First Contact: The Death of Captain Cook

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First Contact The Death of Captain Cook

• A case study in ethnohistory

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• Ethnohistory is the study of historical
  situations through the lens of anthropology
• It provides a way to understand history from the
  perspective of those who did not write the
  historical accounts.

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• Part of ethnohistory involves understanding the
  culture of the people who wrote the accounts.
  These were often also of a very different mindset
  than our own.

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• Part of ethnohistory involves inferring from what
  we know about a particular culture from
  anthropological sources or analogies.
• Often, historical encounters have been heavily
  mythologized

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Case study the death of Captain Cook

• James Cook was the most famous 18th century
  British Naval explorer.
• He made three voyages to Polynesia, for a total
  of 10 years experience

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• In 1778, he sailed past the Hawaiian Islands and
  returned in November , 1779 to make astronomical
  observations at Kealakekua Bay on the east of the
  Big Island.

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• The Hawaiians living at Kealakekua Bay greeted
  Cook and his crew enthusiastically.
• Cooks ships were re-supplied and the Hawaiians
  traded freely with the British

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• Cook was identified by the priests with the
  Hawaiian god Lono. Ceremonies were done in his
  honor and he and the King of the island of
  Hawaii, Kalaniopuu, even exchanged names.

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• As in Tahiti, native women were more than happy
  to have sexual relationships with British
  sailors, in many cases, this was accompanied by
  trade.
• Cook disapproved of this. He was concerned about
  spreading venereal disease as well as the lax
  effect on discipline.

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• In early 1779, Cook leaves to return to England,
  but returns when one of his ships breaks a mast
  in a storm.
• The return of the British is viewed with concern
  and suspicion on the part of the Hawaiians.

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• Widespread theft of objects from the British
  ships take place, including a large row-boat used
  to ferry supplies from shore.
• Some Hawaiians, including a chief are flogged.
• Cook takes a party of marines to intimidate
  Kalaniopuu into returning the boat or giving up
  the person responsible for stealing it.

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• Cook asks Kalaniopuu to accompany him, the King
  agrees.
• Reports come in to Cooks second in command, that
  Hawaiians are massing on the shore.
• On the way back, reports come in that another
  British shore party has shot and killed one of
  the alii.
• Kalaniopuus wife and two chiefs beg the King
  not to continue.

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• Kalaniopuu sits down on the beach stricken with
  terror.
• A riot breaks out. Cook is struck down, the
  marines open fire and the crowd charges.
• Cook dies in the melee along with 5 marines, 13
  Hawaiian commoners and 4 chiefs.

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• British accounts emphasize the schizophrenia of
  the Hawaiians. How could they greet someone as a
  god and then kill them afterwards?

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• To make sense of this encounter, we need to
  consider the Hawaiian perspective.
• Consider
• What kind of man was Cook in Polynesian terms?
• Hawaiian notions of divinity
• Kapu and mana
• Relationships in Hawaiian society
• The relationship between politics and religion in
  Polynesian thinking.

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What kind of man was Cook?

• Cook had a large following of warriors and
  servants.
• He arrived in large canoes carrying abundant
  wealth
• He was marked by clothing and the deference paid
  to him by others as the leader.
• Therefore in Polynesian terms, he must be a
  powerful chief

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Notions of divinity

• In Polynesian societies, all beings possess mana.
  Some possess a great deal. These are the gods.
  Others possess little or none. These are slaves
  and things that are polluting.
• There is a continuum with gods at the top,
  followed by chiefs, priests, ordinary people and
  finally slaves. Natural phenomena and human
  creations also possess mana and are sometimes
  related to humans through kinship.

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• As a powerful chief, Cook therefore has great
  mana, this places him alongside Kalaniopuu and
  in a close relationship with the god Lono.
• Lono was invoked since Cook arrived during the
  Makahiki, the time of the year associated with
  Lono in the traditional calendar. Since his ships
  carried long white sails, similar to the banners
  carried in Makahiki processions, people assumed
  that he was also a representative of the god.

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• Cook therefore was an associate of the god and
  carried some of the gods mana in addition to his
  own. He was not literally a god but a man with
  some of the attributes of the god by virtue of
  his own mana as well as that of the god himself.

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• The anthropologist Marshall Sahlins argues that
  Cook was killed because he came back right after
  the Makahiki finished (early February 1779), and
  the time of Lonos ascendancy was over.

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Why did the Hawaiians steal stuff?

• There are a number of possible explanations
• 1) Hawaiians were exacting fines from the British
  for violating kapu. A number of sailors had
  violated the bans placed on sacred sites and
  people, these violations could be restored only
  through ceremonies and by restitution from the
  violaters kin-group.
• 2) Hawaiians were borrowing materials from
  their British kinsmen. Sleeping with someone is
  one way of establishing a kinship relation with
  someone. British sailors may have become
  unwitting members of Hawaiian ohana, and in doing
  so, their resources became the resources of their
  Hawaiian kin.

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Why did Cook care about the row-boat?

• Royal Navy ships in the 18th century were
  absolute monarchies, ruled by the captain.
• Cook may have felt that the natives were
  flouting his authority by stealing.
• Theft itself was a capital offence in England at
  this time. You could be hung for stealing bread
  or a sheep.
• Moreover, the ship was the property of the King
  of England, not simply private property, so Cook
  was bound by his own culture to deal with the
  situation harshly.

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• In addition, Cooks actions could be
  interpreted, in a Hawaiian context, as an attempt
  to take control of the Big Island by taking
  Kalaniopuu prisoner and sacrificing him.
• Cooks men bound the Kings arms behind his
  back, which in Hawaiian custom is reserved for
  people about to be sacrificed.
• His men had also signaled their readiness to
  kill local people.

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• In Hawaiian terms perhaps, a high-ranking chief
  had appeared in the time of Lono, made
  associations between himself and the god,
  returned with an armed war-party, captured the
  King and prepared him for sacrifice. This was
  clearly an attempt at a coup, and was resisted by
  Kalaniopuus own followers, fatally as it turned
  out, for Cook and 22 others.

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• Cook then, was killed not by irrational natives,
  but by a fatal series of mis-readings by both
  Hawaiians and British.
• In a sense, he died because he over-stepped his
  mana in both Polynesian and British terms.