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Abstract
George Vason arrived on the island of Tongatapu in 1797, as part of the London Missionary Society's first foray into the Tongan Islands. Instead of creating converts, Vason embraced the Tongan way of life. Overtly framed as a narrative of reclamation, of a “missionary seduced abroad and reclaimed at home”, his travel account in fact seeks to imagine an identity unbound by any culture, including his own. Focusing particularly on Vason's account of his tattooing in relation to contemporary depictions of Polynesian tattooing, this essay will suggest that Vason refuses to invest his tattoos with either exotic value (rendering him a curiosity) or moralistic value (a shameful reminder of his lapse). While Vason's description of Tongan tattoos as a form of clothing has often been read as a means of justifying his tattoos to a European audience, this essay suggests that Vason reads his tattoos as a productive amalgamation of Tongan and European values. For Vason, Tongan tattooing allows cultural values to be embodied in a way that European clothes cannot, effectively uniting body and culture.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. This engraving of Vason, in fact, goes against the trope of assimilation (or re-assimilation) narratives, which generally feature a portrait of the character whose social normalcy is signified by their European clothing – the portrait itself is a form that further distinguishes their cultural belonging. Think, for example, of Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789) or Frederick Douglass's Narrative (1845), both of which present their authors not as they were but as they are now, their clothing highlighting their ascension into cultural acceptance. In the context of the Pacific beachcomber, William Torrey's Narrative (1848) features a frontispiece of Torrey attired in European clothes, while his tattooed hands incongruously stick out. William Mariner's Account (1817) depicts Mariner in his “Tongan costume”, a costume that covers the parts of his body that were tattooed.
2. de Bry's engraving was based on a drawing of Powhatan Indian chief done by John White, who was part of Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to what would become the Virginia colonies. The work, of course, pre-dates Rousseau, but so does the concept of the “noble savage”, an idea popularised but not created by Rousseau himself.
3. Beyond creating a beautiful estate for himself, Vason seems to do very little to promote this skill during his time in Tonga. There is poetic irony in the fact that the missionary specialising in laying down foundations is the primary failure in the mission to lay down the foundations of Christianity.
4. Unless otherwise specified all further citations refer to this edition.
5. The Duff missionaries did have “periodical meetings”; but, for the most part, they remained isolated from one another. Learning from this mistake, future missionaries focused on establishing their own communities within the islands.
6. Vanessa Smith has also noted the significance of this term in the context of Vason's narrative. She argues: “The notion that authorship is contingent serves to reaffirm the unity of evangelical discourse, but the desire expressed here to ‘clothe’ the autobiography of the fallen missionary is a post-lapsarian impulse, not just a sign of his renewed civility” (Citation2000, 160). Smith provides a more detailed version of this argument in Literary Culture in the Pacific (Citation1998, 36–40).
7. Coulter does not specify what his tattoos looked like, just that his tattooing “sufficed to mark on [his] skin the delineations and characteristics of a chief” (Citation1845, 213).
8. Coulter significantly titles this section “Its [the tattoo's] Effectiveness” (Citation1845, 207).
9. Joanna White identifies the symbolic significance of Cabri's tattoos, as they related to his social status, suggesting that: “the partial facial mask indicated his title as son in law; a breastplate on the right breast signified his standing as a warrior; and the tattooed eye marked his membership of a specific feasting society” (Citation2005, 82).
10. Rutherford is regarded as one of the first Englishmen to put his body on display (Cassuto Citation1996). As Joanna White points out, though, Rutherford was uncomfortable being displayed but would reluctantly do so for money (Citation2005, 87–88). See also George Craik's The New Zealanders for the primary source account of Rutherford's feelings about putting his tattooed body on display (Citation1830, 278).
11. Neither Vason's editor nor subsequent scholars have been able to provide a translation for this term. However, it seems significant that it was left in the original text without translation. Surely Vason's editor could have asked him what the term meant. Because there is no translation provided, Vason comes across as still engaged with the Tongan community. The insult, it seems, can only carry weight in the context of the Tongan language.
12. “Mark” is the more common characterisation of the tattoo in beachcomber narratives. See William Torrey, Torrey's Narrative: Or, the Life and Adventures of William Torrey (Citation1848), “bearing a mark” (120); John Coulter: “mark on my skin” (213); James O'Connell: “My legs, back, and abdomen, were marked also” (Citation1836, 118).
