http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/354930

Early observations of Marquesan culture, 1595-1813

The Marquesas Islands of the South Pacific do not lend themselves to human habitation, as they lack the coral reefs and lagoons that on other islands offer easy access to sea life and foster the formation of arable coastal plains. Yet according to archaeological estimates, this archipelago has been inhabited by Polynesian peoples since around A.D. 300. The Marquesas were not visited by Europeans until 1595 - with subsequent landfalls beginning in the late eighteenth century - and it is only from these visits that we have any inkling of what early Marquesan society must have been like. Anthropologist Edwin Ferdon has drawn on the records of these early visitors to paint a broad picture of Marquesan social organization religion, material culture, and daily life. He tells of head-to-toe tattooing of males and of house designs unique in Polynesia, of a woman's use of suicide attempts to shame an unfaithful husband, and of ritual cannibalism performed on kidnapped neighbors. He describes war as a way of life, undertaken usually for acquisition of territory - but sometimes for ceremonial purposes. He also reviews the domestication of crops and notes some potential sources of American plants found in the Marquesas. Because Euro-American intrusions began to change Marquesan culture inalterably by 1813, these early records are indispensable to an understanding of the Marquesan people. Ferdon has interwoven these varied accounts into a compelling study that will fascinate all readers interested in traditional cultures.

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