De/odorising history
Cross-cultural histories of smell from the Pacific to Europe

The ability to deodorise agricultural oils, such as coconut oil, was a key factor in their adaptation and expansion as ingredients in food commodities around the turn of the twentieth century. Through this process, these oils became not only deodorised but also increasingly interchangeable. Industrial processing meant that such oils became substitutable triglycerides: coconut oil could replace olive oil, but could itself be replaced by palm and other oils, and consumers were not the wiser. Yet recent decades have a seen a return to oils that smell, particularly in the case of coconut oil. Consumer interest has grown in coconut oil as a so-­called superfood and as a powerful cosmetic product, linked to the desire to consume more authentic or natural products. In these forms, coconut oil has regained its distinctive scent.

This project similarly re­introduces scent into the history of coconut oil. From eighteenth century encounters, and nineteenth century plantations, to more recent marketing campaigns for scented oils from Tahiti, I argue that smell has been a significant but largely unacknowledged aspect in shaping the changing history of Pacific coconut commodities. In doing so, I bring recent scholarship on history and anthropology of the senses into dialogue with Pacific history and environmental history to examine the way the oil’s changing scent reflects its varying uses and value from the Pacific to Europe. These changes are illustrated by two products at either end of the commodity chain, both of which have long local histories but were transformed by colonialism, industrialisation, and global trade: Savon de Marseille and Monoï de Tahiti.

Constant coconuts
A history of a versatile commodity in the Pacific world

Postdoc on Marsden Fund project with PI Emeritus Professor Judy Bennett (University of Otago)

Within the humid tropics, along the shorelines of atolls and high islands, the coconut palm flourishes, providing food, medicines, cosmetics, and household items for myriad Pacific societies. Yet no commodity history of the coconut exists. As a pathway to understanding globalisation, this research will analyse how from c.1840 onwards, products from the “nut” became commodities, how their production and consumption affected individual communities, power relations, mobility, culture, economies, and environment within the Pacific world and beyond. It will consider why, for most Island societies, the coconut became often the sole export staple, and the consequences of such dependency. A key focus is the fluctuating relationship between production and natural conditions, such as rainfall, as well as external challenges, such as declining markets, which tested indigenous agency. Recently, the coconut’s value as a source of biofuel and health and beauty products has significantly revived production. While the distant past is mainly recorded in archives, this network of producers, marketers, governments, and consumers is accessible to ethnographic methods, such as extended observation. The planned book will combine two perspectives: a) commodity chain analysis to trace economic and social linkages; b) ethnographic investigation. Archival and other documentary research will provide evidence for both.

Intimate violence & colonial law
Comparative histories of colonial criminal justice in Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia

 This project uses cases of sexual violence to examine the early attempts of European colonial administrations in the British and French colonies of Fiji and New Caledonia and the jointly governed territory of the New Hebrides(now Vanuatu) to control the sexual behaviour and intimate lives of European and, especially, indigenous subjects through the legal system. I consider the extent to which indigenous groups, particularly women, either engaged with this system of rule or pursued alternative strategies of justice, from 1880 to 1920. In focusing on legal practice, I explore how abstract ideologies of gender and race functioned in colonial settings, where the application of colonial policy was remarkably adaptable to the exigencies of administrative resources, local politics and ideas of race and racial difference. In doing so, I bring together the British and French Pacific, which have too often been examined in isolation,despite their numerous interconnections.

Māori women in whaling worlds
Intimacy, economy, and environment in southern Aotearoa/New Zealand

Collaboration with Assoc Professor Angela Wanhalla (University of Otago)

Shore whaling was a key industry connecting southern New Zealand to the global economy and the imperial world during the mid-19th century. An economically-driven view of this period, however, tends to obscure the enduring importance of indigenous women and Māori forms of kinship in the establishment and success of this resource-based industry. Kinship connections formed through marriage tied newcomer whalers to the region, as well as bringing Ngāi Tahu into the emerging coastal economy. The depth of these relationships went beyond the economic to include the natural environment, creating enduring social bonds and mixed communities across generations.