In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

93 Aphrodite’s Island Sexual Mythologies in Early Contact Tahiti Anne Salmond In June 1767, the British ship Dolphin discovered Tahiti for Europe. Captain Wallis was on a voyage of exploration, searching for the Unknown Southern Continent. Although canoe travel linked this small Polynesian island to the archipelagoes around it, until that moment its people knew nothing of the wider world. Now this isolation was shattered as a succession of ships from France, Britain, and Spanish America began to anchor off the coast, and as the first vessel from each nation arrived, its officers landed and put up a flag or a cross, claiming Tahiti for their monarch. To these first Europeans the island seemed a paradise, with its volcanic mountains, encircling coral reefs, and luxuriant vegetation. For the sailors, much of its attraction lay with the island women, famed for their beauty, and Tahiti became a legendary haven. Matavai Bay in Tahiti. Credit: “A View of Matavai Bay in the Island of Otaheite” by William Hodges (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn.). 94 | Aphrodite’s Island In the beginning, however, the strangers were not welcomed but greeted with deep suspicion. The islanders had been forewarned about their arrival, and the prophecy was ominous. In about 1760, when marauding warriors had attacked Taputapuatea, the sacred temple of the war god ‘Oro, a priest named Vaita went into a trance and proclaimed that a new kind of people, coming on “a canoe without an outrigger,” would take over the land and change their lives forever. Thus when the Dolphin, a “canoe without an outrigger” appeared above the horizon, the Tahitian men approached the vessel fearfully and in a ritual fashion. A hundred or so canoes surrounded the ship, and a priest made a long speech before throwing a plantain branch in the ocean.1 After much hesitation some of these men climbed on board the ship, where they gazed about in amazement. When they began to snatch at the iron stanchions, a ninepound gun was fired, sending them scrambling overboard. The next day when the cutter was sounding the bay, a fleet of canoes attacked, pelting the crew with stones hurled from slingshots. In reprisal, the lieutenant fired at one of these men with buckshot, wounding him in the shoulder. Over the next few days there were further clashes, and a man was shot dead, to the amazement of his companions, indicating to the Tahitians that this strange vessel and its crew were imbued with ‘Oro’s power. Thunder and lightning were signs of the war god’s presence, and red was his sacred color; the gun carriages and scuppers on the Dolphin were painted red, while her marines wore scarlet coats, just as the high chiefs of Tahiti wore the maro ‘ura (red feather girdle). On the third day when the Dolphin’s boats went to fetch fresh water, the islanders decided to try another ploy, bringing down to the beach a number of “fine young girls,” who exposed themselves to the sailors. In times of war this was a hostile gesture, summoning up the power of the ancestor gods, but the British saw it differently. According to the ship’s master Robertson, “This new sight Atract our men’s fanc[y] a good dale, and the natives observed it, and made the Young Girls play a great many droll want[on] tricks, and the men made signs of friendship to entice our men ashoar, but they very prudently deferd going ashore, untill we turnd better acquanted with the temper of this people” (Robertson 1948: 148). This was wise, because as the boats put off, the women shouted loudly and pelted the sailors with Tahitian apples and bananas. That night Wallis put his men on alert, posting sentries about the ship and ordering the guns to be primed and loaded. The next morning while the Dolphin was being warped into Matavai Bay, the ship was surrounded by hundreds of canoes carrying about fifteen hundred people. Canoes packed with young women came alongside the Dolphin, and when they came close the women lined up in the prows naked, playing “wanton tricks” and exposing their genitals to the sailors. As Wilkinson, one of the sailors reported: At 10 the woman was Derected by the Men to Stand in the Prow of their Canoes & Expose their Bodys Naked to our View as our men is in good Health & Spirits and begin to feel the Good Effect of the fresh Pork It...

Share