Anthropological and historical perspectives on the death of Captain Cook

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7 word format

document in English

journalism

presentation

published 10/09/2008

review : Completed

level : Advanced

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Summary

Scientific and philosophical thought have been preoccupied with the problem of an objective, empirical reality whose nature is discoverable and quantifiable at least since Descartes. This theoretical trend continued and culminated in the discoveries and ideas of Isaac Newton. The Apotheosis of Captain Cook, by Gananath Obeyesekere, is similarly, though subtly, and perhaps unintentionally, concerned with such a reality. In fact, an objective, empirical reality is fundamental to Obeyesekere’s argument in The Apotheosis…, which states, in part, that the Hawaiians whom Cook encountered in the winter of 1778-1779 (Cook died at the hand of the Hawaiians in 1779) were essentially “rational” beings who were able to discern such a “universal” reality (Sahlins 39).
Marshall Sahlins, on the other hand, whose early work Obeyesekere is responding to with The Apotheosis… and who wrote How Natives Think…About Captain Cook for Example as a counterargument to Obeyesekere’s book, argues that the native Hawaiians interpreted Cook’s arrival within the context of their own culture’s belief system. They interpreted Cook’s arrival as the arrival of the god “Lono,” a Hawaiian fertility god.