Table Of ContentTHE POLYNESIAN ICONOCLASM
ASAO Studies in Pacifi c Anthropology
General Editor: Rupert Stasch, Department of Anthropology,
University of California, San Diego
Th e Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO) is an interna-
tional organization dedicated to studies of Pacifi c cultures, societies, and his-
tories. Th is series publishes monographs and thematic collections on topics of
global and comparative signifi cance, grounded in anthropological fi eldwork
in Pacifi c locations.
Volume 1
Th e Anthropology of Empathy: Experiencing the Lives of Others
in Pacifi c Societies
Edited by Douglas W. Hollan and C. Jason Th roop
Volume 2
Christian Politics in Oceania
Edited by Matt Tomlinson and Debra McDougall
Volume 3
Th e Death of the Big Men and the Rise of the Big Shots:
Custom and Confl ict in East New Berlin
Keir Martin
Volume 4
Creating a Nation with Cloth: Women, Wealth,
and Tradition in the Tongan Diaspora
Ping-Ann Addo
Volume 5
Th e Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power
Jeff rey Sissons
The Polynesian
Iconoclasm
Religious Revolution and
the Seasonality of Power
(cid:2)
Jeffrey Sissons
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2014 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
©2014 Jeff rey Sissons
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sissons, Jeff rey.
Th e Polynesian iconoclasm : religious revolution and the seasonality of power / Jeff rey
Sissons. — First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-78238-413-7 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-78238-414-4 (ebook)
1. Polynesia—Church history. I. Title.
BR1495.P6S57 2014
996—dc23
2014000901
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed on acid-free paper.
ISBN: 978-1-78238-413-7 hardback
ISBN: 978-1-78238-414-4 ebook
(cid:2)
Contents
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Map of Polynesia and Other Pacifi c Islands x
Introduction. Exploding History 1
Chapter 1. Th e Seasonality of Life 9
Chapter 2. Th e Mo‘orean Iconoclasm 29
Chapter 3. Pomare’s Iconoclasm as Seasonal Sacrifi ce 45
Chapter 4. More Distant Emulations 62
Chapter 5. Re-consecrating the World 81
Chapter 6. Re-binding Societies 101
Chapter 7. New Tabus and Ancient Pleasures 117
Chapter 8. History, Habitus and Seasonality 135
Appendix 149
References 151
Index 157
(cid:2)
Figures
2.1. Taputapuatea marae, Ra‘iatea. 31
2.2. Pomare. 34
2.3. Marae at Atehuru, Tahiti. 37
2.4. Rubble from an abandoned coastal marae, Mo‘orea. 42
3.1. Tautira district, Tahiti. 50
3.2. Human sacrifi ce, Tahiti. 51
3.3. God-images from Society, Austral and Southern Cook Islands. 59
4.1. Kings’ mausoleum, Hawai‘i. 68
4.2. Papeiha and his son, Isaiah. 73
4.3. Pa Ariki. 76
4.4. Rarotongan staff -gods being presented to Rev. Williams. 77
5.1. Fare, Huahine. 89
5.2. Ra‘iatea. 91
5.3. Octagonal church, Mo‘orea. 92
5.4. Aitutaki, Cook Islands. 93
5.5. Arorangi church, Rarotonga. 95
6.1. Site of fi rst Polynesian printing press, Mo‘orea. 108
7.1. Headdress worn by Aitutaki chief. 126
8.1. Diagram of seasonality and priestly exchange. 145
(cid:2)
Acknowledgements
My interest in the events described in this book began more than twenty-fi ve
years ago when I visited Rarotonga and Mangaia in the Southern Cook Islands
intending to study traditional history. I remain very grateful to Teaea Parima
and his family for welcoming me into their home at Tamarua and introducing
me to daily life on Mangaia. Although I soon abandoned my historical project,
the one article that resulted from it, ‘Th e Seasonality of Power: Th e Raroton-
gan Legend of Tangiia’ (Sissons 1989), became the seed for the present work.
Returning to Rarotonga in 1992, I embarked upon a new study of culture
and nationhood in the Cook Islands (Sissons 1999). Understanding the pro-
cesses of nation-building in the Cook Islands required me to make sense of
the contrasting relationship between the sacred ruins of pre-Christian temples
(marae) and the much more highly visible Christian churches – the former
indexing continuities of local power and the latter indexing Christian nation-
hood. I was extremely fortunate at this time to be able to draw upon the wise
guidance of Ron Crocombe, Kauraka Kauraka, Sir Tom Davis, Jon Jonassen,
George Paniani, Rod Dixon, Makiuti and Polly Tongia and Richard Walter, to
all of whom I remain extremely grateful.
In 2001 while on a visiting fellowship at Goldsmith’s College, Univer-
sity of London, I became interested in the fate and identities of Cook Islands
god-images that had been sent to the heart of empire by London Missionary
Society missionaries and which were then being moved from the Museum
of Mankind to the British Museum. I visited the London Missionary Society
archives, housed at the School of Oriental and African Studies, in search of
more information about these images and quickly discovered that they were
the victims of a much larger destructive event. I am particularly grateful to
Nicholas Th omas for facilitating the Goldsmith’s fellowship and for his subse-
quent encouragement and support for this project.
Th e research for and writing of this book during the period 2009–2012
was generously supported by a grant from the Marsden Fund. In addition to
providing relief from teaching duties, this grant enabled me to spend an ad-
ditional six weeks in the London archives and to spend time in the Society
Islands visiting a number of key sites discussed in this book. In this regard,
I am particularly grateful to Ato Frogier for showing me the site of the fi rst
Polynesian printing press, established on Mo‘orea in 1817, and for helping me
understand the destruction of marae there.
viii Acknowledgements
Initial attempts to make sense of events associated with the Polynesian
Iconoclasm resulted in four articles, written while this larger work was in
preparation (Sissons 2007, 2008, 2011a, 2011b). In all cases, the arguments
made in these articles diff er signifi cantly from those made here. Versions of
the articles were presented as seminars in the School of Social and Cultural
Sciences at Victoria University, and I thank my colleagues, particularly James
Urry, for their engagement with the ideas. I also take this opportunity to
warmly thank Alan Strathern, Rupert Stasch and an anonymous reviewer for
their helpful comments on an initial version of the manuscript.
Th e images from early-nineteenth-century books held by Victoria Uni-
versity of Wellington Library were photographed by ITS Image Services. I am
grateful to Robert Cross for his fi ne work and to the staff of the J. C. Beaglehole
Room for their assistance in locating the original images.
Finally, I would like to thank my son, Hugo, for the many excellent pho-
tographs he took in the Society Islands, several of which are included here,
and my wife, Catherine, for her loving support and stimulating theological
engagement with my project.
(cid:2)
Abbreviations
LMS London Missionary Society
QC Quarterly Chronicle, undated publication of the London Missionary
Society, World Council of Missions collection
SSJ South Seas Journals, London Missionary Society Collection, School
of Oriental and African Studies
SSL South Seas Letters, London Missionary Society Collection, School of
Oriental and African Studies
(cid:2)
Map of Polynesia and Other Pacifi c Islands
Source: Williams (1838). Victoria University of Wellington.
