Beach crossings

the long version

"Historian/anthropologist Greg Dening here revisits the island beaches of Oceania in an extended essay on first encounters and the peoples they brought together. An exploration of the symbolic strip where ocean meets island, Dening's meditation reflects upon the bloody history of the Marquesas in the South Pacific: it inhabitants and its combatants, the author's own time spent there and in study of his subject." "Dening reconstructs the first interactions between explorers, missionaries, and natives - mostly in the Marquesas, the primary focus of his scholarly work. He examines fictional accounts of these encounters as well as the written record, revisiting the experiences of Captain Bligh and Gauguin, Melville's seafarers as well as some famous castaways. Each featured beach crossing is prefaced with an introduction placing the encounter in its historical context."--Jacket.