Hierarchy in the World of Fijian Children

Bibliographic Data

ID2733711
AuthorsKaren J Brison (corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume38
Issue2
Pages97
Publication date1999-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1828 • E-ISSN: 2160-3510
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3773978
OpenAlexW2800842630
LanguageEN
Citations received12

The A. argues that children in Rakiraki, Fiji, develop assumptions about social relations and styles of interaction in playing with other children which are different from those favored in adult life. Childhood experiences shape attitudes about gender and about hierarchy among adults that are at odds with public ideology in Fijian culture. Fijian culture stresses hierarchy based on relative age in which older and wiser people nurture and guide younger and less capable people. Children internalize these ideas but also develop an ambivalence about hierarchy due to tensions between children of different ages. Fijian culture segregates men and women and ranks most men higher than most women, but children play in mixed gender groups where boys and girls interact as equals. This produces a model of male and female equivalence among at least some adult women

Genealogy · Geography · Hierarchy · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law

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