South Seas
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| The term '''South Seas''' or '''South Sea''' commonly refers to the [[Oceania|South Pacific]]. Geographically, all areas to the south of 10° north latitude belong to the South Sea. | The term '''South Seas''' or '''South Sea''' commonly refers to the [[Oceania|South Pacific]]. Geographically, all areas to the south of 10° north latitude belong to the South Sea. | ||
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| - | The term South Sea is often used [[synonymy|synonymously]] for [[Oceania]] and in a narrow sense for [[Polynesia]] ([[Polynesian Triangle]]). The [[Hawaii]] islands, [[New Zealand]] ([[Aotearoa]]) and the [[Easter Island]] (''Rapa Nui'') build the vertices. [[South Sea Islanders]] is another word for [[Pacific Islanders]]. | ||
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| - | The [[South Seas Mandate]] was the name of the Japanese mandate over certain islands following World War I. | ||
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| - | The “[[South Sea Company|South Seas trade]]” was a term used in Britain in the nineteenth century to denote sealing, whaling, island trading and other commercial ship-based activities in the Pacific. | ||
| In a figurative sense, the South Sea is an often idealised and distant region. | In a figurative sense, the South Sea is an often idealised and distant region. | ||
Revision as of 19:43, 21 May 2024
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"The decision was made last night; I shall write of my first ship, the Bounty, of the mutiny on board, of my long residence on the island of Tahiti in the South Sea, and of how I was conveyed home in irons, to be tried by court-martial and condemned to death."--Mutiny on the Bounty (1932) by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall "The Romans ranked swimming with letters, saying of an uneducated man, "Nec literas didicit nec natare." He had neither learned to read nor to swim. The sea is the book of the South Sea Islanders. They swim as they walk, beginning as babies to dive and to frolic in the water. Their mothers place them on the river bank at a day old, and in a few months they are swimming in shallow water. At two and three years they play in the surf, swimming with the easy motion of a frog. They have no fear of the water to overcome, for they are accustomed to the element from birth, and it is to them as natural as land."--White Shadows in the South Seas (1919) by Frederick O'Brien |
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The term South Seas or South Sea commonly refers to the South Pacific. Geographically, all areas to the south of 10° north latitude belong to the South Sea.
In a figurative sense, the South Sea is an often idealised and distant region.
In 1773, when James Cook came to Tahiti for the second time, he was accompanied by two scientifically educated Germans Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster.
- "What a morning - impossible to be described more beautifully by any poet - when we saw the isle O-Taheiti two miles ahead of us.“
The report of the discoverers determined the Europeans' picture of the South Sea for a long time. On these grounds, Joseph Banks wrote:
- "An Arcadia of which we will be king."
Louis Antoine de Bougainville's romantic travel report Voyage autour du monde as well as Georg Forster's travel description A Voyage Round the World (1777) confirmed Jean-Jacques Rousseau's image of the "noble savages". He describes the country as „jardin d’Eden“ (Garden of Eden), which provided his residents with everything required to live. He saw the islanders as pure humans not yet poisoned by civilization. The report Voyage autour du monde inspired Denis Diderot to write his essay Supplément au voyage de Bougainville, a plea for sexual freedom.
Paul Gauguin, a French artist, contributed to this picture as well. His pictures do not resemble reality, but the exotic paradise he envisioned.
Even the German writer Erich Scheurmann benefited from these desires, which can be seen in his fictional travel reports of a South Sea chief. The travel reports were published between 1915 and 1920 under the title The Papalagi. Fifty years after the book was published it became a cult book and more than 1.7 million copies were sold in the German language only.
See also
