Papalagi
SCHEURMANN, Erich (1920)
RUGERO BARRIOS September 20, 2014
Autor: TOSHIBA 2014
The Papalagi
It is the title of the book written by Erich Scheurmann (Hamburg 1878, Armsfeld 1957) and
published in 1920. It is a collection of speeches by the Samoan chief Tuiavii of Tiavea, who
he addresses his fellow citizens, in which he describes a supposed trip through Europe during the period
just before the First World War. Erich Scheurmann would have witnessed such speeches, and I would have translated them into German.
About The Papalagi - Inverse Anthropology
In the early 20th century, in the year 1914, the German artist Erich Scheurmann travels to the Island of Samoa, for
then German colony, fleeing from World War I. There he meets the Samoan chief Tuiavii of Tiavea,
literally 'Chief of Tiavea', with whom he becomes friends.
At that time, the anthropological 'fever' was sweeping across Europe. Thanks to the colonies and recent discoveries.
archaeological, the West discovers new and different civilizations and the curiosity for these cultures ignites
mecha and numerous anthropological studies of all kinds are initiated. Of course, these studies will always have
a Western view of the subject will be European or American culture as the starting point, the center of the
perspective from which other civilizations are "judged." That is why when Erich discovers, or is given
discovered, some papers in which Tuiavii studies our civilization to provide knowledge to his people of
how the Papalagiu "white men" live and behave, decides to publish them against the will of the
Samoan and thus the book is born, "The Papalagi. Discourses of Tuiavii of Tiavea", an anthropological study.
"in reverse," that is, we are the studied and not the ones who study.
An astonishing book, a look at oneself through the eyes of another, where you see your flaws and your
virtues, and it surprises you to see things that you take for granted and that are not for someone else. It's worth it.
read it and enjoy it, realizing how wrong we are in many aspects of our lives. And despite
if it had been written in a time long past from ours, in the 1920s of the last century,
"Timelessness" of our actions is overwhelming, we remain the same and act just like our
grandparents.
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Critique of Papalagi1
The Papalagi (“The white men”, in supposed Samoan language), subtitled “Speeches of Tuiavii of Tiavea,
Samoan chief, gathered and prolonged by Erich Scheurmann." And the book is rare for its content, famous (it was
especially in the seventies) and precious for its fine satirical content and for the illustrations that are usually
–modernly, I mean–they are accompanied by works by Joost Swarte, a Dutch monster of drawing,
militant of the so-called "clear line" in universal comics.
The fact is that the first complete and organized edition of Los Papalagi as we know it is celebrating,
this year, eighty. After being published fragmented in hard-to-find German newspapers around 1920, it appeared complete
in Holland in 1929. The subsequent translation into English in the thirties was the beginning of a remarkable
the popularity that has made Los Papalagi an anomalous universal best-seller among the anti-system progressive movement
ideologically radicalized, from the '60s hippies to today's ecological and anti-globalization movements
day. And he has the means to justify it.
What is it about? Synthetically, through eleven letters or explanatory speeches directed to his people,
the chief Tuiavii, who has traveled from the South Pacific and met white men in their habitat, explains and
censors the aberrations of their culture and confronts them with the purity of theirs. Thus, The Papalagi–from the
naive and 'uncivilized' perspective of an apparent savage – ingeniously, ruthlessly, and systematically denies the
European, Western, and Christian civilization (its customs, its values, and beliefs) for being absurd and perverse, in
name of a return to the natural that it knows and intends to safeguard against the (colonial) aggression it suffers–for
so–for a century.
That would be nothing or not enough—the criticism and the claim, I mean—to turn the text into
a small masterpiece; which it is. The remarkable thing is the sharpness, the subtle amalgam of observation and irony that
recorre el texto, el despliegue de inteligencia que no deja habitual despropósito sin comentar, aberración cotidiana
without describing. Who is responsible for such wonders?
The successive editions, for decades, include a note from the editors that speaks of 'a study'
"critically oriented anthropologically" and the preface, the reservations and clarifications of Erich Scheurmann, which
presents as a direct receiver and re-maker—if possible—of the drafts devised by the Samoan chief, which
they would have never been conceived to spread in the West except as mere speeches or illustrative letters and
instructive for their own people.
