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In his ‘Preface’, regarded it as perfectly consistent with his
office, and compatible with its duties, to collect, as
opportunity offered, information on various subjects
relative to the country and its inhabitants.
these missionaries were
attempting to gather authenticated empirical proof of the
proposition that unredeemed human nature is a horrifying
mass of lust and wickedness.
(159)
The following work will exhibit numerous facts, which may justly be regarded as illustrating the essential characteristics of idolatry, and its influence on a people, the simplicity of whose institutions affords facilities for observing its nature and tendencies, which could not be obtained in a more advanced state of society.
All their usages of antiquity having been entirely superseded by the new order of things that has followed the subversion of their former system…. [T]o furnish, as far as possible, an authentic record of these, and thus preserve them from oblivion, is one design which the Author has always kept in view.
The desire to preserve them from oblivion
by implication acknowledges the validity of those cultures
despite their unredeemed status, and as such undermines
The portrait that
[R]emarkably curious and inquisitive, and, compared with other Polynesian nations, may be said to possess considerable ingenuity, mechanical invention, and imitation…. the distinguishing features of their civil polity—the imposing nature, numerous observances, and diversified ramifications of their mythology—the legends of their gods—the historical songs of their bards—the beautiful, figurative, and impassioned eloquence sometimes displayed in their national assemblies—and, above all, the copiousness, variety, precision, and purity of their language, with their extensive use of numbers—warrant the conclusion, that they possess no contemptible mental capabilities.
Most impressive to him is their numeracy, indicative of
higher reasoning powers: their extensive use of
numbers is astonishing, when we consider that their
computations were purely efforts of mind, unassisted by
books or figures.
figure[s] of boundless, exorbitant,
uncontrollable desires.
(160)the ear could not
listen to without pollution, presenting images, and
conveying sentiments, whose most fleeting passage through
the mind left contamination.
we have been unwilling to believe they had ever
been cannibals; the conviction of our mistake has, however,
been impressed by evidence so various and multiplied, as to
preclude uncertainty.
a sort
of strolling players, and privileged libertines, who spent
their days in travelling from island to island, and from one
district to another, exhibiting their pantomimes, and
spreading a moral contagion throughout society.
In some of their meetings, they appear to have placed their invention on the rack, to discover the worst pollutions of which it was possible for man to be guilty, and to have striven to outdo each other in the most revolting practices…. I should not have alluded to them, but for the purpose of shewing the affecting debasement, and humiliating demoralization, to which ignorance, idolatry, and the evil propensities of the human heart, when uncontrolled or unrestrained by the institutions and relations of civilized society and sacred truth, are capable of reducing mankind, even under circumstances highly favourable to the culture of virtue, purity, and happiness.
The fact that such “revolting practices” can occur within
a climate that might be thought to encourage “virtue,
purity, and happiness” allows
I should not have dwelt so long on the distressing facts that have been given, but to exhibit in the true, though by no means strongest colours, the savage character and brutal conduct of those, who have been represented as enjoying, in their rude and simple state, a high degree of happiness, and cultivating all that is amiable and benevolent.
In this way, the emergent scientific discourse of ethnographic observation is yoked not only to Evangelical theology but also to wider racial debates.
As well as detailing the usages of
antiquity
,
All that the settlers ever desired was, the permanent occupation of the ground on which their dwellings and gardens were situated; yet, in writing to the Society, in
1804 , they remark, in reference to the district, “The inhabitants do not consider the district, nor any part of it, as belonging to us, except the small sandy spot we occupy with our dwellings and gardens; and even as to that, there are persons who claim the ground as theirs.” Whatever advantages the king or chiefs might expect to derive from this settlement on the island, they were not influenced by any desire to receive general or religious instruction.
Those gardens became a further symbol of the disruption
of their expectations, as the missionaries sought to
establish the plants that were to be at the forefront of
their civilising efforts. Wheat grew well but produced no
grain, while potatoes deteriorated when replanted the next
season and the coffee and the cashew-nuts were totally
destroyed by the goats, which, leaping the fence one day, in
a few minutes ate up the plants on which I had bestowed much
care.
[The Missionaries] had no elementary books to consult, no preceptors to whom they could apply, but were frequently obliged, by gestures, signs, and other contrivances, to seek the desired information from the natives; who often misunderstood the purport of their questions, and whose answers must, as often, have been unintelligible to the Missionaries.
