Archaeological landscapes of colonial encounter were shaped to varying degrees by mutual mistrust, misunderstanding, anxiety, and the inherent terror of frontier violence. In the mission encounters of Island Melanesia, the colonial trope of “cannibalism” added a particular tinge to these fears of the colonized other. Mythologies of cannibalism both repulsed and motivated Christian missionaries who were led to places such as Erromango in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). Cannibalism as a practice was rare or even non-existent in these encounters, but it remained part of the European imaginary of the region. Several highly-publicized missionary martyrdoms on Erromango between 1839–1872 remain important to local social memories enacted in place. At the same time, there is a backdrop of relatively peaceful everyday life for missionary families as revealed by the archaeological record of mission houses. The structural and actual violence perpetrated by Europeans in missions and other colonial encounters are historically and currently underemphasized.

殖民遭遇的考古景观在不同程度上受到相互不信任、误解、焦虑和边境暴力的内在恐怖的影响。在美拉尼西亚岛的任务遭遇中，“同类相食”的殖民比喻为这些对其他被殖民者的恐惧增添了一种特殊的色彩。同类相食的神话既排斥又激励基督教传教士，他们被带到了新赫布里底群岛（现在的瓦努阿图）的埃罗曼戈等地。在这些遭遇中，自相残杀作为一种做法很少见，甚至根本不存在，但它仍然是欧洲对该地区想象的一部分。1839 年至 1872 年间，埃罗曼戈 (Erromango) 上的几起广为人知的传教士殉难事件对于当地的社会记忆仍然很重要。同时，正如传教士房屋的考古记录所揭示的那样，传教士家庭的日常生活背景相对平静。欧洲人在传教和其他殖民遭遇中犯下的结构性和实际暴力在历史上和目前都没有得到重视。