Basil Thomson’s The Fijians

Record summary

Although published in 1908, Basil Thomson’s The Fijians draws on colonial experience and records that extend into the nineteenth century. It discusses Fijian religious concepts, priestly authority, spirit beliefs, ritual practice, and the effects of colonial administration. The work is a useful adjacent lead for tracing how earlier descriptions of Pacific esotericism were systematized by colonial officials and later ethnographers. It can help identify names, institutions, and terminology for archival follow-up, but its retrospective and administrative character makes it unsuitable as an unfiltered account of precolonial traditions.