Abstract
Abstract
The third chapter gets deeper into the fourth spatiotemporal “slice” presented in chapter two: time as a marker of a kind of dignity. The ethnography discussed in this chapter comes from the Fijian chiefdom of Verata, where people take pride in the chiefdom’s association with slowness, preparedness, and dignity. However, the chapter does not argue that Verata is a polity of proud idlers. Instead, it invites the reader to reflect on a peripheral rural community that, in the Fijian scheme of things, resembles a labour reservoir more than the seat of ancient chiefly politics. The fact that Veratans are nonetheless able to hold such notions in the face of disapproval from better-off urban relatives – rather than experiencing their excess time as boredom, for example – is a small wonder in itself, even if rural Veratans are not able to hold up their alternate valuations of time beyond their own turf.