1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789612203321

Autore

Kahn Miriam

Titolo

Tahiti beyond the postcard [[electronic resource] ] : power, place, and everyday life / / Miriam Kahn

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Seattle, : University of Washington Press, c2011

ISBN

0-295-80095-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (290 p.)

Collana

Culture, place, and nature

Classificazione

8,2

Disciplina

996.2/11

Soggetti

Ethnology - French Polynesia - Tahiti (Island)

Human geography - French Polynesia - Tahiti (Island)

Culture and tourism - French Polynesia - Tahiti (Island)

Geographical perception - French Polynesia - Tahiti (Island)

Postcolonialism - French Polynesia - Tahiti (Island)

Tahiti (French Polynesia : Island) Social life and customs

Tahiti (French Polynesia : Island) Foreign relations France

France Foreign relations French Polynesia Tahiti (Island)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

; Machine generated contents note: ; ch. One New Geographies in the Wake of Colonialism -- ; ch. Two Placentas in the Land, Bombs in the Bedrock -- ; ch. Three Keeping the Myth Alive -- ; ch. Four In the Cocoon -- ; ch. Five From Our Place to Their Place -- ; ch. Six Everyday Spaces of Resistance -- ; ch. Seven E Aha Atu Ra? What Will Happen?.

Sommario/riassunto

The "Tahiti" that most people imagine -- white-sand beaches, turquoise lagoons, and beautiful women -- is a product of 18th century European romanticism and persists today to serve as the bedrock of Tahiti's tourism industry. This postcard image, however, masks a different, less known reality. French Polynesia remains a colony of France in the 21st century and was the site of France's nuclear testing program for nearly thirty years. The dreams and desires, which the tourism industry promotes, distract from the medical nightmares and environmental destruction caused by nuclear testing. Tahitians see the burying of a bomb in their land as deeply offensive. For them, the land abounds with ancestral fertility and genealogical identity, providing



them with a constant source of both physical and spiritual nourishment. The imagined and lived perspectives of Tahiti seem incompatible, yet are intricately intertwined in the political economy of French Polynesia. This book engages with questions about the ways in which power entangles itself in place-related ways. How does colonialism perpetuate and exploit these images? How can nuclear weapons testing exist in a place that is promoted as a pristine paradise? How and why is 'Tahiti' crafted by a tourism industry whose goal is to create desire? How is this imagined product embraced, ignored, or sabotaged by Tahitians? The author uses interpretive frameworks of both Tahitian and European scholars, drawing upon ethnographic details that include ancient chants, picture postcards, antinuclear protests, popular song lyrics, and the legacy of Paul Gauguin's art, to provide fresh perspectives on colonialism, tourism, imagery, and the anthropology of place.