As far as we (know) Erich Schuermann (Hamburg 1878; Arnsfeld 1957) was a writer, painter and
among other things, a German puppeteer, a friend of Hermann Hesse in his youth, who traveled to Samoa in 1914–for
then German possession – with the task of writing a story about the South Seas. The Great War it
he was surprised there and left Polynesia the following year heading to the United States. Interned there as an enemy
foreigner, from a notebook he shaped what would become Los Papalagi before returning to Europe,
where he published the letters of the chief Tuiaviien in German with great impact. And so, since then, he made known
several other works—some related to the South Seas—but none had the resonance of The Papalagi.
Of course, without questioning excellence, one key issue is the authenticity of the text. Beyond
that the Castilian editions of the last twenty years make no critical reference nor reflect on
regarding, everything would indicate that Los Papalagi is what is referred to in English as an unamusing hoax, a pleasant deception,
a joke, a tease, a clever hoax, one of those inventions, quite intelligent frauds
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common in the history of literature, such as MacPherson's Ossian. The fact is that there is no evidence that
such a 'Samoan chief' has existed with that name, that the photos accompanying the text correspond to characters
of that name and much less that – if he had existed – the chief traveled to the West to become bitter about
visitor with the whites that he was already suffering at home.
On the other hand, there are indeed numerous precedents of literary works that have utilized the mechanism of
to place an external observer - usually an exotic traveler - to indirectly denounce the ills.
of a society. It is already in the famous Persian Letters by Montesquieu, from the first half of the eighteenth century,
replicated in Spain by the Moroccan Letters of José Cadalso and similarly in many other traditions. The
traveler to symbolic distant worlds only to find—in the distorted mirror of imaginary societies—the
a way of criticizing and satirizing the customs and ailments of its readers. The greatest example is undoubtedly
Jonathan Swifty embodies Gulliver's Travels, from a very long lineage. No one is like his wise and balanced horses.
unpronounceable houyhnhnms has been so biting and revealing in showing absurdities, miseries and
human shame.
In the case of Scheurmann, the most immediate background seems to have been - according to some critics who ...
they don't want it - Hans Paarsche, a Tolstoyan pacifist who published a successful work in the early years of the 20th century
satire titled The Expedition of the African Lukanga Mukara inside Germany, who never aspired to be
considered rather what it was: an absolute invention. And even, seeking an equivalent, success is compared and the
The impact of Los Papalagi among anti-system and ecological groups with another memorable, exemplary text... and
also suspected of fraud: the beautiful letter from Chief Seattle to the President of the United States that
compare two ways of life and relationship with Nature.
The question is that, whether a document or an intelligent fraud, eighty years after its publication, The Papalagi
keeps talking more and better about the absurdity of the cultural adventure of Western man under the
capitalism. The letters from TuiaviideTiaveason are incomparable, and some of them - The round metal and the paper
Tight (about money), and The Papalagi have no time - they border on spiritual enlightenment. They are reading.
very healthy.
And also, as a bonus, there are the drawings by Swarte. No waste.
Made by Juan Sasturainhttp://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/contratapa/13-130493-2009-08-24.html 2/2
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Forgery Papalagi2
It is a reverse anthropology book, it is the savage who describes the civilized. The work has been published in Spain.
by Integral in a little book with magnificent illustrations by Joost Swarte, one of the fathers of "clear line."
TuaviideTiaveahabla speaks like a wise man and puts us to the test: He says that we whites have ways
absurd and unhygienic ways of dressing, that our houses are sad holes, that clocks govern us, that
we only care about money and owning things... white men are also possessed by the disease
del pensamiento profundo. ATuaviile asombraba que existieran los oficios y que las personas tuvieran que estar
his whole life doing one single thing. There were even people whose job was to think, which to the good Polynesian was
it seemed the height of absurdity.
The Samoan chief is exactly how the European expects the Good Savage to be. He is a Christian.
primitive, intrinsically good, generous and simple, but with a huge intuition not to be dazzled
due to the advancements and the opulence of the white man.