13. Gell, however, seems to be subject to his own “logical fallacies”, most notably in his uncharacteristically assumptive description of Tongan anal and genital tattooing as “sado-masochistic”. Even Gell's definition of “exhibitionism” is heavily reliant upon Eurocentric analogy: it is like a “tan”; and Vason had “discovered designer beachwear” (Citation1993, 103–104).
14. Juniper Ellis, addressing Gell's assertion that Samoans usually tattooed Tongan aristocracy, notes that Vason is tattooed by Tongan tattoo artists, thus “Vason's claim that he achieved chiefly status would hence be complicated” (Citation2008, 122).
15. It is important to distinguish tattooing from the narrative account of that tattooing. Many other contemporary tattooing narratives seem to exaggerate the extent to which their subjects were “forced”. Joanna White notes that Rutherford claims to have been held down for four hours as he was tattooed, but “the moko, or Maori tattooing, borne by Rutherford on his face is usually carried out over a much longer period” (Citation2005, 87).
16. John Martin, in William Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands, similarly comments on the beautiful appearance of the tattoo, more directly contrasting European and Polynesian skin: “On their brown skins the tattow is black, on the skin of an European it has a fine blue appearance”, further footnoting that he has “seen two instances of the Tonga tattow [sic], in Jeremiah Higgins and Thomas Dawson, both of the Port au Prince. The beauty and neatness of the execution far exceeded my expectations” ([Citation1817] Citation1991, 396–397).
17. Martin recounts a similar incident regarding William Mariner's attempt to escape:
Mr. Mariner, without stopping to hail, on the impulse of the moment, jumped onto the main chains, and was very near being knocked over-board by the sentinel, who took him for a native, for his skin was very brown, his hair very long, and tied up in a knot, with a turban around the head, and an apron of the leaves of the chi tree around his waist. ([Citation1817] Citation1991, 260)
Similarly, the captain of the ship that William Torrey attempts to escape on
could hardly believe me to be [a European sailor], for the scanty allowance of clothes with which I left the wreck, had long before fallen off, leaving me entirely naked, and exposed to the sun's scorching rays; besides, my long beard and uncombed hair, rendered me in appearance scarce less than a savage (131).
18. It is equally possible, however, that this was a denial rather than an admission. In distancing himself from their Pohnpeian meaning, O'Connell could further distance himself from insinuations that he was a willing participant in his tattooing.
19. Of Tongan tattooing tradition, Martin writes that “[t]here are certain patterns or forms of the tattow, known by distinct names, and the individual may choose which he likes” ([Citation1817] Citation1991, 396). Martin's non-descriptive description of “certain patterns or forms”, known by “distinct” names, further illustrates the lack of connection to the material being put on the tattooed white man's body. While the recipient may choose which design he likes, Martin's description does little to suggest that Mariner has a clear understanding of what the tattoos he had chosen were meant to represent.
20. While O'Connell does, quite interestingly, describe himself as a “bird of much more diversified plumage” than before, his reference to his companion as “escaping” seems to suggest that he was less than pleased with his new “plumage”. The figurative potential of this phrase, it seems to me, is offset by the surrounding language. It is for this reason that I read this phrase as more of an empty rhetorical gesture than as a means of coming to terms with the tattooing.
21. Paul Lyons notes that “Oceanians were often referred to as Indians”, further arguing that “the relation of Oceanians to ‘American Indians’ was sensed acutely by Oceanian intellectuals and political leaders” (Citation2006, 30–31).
22. Martin, however, does little to illuminate the potential symbolic meanings of individual tattoos, though he does state that “certain forms of the tattow [are] known by distinct names, and the individual may choose which he likes” ([Citation1817] Citation1991, 396).
23. Orange's personal relationship with Vason is only ambiguously defined. He claims that Mrs Vason was “well known” to him, but his observations of Vason himself are mostly superficial in nature. In his introduction, Orange asserts that “every circumstance subsequently detailed, was taken down from Mr. Vason's mouth, and repeatedly revised in concurrence with himself” (vi). But given that there are no fundamental changes to the original narrative, it seems that Orange could only be re-asserting the authority of his earlier editor. However, the ambiguous manner through which he frames his relationship with Vason seems intentional, a means of exaggerating his relationship with Vason without exactly lying.
24. Thomas Nunneley's Citation1844 Treatise on the Nature, Causes, and Treatment of Erysipelas suggests that “mental anxiety frequently appeared to be a predisposing cause to the disease” (Citation1844, 100). Nunneley's assertion seems to be reflective of contemporary perceptions about the malady.