From Arrival Stories to Origin Mythmaking

Missionaries in the Marshall Islands

Bibliographic Data

ID2742200
AuthorsO G Berta (0000-0002-9023-8658, University of Oslo, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume68
Issue1
Pages53-75
Publication date2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00141801-8702342
OpenAlexW3114226719
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited18

In December 1857, Protestant missionaries arrived on Epoon Atoll to establish the first mission station in the Marshall Islands. The story of their arrival has historical interest and contemporary importance in the Marshalls because it has been used to form local theology and to shape contemporary identities. Thus, the arrival story of the first missionaries to the Marshall Islands functions as an origin story that serves religiously anchored identity construction on Epoon today. This article illuminates aspects of the arrival story that have been purposefully forgotten by Marshall Islanders and overlooked by academic historians and historically minded scholars

Aesthetics · Art · Genealogy · Identity (music) · Political science · Protestantism · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies

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