Aliens on Our Shores

"This book is a deep dive into the mutual perceptions of Melanesian peoples, egalitarian societies unknown to Europeans for thousands of years, and successive waves of European explorers, traders, missionaries, and eventual conquerors. Professor Rosman and Professor Rubel have searched travelers' reports for evidence of how the first two centuries of contact were understood by the people of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Their anthropological history makes use of existing information on political, social, and cultural organization of Melanesian peoples, supplemented by the authors' own comparative ethnography skills and original fieldwork. Striving to find New Irelanders' voice in detailed travelers' accounts, this book also emphasizes the importance of long-standing racist stereotypes (Noble Savage, Wild Man, Cannibal, Utopia) among Europeans with their eyes on building capital in world markets. Their analysis provides a foundation for judging how early contact experiences most likely were interpreted and understood or misunderstood, and strategies accordingly deployed, by both parties to the encounters. The authors' analysis shows how capitalism and colonialism eventually wrought profound changes in the life of New Ireland peoples who seemed for the first 250 years to be in control of their contact situation"--