Touring Tahiti

by leaps and bounds

I Tahiti, Oasis of the South Pa- I cific. By John H. Bounds, Mav- I erick Publishing House, Box 1 243, Bend, Oregon, USA.

I $ A 4.95. i This is not a scientific study or a textbook. Nor is it a guide- I book, a manual or a travel I book. And it is definitely not a [ novel or a work of literary merit. What is it then? Well, the t only thing I can say for certain I is that there are 160 printed

[ pages glued together and pro-

Ivided with a blue cover I representing a Tahitian girl [with the word TAHITI on her

I belly.

The title, Tahiti, Oasis of the

I South Pacific, I find equally

[puzzling. Tahiti is an island I and an oasis is a pool of water.

I I am at a loss to understand what the author means, unless he simply wants to say that Tahiti is a popular drinking

place.

The author of the book is an American professor of geogra phy at the Sam Houston State University whose information : too often reads like a literal [translation of the text in French tourist folders. Take these for instance; ‘Tahiti and French Polynesia [are marketed as tropical para dise islands to the mid-latitude citizen and their offerings are typical of what many other tropical islands offer to the vacation-conscious person.’ ‘The arts and crafts of Tahiti were at one time more varied in the traditional sense of the term than they are at pre sent.’ ‘The local culture has a per manent schism with European culture.’

I find it quite revealing that Professor Bounds acknowl edges a deep debt of gratitude to the French Tourist Board in Tahiti, the French airline UTA, the French Geographical Insti tute, ‘and various branches of the French Government that provided research assistance’.

Considerably more annoy ing than the atrocious style are

the countless factual errors and the unwarranted or thoroughly biased interpretations of Tahi tian culture and history which are to be found on almost every page. Most offensive to me is the author’s racist mentality.

The Tahitians are simply exotic specimens in a human zoo to be gaped and laughed at. For instance, though cannibalism never existed in Tahiti, the sub ject is deemed so titillating that the author, nevertheless, de votes much space to it. His foregone conclusions prove, of course, the civilising influence of the French colonisers: ‘Cannibalism definitely oc curred in the French area as late as the 1860 s but was declared illegal by French law from the very beginning of their colonial government. The eating of other human beings was not a usual activity for most Polynesians, but a serious shortage of food and starvation sometimes incited the taking of human life for meat pur poses.’

Another classic topic, analysed in the same pon derous vein, is the delightfully immoral life of the Tahitian ‘hula girls’. Believe it or not, but ‘many a European man took a Tahitian wife while he was in Tahiti, regardless of whether he was married to a European woman or not’. Of course, things like that never

happen in Europe. Quite

surprisingly, some native girls

seem to have human feelings, for the author assures us in the same deadpan style: ‘lt is known that Tahitian girls have shown genuine love.’ But that’s not the whole frightful story: ‘Europeans have been known to take advantage of Tahitian girls in these love affairs from the first explorers through the 1870 sand even in the 19705.’

Let us hope the situation im proves in the 1980 s.

Interspersed with these mas terful scientific analyses there are also many practical hints.

As for instance: ‘There may be

a need for some protective covering for those who have to be out in the weather.’ And what do you do, if you get sick?

No, you could never have thought of that yourself; The hotel desk, travel personnel, or the police or gendarme will help you contact a doctor.' This is probably what you will want to do right away, if you have read, in the plane, what Bounds has to say about the health situ ation in Tahiti; ‘Malnutrition is almost universal in French

Polynesia. Tuberculosis, syph

ilis. the common cold, pneu monia, elephantiasis (filari

asis). tetanus, typhoid, leprosy,

ulcers and others are common diseases that decimate the

population.’ After reading this

chapter, the badly-shaken re

viewer offered a prayer of thanks to the Almighty for being still alive. Since most tourists come to Tahiti in order to have fun. I think they should be warned not to do so on the dates suggested by the author.

For the truth is that most of the events in his calendar of annual feasts are either no longer cel ebrated at all or consist of nothing more than nebulous plans that will never material ise. The strangest item is some

thing called Adhesion Day,

supposedly occurring every

year on September 2. because this was the date when the local French settlers ‘adhered’ to General de Gaulle’s Free French movement in 1940. 1

hope all prospective visitors

will take my advice which is that almost any other day of the year will be better for converg ing on Papeete than this fic titious ‘Adhesion Day.’

The book is illustrated with

photographs showing mostly

dreary buildings in Papeete,

torn down years ago. There is, of course, also a sprinkling of so-called ‘hula girls’. The prize goes to the picture of a Tahitian fashion model posing on the beach, with the caption: The Traditional Tamare (hula).

U.T.A. — Genest. Supposing that tamare is a misprint for tamure , this is certainly not a traditional dance at all but the most modern of them all. And whatever the girl in the picture is up to, she certainly does not dance the tamure.

Bengt Danielsson