George K Behlmer

Risky Shores

Savagery and Colonialism in the Western Pacific

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

George K. Behlmer is Professor of History at the University of Washington.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 360
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. Juli 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 236mm x 157mm x 28mm
• Gewicht: 703g
• ISBN-13: 9781503604926
• ISBN-10: 1503604926
• Artikelnr.: 48862332

Autorenporträt

George K. Behlmer is Professor of History at the University of Washington.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: The Protean Savage
chapter abstract
The killing of Captain James Cook on a Hawaiian beach in 1779 marked the
end of a heralded set of voyages and the start of a close association
between Oceania and human savagery. "Savagery," in fact, was the idea that
connected most forms of spectacular violence. From their strangling of
widows to their smothering of babies, from their incessant headhunting to
their endemic cannibalism, western Pacific peoples appeared to embody
barbarism more completely than any other "race" on earth. What European
visitors to Melanesia rarely stopped to consider, though, was that the
barbarism on display in these maligned islands often functioned as an
expression of indigenous agency. Viewed instrumentally, then, Islander
"atrocities" could serve both to warn away white strangers and demonstrate
their superiority over rival tribes.
1Island Stories of the Cannibal Kind
chapter abstract
Today, most anthropologists, literary critics, and cultural historians
agree that "ritual" cannibalism-man-eating for reasons other than
survival-was quite rare in the past. This was decidedly not the belief of
reading audiences in nineteenth-century Britain and her settler colonies.
On the contrary, "cannibal" became a proxy word for "savage," whereas the
phrase "cannibal isles" served to locate western Pacific peoples in an
undifferentiated sea of depravity. Especially during the Victorian era, a
steady stream of missionary reports, naturalists' notes, and travel
narratives kept the phenomenon of man-eating constantly before a
sensation-hungry public. Indeed, the "cannibal" label was applied
indiscriminately to all sorts of offenders, from drunks who bit one another
in pub brawls to carnivores who ridiculed vegetarian diets.
2Missionary Martyrs of Melanesia
chapter abstract
To Victorian moralists, the deaths of those who obeyed a higher justice
were lamentable yet essential. In the missionary field above all, the
"martyrdom" of proselytizing Christians helped both to sanctify their work
on the edges of empire and to open purses back home. The "cannibal isles"
of the western Pacific supplied the nineteenth century's most poignant
missionary deaths. The murders there of three Protestant martyrs-John
Williams, Thomas Baker, and John Coleridge Patteson-did instantiate the
savagery of Melanesian "natives." But to depict these missionaries as
agents of the colonial state is to misunderstand how they approached
hazardous frontiers.
3Indentured Labor and the White Savage
chapter abstract
Although religious propaganda stressed the degraded ignorance of those
Pacific Islanders who lashed out against missionaries, traders, and
planters, a close examination of these attacks reveals their basic
rationality. A full generation after Britain had abolished slavery in her
colonies, renegade "white savages" were conducting a brutal trade in the
western Pacific that proved very difficult for the Royal Navy to police.
This trade, commonly called "blackbirding," repulsed such Victorian
luminaries as Gladstone, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Queen herself. But
in one trial after another, prosecutors found that meeting the legal
standard for "kidnapping" was a daunting task. Not until 1907 did
legislation finally close the legal loopholes that had allowed
labor-recruiting vessels in Melanesian waters to mock the notion of British
colonial benevolence.
4The Twilight of Headhunting
chapter abstract
A staple of Victorian adventure stories as well as an arresting subject for
the new discipline of anthropology, headhunting was arguably the most
exotic of savage customs. But in Melanesia, and especially around the great
lagoons that dot the western half of the Solomon archipelago, headhunting
possessed few romantic associations. The formidable tomako (an oceangoing
war canoe) had long inspired dread among peaceful Islanders. Beginning
around 1880, however, European rifles enabled headhunting big-men such as
"Soga" and "Ingava" to wipe out entire settlements. The subsequent struggle
to pacify the Solomons demanded not only Royal Navy cannons but also
strategic bribes from colonial administrators.
5Among "Stone-Age" Savages
chapter abstract
The eradication of Solomon Island headhunting and Fijian cannibalism by the
start of the twentieth century cut two ways. For even as British traders
and colonial officials cheered the end of such savage practices, a eugenic
lament about the "loss of nerve" and a vanishing "will to fight" among
once-fierce Islanders grew widespread. This dying native discourse gave
rise, in turn, to a determined search for the last remaining "true"
savages. Among the homes of these reclusive folk, two earned fame during
the 1920s and 1930s: Malekula island in the northern New Hebrides, and the
vast highland interior of New Guinea. Purportedly survivals of the
Stone-Age, these peoples became the focus of Western theorizing about the
origins of violence among human groups.
Conclusion: Savage Inversions
chapter abstract
Victory in the Pacific theater of World War Two hinged on the control of
key islands. Enter what became known as the "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels." These
were Pacific Islanders whose "bushcraft" skills made them invaluable to the
Allied war effort. In the Solomons, for example, these scouts helped hound
the Japanese off Guadalcanal. The dramatic story of Jacob Vouza, hero to
both British "coastwatchers" and the U.S. Marines, inverted white
perceptions of Islander capacity.