328

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

Gardner. Wallman, for example, considers the data preWallman, for that matter, does not seem to be aware
sented by Savage-Rumbaugh and Rumbaugh in their of recent studies concerning the neural bases and evoluproject with the pygmy chimpanzee Kanzi and initially tion of human language; his cursory chapter on the evoconcedes that chimpanzees may have limited lexical lution and neuroanatomy of language is about ten years
abilities (pp. 5 3, 74-76)! but he dismisses the demonstra- out of date. Language cannot be separated from other
tion by the Gardners of similar lexical ability in Pan aspects of cognition and itself consists of different comtroglodytes. His contrived "analysis" (pp. 59-64) of the ponents that involve different neural mechanisms. ReGardners' 1984 paper, "A Vocabulary Test for Chimpan- cent neurophysiologic studies, for example, indicate that
zees," is a carping parody that would not be out of place different neural "circuits" regulate the lexicon, speech,
in George Orwell's essay on verbal obfuscation, "Poli- and syntax. Subcortical pathways connecting cortical artics and the English Language." He grudgingly concedes eas that also function in other aspects of cognition conthat "the ape's application of individual signs is mark- nect with the traditional "sites" of language, e.g.,
edly similar to that of children" (p. 62), but he informs Broca's and Wernicke's areas (e.g., Stuss and Benson
us that the first words of children may also "merely 1986, Metter et al. 1989).However, these deficiencies of
be a ritualized part of recurrent activity contexts, only Aping Language and other errors are minor compared
nominally more linguistic than the nonverbal behaviors with the book's major deficit, its patent bias. A careful,
that also define these contexts" (p. 5 I ) . Lest any believer detached analysis of the ape-language projects of the
in absolute human uniqueness lose faith, Wallman con- Gardners, Savage-Rumbaugh and Rumbaugh, Terrace,
cludes that apes do not acquire words, since "reference" Fouts, Patterson, and Miles would be extremely useful
is supposedly an innate, species-specific human quality for both specialists and the general scientific community. Wallman's descriptions and comments on these
(PP. 77-78].
It is difficult to catalog Wallman's errors of omission projects are often insightful. However, Aping Language
and commission. He glosses over the deficiencies of Ter- is an untrustworthy guide.
race's Nim Chimpslzy project, which attacked the Gardners. Nim's nonconversational style derived from the References Cited
fact that he never conversed with his trainers, who attempted to use Skinnerian techniques instead of the F O U T S , R. S., A . D . H I R S C H , A N D D . H . F O U T S . 1982. " C U ~
tural transmission of a human language i n a chimpanzee mothcross-fostering technique employed by the Gardners. Iner-infant relationship," i n Child nurturance, vol. 3. Edited by
deed, the reader of Aping Language would never realize
H. E. Fitzgerald, J. A. Mullins, and P. Gage. N e w York: Plethat the Gardners did not, as Wallman implies (p. I O ~ ) , n u m Press.
train their chimpanzees using operant conditioning. Fur- G A R D N E R , R . A . , A N D B . T . G A R D N E R . 1984. A vocabulary
test for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).Journal of Comparative
thermore, it is clear from the data of the Gardner and
4:381-404.
savage-~Lmbaugh
and Rumbaugh projects as well as the L I Psychology
E B E R M A N , P . 1991. Uniquely human: The evolution of
Loulis project (Fouts, Hirsch, and Fouts 1982)speech, thought, and selfless behavior. Cambridge: Harvard
Wallman omits any reference to the latter-that chim
University Press.
panzees converse using signs or lexigrams. Numerous M E T T E R , E. J . , D . K E M P L E R , C . J A C K S O N , W. R . H A N S O N ,
J. c. M A Z Z I O T T A , A N D M. E . P H E L P S . 1989. Cerebral gluexamples that Wallman simply ignores make it clear
cose metabolism i n Wernicke's, Broca's, and conduction aphathat chimpanzees show displaced reference when signsia. Archives of Neurology 46:27-34.
ing or using lexigrams.
s ~ u s s D.
, T., A N D D. F. B E N S O N . 1986. The frontal lobes.
New York: Raven.
Wallman's contemptuous language (one wonders why
the book's editors did not intercede) and tortured logic
unfortunately obscure some of thk informed assess
ments and interesting comments that he presents. He
correctlv notes that the claims made in the earlv chimpanzee-language experiments concerning syntactic ability are not consistent with later data. Chimpanzees are
not capable of using word order as a syntactic device, N I C H O L A S T H O M A S
though they appear to be able to use "local" relation- Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T.
ships similar in some sense to word-level morphological 2600, Australia. 5 I 93
processes. Chimpanzees also are not capable of speech.
The ape-language experiments and Wallman's assess
The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythment are significant in that they may reveal similarities
making in the Pacific. By Gananath Obeyesekere.
(lexical ability) and differences (speech and syntax) bePrinceton: Princeton University Press/Honolulu:
tween humans and the common ancestor from which
Bishop Museum Press, 1992. 251 pp.
hominids evolved. This, in turn, allows us to focus our
attention on the evolution of the particular neural The stimulating and imaginative character of Marshall
mechanisms that may be species-specific attributes of Sahlins's reading of the death of Captain Cook in Hawaii
modern H. sapiens (Lieberman 1991). Wallman's blan- is attested to by the range of responses and critiques his
ket denial of any element of linguistic ability in apes work has generated. Gananath Obeyesekere's book is
the fullest such critique, and if he is right Sahlins's readsimply confuses the issue.

