Viti,the Soil from Eden: On Historical Praxis as a Mode of Connecting in Kadavu

Looking at Fijian Methodism and its role in discourses on identity in Fiji leads to the question of the relationship between Christianity and the vanua, the complex notion of land so crucial for ethnic Fijians' traditionalistic identity constructions. How is it possible to retain important dimensions of the vanua within a Christian worldview? An attempt to understand this relationship using the example of a Fijian meke makes clear that specific ways of constructing the past are crucial here. A concept of history as a symbolic form renders these ways of constructing the past understandable as historical — and it is exactly this historical character which opens the possibility of establishing a relationship to the Christian God while retaining essential dimensions of the vanua, a possibility which can provide one experiential background for the plausibility of an ethnic interpretation of Christianity.     

Sacred Wells in Wales

GUIDE D'ÉTUDE DIRECTE DES COMPORTEMENTS CULTURELS. By M. MAGET. Paris, 1953. Pp. xxxv, 260 ; 16 plates and drawings Reviewed by E. Ettlinger.

TOBIAS TOMAMICHEL, Bosco GURIN, DAS WALSERDORF IM TESSIN. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (G. Krebs Verlagsbuchhandlung). Basle, 1953. Pp. 155, illustrated. Reviewed by E. Ettlinger.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CELTIC FOLKLORE, Stornoway and Oban, October 5th–13th, 1953. Reviewed by E. Ettlinger.

MY GYPSY DAYS : RECOLLECTIONS OF A ROMANI RAWNIE. By DORA E. YATES. Pp. 192, 9 plates. 8vo. London, Phoenix House, 1953. Price 16s. Reviewed by E. O. Winstedt.

WORD FOR WORD. AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF BEER. Vol. X I in the Whitbread Library. 1953. 5s. Reviewed by Leslie F. Newman.

RADNORSHIRE. By W. H. HAWSE. E. J. Thurston, Hereford. Price l6s. 6d. Reviewed by Lilian H. Hayward.

CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF SEX AND MARRIAGE. An Inquiry Relating to all Races and Nations from Antiquity to the Present Day. By GEORGE RYLEY SCOTT, F.Ph.S. (Eng.) F.Z.S., F.R.A.I., Torchstream Books, London, 1953. Reviewed by B. Z. S.     

Legitimacy and democracy in Fiji

Kenneth Bain. Treason at 10: Fiji at the Crossroads. Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989. xvi + 236 pp. $NZ34.95.

T.P. Bayliss‐Smith, Richard Bedford, Harold Brookfield and Marc Latham. Islands, Islanders and the World: the Colonial and Post‐colonial Experience of Eastern Fiji. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. xvii + 323 pp. $102.00.

Eddie Dean and Stan Ritova. Rabuka: No Other Way. Moorebank: Doubleday, 1988. 174 pp. $12.95.

Brij V. Lal. Power and Prejudice: The Making of the Fiji Coup. Wellington: New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988. viii + 204 pp. $NZ10.00.

Satendra Prasad (ed.) Coup and Crisis: Fiji — A Year Later. North Carlton: Arena Publications, 1988. 119 pp. $9.95.

Robert T. Robertson and Akosita Tamanisau. Fiji: Shattered Coups. Leichardt: Pluto Press, 1988. xviii + 198 pp. $11.95

Deryck Scarr. Fiji: The Politics of illusions: The Military Coups in Fiji. Kensington: New South Wales University Press, 1988. xvii + 161 pp. No price given.     

不如去斐济

转动地球仪,会看到南太平洋中央有一片“倒U形”的岛屿,那里就是斐济。斐济在澳洲东面,新西兰北面,由322个岛屿组成,其中106个有人居住,还有一些则被开发成了有五星级酒店和各种现代化休闲设施的度假海岛,甚至还有只接待一个家庭的奢华私人度假海岛。     

海洋天堂 斐济海底探秘(上)

很小的时候,就听大人讲《哪吒闹海》的故事,知道海底下有个海龙宫,过了没多久,自己又看了《西游记》的故事,知道齐天大圣孙悟空向海龙王借了海龙王的定海神针当兵器,知道海龙王就住在海龙宫里,海龙宫里还有许多虾兵蟹将和宫女。从此之后,我就望着星星在想,有朝一日,我也要到海龙宫去看看。海洋世界——一个充满神奇幻想的世界,探索海底奥秘也就成了我多年的梦想。     

