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Publicity, privacy, and “happy deaths” in Fiji
Author(s) -
TOMLINSON MATT
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.2007.34.4.706
Subject(s) - publicity , nexus (standard) , narrative , reading (process) , circulation (fluid dynamics) , sociology , history , political science , law , literature , art , engineering , aerospace engineering , embedded system
In this article, I investigate death as a nexus around which public–private distinctions are made. An examination of Methodist missionary efforts at entextualizing “happy deaths” in 19th‐century Fiji shows how the missionaries both attempted to create a Christian reading public “back home” but also unintentionally helped create a new private zone of the demonic. I analyze the private demonic zone through the constricted circulation of particular narratives heard after the death of a high chief in 2003.