Trading nature : Tahitians, Europeans, and ecological exchange / Jenny Newell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Newell, Jennifer.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Animal introduction--French Polynesia--Tahiti (Island)--History.

Animal introduction.

Plant introduction--French Polynesia--Tahiti (Island)--History.

Plant introduction.

Tahiti (French Polynesia : Island)--Commerce--Europe--History.

Tahiti (French Polynesia : Island).

Europe--Commerce--French Polynesia--Tahiti (Island)--History.

Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 p.)

Other Title:

Tahitians, Europeans, and ecological exchange

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawai'i Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

When Captain Samuel Wallis became the first European to land at Tahiti in June 1767, he left not only a British flag on shore but also three guinea hens, a pair of turkeys, a pregnant cat, and a garden planted with peas for the chiefess Purea. Thereafter, a succession of European captains, missionaries, and others planted seeds and introduced livestock from around the world. In turn, the islanders traded away great quantities of important island resources, including valuable and spiritually significant plants and animals. What did these exchanges mean? What was their impact? The answers are often unexpected. They also reveal the ways islanders retained control over their societies and landscapes in an era of increasing European intervention. Trading Nature explores-from both the European and Tahitian perspective-the effects of "ecological exchange" on one island from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day.Through a series of dramatic episodes, Trading Nature uncovers the potency of trading in nature. In the interweavings of chiefly power, ordinary islanders, the ambitions of outsiders, transplanted species, and existing ecologies, the book uncovers the cultural and ecological impacts of cross-cultural exchange. Evidence of these transactions has been found in a rich variety of voyage journals, missionary diaries, Tahitian accounts, colonial records, travelers' tales, and a range of visual and material sources. The story progresses from the first trades on Tahiti's shores for provisions for British and French ships to the contrasting histories of cattle in Tahiti and Hawai'i. Two key exportations of species are analyzed: the great breadfruit transplantation project that linked Britain to Tahiti and the Caribbean and the politically volatile trade in salt-pork that ran between Tahiti and the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century. In each case, the author explores the long-term impacts of the exchanges on modern Tahiti.Trading Nature is a finely researched and entertaining work that will find a ready audience among those with an interest in the Pacific, ecological history, and the startling consequences of entangling people, plants, and animals on island shores.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1: "No Country More Capable": The Provisioning Trade in Tahiti

Chapter 2: Conceptual Landscapes

Chapter 3: Getting Captain Cook's Goat: And Other Tales of Ecological Introduction

Chapter 4: Chiefly Cattle

Chapter 5: Breadfruit Connections

Chapter 6: Pigs, Muskets, and A New Order

Conclusion

Appendix A: Timeline of Tahiti: Events, Ships, and Chiefs

Appendix B: A Survey of Species Introduced to the Society Islands 1767-1820s

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Aug 2019)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780824870744

0824870743

9780824837679

0824837673

9781441671219

1441671218

OCLC:

663886234