Sacred Narratives in Secular Contexts

Although sacred narratives are thought to have lost their numinous aura for secular receivers (readers/listeners), their presence is evident whenever mythology, usually taken to reflect a mode of thinking typical of primeval cultures, and its associated themes are used in fictional works. This study aims at elucidating sacred narratives for people who do not subscribe to their sacredness. It attempts to show (1) that myths reflect a fictional mode of thinking; (2) that meaningful myths map the unconscious drives of secular readers/listeners, enabling them to confront them in terms of their own culture; and (3) that fictional thinking thus operates as a psychical laboratory. I illustrate these claims through myths that feature animosity between parents and children, such as the stories of Oedipus, Isaac, and Jesus.     

The Sacred Marriage

DAVID OF SASSOUN: THE ARMENIAN FOLK EPIC IN FOUR CYCLES. Translated by ARTIN K. SHALIAN Ohio University Press, 1964, pp. 377. $10.00. Reviewed by E. O. James.

VOICES IN THE VALLEY. FRANK R. KRAMER. University of Wisconsin Press. 300 pp. $5. Reviewed by A. W. Smith.

DIE ROLLE DES HUNDES IN AFRICANISCHEN KULTUREN. By BARBARA FRANK. Studien zur Kulturkunde Vol. 17. Wiesbaden Franz SteinerVerlag, 1965. Pp.(6), 256. 5 Maps. Reviewed by E. Ettlinger.

GLI USI FUNEREI SARDI SECONDO LE VOCI DEL ‘DIZIONARIO DEGLI STATI SARDI’ COMPILATE DA VITTORIO ÁNGIUS. By ENRICA DELITALA. Offprint from Studi Sardi, XVIII for 1962–3, Gallizzi, Sassari, 1964. Pp. 65: map. Reviewed by Francis Celoria.

CONTES TRADITIONNELS DES TEILLEURS DE LIN DU TRÉGOR (BASSEBRETAGNE). By Geneviève Massignon. A. et J. Picard et Cie, 1965. Reviewed by Violet Alford.

HISTORY, TIME AND DEITY. By S. G. F. BRANDON. Manchester University Press, 1965. Pp. 240. 35s. net. Reviewed by E. O. James.

THE CAMBRIDGE ANCIENT HISTORY. Primitive Man in Egypt, Western Asia and Europe. By DOROTHY A. E. GARROD and J. G. D. CLARK. Cambridge University Press, 1965. Pp. 61.8s. 6d. net. Reviewed by E. O. James.

UNSERE ORTSNAMEN IM ABC ERKLART. By WILDHELM STURMFELS and HEINZ BISCHOF. 3rd, revised, edition. Dummlers, Bonn, 1961. Pp. 359, including Introduction, Indices and Bibliography. Reviewed by John McN. Dodgson.

THE NORTHMEN TALK. A Choice of Tales from Iceland. Translated by JACQUELINE SIMPSON. Foreword by Eric Linklater. J. M. Dent and Sons, Phoenix House and the University of Wisconsin Press, 1965. Pp. i–xxix, 290. 30s. net. Reviewed by H. R. Ellis Davidson.

ORAL TRADITION, A Study in Historical Methodology. By JAN VANSINA, translated by H. M. WRIGHT. Routledge &; Kegan Paul Ltd. 30s. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.

GENTLE PLACES AND SIMPLE THINGS. By KEVIN DANAHER. Cork, The Mercier Press. 1964. Pp. 125. 5s. Reviewed by Theo Brown.

A FENMAN'S STORY. By W. H. BARRETT. Routledge &; Kegan Paul Ltd. May 1965. 21s. Reviewed by Beatrice Blackwood.

ONCE UPON A TIME; Fifty Hungarian Folk-Tales. By GYULA ILLYES. Translated by Barna Balogh and Susan Kun. Corvina Press. 1964. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.

