missionary position

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

E. G. Stanley reviews the "New Oxford English Dictionary" none too
favorably in Notes & Queries 244:1 (March, 1999).  On p. 78 of a long
review he says:
        "Racial political incorrectness seems to attend the entry
missionary position in the dictionaries.  I do not know what the
origin of that combination is.  Burchfield's Supplement, II,
describes the position, but gives no origin, except he has admitted a
quotation of 1971 that states, without revealing its source, "so
called because it is virtually unknown in primitive races.""

I don't find "missionary position" in RHHDAS.  Anybody have any
information as to the earliest appearance of the phrase or of the
veracity or otherwise of the legend that explains it?  (The legend
being that it was so called by Pacific Islanders, since the
missionaries were trying to coerce them into abandoning all other
postures and fornicating in that position exclusively.)  I'm sure
that I had heard it before 1971.

GAT