SomeSelectiveInformation for
SmithsonianJourneys:French
Polynesia(FebruarT4-14,2016)
Dr. CharlieUrbanowicz
ProfessorEmeritusof Anthropology
CaliforniaStateUniversity,Chico
[email protected]
csurbanowi
4 Februarv2016
m/s Paul Gauguin : Built in 1997 and
refurbished in 2Ol2 with a capacity for 332
guests. Dimensions: 504 feet (154 meters) x
7l feet (22 meters).
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) = French artist
who lived in French Polynesia over the years
1891-1893and againfrom 1895until his death
in the Marquesasin 1903.
=
"Overseas
An
French
Polynesia
Collectivity" of the French Republic with an
estimated2015 population of 282,703. French
Polynesians are citizens of France with their
own electedpresident, currently Edouard Fritch
(since September2014), who is the head of the
govemment.
Tahiti : One of the "Society Islands" and so
named by JamesCook (1728-1779)who wrote
"they lay contiguous to one another." In the
2012 census the population of Tahiti was
183,645.
Pape'ete = The Capital of French Polynesia,
located on the island of Tahiti. The estimated
2012 population of Pape'ete was 25,769
although in 2015 the "Urban" area(116 square
miles) had a populationof 133,627.
Polynesia : Term for one of three areas of
islands in the Pacific, formed by combining
poly (many) and rrsos (island). The fabled
"Polynesian Triangle" is ereated by drawing
imaginary lines connecting Hawai'i, Easter
Two other
Island. and New Zealand.
"traditional" divisions of Pacific islands are
Melanesia(dark islands) and Micronesia (tiny
islands).
French
Polynesia is
divided
into
five
administrative subdivisions =
The Windward
Islands and Leeward Islands are known as the
Society Islands. The Windward Islands are Tahiti,
Mo'orea, Mehetia, Tetiaroa,and Maiao; the Leeward
Islands are Raiatea, Huahine, Taha'a, and Bora Bora.
The the other three administrative subdivisions are
the Tuamotu-Gambier Islands (which includes
Rangiroa and Fakarava), the Austral Islands, and
the Marquesas Islands.
Population note : My wife Sadieand I were hrst in
Tahiti in l97l and at that time the population of
French Polynesiawas 119,168. Our subsequenttrips
are the basis for the following population figures for
French Polynesia: 181,400 (1980), 266,329 (2004),
259,596 QA07), 280,026 (2014), and the above
mentioned282,703 in 2015.
Population/squaremiles of = Tahiti (183,645/403),
(6,303129), Fakarava
(806/6.18),
Huahine
Rangiroa (2,567/31),Taha'a (5,003/35),Bora Bora
( 8, 880i1l) , a n dMo ' o re a (1 6 ,1 9 1 i 5 2 ).
Destination notes : Huahine consists of two
mountainousareas,Huahine-nui ("greaterHuahine")
and Iluahine-iti ("lesser Huahine"). David Stanley
writes that Huahine was so-named "because,when
viewed from the sea it had the shapeof a woman who
was reclining." Pouvanaa a Oopa (1895-1977), a
World War I veteran who fought for France, was
born on Huahine and a monument to him is outside
the Territorial Assembly in Pape'ete. Rangiroa, the
second largest atoll in the world, is so large that the
island of Tahiti could fit within its lagoon. PornareI
(c.1743-1803)came from Fakarava, the second
largest atoll in the Tuamotu group (after Rangiroa).
Bora Bora was describedby JamesMichener (19071997) as "so stunning, that there are really no
adequate words to describe it."
The French
introduced vanilla to Taha'a in 1848 and it is now
known as the "vanilla island." Motorea is viewed as
a "bedroom community' for those who commute by
the Aremeti Ferry eleven miles to Pape'ete. The
University of California, Berkeley, has a research
station on Mo'orea at Cook's Bay (so named for the
English navigator even though Cook was never in
that bay but actually anchored in the ad.jacent
'Opunohu Bay in 1769).
Mana, Toa, and Tohunga = Terms used to describe
(and perhaps understand and interpret) Polynesian
cultures: mnna, or supernatural power based on
birthright; toa, skill as a warrior; and tohunga, an
individual who excels in a certain craft. such as canoe
building. In Tahiti, the ari'i were chiefs who traced
their'descent from the gods and had great mans.
Below them were the lesser chiefs, or ra'atira, alrtd
then the commoners or manahane who were the
majority of the population.
Marae Arahuraru : Located on Tahiti and restored
n 1954. A marae is a sacredplace indicating the
rank and genealogy of its owner and clan. Maraes
throughout French Polynesia could be constructed
along the coastor inland and could be dedicatedto a
specificdeity.
PEOPLE
Charles R. Darwin (1809-1882)= "At daylight,
Tahiti, an island which must forever remain classical
to the voyagers in the South Seas, was in view."
1839,The Voyageofthe Beagle,1839,page348.
Samuel Wallis (1728-1795\ = English ,ruuigato, in
Tahiti in 1767 who claimed it for England, naming
Tahiti "King George the Third's Island."
Louis de Bougainville (1729-181f) :
French
navigator in Tahiti n 1768 who claimed it for France.
He named it Nouvelle-Cythire after the Greek island
Cythera where the goddessof love, Aphrodite, came
from the sea; the rationale for the title of Anne
Salmond's 2009 Aphrodite's Island: The European
Discovery of Tahiti.
Jeanne Bar6 (1740-f807) : The first woman to
circumnavigatethe globe. Disguised as a valet for
the naturalist on Bougainville's expedition, her
genderwas discoveredby Tahitians.
James Cook (1728-1779) = English navigator in
Tahiti in 1769, 1774, and 1777. He was killed in
Hawai'i in 1779.