ULSTER DIALECTS; AN INTRODUCTORY SYMPOSIUM. Published by the Ulster Folk Museum, 1964. Pp. XIII, 201. 20s. Reviewed by Estyn Evans.

A BOOK OF MYTHS. Selected and retold by ROGER LANCELYN GREEN. Illustrated by Joan Liddell-Monroe. Dent, Children's Illustrated Classics. 16s. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.

WEST COUNTRY FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. An Account of Village Benefit Clubs and their Brass Pole Heads. By MARGARET D. FULLER. The Oakwood Press for the Museum of English Rural Life, the University of Reading, 1964. Pp. xii, 73: Plates LII + map. 63s. Reviewed by Theo Brown.

STRUTTURA E ORIGINE MORFOLOGICA DEI MUTOS E DEI MUTTETOS SARDI. By A. M. CIRESE. Sardinia, Università degli Studi de Cagliari, 1964. Pp. 193. Reviewed by Francis Celoria.

DUTCH TILES. By DINGEMAN KORF. London, Merlin Press, 1963. Pp. 136. GLASS AND CRYSTAL, I, from the earliest times to 1850. By ELKA SCHRIJVER. Merlin Press, 1963. Pp. 134. Reviewed by W. Bonser.     

Nationalism versus constitutionalism in Fiji*

Abstract. Since Fiji became an independent state in 1970 it has experienced three coups against elected governments. On each occasion, intervention has been justified on the grounds that the rights and interests of indigenous Fijians have been under threat from a government controlled by Indo‐Fijians, the country's second largest ethnic group. This is despite the fact that the constitutions under which these governments were elected contained extensive provisions for the protection of indigenous rights and interests precisely to meet such concerns. Since the coup of May 2000, the 1997 constitution has been resurrected through the legal process and fresh elections held. Although this represented a formal victory for the forces of constitutionalism, the election itself resulted in the return to office of the post‐coup interim administration that had been appointed by the military and which had pledged to uphold the primacy of Fijian interests against other claims. The story of nationalism versus constitutionalism in Fiji is one in which all the efforts of institutional designers seem to have been consistently trumped by the successful manipulation of ethnic identity, especially (although not exclusively) by Fijian nationalists. But it also suggests that there is more to the problems of stability in Fiji than the fact of ethnic difference. In addition, the article critically assesses arguments which favour the development of a new form of constitutionalism which dispenses with the liberal ‘rule of uniformity’ in favour of principles and practices that give explicit recognition to cultural difference.     

Perception of Sacred Space

Discrimination of space into sacred and profane is as old as mankind. This study suggests a typology for categorizing sacred Space at three broad levels: mysticoreligious, homelands and historical. Each is further divided on the basis of the extent of the group which shares the consensus view of sanctity. Recognizable levels include international, national, regional, community, neighborhood and individual sacred space. The Mormon culture was used as a basis to test the validity of the proposed typology through use of two questionnaires administered to Mormons. The first questionnaire was an open-ended survey to determine all important regions which were recognized as sacred. The second questionnaire was then prepared which required respondents to rank 15 sacred sites or regions in terms of their sanctity. An analysis of the responses indicates that those sites which are perceived as most sacred are mystico-religious sites where Mormons believe contact occurs between divine powers and man. The next level of sanctity was applied to homelands. The recognized homelands include Utah and Jackson County, Missouri which the Mormons view as a promised land. The third and lowest level of sacred space includes sites of historical importance to Mormons.     

The Sacred Stays Central

Abstract

The Nation came to replace God as the ultimate source of political authority in Europe by a somewhat complex path. This complexity can be clarified by examining the role that agency played in early modern political theories. One strand of seventeenth-century political theory, exemplified by Thomas Hobbes, sought to transform the active God of the sixteenth century into a passive and distant observer. Somewhat simultaneously, the People were made active agents in the derivation of political authority by John Locke and the theorists of another strand of political theory. The eighteenth-century saw authors like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Herder weave together the changes made in each of these seventeenth-centuries strands into a theory of political authority that depended on the Nation. An examination of the process by which the theoretical source of political authority passed from God to the Nation in the early modern period of Europe reveals that society continued to require and rely upon a “sacred center,” a transcendent source of political credibility.