Summarizing Kaplan, M. (2008). Fijian Water in Fiji and New York: Local Politics and a Global Commodity. Cultural Anthropology, 22(4), 685–706. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.2007.22.4.685.
Kaplan explores what water means in two different places–one, in Fiji, and two, in New York. The insight, however, comes from the fact that it is the same water in two places–Fijian water. Kaplan shows how in each place, Fijian water means something different. This perspective-based (or place-based) insight (if you’re in New York the water means something different than if you’re in Fiji) helps us to understand that our knowledge of water and what it means should be tied to a sense of place
Kaplan lays out the history of Fiji’s colonization leading up to the present and how that relates to its water export in the form of Fiji Water, a luxury water brand sold internationally. There is a complicated colonial history and post-colonial present in Fiji involving multi-national corporations, conceptions of indigenousness, and material concerns of indigenous people living and working on the island, including the loss of land.
On one hand, water was used in a ceremony by indigenous people on the island to help them resist the colonial efforts of the British, and Christianization. A chief on the Western side of the island used water to draw a connection to gods to help them fight against the British, Christianized groups on the eastern side, and also the British themselves.
On the other, today water is taken from underground reservoirs by the Fiji Water business on “national land,” or land owned by the national government. On the island, this is a major business that has both subjected others to and been the subject of violence. The use of the land by the Fiji Water company is sometimes contested and can be tense, and can be related to both colonial history and tensions between various groups on the island. It has also provided jobs and investment in the area.
This is in tension with how Fijian water is understood in its export markets, like New York. In these markets, Fiji Water is marketed primarily through its connection to “nature.” Kaplan explains how through nature, ideas about sexuality, health, and, ultimately colonialism are linked to Fiji Water. The labeling and advertising invite the consumer to be literally the first to “touch” the water, thanks to their unique system for drawing the water up from the ground. Thus we can see a connection to sexuality, and also to colonialism, and ideas about nature as virginal and unspoiled. Ultimately, in New York, Fijian water is tied to commodification and consumerism.
While there are linkages between the two meanings (colonialism, commodities, markets), it is clear that there are also differences between what Fijian water means in each location. This helps us to understand that water’s meanings are deeply tied to where it is being used, and where it is from, and more generally, points toward the idea that in order to understand water we should understand water’s geography.
Cultural Water Studies 