Polyandry, ‘pollution’, ‘prostitution': the problems of eurocentrism and androcentrism in Polynesian studies

Since the 1950s, publications and research in Pacific history have concentrated almost exclusively on the impact of western products, peoples, ideologies and economic practices on the island world. Serious and successful attempts have been made to present islanders as rational active agents in the processes of contact and subsequent change, but usually they have been perceived as homogeneous populations. Differential responses, initiatives or adaptations from the various groups within island societies, or between male and female, have rarely been recognised let alone studied (Ralston, 1985). In Polynesia the islanders most likely to come in contact with foreigners were male chiefs, and too frequently histories of contact have been written as if the experiences of these chiefs were typical of all. Like so many other areas of academic discourse, Polynesian history has been gender-blind, referring specifically to women only when their presence and ‘scandalous’ behaviour (for example flocking on board foreign vessels seeking sexual liaisons) exposed them to misinformed and judgmental comment and stereotyping.