Inventing Politics: A New Political Anthropology of the Hawaiian Kingdom

Juri Mykkanen

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2003

Inventing Politics

A New Political Anthropology of the Hawaiian Kingdom

Juri Mykkanen

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824846572

Overview
Contents

About this book

How did early nineteenth-century foreigners understand Hawaiian chiefly politics? What kinds of cultural resources did Hawaiians themselves have to make sense of their own structures of domination and those of the West? What was the outcome in political terms of the encounter between Hawaiians and foreigners?

To answer these questions, this volume takes readers on an ethnographic journey through Hawaii's early contact period. It begins by exploring the translation work done by American Protestant missionaries, who played a central role in bridging cultural differences between Hawaiians and Westerners. Evangelicalism and liberal capitalism set the stage for constructing political images of a "pagan" society, and the present work follows the subsequent evolution and transformation of these images.

Inventing Politics is a theoretical statement of a new kind of political anthropology. Through an extensive use of primary sources, including many contemporary Hawaiian-language newspapers and dictionaries, it argues that what informs our current understanding of politics was already present in the early nineteenth-century encounters between Hawaiians and foreigners--a reading that translates seemingly apolitical events into the language of politics and speaks to the fundamental question of whether politics is a functional aspect of every society or an invention based on specific cultural meanings and interests.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
A Note on Conventions Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Natives and Foreigners: The Cultural Order of Hawaii’s Early Missionization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2. The Politics of Virtue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
3. Culture in the Making: The Rise of Political Discourse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4. Political Economy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
5. Natural Rights, Virtuous Wealth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
6. The Denouement: Untranslated Experiences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 262

eBook

Published: May 31, 2003
ISBN: 9780824846572