TY - BOOK ID - 8430167 TI - "First contacts" in Polynesia : the Samoan case (1722-1848) : Western misunderstandings about sexuality and divinity PY - 2008 SN - 1921536012 1921536020 9781921536021 9781921536014 PB - Canberra ANU Press DB - UniCat KW - History & Archaeology KW - Regions & Countries - Australia & Pacific Islands - Oceania KW - Samoan Islands KW - Europe KW - Foreign relations KW - History. KW - Social life and customs. KW - Navigators Islands KW - Samoa Islands KW - Samoan Archipelago KW - Council of Europe countries KW - Islands of the Pacific KW - Polynesia KW - Eastern Hemisphere KW - Eurasia KW - History KW - Anthropology KW - history KW - customs KW - social life KW - samoan islands KW - foreign relations KW - europe KW - Bougainville Island KW - Ethnic groups in Europe KW - James Cook KW - Jean-François de Galaup KW - comte de Lapérouse KW - Polynesians KW - Tahiti UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:8430167 AB - 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. ER -