Logo Oapen
  • Search
  • Join
    • Deposit
    • For Librarians
    • For Publishers
    • For Researchers
    • Funders
    • Resources
    • OAPEN
    • For Librarians
    • For Publishers
    • For Researchers
    • Funders
    • Resources
    • OAPEN
    View Item 
    •   OAPEN Home
    • View Item
    •   OAPEN Home
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    First Contacts in Polynesia

    The Samoan Case (1722-1848) Western Misunderstandings about Sexuality and Divinity

    Thumbnail
    Download PDF Viewer
    Web Shop
    Author(s)
    Tcherk, Serge
    Language
    English
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    This book explores the first encounters between Samoans and Europeans up to the arrival of the missionaries, using all available sources for the years 1722 to the 1830s, paying special attention to the first encounter on land with the Lapérouse expedition. Many of the sources used are French, and some of difficult accessibility, and thus they have not previously been thoroughly examined by historians. Adding some Polynesian comparisons from beyond Samoa, and reconsidering the so-called ‘Sahlins-Obeyesekere debate’ about the fate of Captain Cook, ‘First Contacts’ in Polynesia advances a hypothesis about the contemporary interpretations made by the Polynesians of the nature of the Europeans, and about the actions that the Polynesians devised for this encounter: wrapping Europeans up in ‘cloth’ and presenting ‘young girls’ for ‘sexual contact’. It also discusses how we can go back two centuries and attempt to reconstitute, even if only partially, the point of view of those who had to discover for themselves these Europeans whom they call ‘Papalagi’. The book also contributes an additional dimension to the much-touted ‘Mead-Freeman debate’ which bears on the rules and values regulating adolescent sexuality in ‘Samoan culture’. Scholars have long considered the pre-missionary times as a period in which freedom in sexuality for adolescents predominated. It appears now that this erroneous view emerged from a deep misinterpretation of Lapérouse’s and Dumont d’Urville’s narratives.
    URI
    http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/33751
    Keywords
    history; customs; social life; samoan islands; foreign relations; europe; Bougainville Island; Ethnic groups in Europe; James Cook; Jean-François de Galaup; comte de Lapérouse; Polynesia; Polynesians; Tahiti
    DOI
    10.26530/OAPEN_459235
    ISBN
    9781921536021
    OCN
    964412330
    Publisher
    ANU Press
    Publisher website
    https://press.anu.edu.au/
    Publication date and place
    Canberra, 2008
    Classification
    History
    Anthropology
    Pages
    241
    Public remark
    Relevant Wikipedia pages: Bougainville Island - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_Island; Ethnic groups in Europe - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Europe; James Cook - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook; Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_de_Galaup,_comte_de_Lap%C3%A9rouse; Polynesia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia; Polynesians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesians; Samoa - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoa; Samoan language - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoan_language; Samoans - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoans; Tahiti - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahiti
    Rights
    http://press.anu.edu.au/about/conditions-use
    • Imported or submitted locally

    Browse

    All of OAPENSubjectsPublishersLanguagesCollections

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Export

    Repository metadata
    Logo Oapen
    • For Librarians
    • For Publishers
    • For Researchers
    • Funders
    • Resources
    • OAPEN

    Newsletter

    • Subscribe to our newsletter
    • view our news archive

    Follow us on

    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

    OAPEN is based in the Netherlands, with its registered office in the National Library in The Hague.

    Director: Niels Stern

    Address:
    OAPEN Foundation
    Prins Willem-Alexanderhof 5
    2595 BE The Hague
    Postal address:
    OAPEN Foundation
    P.O. Box 90407
    2509 LK The Hague

    Websites:
    OAPEN Home: www.oapen.org
    OAPEN Library: library.oapen.org
    DOAB: www.doabooks.org

     

     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Differen formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    A logged-in user can export up to 15000 items. If you're not logged in, you can export no more than 500 items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.