Nanaga Site of Wasavulu (Labasa, Fiji): Mapping of a Traditional Religious Site of Vanua Levu

Abstract

Pre-Christian religious sites of the Fijian Archipelago have been seldom studied and even less often mapped by archaeologists. This is especially the case for the enigmatic Nanaga enclosures, whose functioning has remained poorly documented by the first ethnographers of the 19th century. This paper describes one of these sites, located near Labasa town in the northwestern plain of the large island of Vanua Levu. After presenting one of the oral traditions associated with some of the uprights of this Nanaga, exemplifying long-distance chiefly networks, we describe the different elements of the double alignment of low platforms and related structures. These data are discussed in the wider context of anthropological and archaeological information published about the Nanaga sites and the rituals associated with them.