Nevertheless,
A short time before sun-set, Patii appeared, and ordered his attendants to apply fire to the pile. This being done, he hastened to the sacred depository of his gods, brought them out, not indeed as he had been on some occasions accustomed to do, that they might receive the blind homage of the waiting populace,—but to convince the deluded multitude of the impotency and the vanity of the objects of their adoration and their dread…. Patii tore off the sacred cloth in which they were enveloped, to be safe from the gaze of vulgar eyes; stripped them of their ornaments, which he cast into the fire; and then one by one threw the idols themselves into the crackling flames…. Thus were the idols which Patii, who was a powerful priest in Eimeo, had worshipped, publicly destroyed.
Such actions bring the missionaries great joy, but prove
to have consequences beyond their expectation. As The intimate connexion between the government
and their idolatry, occasioned the dissolution of the one,
with the abolition of the other; and when the system of
pagan worship was subverted, many of their ancient usages
perished in its ruins.
it appeared most important to impress the
minds of the people with the distinctness of a Christian
church from any political, civil, or other merely human
institution.
During many years of our residence in these islands, we most carefully avoided meddling with their civil and political affairs, except in a few instances, where we endeavoured to promote peace between contending parties. At present, however, it appears almost impossible for us, in every respect, to follow the same line of conduct…. The first code of laws was that enacted in
Tahiti in the year1819 ; it was prepared by the king and a few of the chiefs, with the advice and direction of the Missionaries, especially Mr. Nott, whose prudence and caution cannot be too highly spoken of, and by whom it was chiefly framed.
Such incidents suggest a fluctuation of authority — religious and social — between the two cultures that complicates what at first appearance seems a simple picture of colonialism. As with the image of the first communion, where a lack of wheat means that the bread is substituted with baked breadfruit, the missionaries at times appear threatened with the possibility that they might be changed as much by the encounter as the Polynesians.
Nevertheless,
The use of the press in the different islands, we naturally regard as one of the most powerful human agencies that can be employed in forming the mental and moral character of the inhabitants, imparting to their pursuits a salutary direction, and promoting knowledge, virtue, and happiness. It is not easy to estimate correctly the advantages already derived from this important engine of improvement.
Their use of writing to influence “the mental and moral character of the inhabitants” places the missionaries at the forefront of the colonial endeavour. When the halting means by which they first learnt to communicate with the Tahitians are recalled, it becomes apparent that controlling such an “engine of improvement” enabled a radical change of the missionaries’ status and ability to achieve cultural hegemony. This is illustrated by the changing status of indigenous women, whose newfound literacy is paralleled by a desire to adopt other practices that the missionaries deem appropriate for women:
The females, no longer exposed to that humiliating neglect to which idolatry had subjected them, enjoyed the comforts of domestic life, the pleasure resulting from the culture of their minds, the ability to read the scriptures, and to write in their own language, in which several excelled the other sex; they also became anxious to engage in employments which are appropriated to their own sex in civilized and Christian communities. They were therefore taught to work at their needle, and soon made a pleasing proficiency.
Not only does most formidable barriers to their
receiving our instructions, imbibing the spirit and
exhibiting the moral influence of religion, and advancing in
civilization
has been a lack of indigenous desire for
self-improvement:
The difficulties we encountered resulted not less from the inveteracy of their idle habits, than from the absence of all inducements to labour, that were sufficiently powerful to call into action their dormant energies. Their wants were few, and their desires limited to the means of mere animal existence and enjoyment; these were supplied without much anxiety or effort, and, possessing these, they were satisfied.
The attempts of the earliest missionaries to rouse them
from their abject and wretched modes of life, by advising
them to build more comfortable dwellings, to wear more
decent clothing, and to adopt, so far as circumstances would
admit, the conveniences and comforts of Europeans
were
frustrated by the sheer apathy and lack of concern of their
heathen audience. They furnish a
striking illustration of the sentiment, that to civilize a
people they must first be christianized; that to attempt the
former without the latter, is like rearing a superstructure
without a foundation.
As a consequence, the Tahitian
converts are inculcated with a Protestant work ethic to the
effect that idleness, and irregular and debasing habits of
life, were as opposed to the principles of Christianity, as
to their own personal comfort
. Furthermore, to ensure its
long-term viability they establish consumerism upon the
island:
To increase their wants, or to make some of the comforts and decencies of society as desirable as the bare necessaries of life, appeared to us the most probable method of furnishing incitements to permanent industry.
Such confessions illustrate one of the greatest ironies
of
Provides a brief biography of
Online version of
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