Cook Reappraised

Volume 34, Number 3, June 1993 1 329

ing may be said to be imaginative in the uncharitable

sense. When I first became aware of Obeyeseliere's work
on the topic, I was concerned that a scholar with expertise in quite different areas-in both a geographic and a
topical sense-could only make a mess of the difficult
business of historical reconstruction of the cultural dvnamics of exploratory contacts, which requires deep
knowledge not only of Polynesian cultures but also of
the 18th-century Europeans whose "Western" ideas and
interests are too easily taken for granted.
Certainly, there are slips which someone with a better
knowledge of the Pacific and the 18th-century context
would not have made. 'Inasi is not a Tahitian ritual but
a Tongan one (p. 58), as it is correctly identified elsewhere (p. 33). Reinhold Forster's journals from Cook's
second voyage were not published "in the guise of his
son's name" (p. 24); George Forster's Voyage Round the
World of 1777 was very much his own book. The notion
that seawater could not freeze, crucial to the hypothesis
that a navigable northwest passage existed, was not "virtually axiomatic" (p. 2 5 ) in the 1770s but in fact vigorously debated; it was well understood by some after
Cook's passages through Antarctic waters on the second
voyage that icebergs were frozen seawater.
None of these errors, however, has much bearing on
the central subject matter of Obeyesekere's book, which
is a close reappraisal of the encounter between the British and the Hawaiians in the context of the Eurovean
mythologization of the events of contact and particularly the death of Cook. Obeyesekere's argument is
largely negative, but it is nevertheless a remarkably rich
and persuasive argument that excavates a variety of issues and questions buried not only by Sahlins but by
orthodox Cook voyage scholarship, which has on the
whole been conservative and celebratory.
Crudely summarised, Obeyesekere's main argument
is that Sahlins ignores the pragmatic dynamics of the
conflicted encounter in Hawaii, that Cook's death arose
from oppressive aspects of the British intrusion, and that
Cook was not identified as the god Lono in the manner
claimed but assimilated to the category of a high chief,
named Lono like other high chiefs, and deified subsequent to his death rather than killed as a god. Elements
of this critique have been put forward by other writers
such as Jonathan Friedman (whose 1985 paper in the
Journal of Pacific History Obeyesekere fails to mention),
but no one else so far has contested Sahlins's historiography in such a detailed and largely persuasive way. 6beyesekere establishes that Sahlins misreads or overinterprets sources on many small points, disregards relevant
evidence, and fails to take account of such crucial facts
as the variable nature of the Makahiki calendar-which
completely undermines his attempt to correlate the specific events of Cook's visit with the cycle of that ritual,
which apparently did not even take on its modern form
until after Cook's death. Obeyesekere also suggests that
Sahlins's identification of Cook's killer rests upon a literal reading of John Webber's painting that ignores the
idealisation of the figures and the fact that Webber was
not himself a witness to the scene. At some points the

