Science Voyages And Encounters In Oceania 1511-1850

Spanning four centuries and vast space, this book combines the global history of ideas with particular histories of encounters between European voyagers and Indigenous people in Oceania (Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands). Douglas shows how prevailing concepts of human difference, or race, influenced travellers' approaches to encounters.

Yet their presuppositions were often challenged or transformed by the appearance, conduct, and lifestyle of local inhabitants. The book's original theory and method reveal traces of Indigenous agency in voyagers' representations which in turn provided key evidence for the natural history of man and the science of race.

In keeping with recent trends in colonial historiography, Douglas diverts historical attention from imperial centres to so-called peripheries, discredits the outmoded stereotype that Europeans necessarily dominated non-Europeans, and takes local agency seriously. Review: 'Bronwen Douglas has produced a volume rich in images and accounts about a crucial period of European expansion into the Pacific Ocean.

Her emphasis on 'race' as a European metropolitan as well as a Pacific concept adds to our understanding of the developing histories about Pacific worlds. Douglas' book figures as an important read not only for Pacific experts but needs to be placed alongside similar historical developments in the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.' - Rainer F.

Buschmann, California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, USA; International Journal of Maritime History