How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The invaders, on their march back to the sea, consoled themselves for their repulse by setting fire to every house and temple in their route; and a long line of smoking ruins defaced the once-smiling bosom of the valley, and proclaimed to its pagan inhabitants the spirit that reigned in the breasts of Christian soldiers. (4.28)
This is just awful, but is it effective? By destroying a society's infrastructure, are you also destabilizing its religious heritage?
Quote #2
The frightful genius of pagan worship seemed to brood in silence over the place, breathing its spell upon every object around. Here and there, in the depths of these awful shades, half screened from sight by masses of overhanging foliage, rose the idolatrous altars of the savages. (12.11)
Sometimes, just because you're not familiar with something, you're afraid of it. Where else does this operate in the book?
Quote #3
This holiest of spots was defended from profanation by the strictest edicts of the all-pervading 'taboo', which condemned to instant death the sacrilegious female who should enter or touch its sacred precincts, or even so much as press with her feet the ground made holy by the shadows that it cast. (12.13)
The Typee have a patriarchal (male-dominated) society—or do they? Does the exclusion of women from holy places definitely have to mean that?
Quote #4
[...] the devoutest Christian who visits that group with an unbiased mind, must go away mournfully asking—'Are these, alas! the fruits of twenty-five years of enlightening?' (17.6)
These are harsh words. Tommo's (read: Melville's) criticism of missionaries at the time caused quite a stir, in fact.
Quote #5
With this intent, he escorted me through the Taboo Groves, pointing out to my notice a variety of objects, and endeavoured to explain them in such an indescribable jargon of words, that it almost put me in bodily pain to listen to him. (22.13)
It makes you wonder how Tommo's view of the Typee religion might have changed, had they simply been able to talk to each other.
Quote #6
These venerable gentlemen, who I presume were the priests, kept up an uninterrupted monotonous chant, which was partly drowned in the roar of drums. (23.18)
Both "monotonous" and "drowned" have negative connotations for most of us. How do Tommo's simplest sensory descriptions reveal his attitudes toward religion in the valley?
Quote #7
All that day the drums resounded, the priests chanted, and the multitude feasted and roared till sunset, when the throng dispersed, and the Taboo Groves were again abandoned to quiet and repose (23.20)
The Typee religion seems to have periods of great activity, and then periods where no one much thinks about it at all.
Quote #8
As a religious solemnity, however, it had not at all corresponded with the horrible descriptions of Polynesian worship which we have received in some published narratives, and especially in those accounts of the evangelized islands with which the missionaries have favoured us. (24.1)
In Melville's view, it's possible that the missionaries might have been using dramatized descriptions for an activist end.
Quote #9
The fact is, that there is a vast deal of unintentional humbuggery in some of the accounts we have from scientific men concerning the religious institutions of Polynesia. (24.4)
Let us pause to appreciate the use of "humbuggery." After that, realize that Melville was aware that he was up against a tide of misinterpretation and outright bigotry.
Quote #10
They are either too lazy or too sensible to worry themselves about abstract points of religious belief. (24.7)
This seems like a bit of a stretch to us. Are there other points in the narrative where Tommo includes evidence of the Typee's "inner life"?
Quote #11
The Polynesians are aware of the detestation in which Europeans hold this custom, and therefore invariably deny its existence, and with the craft peculiar to savages, endeavour to conceal every trace of it. (32.12)
This is cannibalism we're talking about here. How do the Typee view this practice, as it lines up with their religious customs?