When Western scholars write about non-Western societies, do they inevitably perpetuate the myths of European imperialism? Can they ever articulate the meanings and logics of non-Western peoples? Who has the right to speak for whom? Questions such as these are debated in this text. Marshall Sahlins addresses these issues head on, while building a case for the ability of anthropologists working in the Western tradition to understand other cultures. In recent years, these questions have arisen in debates over the death and deification of Captain James Cook on Hawaii Island in 1779. Did the Hawaiians truly receive Cook as a manifestation of their own god Lono? Or were they too pragmatic, too worldly-wise to accept the foreigner as a god? Moreover, can a "non-native" scholar give voice to a "native" point of view? This volume seeks to go far beyond specialized debates about the alleged superiority of Western traditions. The culmination of Sahlins's ethnohistorical research on Hawaii, is a reaffirmation for understanding difference.

馬歇爾·薩林斯1930——

馬歇爾· 薩林斯是我們所處時代中最顯著的美國人類學傢之一。現任芝加哥大學教授。薩林斯在芝加哥長大就讀於密歇根大學, 他的畢業後留在那裏工作，同時也在哥倫比亞大學講課。那時他在學校教授的是人類學。

薩林斯首先意識到自己是一位波利尼西亞的民族誌學者和曆史學傢。 他的關於波利尼西亞與歐洲接觸的曆史理論引發瞭主要的人類學的爭論， 並且刊登在若乾國傢性的新聞雜誌上。 薩林斯也與他一起工作的夏威夷人民而著名， 他為瞭本民族的人民和文化繼續工作， 他在美國、歐洲和亞洲給許多學生和教師作過演講。 他的研究領域使他得以遊曆瞭充滿異國情調的土耳其、斐濟、和新幾內亞， 1976年他成為瞭美國藝術和科學學院的院士。