The establishment of Christianity in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, was as much a material process of indigenization as it was a local appropriation of foreign ideas. In this article I argue that the introduction of Christianity to Rarotonga in the 1820s entailed the creation of two competing social fields, one materialized through churches and the other materialized through marae (ceremonial enclosures with god-houses in which were stored wrapped wooden poles, representing divine ancestors). The argument for regarding churches and marae as materializations of social relations is developed against Gell's analysis, in Art and Agency, of Maori meeting houses in which he proposes that we approach such structures as indexes of agency.
Babadzan, Alain (2003) ‘The Gods Stripped Bare’, in Chloe Colchester (ed.) Clothing the Pacific, pp. 25–50. Oxford: Berg.
2.
Beaglehole, Ernest (1957) Social Change in the South Pacific: Rarotonga and Aitutaki. London: Allen and Unwin.
3.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4.
Bourdieu, Pierre and Wacquant, Loic (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Oxford: Polity Press.
5.
Bourne, Robert (n.d.) ‘Journal of a Voyage to the Harvey-Islands [sic] etc.’, Quarterly Chronicle Vol. III: 261–267.
6.
Buzacott, A. (n.d.) ‘Autobiography’, unpublished manuscript, Sydney, State Library of New South Wales.
7.
Buzacott, A. (1829) Buzacott to LMS, 2 December, 1829. Council for World Missions Archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, Incoming Correspondence, Box 7, Folder 8.
8.
Buzacott, A. (1830) Buzacott to LMS, 17 August, 1830. Council for World Missions Archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, Incoming Correspondence, Box 7, Folder 8.
9.
Campbell, Matthew (2001) ‘Settlement and Landscape in Late Prehistoric Rarotonga, Southern Cook Islands’, PhD Thesis, University of Sydney.
10.
Cook Islands Land Court (n.d.) Minute Books (MB) I, II and IX. Typescript on CD included with Campbell, Matthew (2001) ‘Settlement and Landscape in Late Prehistoric Rarotonga, Southern Cook Islands’. PhD Thesis, University of Sydney.
11.
Gell, Alfred (1998) Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
12.
Gill, William (1856) Gems from the Coral Islands: Or Incidents of Contrast Between Savage and Christian Life of the South Sea Islanders. London: Ward and Co.
13.
Gill, William (1871) Gems from the Coral Islands: Or Incidents of Contrast Between Savage and Christian Life in [sic] the South Sea Islanders. London: Elliot Stock.
14.
Maretu (1983) Cannibals and Converts: Radical Change in the Cook Islands (trans. and edited by Marjorie Tuainekore Crocombe). Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies.
15.
Pitman, Charles (1827–1845) Journal, ms. 6 vols, Sydney, State Library of New South Wales.
16.
Pitman, Charles (1829) Pitman to LMS, Rarotonga, 16 December 1829. Council for World Missions Archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, Incoming Correspondence, Box 7, Folder 4.
17.
Pitman, Charles (1830) Pitman to LMS, Rarotonga, 2 July 1830. Council for World Missions Archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, Incoming Correspondence, Box 7, Folder 8.
18.
Siikala, Jukka (1991) Akatokamanava: Myth History and Society in the Southern Cook Islands. Auckland: The Polynesian Society.
19.
Sissons, Jeffrey (1998) ‘The Traditionalisation of the Maori Meeting House’, Oceania69(1): 36–46.
20.
Sissons, Jeffrey (1999) Nation and Destination: Creating Cook Island Identity. Suva and Rarotonga: Institute of Pacific Studies and University of the South Pacific Centre in the Cook Islands.
21.
Sissons, Jeffrey (2004) ‘Maori Tribalism and Post-Settler Nationhood in New Zealand’, Oceania75(1): 19–31.
22.
Te Ariki-tara-are (1921) ‘History and Traditions of Rarotonga, Part XIX’, Journal of the Polynesian Society30: 129–141.
23.
Thomas, Nicholas (1995) ‘Kiss the Baby Goodbye: Kowhaiwhai and Aesthetics in Aotearoa New Zealand’, Critical Inquiry22 (autumn): 90–121.
24.
Tyerman, Daniel, Mongomery, James and Bennet, George (1831) Journal of Voyages and George Bennet, Deputed from the London Missionary Society to visit their Various Stations in the South Seas, China, India etc. Between the Years 1821 and 1829. London: Westley and Davis.
25.
Williams, John (n.d.[a]) ‘Account of the Overthrow of Idolatry in the Island of Aitutaki, by Mr. John Williams, Missionary at Raiatea, Chiefly Taken Down from the Mouth of Papeiaha [sic], one of Two Native Teachers Left at Aitutaki in the Year 1821’, Quarterly Chronicle Vol. III: 12–24 and 43–55.
26.
Williams, John, (n.d.[b]) ‘Translation of a Letter Received from Papeiha, Native Teacher at Rarotonga’, Quarterly Chronicle Vol. IV: 291–293.
27.
Williams, John (1825) Williams to LMS, Raiatea, 2 February 1825. Council for World Missions Archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, Incoming Correspondence, Box 7, Folder 5.
28.
Williams, John (1839) Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Seas: With Remarks Upon the Natural History of the Islands, Origin, Languages, Traditions and Usages of the Inhabitants. London: John Snow.