Frankly, the savage is too moralistic to be believable. But it is not the only detail.
suspicious. Among the numerous inconsistencies of the book, we find Tuavii explaining in his language
primitivist how white men dress using the term 'loincloth' and describing it
shoes like "canoes". The truth is that since 1830, missionaries and merchants had already settled in
Samoa, so it seems ridiculous that eighty years later a Samoan chief has to explain to his countrymen.
What are pants or shoes? The Samoans did not need those explanations, some of them already wore.
those garments at the beginning of the 20th century. Scheurmann considered it necessary to make the Samoans more 'primitive' of
what they were to satisfy the taste of the average Western reader.
It is also noteworthy that a first-hand document on Aboriginal thought, in the
that explain their opinions on society, economy, sex, art, and beliefs, should not be a reference
obliged for the anthropologists studying the topic. However, neither the anthropology manuals nor the books of
History or art of Polynesia has referenced such a juicy source. (Campbell 1989, Scarr 1990, Oliver
1989, Munro-Lal 2006, the latter is a review of historical sources with a chapter dedicated
specifically to Samoa
The reason is that for anyone familiar with Polynesia, its people and its languages, the book is a
evident forgery.
To summarize, Tuavii, so moralistic and so primitive at the same time, is an invention of Scheurmann, that
he only spent a couple of months in Samoa, so it is very hard to believe that he knew the language of the
Isleños to the point of being able to act as a shorthand writer. It seems that, on top of that, the work is a plagiarism of Lukanga Mukara.
work published in installments in 1912 that was a compilation of the speeches of an African chief describing
in a humorous tone the customs of the whites. The work was signed by Hans Paasche, explorer and pacifist
German, who at no time intended to pass off the speeches as genuine.
And what to say about the author, Scheurmann belonged for a time to the Wandervögel movement, he professed
an 'impertinent Christianity' (its savage is Christian, of course) and preached a primitivist Edenism
romantic origin in which the man who lives in contact with nature is the custodian of the purest
essences. It has been industrialization, uprooting, and contact with other peoples, already uprooted, that has
brought evil and undermined the foundations of a noble society. In all nationalisms, this can be traced.
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common place, that is why it is not surprising that Scheurmann ended up militating in the Nazi party, which had
incorporated into his speech these pastoral elements to attract naive urbanites. Thus was born the Blut und
Boden, a movement of return to the countryside that thrived during Nazism. The rural world was the place where
the virtues of the Aryan race could be better preserved, uncontaminated by the human flood of the
cities, which were, precisely, the habitat where the Jew thrived.
I should have suspected from the very beginning. If something is published by the Integral publishing house, the
the chances that its truthfulness has been verified are slim. Nowadays it is clear that it is a
crazy, but on the internet most pages present it as an authentic document and it is proposed as
supplementary reading for school. On this page about intercultural content sponsored by the
Ministry, we can consult the whole book without reading a single paragraph about its falsehood. As I have explained in
In a previous post, fighting against this type of fraud is exhausting.
Always, the well-intentioned defender comes out: "the book is an invention, but it helps children to
understand other cultures." It seems that if other cultures are invented, it is even more educational.
There are also those who say that the indigenous person has been vilely usurped and that, as a redress, they are
admissible are these inventions that portray him as a being so wise and kind that his gaze embarrasses us, and
we have so much to be ashamed of.
Lies, even if well-intentioned, eventually take their toll. And if not, let's observe the
religious-patriotic education. Where it was full of those well-intentioned lies, pious lies, lies
to maintain social order. Now we are spreading the multicultural lie, mostly out of ignorance;
but it is sad that to respect other cultures we have to invent fictional indigenous people. We manufacture a
good artificial savage to teach to respect it. Is the real savage that unacceptable?
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Taken (from: http://nomehagasmuchocaso.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/los-papalagi/ 2/5.) On the day 20/09/2014.
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The Papalagi
Give each person and read aloud together the following text.
Upon handing it to them, they are explained that it is the description of a real culture and are asked that if someone
know, this culture no longer gives any information about it to others.
