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Food for the Flames

Food for the Flames

Idols and Missionaries in Central Polynesia

by David Shaw King and Sir David Attenborough
Hardback
Publication Date: 15/01/2011

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Twenty-five years after Captain Cook, the London Missionary Society sent its first representatives to the South Seas. Their goal was to eradicate heathenism and idolatry, but unwittingly, they became agents for the preservation of Polynesian culture through their diligent recording of language and religious practices. They even preserved a number of religious artifacts, which they sent back to England for exhibition in the Mission Museum in London.

This book focuses on these artifacts, the idols that avoided the flames. With the scientist's belief in letting the evidence speak for itself, the author, a biochemist, has mined a wide range of primary sources to bring together a wealth of new information on a generally unpopular subject, the missionary endeavour. Eighty five colour plates illustrate missionary subjects, Polynesian 'temples', and numerous idols. The majority of this material is published here for the first time.
ISBN:
9781907372162
9781907372162
Category:
Art of indigenous peoples
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
15-01-2011
Language:
English
Publisher:
Paul Holberton Publishing Ltd
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Pages:
256
Dimensions (mm):
280x216x28mm
Weight:
1.5kg
Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough is a broadcaster and naturalist whose television career is now in its seventh decade. After studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge and a brief stint in publishing, he joined the BBC in 1952 and spent ten years making documentary programmes of all kinds, including the Zoo Quest series. In 1965, he was appointed Controller of a new network, BBC2, and then, after four years became editorially responsible for both BBC1 and BBC2.

After eight years of administration, he returned to programme-making to write and present a thirteen-part series, Life on Earth, which surveyed the evolutionary history of animals and plants. This was followed by many other series which, between them, surveyed almost every aspect of life on earth.

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