Discoveries : The Voyages of Captain Cook

Cook's great voyages marked the end of an era in world history. As he sailed into Hawaii in January 1778, he made contact with the last of the human civilizations to grow up independently of the rest of the world. But equally for the Polynesians and Melanesians of the Pacific, Cook's arrival in their midst merely marked a further (if disastrous) twist in diverse histories already many centuries old. In this immensely enjoyable and absorbing book, Cook's journeys are reimagined, attempting to leave behind (or master) our later preoccupations to let us see what Cook and his associates experienced and what the societies he encountered experienced - from the Beothuks of Newfoundland to the Tongans of the Friendly Islands.

History

Thomas, Nicholas

World

Penguin??Books

Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook

Penguin

Marquesan society has long captured the interest of observers, in part because of unfamiliar institutions such as polyandry. Based on a critical study of a wide range of sources, this is the first book to provide a clear account of early Marquesan social relations and culture. Thomas's analysis of a dynamic and highly fluid Chiefly society and its encounters with early European visitors and traders encompasses wider debates about the nature of gender relations in Polynesian societies, small scale hierarchical structures, cultural transformation, and longer-term change. Linking specific features of early Marquesan society, its contact with foreigners, and the longer-term transformations of eastern Polynesian societies, this will be a key source for Pacific studies.

Marquesan Societies: Inequality and Political Transformations in Eastern Polynesia

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Clarendon Press

Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales, Vol. 2: Containing a Record of All Ranks of the Gentry, Their Lineage, Alliances, Appointments, Armorial Ensigns, and Residences, W

Excerpt from Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales, Vol. 2: Containing a Record of All Ranks of the Gentry, Their Lineage, Alliances, Appointments, Armorial Ensigns, and Residences, With Many Ancient Pedigrees and Memorials of Old and Extinct FamiliesThe towns of Flintshire being of moderate size and equably distributed, the county cannot be said to have any one centre of population and in&#64258;uence of preponderating im portance. Although the smallest of the Welsh counties in area, its population is the densest of any in Wales except Glamorganshire, and the mental activity and intelligence of the people rank high. The intelligence of the peasantry and general industrial class in this and the neighbouring county of Denbigh is much superior to that of the same class across the border in Cheshire and Shropshire - a circumstance which can only be attributed to the natural Celtic quickness, and invigorating power of a more difi'used popular moral culture. Mold, Flint, Holywell, and St. Asaph, are the towns which exercise most in&#64258;uence on the life of the county; while Rhyl, Rhuddlan, Caerwys, Caergwrle, and Overton, are also places of more or less note, - the first-named town a recently created and thriving watering-place.In ancient times, and with a much sparser population, the chief centres of political and social life in these districts were at Caerwys, Rhuddlan, Flint, and Caergwrle Holywell and Mold rose also into prominence. Rhuddlan had most distinction as a military post and meeting-place of contending armies; Holywell, with the well and abbey, as a place of resort for pilgrims and devotees; Caerwys as a royal domain and place of council; Hawarden, Caergwrle, Flint, and Mold, as military strongholds. The altered condition of society has given all these places a difierent character.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Europe

Forgotten Books

This compelling book explores the lived experience of empire in the Pacific, the last region to be contacted and colonized by Europeans following the great voyages of Captain Cook. Unlike conventional accounts that emphasize confrontation and the destruction of indigenous cultures, Islanders reveals there was gain as well as loss, survival as well as suffering, and invention as well as exploitation.
Empowered by imaginative research in obscure archives and collections, Thomas rediscovers a rich and surprising history of encounters, not only between Islanders and Europeans, but among Islanders, brought together in new ways by explorers, missionaries, and colonists. He tells the story of the making of empire, not through an impersonal survey, but through vivid stories of the lives of men and women—some visionary, some vicious, and some just eccentric—and through sensuous evocation of seascapes and landscapes of the Pacific. A fascinating re-creation of an Oceanic world, Islanders offers a new paradigm, not only for histories of the Pacific, but for understandings of cultural contact everywhere.

Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire

Americas

Yale University Press

This compelling book explores the lived experience of empire in the Pacific, the last region to be contacted and colonized by Europeans following the great voyages of Captain Cook. Unlike conventional accounts that emphasize confrontation and the destruction of indigenous cultures, "Islanders" reveals that there was gain as well as loss, survival as well as suffering, and invention as well as exploitation. Empowered by imaginative research in obscure archives and collections, Thomas rediscovers a rich and surprising history of encounters, not only between Islanders and Europeans, but among Islanders, brought together in new ways by explorers, missionaries and colonists. He tells the story of the making of empire, not through an impersonal survey, but through vivid stories of the lives of men and women - some visionary, some vicious, and some just eccentric - and through sensuous evocation of seascapes and landscapes of the Pacific. A fascinating re-creation of an Oceanic world, "Islanders" offers a new paradigm, not only for histories of the Pacific, but for understandings of cultural contact everywhere.