The bodies of the Papalagi are completely covered with loincloths, mats, and animal skins, so
hermetically sealed that not even the rays of the sun can penetrate them, so tight that their
the body becomes a faded white and seems tired like a flower that grows in the forest under heavy
trees.
Around the feet, a skin as moldable as it is tough is tied. Normally, soft skin is elastic.
and it molds well to the shape of the foot, but the hard one does not do so at all. They are made of thick hides of
animals that have been soaked, skinned with a knife, beaten, and hung in the sun for so long that they
they have endured and hardened.
Using this, the Papalagi build a kind of canoe with high sides, large enough
to adjust the foot. One canoe for the left foot and one for the right foot. These small 'feet-
"boats" are secured around the ankles with ropes and hooks to keep the foot inside a strong
capsule, just like the snail in its house. The Papalagi wear these skins from dawn to dusk, they wear them
even while traveling and when they dance. They take them even when it is as hot as before a storm.
tropical rain
This goes against nature, it tires the feet and they seem already dead and rotten.
The woman also wears her mats and loincloths fitted to her body and her ankles, which is why her skin is
full of scars and bruises. Her breasts have become saggy from the pressure of a mat that they tie to her
chest, from the throat to the lower part of the body and also around the back, with bracing
supplementary fish spine, wire, and ropes.
However, it is common for the loincloths of the females to be finer than those of the males, and with more
colorful and attractive. Sometimes the flesh of the arms and throat is allowed to show, revealing
this way more meat than males. However, it is considered virtuous for a girl to remain
completely covered.
That is why I have never understood why it is allowed for women and girls to show the
meat from their backs and necks at the grand parties without falling into misfortune. But perhaps this is where the great
attention to the party, in which the things that were prohibited all the time are now allowed.
This is a description made by Chief Tuiavii of Tiavea from the South Pacific about 1925. The Papalagi
what describes are the white men.
---------------------------------------
It is a sign of great poverty that someone needs many things, because in that way they show that they lack
the things of the Great Spirit. The Papalagi are poor because they chase things like crazy. Without things they cannot
live. When they have made the shell of a turtle an object to fix their hair, they make a hide to
that tool, and for the skin, they make a box, and for the box, a larger box. They wrap everything in
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skins and boxes. There are boxes for loincloths, for upper fabrics and for lower fabrics, for the fabrics of the
strainer, for mouth fabrics and other types of fabrics. Boxes for hand skins and skins of the
feet, for the round metal and the coarse paper, for your food and for your sacred book, for everything you can
imagine. When one thing would be enough, they make two. If you enter a European cabin to cook, you see so many
containers for food and tools that it is impossible to use all at once. And for each dish there is a tanoa
different: one for water and another for European kauai, one for coconuts and another for grapes.
There are so many things inside a European hut that if every man from a Samoan village took one
braided, the people who live in it would not be able to take the rest. In each hut there are so many objects that the
white gentlemen employ many people just to place them in their rightful position and to clean them
arena. Even the highborn taopou spend a great deal of their time counting, rearranging, and cleaning all
his things.
All of you know, brothers, that I am telling the truth that I have seen with my own eyes, without adding to my
history not an opinion. That's why believe me when I tell you that there are people in Europe who press a stick of
fire on their foreheads and they kill each other, because they prefer not to live than to live without things. The Papalagi are cloaked in all
possible ways their minds and go crazy thinking that man cannot live without things, just as he cannot live
without food.
Also for that reason, I have never been able to find a hut in Europe where I could rest from the
appropriate way on my mat, without anything obstructing my limbs when I wanted to stretch. All those things
they burst with flashes of light or scream shrilly with the voices of their colors, in such a way that I could not close my
eyes at peace. I never found true rest there nor was my nostalgia for my Samoan cabin greater; that cabin
in which there is nothing more than a mat to sleep on and a bed cover, and where nothing disturbs you except the
gentle sea breeze.
Those who have few things call themselves poor or unhappy. No Papalagi sings or goes through the
life with a sparkle in her gaze when her only possessions are a container of food like we do. Yes
the men and women of the world of the whites would reside in our cabins, they would lament and grieve, and
they would quickly go to search for wood from the forests and turtle shells, glass, strong wire, and striking items
stones and much, much more. And they would move their hands from morning until night, until the Samoan hut
it was filled with large and small objects that break easily and are destructible by fire and the
rain, and for this reason they must be replaced all the time.
