Lau - Sociopolitical Organization



Social Organization. Lauan society is characterized by an autocratic, stratified type of social organization with a close integration of the political, stratification, and kinship Systems. Notions of status and rank pervade all aspects of Lauan society and govern relations between individuals and social groups. In understanding Lauan society, it is important to bear in mind that Lauan culture reflects a fusion of three cultural traditions: early Polynesian, Melanesian, and Western Polynesian. Today, these traditions are reflected in the tripartite division among the land people, Nakauvandra people, and the Tongans or sea people. The land people were the earliest inhabitants of Lau. About ten generations ago, the ancestors of the Nakauvandra people immigrated to Lau and brought with them a highly organized and complicated System of social ranking that was reflected in their hierarchy of gods. The height of Tongan influence was in the mid-nineteenth century.

Political Organization. The chiefdom is the largest Political unit in Lau. It is made up of groups of islands or minor chiefdoms that are united in tributary relationships to the high chief at Lakemba. The minor chiefdoms are composed of villages, which were made up of hamlets in traditional times. The minor chiefdoms are ranked according to their Relationship to each other and to the high chief, and the Villages that make up the minor chiefdoms are ranked according to the status of the clans of which they are composed. Under British administration, village headmen were appointed by the colonial government. Today, Lauans participate in national politics, which are marked by ethnic-based rivalry Between native Fijians and Asian Indians and rivalries between different chiefdoms.

Social Control. The concepts of status and rank and associated behaviors, especially taboos on the objects and behaviors of the chiefs, were important ordering mechanisms in traditional times. At various times, the missionaries, Tongan chiefs, British officials, and clan alliances based on marriage have served as social-order mechanisms.

Conflict. Internal warfare evidently increased in frequency after the arrival of the Nakauvandra people and often Concerned intervillage and interclan competition for status and competition between nobles for power. Warfare generally took the form of surprise raids and ambushes with an emphasis on keeping one's own casualties to a minimum.

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