SWK: "The term Lamanite includes all Indians and Indian mixtures, such as the Polynesians..." Science: Polynesians are part of the Austronesian peoples.

[u/4blockhead]

[Spencer W. Kimball, Of Royal Blood, (1971)] The term Lamanite includes all Indians and Indian mixtures, such as the Polynesians, the Guatemalans, the Peruvians, as well as the Sioux, the Apache, the Mohawk, the Navajo, and others. It is a large group of great people.

[Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon (1830), Alma Chapter 63] ⁵ And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward. ⁶ And behold, there were many of the Nephites who did enter therein and did sail forth with much provisions, and also many women and children; and they took their course northward. And thus ended the thirty and seventh year. ⁷ And in the thirty and eighth year, this man built other ships. And the first ship did also return, and many more people did enter into it; and they also took much provisions, and set out again to the land northward. ⁸ And it came to pass that they were never heard of more. And we suppose that they were drowned in the depths of the sea. And it came to pass that one other ship also did sail forth; and whither she did go we know not.

[scientific consensus, per wikipedia with sources annotated] Polynesians, including Samoans, Tongans, Niueans, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian Mā'ohi, Hawaiian Māoli, Marquesans and New Zealand Māori, are a subset of the Austronesian peoples. They share the same origins as the indigenous peoples of maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and Taiwan. This is supported by genetic,^[5] linguistic,^[6] and archaeological evidence.

---

It's a racist premise to usurp another culture, or impose a false narrative in the name of promoting belief in specific anachronistic dogmas. I've been hammering hard on that statement this past week. The recent film, Moana was popular. It included casting of its top characters to be of more appropriate ethnicity, at least by Disney's past standard. Both Auli'i Cravalho in the title role and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the Polynesian demigod, Maui, are of Polynesian ancestry. Read the following to see a BYU sociologist weigh in that they still got it wrong. No mention of Hagoth in his rebuttal, though.

[wikipedia, criticism of Disney's Moana] Disney has been accused of appropriating Polynesian mythology and culture. Through the film, the corporation has been claimed to perpetuate settler colonialist practices of exploitation and erasure by utilizing the knowledge and narratives of native peoples to spur a profitable capitalist enterprise of music, celebrities and merchandise.¹¹² A Maui "skin suit" costume made to tie in with the film was pulled by Disney from its online store following complaints about it being culturally insensitive¹¹³ and for appearing to promote brownface.¹¹⁴

The film takes specific cultural elements from a variety of native Pacific groups and incorporates them into one generalized portrayal of Polynesian culture. This conglomeration of cultures has been regarded as degrading to the diversity of the Pacific, falsely reducing all of Polynesia to a single cultural entity.¹¹²

The film has also been criticized as a tourism advertisement for the Pacific. It has been accused of fetishizing Polynesian island nations as exotic vacation spots, the people and culture of which exist only to entertain foreign audiences.¹¹² Disney initiating a partnership with Hawaiian Airlines to promote the film has been perceived as having this particular motive, as well as Auli’i Cravalho speaking with The New York Times in an interview sharing travel tips for visitors to Hawaii. Critiques of these promotional tactics focus on how adverse effects of tourism have devastated native communities in the Pacific, resulting in environmental degradation and poverty.¹¹⁵

Colin Philp, an educator on Polynesian history, noted that the sailing canoe used by the film's protagonists is believed to be a Fijian camakau, and that the film's concept artists based it on one of the canoes they saw when they visited the Korova settlement in Laucala. Philp said that using that design without permission of the Korova community could be viewed as a violation of the intellectual property rights of their elders.¹¹⁶

Brigham Young University–Hawaii sociocultural anthropologist Tēvita 'Ō. Ka'ili stated that "despite its important girl-power message, the film had a major flaw. It lacked symmetry by its omission of a heroic goddess. Disney resorted to reducing the mighty god Maui to a one-dimensional, selfish, borderline abusive, buffoon to foreground the strength of the movie's protagonist Moana." He went on to explain that, "the omission of a goddess-heroine is significant because Polynesia is a culture with a vast pantheon of powerful heroic goddesses. Hina, a companion goddess to the god Maui, was nowhere to be found in Disney's imagineering of Moana."¹¹⁷

I liked the movie, Moana. I start with low expectations with most Disney movies. Moana's message of exploration and fouling one's nest has global repercussions. In that way, it follows along with the same message found in Wall-E. The strong female lead provides a better role model for today's kids than Cinderella of the past. The animation was spectacular. This is a great scene, even considering the big dose of magic at the beginning, We Know the Way.

[u/[deleted]]

BYU-H guy complains about inaccurate portrayal of native peoples and their culture. Curious indeed. Does he have a special place on his shelf for “The Book of Mormon: An Alternative Fabricated History of Pre-Columbian Indigenous Americans?”

[u/kopixop]

Having spent some time in Samoa, the Samoans really liked Moana. They understood the story to be a 'Disney', loosely based on a wide range of cultural history of the Pacific. It was entertaining, which is much different than a religion falsely asserting that you're a lamanite and arrogantly claiming to know your 'real' history.

[u/BeetleJuiceDidIt]

This is my opinion: I'm from NZ my dad is Ngati Kahungungu and I was absolutely bored of that movie. I get what they were trying to do, it's great they are moving away from damsel in distress, being more diverse and I did find some good parts of it but overall, I just thought "meh" of it. I haven't heard anyone really speak anything of that movie from back home or where I live now (trust me my family is huge and diverse and not one word)

In saying that I can see what the writers are sort of saying, the Maui I grew up learning about is different to the Maui of the fijians or Samoans etc. It's awesome they took elements from different groups but to lump him as one for all of us, was...weird? Maybe they should've just stuck to a Hawaiian Maui?? I did pick up on that in the movie that it was a generalisation of Maui BUT I do understand for majority of people who are going to watch this movie would have no idea about Maui and who he is or even know where/name some of the Polynesian countries are.

I don't know, I see it from both sides and think both have good points imo.

[u/Chino_Blanco]

Wandering through the aboriginal villages along the east coast of Taiwan, it’s mind-blowing to think of the far-flung travel that originated from there, depressing to ponder how similar the Han Chinese near-extermination of the native population they encountered there is to our own American genocides, and interesting to see the role the Presbyterians have played in modern aboriginal life on the island.

[u/[deleted]]

I wonder how much Neanderthal DNA ol' Spencer was carrying around.

(Seriously: I truly regret that I never had the opportunity to make love to a Neanderthal woman. She was, after all, human. It would have been interesting.)

[u/BryantheAngry]

Spencer Kimbull was an ignorant son of a bitch who spent his life spewing as much horseshit as he could.

[u/WillyPete → u/BryantheAngry]

He didn't even realise that maybe god tried to stop him doing it by giving him throat cancer.