The more things you need, the better European you are. That's why the hands of the Papalagi are never still.
they always do things. This is the reason why the faces of white people often seem tired and
sad and the reason that few of them can find a moment to look at the things of the Great Spirit or play
in the town square, compose happy songs or dance in the light of a party and gain pleasure from its
healthy bodies, how is it possible for all of us [...]. -Medusa Project-
------------------------------------------°-----------------------------------------------------------°-----------------------------------------
Hear how heavy burdens a single Papalagi carries in his body, you brothers, the most elegant of many.
islands! To begin with, the naked body is wrapped in a thick, white skin made from the fibers of a
plant, and call on skin. It is thrown up into the air, and then it is let fall by sliding it down the head,
the chest above the arms to the hips. From bottom to top, from the legs and hips to the
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navel, another one of these is worn over skins (t-shirts). These two skins are covered by a third one that is
thicker. A skin woven with the woolly hairs of a four-legged animal, specially bred for this
purpose. This is the true loincloth. It usually consists of three parts: the first covers the part
upper body; the second, the midsection; and the third, the hips and legs. The three parts are
joined by shells and strings made with dried sap from the rubber tree, that's why they give the impression of being a
single piece. Normally this loincloth has the gray tone of the lagoon during the humid monsoon. It cannot
It is never completely colorful, at most the middle part, and then only the people who are bad wear it.
reputation and one who enjoys pursuing the opposite sex.
Finally, around the feet is tied a skin as moldable as it is strong. Normally the soft skin is
elastic and molds well to the shape of the foot, but the hard one does not do so at all. They are made of thick
animal hides that have been soaked, skinned with a knife, beaten, and hung in the sun for a long time
that have hardened and tanned. Using this, the Papalagi construct a kind of canoe with high sides, which
sufficiently large for the foot to fit. One canoe for the left foot and another for the right.
small 'boat feet' are tied around the ankles with ropes and hooks to contain the foot inside
a strong capsule, like the snail in its home. The Papalagi carry these skins from dawn to dusk, the
They even take them from Malaga4 and when they dance, they take them even when it's as hot as before a storm.
of tropical rain.
This goes against nature and the white man understands it this way; he tires his feet until they seem
dead and stinking, as if they have lost the ability to grab things or to climb trees, the Papalagi
they try to hide their shame by smearing the animal skin, which originally looked red, with a kind of
of grease that makes it shine after spreading it by rubbing. They shine with such brightness that barely
the eyes can withstand the glare and have to look away.
Once there lived in Europe a Papalagi who became famous and to whom many people came because they
he said it was not good to wear these tight and heavy skins around the feet; instead, walking
barefoot under the open sky, while the night's dew still lies over the fields, makes all the
diseases disappear from you. That man was very wise and in very good health, but people laughed at him and
he was soon forgotten.
Like the man, the woman also wears mats and loincloths fitted to her body and ankles;
her skin is full of scars and bruises. Her breasts have become saggy from the pressure of a mat
that tie around the chest, from the throat to the lower part of the body and also around the back,
with an additional bracing of fish spines, iron wire, and ropes. Most of the
Mothers give their children milk from a glass tube that is closed at the bottom and has a nipple.
artificial subject to the top. And they do not always give their own milk, but the milk of an ugly animal with horns.
that has been pulled out by strongly tugging on its four nipples from the belly.Medusa Project
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DEBATE:
First part:
Ask them to draw the Papalagi as they imagine them.
Discuss how the Papalagi are and, above all, whether their culture has any absurd customs or not.
You can ask them to rate from 0 to 5 how much they would like to live in that culture.
Second part:
Discover who the Papalagi are.
Sentiment analysis:
How do you feel discovering that it is your own culture?
Has anyone changed their emotional relationship with culture by valuing it less when they did not know what it was?
own?
Analysis of the facts:
Did someone discover that it was their own culture?
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