Blog 1 - Cultural Death

The Apotheosis of Captain Cook, is, in some ways an attempt by Gananath Obeyesekere to deconstruct the myth of the benevolent explorer – in this case Captain James Cook who led three remarkable voyages into the Pacific Ocean and leading the Europeans into Australia and New Zealand, beginning with his landing on the shores of Hawaii. The popular understanding of Cook today is a largely positive one – he is said to have “exemplified the new spirit of discovery” that served as a peaceful amalgamation of “science and exploration – a true representative of the Enlightenment.” Part of the Apotheosis revolves around breaking down the untouchable persona of the peaceful navigator. Obeyesekere identifies the hidden violence that characterized Cook’s voyages and his behavior towards the natives he encountered: “any resistance cannot (could not) be tolerated.”

The truly sinister reading of the text however, takes form through Obeyesekere’s conceptualization of ‘myth models’ that serve as the basis for the construction of myths, or a set of ideas that give rise to various narratives. Obeyesekere claims that the popular understanding of Cook as the ideal navigator, the harbinger of civilization is also a Western myth, thus contesting the belief that myths have little to do with the European intellectual tradition, and are purely a remnant of “pre-modern or uncivilized” societies that heroes such as Cook, Columbus and Cook encountered on their expeditions.  This is where the crux of the argument takes shape and ties into the titled apotheosis, or the belief of the Polynesian natives that Cook was a manifestation of their God – Lono.

Obeyesekere is attempting to shed light on a certain kind of subdued violence that is very much a significant part of the colonial legacy, the kind of violence that cannot be expressed as a statistic of the number of native lives lost. This subtle form of violence is far more deadly and elusive for the way it has seeped into the general consciousness. Even esteemed scholars such as Marshall Sahlins find it difficult, if not impossible to detach from the popularized notions of feeling and logic, of faith and science, of the savage and the civilized and of the colonized and the colonizer. This is the epistemic violence that pits worldviews against each other and finds favour in the European model of logic, thought, science and reasoning over the native’s ‘prelogical’ world governed by signs and myth. Obeyesekere argues that these perceptions of native populations and European colonizers have become so deeply entrenched that even otherwise well meaning and educated scholarship draws on these pre-determined conclusions. Obeyesekere cites Todorov and finds that while the latter was excessively sympathetic to the plight of the Aztecs, he still fell victim to that established idea that “Indians are bound by signs; consequently they can be easily subjugated by the Spanish who have mastery over signs.”

This manipulation characterizes the apotheosis of Captain Cook. He claims to be received as a God by the natives he encounters, as they prostrate before him in awe on the shores of Hawaii. Eerily similar accounts exist for the landing of Columbus and Cortes. These accounts are never questioned, and, as demonstrated above, have been firmly embedded into the general and academic consciousness. While seemingly harmless, they serve a sinister purpose; to denigrate the natives as people dependent upon signs and emotions and feelings, while their European ‘superiors’ are those who lead by logic, rationality and reasoning. To simply ascribe these worldviews is not problematic in itself – it is in fact the follow up conclusion that derides the former and elevates the higher – mythos is inferior, and thus, the natives, privy to such fickle and nonsensical beliefs are inferior people. Logos is superior, and the Europeans, by consequence are a superior people. This hierarchy serves as the basis for the cultural domination – and cultural death of native peoples that characterized European colonialism. It is also the grounds for the massive physical, cultural and psychological devastation that was wrought upon native populations in the name of science and technology as the ultimate justification.