Paradise remade
Paradise remade: the politics of culture and history in Hawai'i Elizabeth Buck
Publisher: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1993.
ISBN: 0877229783
DDC: 996.9
LCC: DU624.65
Edition: (alk. paper)
Summary:
"This is a book about the politics of competing cultures and myths in
a colonized nation. Relying on Althusserian Marxist theory, Elizabeth
Buck considers the transformation of Hawaiian culture, with a focus
on the indigenous population rather than on the colonizers. In
Paradise Remade, the author reframes Hawaiian history, focusing on
how Hawaii's established religious, social, political, and economic
relationships have changed in the past two hundred years as a result
of Western imperialism. This account of the politics of island
culture and history is particularly timely in light of current
Hawaiian demands for sovereignty one hundred years after the
overthrow of the monarchy in 1893." "Drawing on a wide range of
critical theories of social structure and change, language and
discourse, and practices of representation, Buck examines the social
transformation of Hawaii from a complex hierarchical, oral society to
an American state dominated by corporate tourism and its myths of
paradise. She pays particular attention to how contemporary Hawaiians
are challenging the use of their traditions as the basis for
exoticized entertainments by establishing new institutions such as
hula halau (schools) and the annual hula competition of the Merrie
Monarch Festival to recover their history and culture." "Buck
demonstrates that sacred chants and hula were an integral part of
Hawaiian social life; as the repository of the people's historical
memory, chant and hula practices played a vital role in maintaining
the links between religious, political, and economic relationships.
As colonizers concentrated on transforming the economic and political
organization of the islands and missionaries undertook conversion to
Christianity, the suppression of these cultural practices became a
key element in establishing European dominance. Tracing the ways in
which Hawaiian culture has been variously constructed by Western
explorers, New England missionaries, the tourist industry,
ethnomusicologists, and contemporary Hawaiians, Buck offers a
fascinating "rereading" of Hawaiian history."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-226) and index.
Ch. 1. Introduction. Competing Myths of Hawaii. History and the
Polities of Culture. Hawaiian Historiography -- Ch. 2. Thinking about
Hawaiian History. Conceptualizing Structural Change: Marxist
Perspectives. Language and Power: Poststructuralist Perspectives --
Ch. 3. Hawaii before Contact with the West. The Hawaiian Social
Structure. Ideological Reproduction. Chant and Hula: At the
Ideological Center. Structure and Change before Contact -- Ch. 4.
Western Penetration and Structural Transformation. The Penetration of
Capitalism. Transformation to Capitalism: The Mahele. The New
Political-Economy of Sugar. Hawaiian Sovereignty at Risk -- Ch. 5.
Transformations in Ideological Representations: Chant and Hula.
Cultural Interaction in Hawaii. The Intrusion of Western Culture.
Changes in Hawaiian Chant and Hula. New Forms of Hawaiian Music.
Music and Resistance -- Ch. 6. Transformations in Language and Power.
The Movement from Orality to Literacy. The Power of Writing. The
Displacement of Hawaiian by English. Discourses about Chant and Hula
-- Ch. 7. Contending Representations of Hawaiian Culture. The
Political-Economy of Hawaii in the Twentieth Century. Hawaiian Music
and the Industries of Culture. Tourism and Paradise: Appropriating
Hawaiian Culture. The Politics of Culture - Hawaii Style. Hawaiians
and the Politics of Culture.
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