ABSTRACT

AMAJOR difficulty which confronts Fijians in the present state of communications and organization is to ensure smooth co-ordination. Once labour has assembled at a given time and place, co-ordination

of an enterprise is achieved with remarkable effectiveness. The outsider, seeing vast numbers of men working on well-differentiated jobs during the construction of a major house, will often wonder at the sources of authority and co-ordination, since seldom is authority evident through visible or audible signs. Those who handle authority do not lounge about as overt foremen, or shout orders autocratically. In many cases jobs are distributed through concensus arrived at in discussion, around a yaqona bowl, or as the job proceeds. The same applies to the co-ordination of ritual on ceremonial occasions.