>The criminal charges stemmed from a longtime island practice of “breaking in” girls as young as 10.
> Colleen McCullough, the Australian author of The Thorn Birds and wife of a well-known Pitcairn descendant, harshly criticized the British for prosecuting what even the Foreign Office grudgingly conceded was a “cultural trait.” She said, “It’s Polynesian to break your girls in at 12.”
Colleen McCullough is less an expert on Polynesian culture and more an enabler of a randy British mutineer fork
Although archaeologists believe that Polynesians were living on Pitcairn as late as the 15th century, the islands were uninhabited when they were re-discovered by Europeans.
In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the British merchant ship HMS Bounty, along with the native Tahitian men and women who were with them (six men, 11 women, and a baby girl), settled on Pitcairn Island and set fire to the Bounty.
Tahiti is in French Polynesia. According to your quote 18/27 = 66% of the original settlers are Polynesian. It'd be very strange if they had a completely European culture.
The island is tiny. According to the article, when population roused to about 200, it led to famine. The local food supply just cannot support large population.
> The Pitcairn Islands have a population of a few dozen people, the descendants of the mutineers from the HMS Bounty.
Ah that seems so beautiful...
> The islands became notorious in 2004 when a third of the adult male population, including the mayor, were convicted of child sexual abuse
Oh
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/01/pitcairn200801
>The criminal charges stemmed from a longtime island practice of “breaking in” girls as young as 10.
> Colleen McCullough, the Australian author of The Thorn Birds and wife of a well-known Pitcairn descendant, harshly criticized the British for prosecuting what even the Foreign Office grudgingly conceded was a “cultural trait.” She said, “It’s Polynesian to break your girls in at 12.”
....oh.
Well. OK. That was NOT in Moana.