Aphrodite’s Island: The European Discovery of Tahiti - Hardcover

Salmond, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520261143 ISBN 13: 9780520261143

Publisher: University of California Press, 2010

Synopsis

Aphrodite's Island is a bold new account of the European discovery of Tahiti, the Pacific island of mythic status that has figured so powerfully in European imaginings about sexuality, the exotic, and the nobility or bestiality of savages.” In this groundbreaking book, Anne Salmond takes readers to the center of the shared history to furnish rich insights into Tahitian perceptions of the visitors while illuminating the full extent of European fascination with Tahiti. As she discerns the impact and meaning of the European effect on the islands, she demonstrates how, during the early contact period, the mythologies of Europe and Tahiti intersected and became entwined. Drawing on Tahitian oral histories, European manuscripts and artworks, collections of Tahitian artifacts, and illustrated with contemporary sketches, paintings, and engravings from the voyages, Aphrodite's Island provides a vivid account of the Europeans' Tahitian adventures. At the same time, the book's compelling insights into Tahitian life significantly change the way we view the history of this small island during a period when it became a crossroads for Europe.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"This book offers a fresh history of early Tahiti, considerably richer than any published before, imaginative in its speculations around local cosmology and local meanings, but also precise in its reconstruction of the political relationships that evolved with the early visits of the British, French, and Spanish. Important and revelatory." —Nicholas Thomas, author of Cook: The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook

"The interpretive skills Salmond has brought to this project are truly remarkable, and she tells a complex and consequential story with clarity, élan, and insight." —Don Brenneis, author of Law and Empire in the Pacific: Fiji and Hawai'i

About the Author:

Anne Salmond is Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Among her books are Two Worlds: First Meetings between Maori and Europeans 1642-1772 and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0520261143
• ISBN 13: 9780520261143
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 544