For thirty years before the coming of the European missionaries, European explorers were able to observe Tahitian society as it had existed for centuries. Now Edwin Ferdon, Polynesian archaeologist and veteran of Thor Heyerdah's expedition to Easter Island, has interwoven their records to show us in fascinating detail what that society was like.

Edwin N. Ferdon first became interested in early Polynesia in 1955 while serving as an archaeologist on Thor Heyerdahl's Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific. Since then he has published numerous papers and a popular book, One Man's Log, on Polynesia's archaeology, ethnography, and geography. During twenty-four years of association with the Museum of New Mexico and School of American Research in Santa Fe and the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, he conducted archaeological surveys and excavations in Mesoamerica, South America, the southwestern United States, and Polynesia. From 1961 to 1978 he was associate director of the Arizona State Museum.
 

"Tahiti has captivated the Western imagination for over two centuries, since Captain Samuel Wallis of the British ship Dolphin first happened on this heretofore remote cluster of South Sea isles in June 1767. . . . Recommended as a matter-of-fact, easily readable, general introduction to one of Polynesia's most celebrated culture."—Ethnohistory