How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The invaders, on their march back to the sea, consoled themselves for their repulse by setting fire to every house and temple in their route; and a long line of smoking ruins defaced the once-smiling bosom of the valley, and proclaimed to its pagan inhabitants the spirit that reigned in the breasts of Christian soldiers. (4.28)
This is just awful, but is it effective? By destroying a society's infrastructure, are you also destabilizing its religious heritage?
Quote #2
The frightful genius of pagan worship seemed to brood in silence over the place, breathing its spell upon every object around. Here and there, in the depths of these awful shades, half screened from sight by masses of overhanging foliage, rose the idolatrous altars of the savages. (12.11)
Sometimes, just because you're not familiar with something, you're afraid of it. Where else does this operate in the book?
Quote #3
This holiest of spots was defended from profanation by the strictest edicts of the all-pervading 'taboo', which condemned to instant death the sacrilegious female who should enter or touch its sacred precincts, or even so much as press with her feet the ground made holy by the shadows that it cast. (12.13)
The Typee have a patriarchal (male-dominated) society—or do they? Does the exclusion of women from holy places definitely have to mean that?