ABSTRACT
In Fiji, the drinking of yaqona is central to na cakacaka vakavanua (lit, 'work in the manner of the land') an expression which encompasses ritual and tradition. Yaqona is a mildly intoxicating but non-alcoholic drink made from the ground roots of Piper methysticum , commonly called 'kava' in other South Pacific countries. Hierarchy takes shape in the exchange relation of tribute and redistribution which in part constitutes chiefly power and authority. However, tribute and redistribution themselves rest on a transformation of balanced reciprocal exchange between people who are relating to one another as landspeople and sea-people, as men and women, or as affines. Yaqona is prepared by squeezing the pounded root through water to produce a pleasant, astringent and mildly intoxicating brew pharmacologically classified as a 'barbituric narcotic'. So the drinking of yaqona is, under any circumstances, hedged about by ceremony.
