All along the Watch Tower: Surveillance, Survivance, and the Making of a Christianized Landscape in the Mangareva Islands, French Polynesia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Social Archaeologies and Islands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The transformation of island environments and settlement patterns resulting from missionisation and Christian conversion is a well-developed theme in the historical archaeology of Oceania. The Mangareva Islands in French Polynesia provide an exemplary case study, featuring dozens of stone structures built by the Catholic Pères des Sacrés Cœurs beginning in the 1830s. These include a massive cathedral in Rikitea, stone churches on each of the main inhabited islands from the colonial era, boys’ and girls’ schools and associated infrastructure, triumphal arches, a royal palace complex for the high chief Maputeoa, and multiple watch towers built to monitor the comings and goings of ships and canoes. On closer inspection, however, a simple story of colonial dominance resulting in new settlement patterns is insufficient to explain the development of the landscapes in the Mangareva Islands. Maputeoa and other high ranking Mangarevans such as his uncle, Matua, had their own political agenda in their interactions with the more historically prominent missionaries. As with any landscape containing elements of “surveillance,” the buildings themselves simultaneously provided the social spaces for resistance. An analysis of the settlement patterns of colonial Mangareva undermines the colonial narrative, and demonstrates the Polynesian shaping of mission life.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Social Archaeologies and Islands   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37836.0