Double Ghosts: Oceanian Voyagers on Euroamerican Ships

by David A. Chappell

Overview

This narrative recounts the 18th and 19th century shipping out of Pacific islanders aboard European and American vessels, a kind of counter-exploring, that echoed the ancient voyages of settlement of their island ancestors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781315479118
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/16/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	252
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Authored by Chappell, David A.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 A Second Diaspora; Chapter 2 Shipping Out; Chapter 3 Rites of Passage; Chapter 4 Contested Decks; Chapter 5 Crosscurrents in Oceania; Chapter 6 From Rim to Shining Rim; Chapter 7 In the Belly of the Beast; Chapter 8 Prodigal Ghosts; Chapter 9 Legacies; Chapter 10 Reflections;

Editorial Reviews

Chappell (history, Univ. of Hawaii) has combed hundreds of records to identify 250 Pacific Islanders, sometimes called "Kanakas," who sailed on Western ships in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sailing by choice or through "blackbirding," Islanders were found in great numbers on American whaling ships and vessels in the China trade. As they moved around the Pacific, sometimes reaching North and South America and even Europe, they suffered physical mistreatment, cultural devastation, and diseases often resulting in death; a few were even exhibited as curiosities, much like circus freaks. Chappell is concerned with the effects on their cultures and on the peoples with whom they came in contact. His work, with extensive notes and bibliography, is a fresh approach, rich in detail but remarkably lively. It deserves a readership beyond the academic community.Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland

Library Journal

Chronicles the history of the peoples of Oceania who, for over 1,000 years, colonized the islands of the Pacific with their double-hulled canoes. The age of European and American sailing ships began a "second diaspora" for many Pacific Islanders. Suggests that the beach has two sides, and that the border of a seafaring people does not begin on the beach but beyond it, in the waters they have fished, sailed across, and memorized for generations. Examines the importance of Pacific Islanders to Western sailing, whaling, charting, communication, and trade. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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