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ISLANDERS, PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES, AND TRADITIONS REGARDING THE PAST IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY POLYNESIA

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Smith, Tom 

Abstract

jats:titleABSTRACT</jats:title>jats:pIn this article, I consider Polynesian genealogies, which took the form of epic poems composed and recited by specialist genealogists, and were handed down orally through generations of Polynesians. Some were written down in the nineteenth century, reaching an English-speaking audience through a number of works largely neglected by historians. In recent years, some anthropologists have downplayed the possibility of learning anything significant about Polynesian thought through English-language sources, but I show that there is still fresh historical insight to be gained in demonstrating how genealogies came to interact with the traditions of outsiders in the nineteenth century. While not seeking to make any absolute claims about genealogy itself, I analyse a wide body of English-language literature, relating chiefly to Hawai‘i, and see emerging from it suggestions of a dynamic Polynesian oral tradition responsive to political, social, and religious upheaval. Tellingly, Protestant missionaries arriving in the islands set their own view of history against this supposedly irrelevant tradition, and in doing so disagreed with late nineteenth-century European and American colonists and scholars who sought to emphasize the historical significance of genealogy. Thus, Western ideas about history found themselves confounded and fragmented by Polynesian traditions.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

Journal Title

HISTORICAL JOURNAL

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0018-246X
1469-5103

Volume Title

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)