William Bligh (f754-f8f7) : Sailing Master on
Cook's third (and final) voyage. He was in Tahiti
again in October 1788. The mutiny on HMAV
Bounty occurred after the Bounty left Tahiti in April
t789.
Domingo de Bonechea(1713-1775): Spanish
navigator in Tahiti in 1772 and again n 1775:
was aftempting to claim the island for Spain
when he died in Tahiti in 1775.
David Porter (f780-1843) = American Naval
Captain who annexedthe island of Nuku Hiva
in the Marquesasin 1813. The Congressof the
United States of America. however. never
ratified the claim.
Abel Aubert Dupetit-Thours (1793-1864) :
French Admiral who established a French
Protectorate over Tahiti n 1842. Earlier that
year he claimed the Marquesas Islands for
France.
Pomare I (c.1743-1803) : Founder of the
"Pomare Dynasty" and first to be recognizedby
many as uniffing some of the islands into a
single "kingdom" in 1782.
Pomare V (1839-1891) : Last king of Tahiti
(1877-1880) who ceded "Tahiti and its
dependencies"to France in 1880. Huahine,
however, did not become a French Protectorate
u n ti l 1 8 8 8 .
London Missionary Society = Establishedin
1795. Inspired by the published accountsof
Pacific navigators,in 1797the LMS createdthe
first mission in Tahiti with thirty missionaries.
On Tahiti, in the area of Matavai Bay, one can
visit Point Venus and see a monument to the
missionariesas well as a monumentto Cook.
Background : "In the sixty years between
1840 and 1900, the Western powers of Great
Britain, France, Germany, and the United States
gained political control over Oceania. During
this period Spain lost its colonies, but the
Netherlands retained the western half of the
island of New Guinea....France began its
formal protection of much of what became
French Polynesia in the 1840s." John W.
Henderson ef'a1., 1971, Area Handbook for
Oceqnia(Washington,D.C.). page 11,
Marlon Brando (1924-2004\ : American actor
who portrayed Fletcher Christian in the 1962
Mutiny on the Bounty movie, After the movie
was finished, Brando purchased the atoll of
Teti'aroa (33 miles north of Tahiti). In 2014
"The Brando" opened. Described as a luxury
resort with 35 villas the daily rate (as of this
writing) was US$2,176.70/perconfor a onebedroom villa (with a minimum stay of two
nights).
Charles B. Nordhoff (1887-1947) and Jarnes
Normal Hall (f887-1951) : American World
War I pilots who moved to Tahiti and married
Tahitian women. They collaboratedon eleven
books, perhapsthe most famousbeing the Bounty
trilogy:
Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), Men
Against the Sea (1933), and Pitcairn's Island
(1934). On Tahiti, in Arue, one can visit the
JamesNorman Hall Museum.
James Michener (1907-1997): American author
who was in the United StatesNavy and served in
the Pacific in World War II. In 1947 Michener
published his Tales of the South Pacific and in
1948 he won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for the
book. On Bora Bora, at the entranceto "Bloody
Mary's" restaurant,you can see his name (along
with others) who have been to the iconic
establishment.
Operation Bobcat : On February 17, 1942,
4,400 troops and suppliesreachedBora Bora to
construct the first wartime "Advance Base" for
ships crossing the Pacific. This was the first joint
United StatesNavy-United StatesArmy effort of
World War II. The baseofficially closedon June
2. 1946.
Paul Gauguin's translated"words on his 1897
masterpiece:D'oil venons-nousI Que sommesnous / Oil allons-nazs (Where do we come
from / What are we / Where are we going) :
"They will say it is careless,unfinished. It is true
that one is not a good judge of one's own work,
neverthelessI believe that this canvas not only
surpassesall my previous work, but I will never
do anythinsbetteror even like it."
PACIFIC STATEMENTS
"Balboa found it, Magellan [480-1521] named it, but
for any young boy taken with tales of the South Seas-like the young CharlesWilkes U798-18771--thecentral
figure had to be James Cook." Nathaniel Philbrick,
2003, Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery,
The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842,page 3.
"Over the years the romanceof the legendary South
Seas has beenelaboratedby a successionof famous
writers who came in searchof Bougainvillds 'Nouvelle
Cythere' or Rousseau'sll7l2-1778] 'noble savage.'
Brought to the stage or silver screen,their stories
entered the popular imagination alongside Gauguin's
rich images." David Stanley, 1989,South Paci/ic
Handbook,page59.
"...the French navigator, Louis de Bougainville, who
visited Tahiti in April 1768, a year before Cook,
compared the Tahitians to Greek gods.'I never saw
men better made, and whose lirnbs were more
proportionate: in order to paint Hercules or a Mars, one
could nowhere find such beautiful models."' Bemard
Smith, 1960, European Vision And the South PacrJic
1768-1850: A Study In The History Of Art And ldeas,
page25.
"To hail Europeansas discoverersofthe Pacific Islands
is ungracious as well as inaccurate. While they were
still moving around in their small, landlocked
Mediterranean Sea or hugging the Atlantic shores of
Europe and Africa, Pacific Islanders were voyaging
hundreds of open-sea miles in their canoes and
populating most of the Pacific's far-flung islands."
DouglasL. Oliver, 1989,ThePacific Islands,page19.
Brochure sourcesand statementsare available at:
www.csuchico.edu/-curbanowicy'CertainSmithso
nianCruise20l6Facts.hflnl, That page also has
published and web references pertaining to
French Polynesia,the peoplesand culturesof the
Pacific, and WW[. For additional information,
see http://www.csuchico.edu/-curbanowic/ or
email)
[email protected]
or
curbanowicz@csuch
ico.edu