Anthropological records, v. 20, no. 1

A Racial Study of the Fijians

This paper concerns itself with a physical survey of the native male population of Fiji. The main objective is a description of these people by means of anthropometric procedure.[1] The treatment includes, first, a description of the Fijians as a whole, second, a comparison with neighboring people, and third, regional differences among the Fijians themselves. The data used in this survey were secured in 1954 during a stay of seven months in Fiji. My plan was to obtain anthropometric samples from several parts of the archipelago; this plan was only slightly altered as time and transportation facilities directed. Each of the three main administrative districts into which the islands are divided were visited and within each district samples were secured from most of the constituent provinces. The original sample consisted of 880 subjects. Later, 65 subjects were excluded for various reasons: some were part Samoan or Tongan, a few were Rotumans, and others were immature. The number finally used stands at 815. A limited amount of comparative material has been included in order to help locate the Fijians in the overall Pacific picture. These data were drawn from W. W. Howells, "Anthropometry and Blood Types in Fiji and the Solomon Islands" in The American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, volume 33, part 4, 1933, and from L. R. Sullivan, "A Contribution to Tongan Somatology" based on the field studies of E. W. Gifford and W. C. McKern, in Memoires of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, volume 8, number 4, 1922. The latter report provides comparison with what may be termed western Polynesians who are also the nearest Polynesians to the Fijians. The Fijian data in Howell's paper make it possible for me to check some of my own Fijian material, and the Solomon Island data in the same report provide a Melanesian measuring stick. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 39140
Author: Gabel, Norman E.
Release Date: Mar 14, 2012
Format: eBook
Language: English