critic lapses into precisely the same kind of tendentious

overinterpretation that he justly identifies in Sahlins: I
am not convinced, for example, that when Cook stepped
ashore on January 20, 1778, and several hundred Hawaiians prostrated themselves before him "it was clear,"
as Obeyesekere suggests, "that the native reaction was
based on the terror caused by Williamson," the lieutenant who had shortly beforehand killed a Hawaiian apparently attempting to steal a boat hook (pp. 40-41). It m a y
have been, but the documentation is such that it cannot
be clear. However, even if this was an expression of
abasement rather than terror (and it might have been
both), it would not undermine Obeyesekere's claim that
Cook was treated as a high chief rather than identified
with the god. There is room for a great deal of further
argument concerning the interpretation of specific
events, but Obeyesekere attacks Sahlins's thesis on so
many distinct points and grounds that it is difficult to
see how it would remain tenable.
One strand of the voyage evidence that Cook's biographers tended to be reluctantly aware of was the evident
deterioration of the captain's generally judicious and humane approach toward his own crew and toward relations with islanders. Certainly, there were horrifying incidents of violence on the first and second voyages, such
as the massacre at Poverty Bay in New Zealand, but, in
comparison with the visits of earlier and later navigators, contacts on those voyages were on the whole remarkably amicable; by the third voyage, however, Cook
appears manifestly exhausted and irrational. He punitively deprives his men of rations; he subjects pilfering
islanders to savage floggings and other forms of corporal
punishment; he circles around islands instead of landing
at them; he indulges immoderately in kava. Although
aspects of the evidence have been noted by others such
as Beaglehole, and although Obeyesekere's image of
Cook is occasionally implausibly dark, there are the
makings of a fascinating, critical psychobiography here
that deserve development in a separate publication.
A strong feature of the book is also the contextualization of the anthropological interpretations in the longer
tradition of the representation of Cook, in which it is
shown that the treatment of the explorer as a god was a
prominent theme from an early point. Although the
book is imbalanced by the critique of Sahlins, there is
also something of the broader cultural history that
its subtitle promises, usefully complementing Bernard
Smith's visually oriented essay on Cook's posthumous
reputation [in Smith 1992).
As a scholar of the Cook voyages, I have a further
reaction that may seem perverse, arising from the way
in which the death of Cook has monopolised research on
the third voyage. This is unfortunate, because another
striking feature of that expedition was the extensive encounters with peoples of the Northwest Coast and
Northeast Asia, who were depicted extensively by Webber and who were of course very different to the Oceanic
peoples already known. A study of precisely how they
were represented and responded to and how the differences between them and the Oceanic peoples were un-

330 1

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

derstood would be a substantial contribution to the history of 18th-century travel and ethnology. This area is
not, however, likely to be broached, because it seems
that Cook has captured and monopolised the attention
of even those who would cut him down to size.

iarity of the theme I did not experience any feeling of

deja lu.
Europe Observed furnishes particularly interesting
documentation of how British-trained social anthropologists are responding to the problems of doing ethnographic research today. By and large they emerge as more
conservative yet fundamentally more positive than their
Reference Cited
American counterparts about the difficulties of collectS M I T H , B E R N A R D . 1992. Imagining the Pacific: In the wake of

ing ethnographic "facts"; certainly they are altogether

the Cook voyages. New Haven: Yale University Press.

