Pitcairn Island

May 15, 2004 1:17 PM

Fascinating article about the history of tiny, remote Pitcairn Island. [More inside]
posted by iffley (12 comments total)

After that, you may want to see these photos of the island, and the idyllic ones at the end of this page produced by a descendant of the original Bounty mutineers.

Coming right up to date, there's that sex scandal - but how would you work out sex if you lived all your life in a community of two score people thousands of miles from other societies?

And then there's the strange tale of the castaway and the chimpanzee.
posted by iffley at 1:18 PM on May 15, 2004

http://www.lareau.org/pitc.html
Pitcairn website
posted by Postroad at 1:20 PM on May 15, 2004

what a cool story! thanks.
posted by mcsweetie at 1:44 PM on May 15, 2004

And there's Serpent in Paradise, travel writer Dea Birkett's account of her very messy stay on Pitcairn.
posted by raygirvan at 2:55 PM on May 15, 2004

There is also what the CIA knows about Pitcairn Island. So what happened between 2000 and 2001 to make the population drop by 15%?
posted by miguelbar at 5:27 PM on May 15, 2004

raygirvan, that was fascinating reading. I don't know what to think of Ms. Birkett... I find myself wishing she had obeyed the prime directive, I suppose: "don't fuck married men on an island of 47 people whose culture you neither belong to nor understand."
posted by stonerose at 5:49 PM on May 15, 2004

Yep. Her journalistic ethics seem very flexible. On the one hand she writes this angst-ridden essay about how she couldn't possibly name the faraway village she stayed in, where two sisters shared a husband; on the other, she gives away where it is by saying "Pitcairners develop relationships considered unacceptable elsewhere. Sisters share a husband" in her IOL piece cited above.
posted by raygirvan at 6:11 PM on May 15, 2004

That history essay was fascinating -- I learned something new! Thanks.
posted by davidmsc at 6:36 PM on May 15, 2004

Great post.
posted by stbalbach at 8:24 PM on May 15, 2004

From the Birkett's article: Islander Nigger Brown, approaching 40

Wow...um, interesting name.

Reminds me of this [Requires RealPlayer, NSFW except with headphones]
posted by Gnatcho at 1:44 AM on May 16, 2004

Presumably a nickname (there's another islander called Sambo whose real name is Dennis). "Nigger Brown" seems to be one of those folksy old pre-PC nicknames (akin to Chalky White) - see this. (Nigger, incidentally, was the one Birkett had the affair with).
posted by raygirvan at 6:31 AM on May 16, 2004

Great link, and I've also enjoyed the links added by commentators.
posted by orange swan at 7:29 PM on May 16, 2004