ABSTRACT
The arrival of European explorers and traders in the Pacific region during the nineteenth century is usually portrayed by their descendants as a unique event that had a radical and permanent effect on the lives of the indigenous inhabitants. The value-laden terms commonly used to describe interaction between Europeans and Papua New Guineans, e.g. ‘contact’ (i.e. ‘we touch them’) between our ‘civilized’ and their ‘primitive’ worlds, between ‘capitalist’ and ‘non-market’ economies, or between the ‘core’ and the ‘periphery’, well represent the emphasis placed on European dominance by this version of history. When asked, Melanesians do not necessarily concur with this interpretation nor do they agree that the central elements of their culture have been significantly altered as a consequence of interaction with Europeans and the global economy (cf. Narokobi 1980). A number of historians and anthropologists who have studied the European incursion and colonization in the Pacific region (e.g. Dening 1992; Firth 1982; Hempenstall 1978; Sahlins 1995; Thomas 1991; 1992; 1994) have also questioned models which emphasize dominance versus dependency and a simple dichotomy between active and passive actors. In contrast, their work has shown how the foreigners were also influenced and controlled by local people through resistance and negotiation.
