"We used to eat people": Revelations of a Fiji Islands Traditional Village - Softcover

Dixon, R.M.W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476671818 ISBN 13: 9781476671819

Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2017

Synopsis

Living in a reed hut on Taveuni--the "garden isle" of Fiji--the author studied the native language and carefully observed their traditions until he was accepted as a (somewhat unusual) member of the village.

Despite five cyclones the summer of 1985, daily life was idyllic. Cannibalism has been abandoned, reluctantly, at the behest of the new Christian God. But the old religion survived beneath the facade and priests danced naked on the beach beneath the full moon. The village pulsated with factions and feuds, resolved by the stern but benevolent chief, whose word was law. Legends told of a princess born as a bird, who was killed and thus became a comely maiden--but the murderer had to be cooked and eaten.

About this title

About the Author:

R.M.W. Dixon is an anthropological linguist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. He has authored many books on linguistic theory, and grammars based on fieldwork in the Amazonian jungle, in the rainforest of north-east Australia, and in Fiji.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1476671818
• ISBN 13: 9781476671819
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 218