less angst-ridden about the political dynamics of eliciting and controlling ethnographic knowledge. On the
subject of holism, for example, Loizos concedes that
"comprehensive ethnography is chimerical" and that
"one collects facts because of theoretical concerns." Yet
he also holds that some element of com~rehensiveem
pirical description remains valuable for what it offers to
future
analysis and theory building. Ethnographic hoCHARLES STEWART
lism
may
be impossible to achieve, but it can still be
Department of Human Sciences, Brunel University,
retained as an ideal. The challenge is to write ethnogUxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, England. 21 I 93
raphies which open the subject of research in the broadest possible manner. This is not to eschew theory but
Honor and Grace i n Anthropology. Edited by J. G.
to point out that development in theory has generally
Peristiany and Julian Pitt-Rivers. Cambridge: Camdepended on comprehensive ethnography. The British
bridge University Press, 1992. 260 pp. $3 5
tradition wrestles with holism as a challenge for empirical ethnographic completeness while the American traEurope Observed. Edited by Joiio de Pina-Cabral and
dition worries more about conceptual and epistemologiJohn Campbell. London: Macmillan, 1992. 202 pp.
cal holisms which dupe us with their time-validated
240
rhetorical appeal (Thornton 1988). Continued reliance
Honor and Grace i n Anthropology and Europe Observed on holism, we are warned, may reify cultures or perpetucould be likened to messages in a bottle, sealed and left ate a passe modernist programme incapable of doing justo drift through the process of publication while new tice to the fragmentariness of current postmodern realiopinions are emerging that make the intellectual world ties (Marcus 1989, 1990). The word "postmodern" does
in which they will be read very different from the one not appear once in Europe Observed.
Pitt-Rivers mounts a complementary argument in fain which they were formulated. Honor and Grace origi
nates in papers delivered at Pitt-Rivers's seminar at the vour of objectivity. Although "practically unattainable,"
Sorbonne sometime before 1983, the date when Le Roy it should be considered "theoreticallv conceivable . . .
Ladurie's contribution analyzing rank in Louis XIV1s because, if such an ideal is denied, there is no reason
court was first published. Europe Observed dates from not to indulge in uninhibited ethnocentrism." As Geertz
a conference organized by Pina-Cabral and held in Braga (1973:30) once phrased it (and I paraphrase), that it is
(Portugal) in 1986. Brandes's (1987) reflections on the impossible to create a perfectly aseptic environment
effects of a fieldworker's gender on the collection of eth- does not mean that one might as well conduct surgery
nographic data is the only previously published piece. I in a sewer. Perhaps we could label this stance anti-antithink that the passage of time has worked in favour of objectivism? Pitt-Rivers further observes that all fieldEurope Observed and rather against Honor and Grace. workers are inevitably guided by the suppositions of
Europe Observed is a collection of ten essays (seven their own societies, and these are inherently limited and
by Oxford-trained anthropologists) almost all of which subject to change. Pina-Cabral sees these "societies" as
meditate, in a candid, personal, and highly accessible narrower communities of readers-other anthro~olo
manner, on the challenges of conducting field research gists. The general concern to establish and promote
in Europe. At first glance one might be tempted to dis- what may be of enduring value in ethnography-thick
parage this volume as yet another attempt to jump on description rendered by anthropologists who, through
the bandwagon of reflexive anthropology, the lessons of comparative study, have made some attempt to dewhich have now become common knowledge. Such a ethnocentrize themselves and objectivize their find
judgment would be unfair because the contributions as- ings-strikes me as stronger in Britain than in America,
sembled here were mostly conceived independently of where "theory" is incorporated at earlier stages and in
the main expositions of these ideas (e.g., Clifford and stronger doses. The British tradition favours a patient
Marcus 1986). Although innocence should not be cast inductivism, the American a more proactive deducas an unalloyed virtue, this disconnection does lend the tivism.
Many of the contributions here help qualify an objecessays a greater novelty than might otherwise have been
the case. Their authors approach their subjects with a tivist position by showing the fragility of ethnographic
refreshing degree of independence, and despite the famil- understandings. Pina-Cabral draws attention to the fact

Eurovision Examined