Beyond "the English Method of Tattooing": Decentering the Practice of History in Oceania

I have told a story on previous occasions that I would like to tell again here. I hope that those who have heard it before will bear with me. No story or history, you know, is quite the same in the retelling of it. My story concerns the beachcomber, James O'Connell, and his encounter with a different, locally focused, and culturally ordered form of historical expression on the island of Pohnpei in the eastern Caroline group of the larger geographical area known to many as "Micronesia. " The story relates, I believe, to the current and future practice of history in Oceania. Considerable uncertainty surrounds the historical personage of James O'Connell; we are not sure of his real name, the exact circumstances by which he found himself on Pohnpei, or the actual duration of his stay on the island (O'Connell 1972; Hanlon 1988, 36-46). An informed guess, sustained by a careful consideration of the evidence available, suggests a residence of roughly three to five years, ending in early December 1833, when O'Connell left the island aboard the Salem trading brig Spy. During his stay on the island, O'Connell demonstrated an openness to the island and its people not evidenced by most foreign visitors. We should resist labeling him sensitive or even tolerant, however. More likely, the particulars of his situation as a shipwrecked sailor or escapee from a prison vessel bound for the Australian penal colony necessitated such compromise. Whatever the motivation, his accommodation to Pohnpeian society included the extensive and painful tattooing of his body. Aside from their decorative or ornamental value, the patterns of a Pohnpeian body tattoo (pelipel) identified an individual's lineage and recorded in symbolic for