Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T18:20:53.585Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is the “Tahitian” Drum Dance Really Tahitian? Re-Evaluating the Evidence for the Origins of Contemporary Polynesian Drum Dance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Helen Reeves Lawrence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During the 20th century, the Tahitian drum dance ('ōte'a) has become a symbol of Polynesia representing, for Westerners, the myth of the “Pacific islands paradise”. It has been assumed that the popularity of this dance genre led to its introduction into other areas of the Pacific. But is this dance Tahitian in origin?

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 24 , 1992 , pp. 126 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the International Council for Traditional Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Dr. Amy K. Stillman for her critical appraisal of this paper as presented in its original form at the 31st World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, Hong Kong, July 1991. I also acknowledge, with warm thanks, assistance received from Christine Cansfield-Smith in preparing the map. Special thanks goes to Dr. Adrienne L. Kaeppler and Emeritus Professor Barbara B. Smith for reading carefully the second draft of this paper, making helpful comments and suggestions for improvements, and, most of all, for their continuing encouragement.

References

References Cited

Andersen, Johannes C. 1978 Maori Music with its Polynesian Background. New York: AMS Press. (First published 1934, New Plymouth).Google Scholar
Bligh, William 1976 The Log of HMS Providence, 1791-1793. Guildford: Genesis Publications.Google Scholar
Buck, Peter H. (Te Rangi Hiroa) 1932 Ethnology of Manihiki and Rakahanga. Honolulu: Bishop Museum. (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 99.)Google Scholar
1932a Ethnology of Tongareva. Honolulu: Bishop Museum. (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 92.)Google Scholar
Burrows, Edwin G. 1937 Ethnology of Uvea (Wallis Island). Honolulu: Bishop Museum. (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 145.)Google Scholar
Costa, Mazeppa King 1951 “Dance in the Society and Hawaiian Islands as Presented by the Early Writers, 1767-1842”. M.A. thesis, University of Hawai'i.Google Scholar
Debenham, Frank (ed.) 1945 The Voyage of Captain Bellingshausen to the Antarctic Seas, 1819-1821. London: Hakluyt Society. (Hakluyt Society Series 2, 91–92.)Google Scholar
Ellis, William 1967 Polynesian Researches, during a Residence of nearly Six Years in the South Sea Islands …, Vols. 1 & 2. London: Dawsons of Pall Mall. (First published 1829).Google Scholar
Gill, William Wyatt 1979 Cook Islands Custom. Suva: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Pacific Studies, in association with the Ministry of Education, Rarotonga.Google Scholar
Gilson, Richard 1980 The Cook Islands 1820-1950. Edited by Ron Crocombe. Suva: Victoria University Press, in association with the Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Beatrice 1971 In the Strange South Seas. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press. (First published 1907, London; 1908, Philadelphia.)Google Scholar
Hague, James D. 1868 “Some Coral Islands and Islanders.” Atlantic Monthly 22: 36–51.Google Scholar
Hanson, F. Allan 1970 Rapan Lifeways: Society and History on a Polynesian Island. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.Google Scholar
Jaussen, Tepano 1969 Grammaire et dictionnaire de la langue Tahitienne. Paris: Musée de l'Homme. (Publications de la Société des Océanistes, No. 22.)Google Scholar
Kaeppler, Adrienne L. 1980 “Pacific Islands: 2. Dance.” In Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol. 14: 57–62. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
1983 Polynesian Dance with a Selection for Contemporary Performances. Hawai'i: Alpha Delta Kappa.Google Scholar
Kealiinohomoku, Joann W. 1979 “You Dance What You Wear, and You Wear Your Cultural Values.” In Justine M. Cordwell & Ronald A. Schwarz (eds.), The Fabrics of Culture: The Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment pp. 77–83. The Hague: Mouton. Laird, Wayne 1982 “Drums and Drumming in the Cook Islands.” M.Mus. thesis, University of Auckland, Auckland.Google Scholar
Lamont, E.H. 1867 Wild Life Among the Pacific Islanders. London: Hurst & Blackett.Google Scholar
Luxton, Norman 1971 Tilikum: Luxton's Pacific Crossing. Edited by Eleanor Georgina Luxton. Sidney, B.C.: Gray.Google Scholar
Markham, Clements (trans. & ed.) 1967 The Voyages of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, 1595 to 1606. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint. (First published 1904, Hakluyt Society).Google Scholar
Moulin, Jane Freeman 1979 The Dance of Tahiti. Papeete: Christian Gleizal/Les Editions du Pacifique.Google Scholar
Moyle, Richard 1985 Report on Survey of Traditional Music of Northern Cook Islands. Auckland: Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland. (Working Papers in Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics. Maori Studies No. 70.)Google Scholar
Oliver, Douglas L. 1988 Return to Tahiti: Bligh's Second Breadfruit Voyage. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Salisbury, Kevin B. 1983 “Pukapukan People and Their Music.” M.A. thesis, University of Auckland, Auckland.Google Scholar
Smith, Barbara B. 1980 “Polynesia: 4. French Polynesia.” In Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 15: 58–62. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Smith, Bernard 1989 European Vision and the South Pacific, 2nd ed. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stevenson, Karen 1990 “'Heiva': Continuity and Change of a Tahitian Celebration.” The Contemporary Pacific 2(2): 255–278.Google Scholar
Stillman, Amy K. 1988 “Images and Realities: Visitors’ Responses to Tahitian Music and Dance.” In Come Mek Me Hol Yu Han: The Impact of Tourism on Traditional Music, pp. 145–166. [Kingston]: Jamaica Memory Bank, n.p.Google Scholar
Tatar, Elizabeth 1987 Strains of Change: The Impact of Tourism on Hawaiian Music. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press. (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 78.)Google Scholar
Tausie, Vilsoni 1980 Art in the New Pacific. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific.Google Scholar
Teauariki, Turakiare 1982 “Polynesia to Papua: A Modern Mission.” In Ron Crocombe and Marjorie Crocombe (eds.), Polynesian Missions in Melanesia: From Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga to Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia, pp. 111–129. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific.Google Scholar
Thomas, Allan 1986 “The fatele of Tokelau: Approaches to the Study of a Dance in Its Social Context.” M.A. thesis, Victoria University of Wellington.Google Scholar
1988 Report on Survey of Music in Tokelau, Western Polynesia. Auckland: Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland. (Working Papers in Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics. Maori Studies No. 79.)Google Scholar
Williams, Henry 1916 Letter from Resident Agent, Manihiki, to the Resident Commissioner, Rarotonga, April 1, 1916. Manihiki/Rakahanga File 21/1, Box 1, Cook Islands Archives, Rarotonga.Google Scholar
Youngerman, Suzanne 1986 “Dance Literacy.” In Yosihiko Tokumaru and Osamu Yamaguti (eds.), The Oral and the Literate in Music, pp. 130–141. Tokyo: Academia Music.Google Scholar