Culture Contact and Polynesian Identity in the European Age

Synoptic studies of culture contact manifest an implicit model of cultural and demographic replacement and a discontinuity in indigenous identity. This model reflects a preoccupation with settler colonies, yet many culture contact relationships have developed in the absence of colonialism. European-Polynesian culture contacts are discussed here as a basis for an adaptational model, and it is argued that colo-nialism itself was often the means whereby indigenous identity was maintained, not extirpated.