SAVAGES, SINNERS, AND SAINTS: THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM AND THE IMPERIAL CONTEST, 1778-1839

This dissertation uses the writings of sailors, traders, and diplomats, American missionaries, and Hawaiian chiefs, as well as anthropological theories and ethnographic insights about Hawaiian culture to examine the cultural milieu created by western sojourners in Hawaii, contestation over the interrelated issues of morality, sexuality, religion, economics, and politics that occurred with the arrival of American evangelists, and the ways in which Hawaiian chiefs and commoners negotiated a delicate and calculated path between the embattled imperialist forces in their islands. This study places Hawaiian experiences within the broader outlines of American social, religious, and expansionist history. It offers a distinctly new interpretation of imperial relations in Hawaii, one that others may choose to build upon. In the past two decades, scholars of postmodernism and subaltern studies have devised new approaches to examining western imperialism in Africa, India, and China. However, only a handful of scholarly works have focused on western imperialism in Hawaii. Following trends in colonial scholarship and anthropological theory, particularly the work of Marshall Sahlins, this study uses an ethnographic approach to explain how Hawaiians viewed the religious, social, political, and cultural changes that resulted from the presence of foreigners in their kingdom and their responses to the challenges of imperialism. As such, this dissertation is highly interdisciplinary and draws upon the secondary literature in anthropology, missiology, colonialism, and Native American history. The issue of Hawaiian sovereignty has received national attention in recent years. Most scholars date the loss of Hawaiian independence to the moment in 1893 when U.S. Marines helped dethrone Queen Lili'uokalani. In reality, the forces that led to the annexation of the islands to the United States began with Captain James Cook's 1778 arrival in Hawaii. By focusing on the complex relations between two polarized groups of foreigners-American missionaries and western traders, sailors, and diplomats-and Hawaiian chiefs and commoners, this study reveals how the combined effects of western economic, religious, cultural, and political imperialism, cultural disintegration, native factionalism, and chiefly miscalculation created the context for the loss of Hawaiian political and economic control after 1839, much earlier than previously asserted in the Iiterature.Digitized from a paper copy provided by the Department of History

Savages, sinners, and saints: The Hawaiian kingdom and theimperial contest, 1778-1839

This dissertation uses the writings of sailors, traders, and diplomats, American missionaries, and Hawaiian chiefs, as well as anthropological theories and ethnographic insights about Hawaiian culture to examine the cultural milieu created by western sojourners in Hawaii, contestation over the interrelated issues of morality, sexuality, religion, economics, and politics that occurred with the arrival of American evangelists, and the ways in which Hawaiian chiefs and commoners negotiated a delicate and calculated path between the embattled imperialist forces in their islands. This study places Hawaiian experiences within the broader outlines of American social, religious, and expansionist history. It offers a distinctly new interpretation of imperial relations in Hawaii, one that others may choose to build upon. In the past two decades, scholars of postmodernism and subaltern studies have devised new approaches to examining western imperialism in Africa, India, and China. However, only a handful of scholarly works have focused on western imperialism in Hawaii. Following trends in colonial scholarship and anthropological theory, particularly the work of Marshall Sahlins, this study uses an ethnographic approach to explain how Hawaiians viewed the religious, social, political, and cultural changes that resulted from the presence of foreigners in their kingdom and their responses to the challenges of imperialism. As such, this dissertation is highly interdisciplinary and draws upon the secondary literature in anthropology, missiology, colonialism, and Native American history. The issue of Hawaiian sovereignty has received national attention in recent years. Most scholars date the loss of Hawaiian independence to the moment in 1893 when U.S. Marines helped dethrone Queen Lili'uokalani. In reality, the forces that led to the annexation of the islands to the United States began with Captain James Cook's 1778 arrival in Hawaii. By focusing on the complex relations between two polarized groups of foreigners---American missionaries and western traders, sailors, and diplomats---and Hawaiian chiefs and commoners, this study reveals how the combined effects of western economic, religious, cultural, and political imperialism, cultural disintegration, native factionalism, and chiefly miscalculation created the context for the loss of Hawaiian political and economic control after 1839, much earlier than previously asserted in the literature

Book Reviews

Book Reviews: Edward Bailey of Maui: Teacher & Naturalist, Engineer & Artist by Linda McCullough; How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawaiÿi by Patrick Vinton Kirch; Pacific Gibraltar: U.S.-Japanese Rivalry Over the Annexation of Hawaiÿi, 1885-1898 by William Michael Morgan; Engineering Nature: Water, Development, & the Global Spread of American Environmental Expertise by Jessica B. Teisch; Organized Agriculture and the Labor Movement Before the UFW: Puerto Rico, Hawaiÿi, California by Dionicio Nodín Valdés; Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawaiÿi by Isaiah Helekunihi Walker; Airborne Dreams: "Nisei" Stewardesses adn Pan American World Airways by Christine R. Yan

Book Reviews

Book Reviews: Wayfinding through the Storm: Speaking Truth to Power at Kamehameha Schools, 1993-1999 by Gavan Daws and Nä Leo o Kamehameha ; Creating the Nisei Market: Race & Citizenship in Hawaiÿi's Japanese American Consumer Culture by Shiho Imai ; The US Military in Hawaiÿi: Colonialism, Memory and Resistance by Brian E. Ireland ; The Arts of Kingship: Hawaiian Art and National Culture of the Kaläkaua Era by Stacy L. Kamehiro ; Talking Hawaiÿi's Story: Oral Histories of an Island People edited by Michi Kodama-Nishimomo, Warren S. Nishimoto, and Cynthia A. Oshiro ; Facing Future by Dan Kois ; Missionaries in Hawaiÿi: The Lives of Peter and Fanny Gulick, 1797-1883 by Clifford Putney ; The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick ; Haoles in Hawaiÿi by Judy Rohrer ; The Purposes of Paradise: U.S. Tourism and Empire in Cuba and Hawaiÿi by Christine Skwio