Typee · Chapter
The Social Condition and General Character of the Typees explained
The narrator reflects on the social order of the Typee valley, observing that despite the absence of formal laws, courts, or police, the community operates with remarkable harmony and mutual respect.
What happens
The narrator reflects on the social order of the Typee valley, observing that despite the absence of formal laws, courts, or police, the community operates with remarkable harmony and mutual respect. He attributes this to an inherent sense of honesty and charity, and notes the mild influence of chiefs and the role of 'Taboo.' The chapter also discusses the division of labor, the elevated status of women, and the tribe's hostility toward outsiders, which the narrator justifies by historical grievances such as Porter's invasion. He acknowledges the practice of cannibalism but contextualizes it as limited to slain enemies and not indicative of overall savagery.
Themes in this chapter
Civilization vs. Nature
The narrator contrasts the absence of formal laws in Typee with the 'enlightened end of civilized legislation,' arguing that natural virtue produces superior social order.
Cultural Relativism
The narrator defends Typee customs, including cannibalism, by comparing them to the 'atrocious foreign wars' of civilized nations, suggesting moral equivalence.
Gender Roles and Sexuality
The chapter describes women as exempt from hard labor, indulged in leisure, and courted by men, using this as a measure of societal refinement.
Cannibalism and the Other
The narrator addresses cannibalism directly, arguing it is practiced only on slain enemies and that practitioners are otherwise 'humane and virtuous.'
Characters to notice
- Narrator
Observes and analyzes Typee social structure, gender roles, and the absence of formal law.
- Kory-Kory
Seen knocking down fruit with a long pole, illustrating communal resource use.
- Marheyo
Mentioned as prizing a carved spear, used as an example of personal property.
- Mehevi
Implied as part of the chiefly class whose influence is described as mild.
- Fayaway
Not directly mentioned but belongs to the 'gentle sex' whose freedoms are extolled.
Key passages
“During the time I lived among the Typees, no one was ever put upon his trial for any offence against the public. To all appearance there were no courts of law or equity. There was no municipal police for the purpose of apprehending vagrants and disorderly characters. In short, there were no legal provisions whatever for the well-being and conservation of society, the enlightened end of civilized legislation. And yet everything went on in the valley with a harmony and smoothness unparalleled...”
While living with the Typees, the narrator saw no trials, courts, or police, yet the valley operated with extraordinary harmony, challenging the necessity of formal legal systems.
Highlights the paradox of order without law, central to the chapter's argument.
“The grand principles of virtue and honour, however they may be distorted by arbitrary codes, are the same all the world over: and where these principles are concerned, the right or wrong of any action appears the same to the uncultivated as to the enlightened mind.”
Universal moral principles of virtue and honor exist innately in all people, regardless of education or culture, making right and wrong self-evident.
Expresses the narrator's belief in a natural, universal morality.
“The religious restrictions of the taboo alone excepted, the women of the valley were allowed every possible indulgence. Nowhere are the ladies more assiduously courted; nowhere are they better appreciated as the contributors to our highest enjoyments; and nowhere are they more sensible of their power.”
Except for taboo restrictions, Typee women enjoyed great freedom and were highly courted and valued, indicating a refined society.
Connects gender treatment to societal refinement, a key theme.
“But here, Truth, who loves to be centrally located, is again found between the two extremes; for cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone, and horrible and fearful as the custom is, immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and condemned, still I assert that those who indulge in it are in other respects humane and virtuous.”
The truth about cannibalism lies between sensationalist extremes: it is practiced moderately on enemies only, and those who do it can still be humane and virtuous in other ways.
Defends the Typees against exaggerated accusations of savagery.
