The Legacy of Guilt
$49.90
Thomas Kendall has come to be regarded as a typical if not archetypal figure: the evangelical Englishman overturned by his meeting with Polynesia. He was among the first group of church missionaries settled in New Zealand. To assure their livelihoods and even their lives, they were obliged to trade in firearms with Maori. Kendall went further: he became fascinated with the myths and beliefs of the Maori.
For this full-length biography of Kendall, Judith Binney has searched not only the historical records, but the background of evangelical belief, which explains much in Kendall's behaviour that must otherwise seem the result of individual weakness. She has also analyzed Kendall's manuscript notes on Maori religion and has shown that, with no training in ethnology, he confused what he observed with what he read in popular books of the time about Middle Eastern peoples
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