Empirical Evidence: Anglo-American Race, Literature, and History

JEMCS 1.2 (Fall/Winter 2001) EmpiricalEvidence:Anglo-American Race, Literature, and History JonesDeRitter MartinDaunton and Rick Halpera, eds., Empire and Others: British Encounters withIndigenous Peoples,1600-1850. Philadelphia :University ofPennsylvania Press,1999. 400 pp. $24.95 p/b. Joe Snader,Caught BetweenWorlds: British Captivity NarrativesinFactand Fiction.Lexington: University PressofKentucky , 2000. 339 pp. $34.95. RoxannWheeler,TheComplexionofRace : Categories ofDifference inEighteenth-Century BritishCulture . Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press,2000. 371 pp. $65.00; $26.50 p/b. Joshua David Bellin,TheDemon oftheContinent: Indiansand theShapingofAmerican Literature. Philadelphia:University ofPennsylvania Press,2001. 274 pp. $49.95; $24.95 p/b. in 1992,Princeton anthropologist GananathObeyesekere sparkeda fascinating controversy bypublishing TheApotheosis ofCaptainCook,a bookthatdisputedtheconventional view thatthefamousexplorer had beenkilledbyHawaiianislanders because theymistookhis arrivalforthereturnofthesun-god Lono. Todebunkwhatheconsidered tobe a pernicious imperialistmyth , Obeyesekere examinednotonlyHawaiianaccountsof Cook's deathand Tahitianstoriesofroughly contemporaneous encounters withCook,butalso thediariesofBritish sailors,some ofwhomexpresseddoubtsaboutthementalstateoftheircommanderduringthemonthsleadingup to his return to Hawaii. After theAmerican Society ofEighteenth-Century Studiesawarded their prestigious Gottschalk PrizetoObeyesekere's book,theeminent University of Chicago anthropologist Marshall Sahlins weighed inwith a short bookthatsharply criticized Obeyesekere's methods and assumptions andreaffirmed theclaimthattheHawaiiansbelievedCookwas a god. DeRitter 125 According toObeyesekere, bythetimehe returned toHawaii, Cookhadbecomearbitrary, irrational, andviolent. TheHawaiians recognized this,andbecausethey feared thathewas abouttoput thefirepower oftheH.M.S. Resolution at theserviceofhis rage, theylauncheda kindofpre-emptive strikeagainsthim. In response ,Sahlinsarguedessentially thatno anthropologist should attribute political pragmatism ofthissorttoa tribal society with no prior experience of Enlightenmentrationalism, and that Obeyesekere's refusal toaccepttheCook-as-Lono thesisamounted toa refusal toacceptthefundamental differences between theconceptualsystems oftheHawaiiansand theEnglish. ThequestionattheheartoftheCookcontroversy - didindigenous peoplesemploy theirownversionofthesame pragmatic politicalcalculus used bytheirEuropeancolonizers, ordiddifferent customs,experiences, and cosmologiescreatesubstantially different rationalities as well? - reverberates ininteresting waysthroughout Martin Dauntonand RickHalpern'srecent collectionofessays . Empireand Otherscontainseighteenpieces thatwereoriginally presented at a 1998conference thatbrought together forthefirst timetheNeale Colloquiumin BritishHistory and theCommonwealth FundColloquiuminAmerican History .After a brief introduction andvaluableoverviews provided byC. J. Baylyand PhilipMorgan,theremaining essays cover topicsranging from theseventeenth tothenineteenth centuries, and from theeasternhalfofNorth AmericatotheCape ofGood Hopeand NewSouthWales. One ofthe highlights ofthe collectionis PeterWay's"The cutting edgeofculture:British soldiersencounter Native Americans in theFrenchand IndianWar." Way'sgoal is tooutlinea culturalhistory oftheBritish Army ineighteenth-century North America,and he providesa remarkable surveyofthedifferent experiences andethnicities thatcameintoplaywhenBritish regulars ,American militiamen, andnativealliesand antagonists met intheforests ofNewYorkand Pennsylvania.Steering carefully aroundtheclicheofthe"bloodthirsty savage,"Waynotesthat boththeIndiansand their Anglo-American opponentsused tortureand disfigurement ofcorpsesto controlprisonersand demoralizetheirenemies ,and offers severalexamplesto demonstratethateighteenth -century ScottishHighlandersand Londonerswhohad watchedpublicexecutionsat Tyburn couldbe no less savage thantheirIroquoisantagonists. Whether such behaviorscan be consideredalwaysorfully rationalis open to question,butWayclearlydemonstrates thatbothsides in the SevenYearsWarunderstood theefficacy ofterror. 