Na wai ka mana? 'Oiwi agency and European imperialism in the Hawaiian Kingdom

• Main Author: Beamer, B. Kamanamaikalani
• Language: en-US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/20601

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008. === Keywords. Colonialism, Agency, Indigenous, Modernization, Hawai'i. === The Hawaiian Kingdom has often been seen as a colonial institution. This dissertation challenges a colonial analysis of the Hawaiian Kingdom and its ali'i, while illustrating the agency of ali'i in grappling within and against Euro-American Imperialism. Special attention is given to the complex negotiations taking place in the Hawaiian Kingdom between ali'i and haole and the ways in which ali'i were modernizing through the modification of existing indigenous structure and through Hawaiianizing Euro-American structures to suit their own needs. This dissertation uses archival materials such as maps, laws, and letters to demonstrate that the Hawaiian Kingdom was not a colonial institution but rather a hybrid structure to resist colonialism and offers insight into how an indigenous society appropriated the tools of the other for their own means. === Includes bibliographical references (leaves 310-339). === Reproduction. === Also available by subscription via World Wide Web === 339 leaves, bound 29 cm