Science, Voyages, And Encounters In Oceania, 1511-1850 (palgrave Studies In Pacific History)

Blending global scope with local depth, this book throws new light on important themes. Spanning four centuries and vast space, it combines the history of ideas with particular histories of encounters between European voyagers and Indigenous people in Oceania (Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands). Spanning four centuries and vast space, this book combines the global history of ideas with particular histories of encounters between European voyagers and Indigenous people in Oceania (Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands). Douglas shows how prevailing concepts of human difference, or race, influenced travellers' approaches to encounters. Yet their presuppositions were often challenged or transformed by the appearance, conduct, and lifestyle of local inhabitants. The book's original theory and method reveal traces of Indigenous agency in voyagers' representations which in turn provided key evidence for the natural history of man and the science of race. In keeping with recent trends in colonial historiography, Douglas diverts historical attention from imperial centres to so-called peripheries, discredits the outmoded stereotype that Europeans necessarily dominated non-Europeans, and takes local agency seriously Front Matter....Pages i-xx Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction: Indigenous Presence to the Science of Race....Pages 3-35 Front Matter....Pages 37-37 Before Races: Barbarity, Civility, & Salvation in the Mar del Sur ....Pages 39-73 Towards Races: Ambivalent Encounters in the South Seas....Pages 74-105 Seeing Races: Confronting ‘Savages’ in Terra Australis ....Pages 106-157 Front Matter....Pages 159-159 Meeting Agency: Islanders, Voyagers, & Races in the mer du Sud ....Pages 161-200 Races in the Field: Encounters & Taxonomy in the grand Océan....Pages 201-251 Raciology in Action: Phrenology, Polygenism, & Agency in Océanie ....Pages 252-286 Front Matter....Pages 287-287 Conclusion: Race in 1850/Oceania in 1850....Pages 289-293 Back Matter....Pages 294-361