126 TheJournal forEarly Modern Cultural Studies In The genocidepolicyin English-Karifuna relationsin the seventeenth century," Hilary Becklesexaminesthelongconflict between Caribbean tribal peoplesandtheir Spanish,thenFrench, thenEnglishinvaders. Beckles shows howthe Karifunaand theirsuccessors the Garifuna(a mixed-blood groupincluding bothCaribbeannativesandescapedAfrican slaves)successfully playedtheEuropeanpowersagainstoneanother tocreatesome breathing space for themselves.Forthosefamiliar withthework ofFrancisJennings andDanielRichter, thesimilarity totheseventeenth and eighteenth-century Iroquoisforeign policyis unmistakable . Of course, one mightargue that it was the fundamental sameness ofthecolonizers'behavior - theirnearlyunanimous contempt fornativecustomsand concerns,theirinsatiabledemands forland, labor,and naturalresources - thatprompted similarresponsesfrom theseverydifferent cultures. Severalof these essays show British,Anglo-American, Anglo-Caribbean, Anglo-African, and Anglo-Australian colonial administrators struggling to imposeevena modicumofrestraint on speculators ,planters,farmers, and ranchers,onlytogivein at last to pressures theycould not control. In this respect,Heather Goodall'saccountofthemaltreatment ofthe Pikampulin the settling ofQueenslandand NewSouthWalesduringthe 1840s resembles Andrew Bank'sdiscussionofthemaltreatment ofthe Xhosa in nineteenth-century South Africa, whichin turnresemblesJeanO 'Brien'sdescription ofthecollapseoftheefforts toestablishfreeIndiantownsineighteenth-century Massachusetts . In each ofthesesituations, increasingly racistideologies ledmoreorless inevitably toincreasingly oppressive policiesas thecolonizersabandonedtheirprofessed willingness to accept indigenouspeoplesas fullmembers ofa newblendedculture. Othervaluable essays in thiscollection addresstheroleof religion in generaland Protestant missionaries in particular in thesedifferent processes. Perhapsthebestpiecesofthisgroup belongto Louise Breen,whotracksthedifficulties encountered byDanielGookin inhisefforts toestablisheconomic connections and cultural detente between theMassachusettsBayColony and theChristian Indianson Martha'sVineyard; andAndrew Porter, whoexplainswhatnineteenth-century British missionary societies thought theyhad learnedfrom theirefforts toconvert North American natives,and howtheysoughtto applythoselessons whenthey expanded their proselytizing efforts intotheSouthSeas. JoeSnader'sCaughtBetweenWorlds is concerned primarily withthekindsofconversions thatthreatened tomoveindividual DeRitter 127 Englishsubjectsawayfrom Christianity and Europeancivility toward competing and allegedly inferior cultures. In an erudite and wide-ranging discussion,Snader surveysfactualand fictionalcaptivity and transculturation narratives from theMediterranean , Africa, theAmericas, and thePacificRimin orderto arguethatthisratherbroadlyconceivedgenreshouldbe considereda neglected antecedent totheeighteenth-century realisticEnglishnovel . Snaderis at hisbestwhenhe provides subtle andinteresting readings ofBritish captivity andtransculturation narratives thatwereconcernedwithNorth African and Pacific Rimcultures. He is somewhatless successfulwhenhe triesto integrate American narratives aboutthesetopicsintohis larger interpretive framework. InhisIntroduction, Snadercriticizes several...