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Comparative history and ethnography in William Ellis’s Polynesian Researches
Irving-Stonebraker, Sarah
Irving-Stonebraker, Sarah
Author
Abstract
This article develops recent scholarly efforts to take seriously the scientific work of evangelical missionaries in the South Pacific. Ellis’s Polynesian Researches gives us an insight into the broader issue of the way in which theological concepts could inform the framework of missionaries’ observations of the traditions, manners and functioning of human societies. Central to Ellis’s observations was the idea of idolatry. I argue that Ellis brought together a theological definition of idolatry – in which idolatry represented the sinful worship of created things rather than the creator God – with an Enlightenment idea that polytheistic idolatry was a universal stage in the historical development of civilization. Ellis’s Polynesian Researches gives us a point of entry into understanding some of the ways that European theological ideas were put to new uses in the South Pacific, against the backdrop of the increasingly global exchange of people, goods and ideas.
Keywords
ethnography, William Ellis, missionaries, Pacific, religion, Christianity, science
Date
2020
Type
Journal article
Journal
The Journal of Pacific History
Book
Volume
55
Issue
1
Page Range
1-17
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Education and Arts
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Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled