Mutiny and Aftermath: James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2013

Mutiny and Aftermath

James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti

Edited by: Vanessa Smith , Nicholas Thomas and Maia Nuku

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824839055

Overview
Contents

About this book

The mutiny on the Bounty was one of the most controversial events of eighteenth-century maritime history. This book publishes a full and absorbing narrative of the events by one of the participants, the boatswain's mate James Morrison, who tells the story of the mounting tensions over the course of the voyage out to Tahiti, the fascinating encounter with Polynesian culture there, and the shocking drama of the event itself.

In the aftermath, Morrison was among those who tried to make a new life on Tahiti. In doing so, he gained a deeper understanding of Polynesian culture than any European who went on to write about the people of the island and their way of life before it was changed forever by Christianity and colonial contact. Morrison was not a professional scientist but a keen observer with a lively sympathy for Islanders. This is the most insightful and wide-ranging of early European accounts of Tahitian life.

Mutiny and Aftermath is the first scholarly edition of this classic of Pacific history and anthropology. It is based directly on a close study of Morrison’s original manuscript, one of the treasures of the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia. The editors assess and explain Morrison’s observations of Islander culture and social relations, both on Tubuai in the Austral Islands and on Tahiti itself. The book fully identifies the Tahitian people and places that Morrison refers to and makes this remarkable text accessible for the first time to all those interested in an extraordinary chapter of early Pacific history.

Author / Editor information

Smith Vanessa :

Vanessa Smith teaches at the University of Sydney, where she is Associate Professor in the Department of English, and publishes across the disciplines of literary studies, history, and anthropology. She began visiting the Pacific islands in 1994 while researching the early impact of print culture in Samoa and Tonga. More recently she has focused on Tahiti and the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands while exploring the politics of friendship in contacts between Oceanians and Europeans. Her interest in the Bounty stories has morphed from a focus on beachcomber narrative, via an excursus on breadfruit, to an exploration of the colonialist politics of the Pitcairn island settlement, and analysis of the shifting allegiances manifest in the mutiny and the mutineers’ trial. Her most recent book is Intimate Strangers: Friendship, Exchange and Pacific Encounters (2010).Thomas Nicholas :

Nicholas Thomas is Professor of Historical Anthropology and Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. His most recent book is Voyagers: the settlement of the Pacific (2020). He co-curated the major 2018 exhibition Oceania at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, with Peter Brunt.Vanessa Smith (Editor)
Vanessa Smith teaches at the University of Sydney, where she is Associate Professor in the Department of English, and publishes across the disciplines of literary studies, history, and anthropology. She began visiting the Pacific islands in 1994 while researching the early impact of print culture in Samoa and Tonga. More recently she has focused on Tahiti and the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands while exploring the politics of friendship in contacts between Oceanians and Europeans. Her interest in the Bounty stories has morphed from a focus on beachcomber narrative, via an excursus on breadfruit, to an exploration of the colonialist politics of the Pitcairn island settlement, and analysis of the shifting allegiances manifest in the mutiny and the mutineers’ trial. Her most recent book is Intimate Strangers: Friendship, Exchange and Pacific Encounters (2010).

Nicholas Thomas (Editor)
Nicholas Thomas is director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge. He first visited the Pacific in 1984 to research his PhD thesis on the Marquesas Islands. He has since written extensively on art, empire, and related themes, and curated exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, many in collaboration with contemporary artists. His early book, Entangled Objects, influentially contributed to a revival of material culture studies. He went on to publish, among other works, Oceanic Art in the Thames and Hudson World of Art series and Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire, which was awarded the Wolfson History Prize.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. The Journal: Mutiny, Mutineers, Islanders
1. The Voyage and the Mutiny Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
2. The Occupation of Tubuai Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
3. Return to Tahiti Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
4. From Tahiti to England Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
Part II. The Account: The Island of Tahiti
5. The Tahitian World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
6. Tahitian Society, History, and Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
7. Arts, Rites, and Customs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
Appendix I: Morrison’s Polynesian Words and Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Appendix II: Morrison’s People Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Appendix III: Morrison’s Place-names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Appendix IV: Morrison’s Plants Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Select Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
About the Editors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	345

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 352
Illustrations
- Other: 27 illus., 2 maps

eBook

Published: September 3, 2013
ISBN: 9780824839055