Cook, Lono, Obeyesekere, and Sahlins

Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies II: Historical engagements and current enterprises

“…Sahlin's (1995) view that Hawaiians perceived Captain Cook as a physical manifestation of the god Lono has been greatly disputed (see Borofsky 1997 for a review of the debate). William Buckley's experience in Victoria, however, lends some credibility to this premise.…”

Engagement, Gentrification, and the Neoliberal Hijacking of History

“…History is inevitably contested. Anthropologists have known this for a long time, and the Sahlins-Obeyesekere debate (see Borofsky 1997;Obeyesekere 1992;Sahlins 1985Sahlins , 1995 shows that they have themselves been far from immune to such contests-indeed, its obviously ideological contours also show rather dramatically that the idea of an objectivist approach simply reproduces the socially embedded fact that our decisions about what constitutes historical truth are often determined by social and rhetorical positioning. Aristotle understood this well when he pointed out that "metaphor" was always something other people did in contrast to one's own expertise in the literal truth (Lloyd 1990:21).…”

First Contacts in Polynesia : The Samoan Case (1722-1848) Western Misunderstandings about Sexuality and Divinity

“…The idea of the existence of different peoples had long been a familiar one throughout the region. But, at the same time, the Hawaiians, like all the inhabitants of Eastern Polynesia, had only seen and known 3 See Sahlins's response (1995) and commentaries criticising Obeyesekere (Borofsky 1997, Zimmermann 1998. Sahlins (ibid.)…”