. Most Fijian social units derive their
origin from this or similar legendary immigrations. These eposodes
occurred eight or ten and, in one case, fifteen generations ago.[11]
Where these ancestors came from or what their racial affiliations were
is not described in the stories. On the basis of supposed similarities
of place-names, claims have been made for Africa as the place of origin,
but the validity of them is dubious. It is likely that these traditions
refer only to the more recent immigrations from the west. As to the
racial make-up of the ancestors, it is commonly believed that they were
Polynesians who, after settling in various parts of Fiji, took native
wives, presumably Melanesian, and originated many of the existing family
lines. This assumption does not rest on any actual physical reference to
their appearance but on such cultural data as their patrilineal
succession and their tradition of strong hereditary chieftainship.