The Pacific artefacts and works of art collected during the three voyages of Captain James Cook are of foundational importance for the study of art and culture in Oceania. These collections are representative not only of technologies or belief systems but of indigenous cultures at the formative stages of their modern histories, and exemplify Islanders’ institutions, cosmologies and social relationships.
Recently, scholars from the Pacific and further afield, working with Pacific artefacts at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) at University of Cambridge, set out to challenge and rethink some longstanding assumptions on their significance. The Cook voyage collection at the MAA is among the four or five most important in the world, containing over 200 of the 2,000-odd objects with Cook voyage provenance that are dispersed throughout the world. The collection includes some 100 artefacts dating from Cook’s first voyage. This stunning book catalogues this collection, and its cutting-edge scholarship sheds new light on the significance of many artefacts of encounter.
Author(s): Nicholas Thomas, Julie Adams, Billie Lythberg, Amiria Salmond
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 364
City: Honolulu
Front Cover
Title Page
Half Title
Copyright
Contents
Preface and acknowledgements
Part I: Encountering Artefacts
Introduction Nicholas Thomas & Julie Adams
1. ‘Weapons, Utensils and Manufactures of various kinds’: Cambridge’s collections—Nicholas Thomas & Amiria Salmond
2. Relating to, and through, Polynesian collections—Billie Lythberg, Maia Nuku & Amiria Salmond
3. Artificial curiosities and travelling instruments Simon Schaffer
Witness The Photography of Mark Adams
Part II: Cook’S First Voyage
Introduction
A string of iridescent green shells – Artefacts from Tierra del Fuego
An early ‘ornamental carving’
Divine archery – A bow, quiver and arrows from Tahiti
‘A breastplate … for War or Mourning’ – Tahitian feather gorgets
‘Their method of Tattowing I shall now describe’ – Tattoo instruments from Tahiti
‘A smal quantity of cloth’ – Glazed barkcloth from the Austral Islands
Ancestral threads – Seven Maori cloaks
‘Bludgeons from New Zeland’ – Maori hand weapons
‘A New Zealand Warrior in his Proper Dress’ – Maori belts
‘Their paddles were curiously stained’ – Two Maori paddles from the East Coast
‘They throw’d two darts at us’ – Spears from Botany Bay
The splendid land John Pule
Part III: Cook’S Second and Third Voyages, and the Voyage of George Vancouver
Introduction
A Maori shell trumpet at Cambridge Peter Gathercole, with postcript by Amiria Salmond
‘One threw a dart at us’ – Four artefacts from Niue
‘Long has he used the fue’ – A Tongan fly whisk (fue kafa)
‘The beauties of their own exquisite forms’ – Tongan adornment
‘An aristocrat among Tongan pillows’ – Tongan headrests
‘All Made With Surpriseing Neatness’ – Tongan clubs
‘Such was the prevailing passion for curiosities’ – Cook voyage collections from Melanesia
A Nuu-chah-nulth chief’s rattle – A bird rattle from Nootka Sound
Wooden armour – An Alutiiq (Chugach) cuirass
‘The quivers were extremely beautifull’ – A reindeer-skin Chukchi quiver
Between worlds – A Northwest Coast comb
Ceremonial whalebone weapons – A Nuu-chah-nulth club
‘We found them superior to our own’ – Hawaiian fishhooks and early encounters
Travelling the world – A wooden figure from the Hawaiian Islands
Protective power – A feather helmet from the Hawaiian Islands
‘A fascination for barkcloth’ – The first eighteenth-century barkcloth book
Ava`uli, Avanoa and Pekepekaniume Semisi Fetokai Potauaine
Part IV: Missionaries and Travellers
Introduction
Implements of New South Wales – Artefacts from the First Fleet?
‘As much as three men could lift’ – A bale of barkcloth from Tahiti
‘For they say … he comes down in a whirlwind’ – Four sacred fans from the Austral Islands
Fine fancy and delicate taste’ – The Queen of Ra`iatea’s royal robe
Instantiating divinity – A spectacular ‘warrior’s cap’ from the Cook Islands
Galvanising the gods – A pearlshell and feather mask from Tahiti
The potency of Tangaroa – Two whalebone and whale ivory necklaces
‘The God has arrived safely this afternoon’ – A Cook Islands god image
From father to son – Three Maori carvings
‘They set to work to furnish them’ – A Quaker traveller’s Rarotongan fan
Intricate objects, intricate relationships – A Fijian paddle-shaped club
Maru, Kahukura and Hukere – Three named ‘god-sticks’ from New Zealand
From chief to chief – The biography of a Fijian breastplate
Early artefacts from Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand
‘A superb feather cloak’ – Kamehameha II’s royal visit to Britain
He tautoko Lisa Reihana
Epilogue: Exhibiting encounter Nicholas Thomas
Perspex patu George Nuku
Part V: A Catalogue of the Early Pacific Collections at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
Appendix: The Trinity College Inventory
Notes
Select bibliography
Contributors
Index
