Land tenure, competition and ecology in Fijian prehistory

How do prehistoric settlement patterns relate to competition for resources? The distribution of fortified and open sites provides one indication, but using an example from Fiji, the author shows that land holding recorded in historic times may also provide a fossil of earlier competition. Comparing the land parcels and the fortified sites with the ecological zones showed that it was the richer – but less reliable – lower parts of the Sigatoka valley that were most fought over, leaving a patchwork of small defended claims, while the upper areas supported larger, co-operative land units.