Performing Masculinity: Body, Self and Identity in Modern Fiji

Geir Henning Presterudstuen provides an ethnographic account of how men in the multicultural urban centres of Fiji perceive, construct and perform masculinities in the context of rapid social change. Theoretically informed by critical feminist theories, postcolonialism, R.W. Connell's work on masculinities and a Bourdieuan conceptualization of the body, this book explores how notions of masculinity, manhood and the male body are shaped by the conflicting social forces of Fijian tradition, modernity, commercialization and urbanization. The book provides a timely intervention, from the grassroots level in the global south, into an ongoing discourse about men and masculinities that has long been dominated by voices from Europe and the US. Combining classic ethnography with innovative social analysis, Presterudstuen's book is suitable for students and academics with an interest in gender and social change, and for scholars across a variety of disciplines including anthropology, gender studies, sociology, pacific studies and international development.