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Glimpsing Utopia: Tristan da Cunha 1937-38
A Norwegian’s Diary by Peter Munch
Translated and edited by Cathrine Munch Snyder
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| Extracts for a review by Ian Mathieson,
first published in the August 2008 Tristan Newsletter
Peter Munch is best remembered for his book Crisis in Utopia which is the most likely book to be found on one of those lucky days when you find something on Tristan in your local second-hand shop. Crisis was written as a result of Munch’s return to the Island following the re-settlement and draws only generally on his three month stay with the Norwegian Scientific Expedition from December 7th 1937 until March 29th 1938 . |
The information that Munch collected during those months on the manners, customs and nature of the Tristan islanders formed the basis of his doctoral thesis and was published in 1944 as Paper No 13 of the Results of the Expedition under the title the Sociology of Tristan da Cunha . This you most certainly won’t find in a second-hand bookshop. Now with the publication of Munch’s private diary of his time on the Island we are given a most interesting insight into a community just emerging from extreme isolation. Munch’s daughter, Cathy Snyder, who features in the work as Munch’s baby daughter Trine (who didn’t accompany him), has been responsible for translating and editing her father’s work and making, as she says, “a minimum of changes” from the original. The account is enlivened by Munch’s photos of many of the Islanders’ houses and activities but there are relatively few images of the Islanders themselves. Perhaps this was an editorial decision.
Munch’s approach to his work was to use “participant observation” so as “to observe meaningful action in a context that will minimize the (interference) of the investigator’s preconceived meanings, attitudes and values. To understand from inside the cultural situation”. It is evident from the diary that this is exactly what he achieves with fine descriptions of most of the activities that made up the Islander’s lives at the time. While this is of interest for Island enthusiasts & researchers, what makes the story move along and have narrative drive is the recording of the extraordinary antics of the Island chaplain Harold Wilde: the latest in a succession of missionaries sent by the SPG whose contribution to Island life could hardly be seen to be positive. Munch recounts the excesses of Wilde’s predecessor Partridge who punished Islanders by flogging and holding them in stocks while Wilde’s approach was more subtle through control of the Islanders’ supplies and by vague references to the displeasure of authorities in England if the residents behaved in a manner of which he did not approve.
Glimpsing Utopia is a most worthy addition to Tristan’s expanding literature and another Tristan title chalked up by George Mann Publications; the author has been well served by an attractive book designed to give the feel of a personal diary. |
Glimpsing Utopia is published by George Mann Publications 2008.
It has 210 pages, numerous black and white illustrations, and is available from Miles Apart at £20 including postage and packing.
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