ABSTRACT
THE common impression of Fijian village life is one of simple adjustment and lack of tension based upon the sharing of easily satisfied goals. The Fijians live in one of the most equable and
fruitful of Oceanic climates, with just enough variation in temperature to prevent debilitating monotony, lacking malaria and many other vicious tropical diseases (though they must contend with hookworm, filariasis, and some parasites), and with a variety of food resources that would make the representative of many another South Sea Island community think that he had stumbled upon paradise. Upon this undemanding base, Fijian society has built a culture rich in ceremonial and traditional precedent which, so the theory would run, solves any problems which might be created by the devil in man, providing a calmness and lack of tension which indicates that society and environment are in gentle harmony.
