Performing Masculinity Through Christian Devotion

Abstract

Although the academic research on religion in Fiji and the South Pacific is substantial, there are few examples of studies that connect religion with the larger discourses of Fijian tradition and social life. Even fewer are the ones linking culturally specific notions of gender performances to Christian devotion. By utilizing the theoretical framework of colonial mimicry,¹

1 The theory was proposed by Bhabha (2004).

I argue that the Christianization of Fiji, particularly its continued impact on the social organization of modern Fijian society, has been reliant upon its collusion with premodern Fijian notions of gender, power and consanguinity. Based on historical enquiries and ethnographic material, I develop the argument that while conversion may be understood as the conscious adoption and mimicking of the western notion of religion as presented by Wesleyan missionaries in the 1800s, the Fijian understanding of their Christianity, the merging between Christian belief and Fijian social protocol and the consequent development of culturally specific articulations of Christian devotion have produced substantial differences from western theological practice and teaching. A central distinction is the close link between performances of masculinity and Christian devotion found among Fijian Methodists.

• Christianity
• colonial mimicry
• Fiji
• masculinity
• Methodism
• postcolonialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The theory was proposed by Bhabha (2004).

2 Although two Tahitians put some Fijian islanders in contact with Christian texts and beliefs in 1825, it is the English Methodist missionaries David Cargill and William Cross, arriving from Tonga in 1835, who are widely credited with bringing Christianity to Fiji.

3 The Fijian Methodist Church, like the country at large, is multicultural in the sense that it has devotees from a great number of ethnic groups. This essay focuses on indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) respondents, and for its purposes the descriptive term ‘Fijian’ is used to describe indigenous Fijians.

4 Sahlins (1985, 39–40) argued Cakobau's conversion in 1854, which in turn spurred mass conversions among Fijian laity, was motivated largely by martial tactics and political concerns rather than spiritual awakening.

5 Owing to the collusion between the chiefly office of Ratu Seru Cakobau, what came to be officialized as Fijian custom was largely based on traditions and practices in eastern Fiji, particularly those of Bau.

6 Ryle (2010, 23–5) and Toren (1988, 709) argue many indigenous Fijians consider the dynamics of the yaqona circle to reflect and represent Christ's Last Supper.

7 This is documented in a number of studies on the early history of Fiji, most notably Garrett (1992) and Derrick (2008).

8 Mana has a variety of meanings which appeared to vary considerably according to context, often referring to mystical or supernatural power or spiritual phenomena. The usage applied here is common in anthropological literature, for instance in Dickhardt (2002) and Tomlinson (2004b), and finds support in the fact that the opposite of mana is understood as drevi, meaning ‘useless, inefficacious’.

9 There are of course substantial differences on many levels between how the various Christian denominations in Fiji practise their devotion (Ryle 2005, 2010; Newland 2013), but I argue that as well as being quantitatively dominant, Wesleyan religious practice has been the decisive power in reforming views on Fijian tradition and custom through its close links with the political and chiefly powerbase ever since Cakobau's conversion on 30 April 1854.

10 John Wesley's substantial production of hymns is evidence of this emphasis on hymn-singing as part of the religious experience central to the teachings and practices of Methodists. See Davies (1976, 83).

11 Respondents are referred to via pseudonyms.

12 This is in stark opposition to the teachings of a number of charismatic and Pentecostal movements in Fiji, which emphasize newness and Christianity as a rupture from the past. See Tomlinson (2013).

13 This is equally true for believers of other denominations (Ryle 2010; Aporosa 2011; Newland 2013; Tomlinson 2013).