The Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power
Language: English
Published by Berghahn Books, 2014
- Hardcover
- New

Seller: Revaluation Books, Exeter, United KingdomRevaluation Books
AbeBooks seller since January 6, 2003
Condition: New
£ 163.31
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Seller Inventory # x-1782384138
- Title
- The Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power
- Author
- Not Available (Not Available)
- Publisher
- Berghahn Books
- Publication year
- 2014
- Condition
- Brand New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1782384138
- ISBN 13
- 9781782384137
- Item weight
- 0.41 kilograms
"The book is blessed with an intrinsically interesting subject matter: the way in which the religious basis of societies all across Polynesia was suddenly torn up and deliberately rejected within a decade or two. The author succeeds in highlighting how extraordinary and dramatic the 'Polynesian Iconoclasm' was, drawing our attention to it as a coherent phenomenon, and penetrating these convulsions more deeply than other scholars have managed hitherto." · Alan Strathern, University of Oxford
"The book is an ethnographic tour de force describing in great detail the conversion to Christianity in a number of Polynesian societies. The ethnographic argument is solid and the book would be excellent addition to the interpretations of religious conversion, cultural change and Polynesian ethnography in general." · Jukka Siikala, University of Helsinki
Within little more than ten years in the early nineteenth century, inhabitants of Tahiti, Hawaii and fifteen other closely related societies destroyed or desecrated all of their temples and most of their god-images. In the aftermath of the explosive event, which Sissons terms the Polynesian Iconoclasm, hundreds of architecturally innovative churches - one the size of two football fields - were constructed. At the same time, Christian leaders introduced oppressive laws and courts, which the youth resisted through seasonal displays of revelry and tattooing. Seeking an answer to why this event occurred in the way that it did, this book introduces and demonstrates an alternative "practice history" that draws on the work of Marshall Sahlins and employs Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, improvisation and practical logic.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Jeffrey Sissons is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington. He is the author of numerous publications on Maori and Polynesian history written over the past 25 years. His most recent book is First Peoples: Indigenous Cultures and their Futures (Reaktion Books, 2005).
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Revaluation Books
Exeter, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since January 6, 2003
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Edward Bowditch Ltd
Exstowe, Exton
Exeter, United Kingdom EX3 0PP
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