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Trading Nature: Tahitians, Europeans, and Ecological Exchange

Online ISBN:
9780824870744
Print ISBN:
9780824832810
Publisher:
University of Hawai'i Press
Book

Trading Nature: Tahitians, Europeans, and Ecological Exchange

Jennifer Newell
Jennifer Newell
National Museum of Australia
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Published online:
17 November 2016
Published in print:
30 June 2010
Online ISBN:
9780824870744
Print ISBN:
9780824832810
Publisher:
University of Hawai'i Press

Abstract

When Captain Samuel Wallis became the first European to land at Tahiti in June 1767, he left not only a British flag on shore but also three guinea hens, a pair of turkeys, a pregnant cat, and a garden planted with peas for the chiefess Purea. Thereafter, a succession of European captains, missionaries, and others planted seeds and introduced livestock from around the world. In turn, the islanders traded away great quantities of important island resources, including valuable and spiritually significant plants and animals. What did these exchanges mean? What was their impact? The answers are often unexpected. They also reveal the ways islanders retained control over their societies and landscapes in an era of increasing European intervention. This book explores the effects of “ecological exchange” on one island from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. The book uncovers the potency of trading in nature. It uncovers the cultural and ecological impacts of cross-cultural exchange. The story progresses from the first trades on Tahiti's shores for provisions for British and French ships to the contrasting histories of cattle in Tahiti and Hawai‘i. Two key exportations of species are analyzed: the great breadfruit transplantation project that linked Britain to Tahiti and the Caribbean and the politically volatile trade in salt-pork that ran between Tahiti and the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century. In each case, the book explores the long-term impacts of the exchanges on modern Tahiti.

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