The Papalagi : Sources Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Papalagi

For the term, see Palagi.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (June 2013) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

View a machine-translated version of the German article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Der Papalagi]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Der Papalagi}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Papalagi (Der Papalagi) is a book by Erich Scheurmann [de] published in Germany in 1920, which contains descriptions of European life, supposedly as seen through the eyes of a Samoan chief named Tuiavii. It is regarded as fictional by some, such as Gunter Senft (see his Weird Papalagi and a fake Samoan chief — A footnote to the Noble Savage Myth).

In 1997 Canadian author Peter Cavelti adapted Scheurmann’s work to the English language audience, translating Chief Tuiavii’s speeches and presenting a comprehensive analysis of the history, culture and linguistic traditions of early 20th century Samoa. Cavelti also researched the controversy surrounding Scheurmann’s work. His work was published by Legacy Editions, Toronto, under the title Tuiavii's Way: A South Sea Chief's Comments on Western Society (1997, 1999, 2007 and 2020).^[1] Legacy Editions, Toronto; Crown English Reading/Sanseido Publishing, Tokyo.

A 1975 edition was illustrated by Joost Swarte.^[2]