Sherds of Paradise: Domestic Archaeology and Ceramic Artefacts from a Protestant Mission in the South Pacific

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Flexner ◽  
Andrew C. Ball
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The South ◽  
British Identity ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Remote Location ◽  
Pastoral Landscapes ◽  
Full Conversion ◽  
Cultural Interactions

Postmedieval protestant missionaries working in exotic locations used objects both as a marker of their own ‘civilisation’ in contrast to that of the local populations and as a means of engaging these communities with Christianity. European things were displayed and conspicuously used to encourage a consumer mindset and interest in capitalism, thought to be crucial steps on the path to full conversion. Excavations at a Presbyterian mission house on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, recovered a remarkable assemblage of nineteenth-century British-made transfer-printed ceramics for such a remote location. These objects reflect multiple, complex meanings including performance of a ‘civilised’ British identity, romanticized ideals of pastoral landscapes, and conceptions of death and rebirth in the afterlife. These meanings were complicated by the context of cross-cultural interactions that were necessary to the missionary project.

The Transition to Christianity in the South Pacific

1946 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 101-120
Author(s):  
W. P. Morrell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Native Peoples ◽  
Christian Missionary ◽  
Missionary Societies

Though the operations of the Christian missionary societies in the nineteenth century are in a general way well known, very rarely do we find a satisfying account of the transition among the native peoples of the mission fields from their old magico-religious beliefs to Christianity. The histories of the missionary societies are full and well documented, but they take too much for granted. The anthropologists give us ideas for which we must be grateful, but we cannot expect them to do the historian's work for him. And surely this subject is of general historical interest.

Traditionalism and mental health in the South Pacific: a re-examination of an old hypothesis

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. B. M. Murphy ◽  
B. M. Taumoepeau
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South

SYNOPSISNineteenth-century theory held that mental disorder was rare in stable, traditional rural societies. Today most societies are rapidly changing, but Tonga still fits that model and the evidence suggests that the psychoses are genuinely infrequent there. It is proposed that both the theory and the evidence deserve further examination.

Mathematics in Tribal Philippines and Other Societies in the South Pacific

2001 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-55
Author(s):  
Queena N. Lee-Chua
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Mathematics Textbooks ◽  
The South ◽  
Magic Squares ◽  
History Of ◽  
Greek Geometry

Many history-of-mathematics textbooks begin with the four ancient centers of civilization: Egypt, with its pyramids and Rhind papyri; Babylon, with its cuneiform blocks and sexagesimal system; China, with its magic squares and arithmetic classics; and India, with its Sanskrit manuscripts and numeral system. The focus then shifts chronologically to Greek geometry, Arab algebra, Renaissance calculus, nineteenth-century specializations, and finally, the technologically aided wonders of our present age.

The Settlements of the Beauly-Wick Coast and the Historiography of the Moray Firth

2016 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Worthington
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
The South ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Moray Firth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Interactions

Narrow strips of sea do not always function as ‘chokepoints’ for the communities that live around them. This article interrogates the historiography of the ‘corridors’ of the Moray Firth region, taken here to be inclusive of the Dornoch Firth, the Cromarty Firth and the inner Moray Firth, and incorporating the Inverness, Kessock and Beauly Firths. Although public and private bodies use the term ‘Moray Firth’ frequently, with few exceptions historians have refrained from doing so. The settlements of the northerly part of the coast, in particular, have been poorly represented in the region's historiography, a theme interrogated in the first section of the article. Social and cultural interactions across the firth are explored, drawing specifically on the history of seven settlements around the Beauly-Wick edge: Pictish Portmahomack, Norse Dingwall, the medieval burgh and pilgrimage site of Tain, early modern Dornoch, nineteenth-century Wick and the modern industrial centres of Invergordon and Nigg. These communities interacted with others situated on the coast to the south. The article concludes by proposing several new questions and approaches for future historical writing on the Moray Firth.

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