ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a variety of verbal interaction, glossed as "gossip," in a Fiji Indian rural village. This type of talk, labeled in village Hindi by the Fijian loan word talanoa, is one way of speaking within the larger domain of batch ("conversation" or "discussion"). The generally egalitarian nature of social life in Bhatgaon has a counterpart in the relatively equal opportunity of all villagers to pursue knowledge, both sacred and secular. Most talanoa sessions take place in the early evening when the day's work is completed and village men sit with a few friends or kinsmen and drink yaqona, a beverage made from the roots of the Piper methysticum tree and frequently referred to as "grog." Gossip necessarily involves the gossipers in two simultaneous social relationships: with each other and with the subjects of their talk. The chapter concludes to explore the relationships between the formal features of talanoa and these two social dimensions.
