4 Leveraging Vanua: Metaphysics, Nature …
63
origin myths, like that of Degei.
3 Cosmology, then, is not just the scientific study of
the origins of the universe but also includes belief systems which straddle Nature, the
spirit and social worlds. The outer boundary of any cosmology is ultimately metaphysical because it hypothesises beyond the scope of scientific knowledge at any
given time rather than knowing through demonstration. At this edge cosmology is
speculative. Yet there is a stark contrast between the types of explanation available to
a cosmology in physics (Unger and Smolin 2015), between the evidentiary burden of
‘testable hypothesis’ and the epistemological limits of our empirical means for doing
so. Its search for ‘physical laws’ (i.e. universal truths) is akin to a first order principle of metaphysics and it is here that the need to explain meets assumptions that are
not yet explainable—the problem of infinite regress of causes or non-dependent First
Cause of the universe being the exemplar. Yet focusing on explanations of cosmology
is only one aspect of metaphysics. Of equal importance are the values and interests
that a community places around such understandings. Just as the physical conditions necessary for our existence impose a selection effect on what we observe as
cosmology, so too does the philosophical and cultural system influence how this is
interpreted and for what purposes. As stated by Nabobo-Baba (2006, p. 24) “knowing
and knowledge are not accultural, but are products of, and thus influenced by, particular cultures, and should be understood through research techniques which reflect
that culture.”
Our argument is focused on this cultural aspect of cosmology, the way in which
“metaphysics in practice” (Law and Lien 2018, p. 152) shapes climate adaptation
policy and the ways it could be aligned and enacted more effectively. The historical
context in which climate adaptation practice takes place is entangled with metaphysical understandings that reproduce a particular kind of message. Immanent to this
message is the positioning of humans, Nature and spirit (including religious belief).
To describe the genealogy of such entanglements is beyond the scope of this chapter.
The way that certain assumptions are instrumentalised in climate policy, however,
can be presented within examples of legislation (that we trace in section two).
When analysing the relation between metaphysics and Nature—and the community values/interests of these in the context of iTaukei peoples today—the scope of
research is obviously vast. Nevertheless, some relations between metaphysics and
iTaukei conceptions of Nature do stand out as paramount:
1. The interconnectivity and deep intersubjective relationalism between ancestors,
community, land, and spirit in the concept of vanua, and;
2. the relation between this traditional belief-system and the colonisation of this
metaphysics under a hegemonic Christian theology, and, colonial land-owning
system.
Studies have shown there is “considerable unanimity” on the understandings of
the postulates of pre-Colonial Fijian cosmology (Parke 2014, pp. 38–39), some
3 According to the myth The Great Serpent Degei was the the creator of the islands and people, and,
controlled aspects of natural process, for instance, day and night with the opening and closing of
his eyes or earthquakes (see Reed and Hames 1997).
63
origin myths, like that of Degei.
3 Cosmology, then, is not just the scientific study of
the origins of the universe but also includes belief systems which straddle Nature, the
spirit and social worlds. The outer boundary of any cosmology is ultimately metaphysical because it hypothesises beyond the scope of scientific knowledge at any
given time rather than knowing through demonstration. At this edge cosmology is
speculative. Yet there is a stark contrast between the types of explanation available to
a cosmology in physics (Unger and Smolin 2015), between the evidentiary burden of
‘testable hypothesis’ and the epistemological limits of our empirical means for doing
so. Its search for ‘physical laws’ (i.e. universal truths) is akin to a first order principle of metaphysics and it is here that the need to explain meets assumptions that are
not yet explainable—the problem of infinite regress of causes or non-dependent First
Cause of the universe being the exemplar. Yet focusing on explanations of cosmology
is only one aspect of metaphysics. Of equal importance are the values and interests
that a community places around such understandings. Just as the physical conditions necessary for our existence impose a selection effect on what we observe as
cosmology, so too does the philosophical and cultural system influence how this is
interpreted and for what purposes. As stated by Nabobo-Baba (2006, p. 24) “knowing
and knowledge are not accultural, but are products of, and thus influenced by, particular cultures, and should be understood through research techniques which reflect
that culture.”
Our argument is focused on this cultural aspect of cosmology, the way in which
“metaphysics in practice” (Law and Lien 2018, p. 152) shapes climate adaptation
policy and the ways it could be aligned and enacted more effectively. The historical
context in which climate adaptation practice takes place is entangled with metaphysical understandings that reproduce a particular kind of message. Immanent to this
message is the positioning of humans, Nature and spirit (including religious belief).
To describe the genealogy of such entanglements is beyond the scope of this chapter.
The way that certain assumptions are instrumentalised in climate policy, however,
can be presented within examples of legislation (that we trace in section two).
When analysing the relation between metaphysics and Nature—and the community values/interests of these in the context of iTaukei peoples today—the scope of
research is obviously vast. Nevertheless, some relations between metaphysics and
iTaukei conceptions of Nature do stand out as paramount:
1. The interconnectivity and deep intersubjective relationalism between ancestors,
community, land, and spirit in the concept of vanua, and;
2. the relation between this traditional belief-system and the colonisation of this
metaphysics under a hegemonic Christian theology, and, colonial land-owning
system.
Studies have shown there is “considerable unanimity” on the understandings of
the postulates of pre-Colonial Fijian cosmology (Parke 2014, pp. 38–39), some
3 According to the myth The Great Serpent Degei was the the creator of the islands and people, and,
controlled aspects of natural process, for instance, day and night with the opening and closing of
his eyes or earthquakes (see Reed and Hames 1997).