One aspect that I
found especially interesting in Pacific
Passages is the rhetoric surrounding swimming and surf-riding, specifically
in the Missionary section. These accounts from missionaries tend to categorize
the Hawaiian’s relationship to both the water and surfing as something purely
playful or leisurely. These accounts seem to disregard any deeper significance
that surf riding and the ocean itself most definitely exemplified to the native
Hawaiians. For example, in his essay “Mission at the Sandwich Islands” (1822)
Hiram Bingham makes an assumption about surf-riding, stating that surfing was “a favorite amusement” (84)
and a surf board as “…the instrument used in playing in the surf” (84).
Although I have limited knowledge of the undoubtedly deep cultural ties for
native Hawaiians to surf-riding, I suspect it is far more than just a “favorite
amusement”. Similar rhetoric can be
found in William Ellis’ “Polynesian Researches” (1829) in which he refers to
surf-riding and swimming as “…only some of the principle games, or amusements,
of the natives” (92 and in W.S.W. Ruschenberger’s “Narrative of a Voyage Round
the World” (1838) in which he discusses the missionaries influence on the
disappearance of surf-riding, questioning, “Would these games have been
suppressed had the missionaries never arrived at the islands?” (95).
The
significance of this language used to describe the native Hawaiian’s
relationship to surf-riding, swimming, and the ocean is significant because of
the undoubted acceptance of these missionary reports. Missionaries could, and
did, get away with fabrication and alteration of many events, and no doubt
surf-riding was one of them. By reducing surf-riding to nothing more than
“amusement” or water play, the significance of the missionary suppression of
this important social, cultural and religious practice is made to seem far less
offensive, something the missionaries
surly wanted to achieve. We must always be aware of the original source of an
account since the author has ultimate control over creating whatever illusion
he or she desires – whether or not it is true.
Sarah Eastland
Sarah -
ReplyDeleteThe power of labeling can't be over estimated. You make a good point; but I think it's important to make a distinction, which isn't quite clear in your post, that the original descriptions of surfing as an "amusement," which generally date back to initial encounters, did not have a malicious intent, that was just the common parlance of the day. However, you are correct, and in line with the discussion we had about Bingham in section, that simply referring to surfing as an amusement post-facto, if he did in fact have full knowledge of its import to the indigenous culture and was seeking to shirk both blame and guilt for his role in suppressing it (which I do not doubt), then Bingham is most definitely manipulating language and playing games with semantics as an attempt to ameliorate his situation.
- Trey