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Gone Native in Polynesia Captivity Narratives and Experiences from the South Pacific
(Click to Enlarge)
I C. Campbell
ISBN: 0-313-30787-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-30787-4
208 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 8/30/1998
List Price: $115.00 (UK Sterling Price: £79.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: Campbell presents a study of the lives and experiences of Europeans and Americans in the age of early industrial overseas expansions, who became detatched from their own societies and lived, sometimes for many years, among Pacific Islanders as integrated members of their communities, often with little hope of returning home and frequently with no wish to do so. As engaging as primitivism was to European philosophers, the realities of contact between seafarers and islanders who faced previously unimagined technological and human marvels were much more pragmatic. Jealousy, ethnocentrism, and violence on both sides competed with humanitarian interests and indigenous hospitality to shape the emerging pattern of relationships.

At first, Europeans crossed the oceans only for compelling reasons: the passion for scientific research, the dedication to Christian evangelism, or the uncompromising profit motive. Later, settlers and government officials followed in the wake of these early explorers. Scattered in the interstices of contact relationships were large numbers of men whose interest was not in changing native society or profiting from it, but in experiencing primitive life and simply surviving itself. These men included castaways and deserters, some abandoned by their captains and others kidnapped by the islanders. Their prospects depended on their successful integration into Polynesian society—and in making themselves useful by applying European knowledge and skills to local situations and by mediating between islanders and their insistent visitors.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Culture Contact and Polynesia
    Men in the Margins of Culture Contact
    Early European Activity in Polynesia
    Polynesian Society and Politics in the Early Contact Period
    Captivity Narratives
    Prologue
    James Morrison of Tahiti
    Peter Hagerstein of Tahiti
    Edward Robarts of Marquesas
    William Torrey of Marquesas
    John Young of Hawai'i
    George Vason of Tonga
    William Mariner of Tonga
    James Read of Tonga
    David Whippy of Fiji
    John Twyning of Fiji, Wallis and Futuna
    William Diaper the Wanderer
    Captivity Experiences
    Becoming a Beachcomber
    Becoming a Polynesian
    The Immigrant's Role
    Cultural Modifiers
    Beachcombers and the World
    Epilogue: Beachcombers and History
    Select Bibliography
    Index
About the Author: I. C. CAMPBELL teaches Pacific History and World History at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He developed an empathy for the Pacific Islands from childhood experiences there and has been interested in race relations, culture contact and colonialism ever since. He is the author of A History of the Pacific Islands (1989) and Island Kingdom: Tonga Ancient and Modern (1992).
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