A spectacular survey of the artistic traditions of Oceania, spanning the islands’ initial settlement in the prehistoric era through the 21st century Masks and figural sculptures are the most familiar examples of the visual culture of Oceania, yet they provide only a glimpse of the fascinating art of this diverse region. Artisans of the Pacific Islands and Australia have produced objects ranging from stained and beaten fabric, rock engravings, and woven containers to tattooed and painted bodies, drawings on sand and paper, and contemporary installation art. This survey looks at the full range of objects created over several millennia, spanning the settlement of Oceania in the prehistoric period to the present day.
Lavishly illustrated and encyclopedic in scope, this landmark book places the art of Oceania in its comprehensive and often complex historical context. Essays by leading scholars offer a fresh approach to archaeological findings; the impacts of migration, trade, warfare, and colonization; the influence of materials, ritual, dance, and religion; and the roles of photography, tourism, nationalism, and popular culture. Featuring a rich selection of previously unpublished materials and accompanied by commentary from contemporary practitioners, Art in Oceania: A New History is essential reading, offering an important reinterpretation of existing scholarship, and a dynamic introduction to Oceanic artistic traditions in the 21st century.

Art in Oceania: A New History

Arts & Photography

Brunt, Peter

History & Criticism

Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales: Containing a Record of All Ranks of the Gentry ... With Many Ancient Pedigrees and Memorials of Old and Extinct Families

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales: Containing a Record of All Ranks of the Gentry ... with Many Ancient Pedigrees and Memorials of Old and Extinct Families

Franklin Classics Trade Press

Despite the enormous amount of work that has attempted to combine historical and anthropological approaches in recent years, few books have outlined the underlying premises that make integration of the two fields difficult. In Out of Time, Nicholas Thomas argues that a "historical perspective" cannot simply be added to conventional anthropology, which systematically takes ethnography "out of time." Drawing examples from the Polynesian anthropological literature, he points to discredited social evolutionary ideas that have persisted even after apparently dramatic theoretical shifts and to the need to take seriously sources that anthropologists have previously dismissed. When it was first published in 1989, Out of Time generated much-needed discussion on the appropriate models for historical anthropology. Thomas considered that both the historical structuralism of Marshall Sahlins and neo-Marxist regional systems theory had failed to transcend crucial limitations of conventional anthropology. Yet they provided elements of a more stimulating and critical perspective, which would also take account of contemporary political developments in the Pacific region. For this second edition, Thomas has added an afterword that reflects on the book's initial reception and brings its critique up to date. He suggests a need to historicize the professionalization of anthropology as a discipline to understand shifts in practice and the need to acknowledge the historical specificity and limits of all forms of cultural knowledge, whether "Western" or indigenous. Out of Time will be a useful text for graduate courses in anthropology, history, and cultural studies. "This book displays rare integrity: Thomas' intellectual stance toward the theoretical approaches of others is fully consistent with his own discursive practices." --Contemporary Pacific Nicholas Thomas is Senior Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University.

Out of Time: History and Evolution in Anthropological Discourse (Ann Arbor Paperbacks)

University of Michigan Press

The dazzling colors and patterns of the art of the Pacific Islands have long entranced Western audiences, including artists such as Gauguin and Picasso. The tendency has been to regard Oceanic art as "primitive," mysterious, shrouded in taboo, but Nicholas Thomas looks beyond the familiar, stunning surfaces of spears and shields, carved canoe prows and feather capes to discover the significance of art, past and present, for the people of the Pacific. He shows how each region is characterized by certain art forms and practices - among them Maori ancestral carvings, rituals of exchange and warfare in the Solomon Islands, the production of barkcloth by women in Polynesia - even as it is shaped by influences from within the Pacific and beyond. The dynamism and diversity of the art are reflected in the illustrations accompanying this revelatory text, from works that evoke the most deep-rooted customs to those that address contemporary political issues.

Oceanic Art (World of Art)

Thames&Hudson

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Books by Thomas, Nicholas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thomas, Nicholas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Discoveries : The Voyages of Captain Cook

Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook

Marquesan Societies: Inequality and Political Transformations in Eastern Polynesia

Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales, Vol. 2: Containing a Record of All Ranks of the Gentry, Their Lineage, Alliances, Appointments, Armorial Ensigns, and Residences, W

Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire

Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire

Art in Oceania: A New History

Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales: Containing a Record of All Ranks of the Gentry ... with Many Ancient Pedigrees and Memorials of Old and Extinct Families

Out of Time: History and Evolution in Anthropological Discourse (Ann Arbor Paperbacks)

Oceanic Art (World of Art)