From sugar cane to swords: Hope and the extensibility of the gift in Fiji

Abstract

Hope has recently emerged as an important subject of inquiry in anthropology and social theory. This article examines the hope entailed in efforts to extend aspects of gift-giving to various other social and theoretical projects. I identify and contrast two different kinds of hope found in these efforts, which I will call 'hope in an end' and 'hope in the means'. The discussion focuses on two extensions of indigenous Fijian gift-giving: John D. Kelly and Martha Kaplan's recent analysis of Indo-Fijian sugar cane farmers' 'gift' of cane to an indigenous Fijian high chief in 1944; and the Fiji government Ministry of Tourism's efforts in the mid-1990s to train indigenous Fijian souvenir traders in a properly 'Fijian' manner of engagement with tourists. With this contrast, I argue that 'hope in an end' occludes 'hope in the means'.