Colonizing Hawai'I [Paperback]

Sally Engle Merry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0691009325 | ISBN-13: 978-0691009322

How does law transform family, sexuality, and community in the fractured social world characteristic of the colonizing process? The law was a cornerstone of the so-called civilizing process of nineteenth-century colonialism. It was simultaneously a means of transformation and a marker of the seductive idea of civilization. Sally Engle Merry reveals how, in Hawai'i, indigenous Hawaiian law was displaced by a transplanted Anglo-American law as global movements of capitalism, Christianity, and imperialism swept across the islands. The new law brought novel systems of courts, prisons, and conceptions of discipline and dramatically changed the marriage patterns, work lives, and sexual conduct of the indigenous people of Hawai'i.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an important study which details a crucial (and often ignored) chapter in American legal history. It stands to make an important contribution to the anthropology of law, to the history of colonial legality, and to the methodology of ethnography in the archives. -- Annelise Riles, Northwestern University School of Law

This is a work of exceptional merit: substantively innovative and valuable, interpretively cogent and insightful, stylistically lucid and engaging. It reads very well as a significant account of the historical Hawaiian situation and as a major contribution to a multidimensional examination of colonial law and, especially, of a crucial and fairly singular American colonial enterprise. -- Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz

Review

This is an important study which details a crucial (and often ignored) chapter in American legal history. It stands to make an important contribution to the anthropology of law, to the history of colonial legality, and to the methodology of ethnography in the archives. (Annelise Riles, Cornell University ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 364 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691009325
• ISBN-13: 978-0691009322
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable study and good read, April 21, 2001

By 

jackeroo (Kailua, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colonizing Hawai'I (Paperback)

This book is a valuable study of the colonization of Hawai`i and the role of "law" in the islands' cultural transformation. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a critical understanding of Hawai`i's social, economic and politial dynamics. I particularly benefited from the insights on religion, sexuality and women. Sally Engle Merry provides a good articulation of the inevitable paradoxes facing the Hawaiian Nation in the 19th century vis-a-vis encroaching American imperialism and colonization. "Colonizing Hawai`i" is also a good read in the context of critical legal studies.

6 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A great disappointment, March 16, 2001

By 

Sanford J. Langa (Kahului, Hawaii USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colonizing Hawai'I (Hardcover)

The blurb for this book suggests a scholarly analysis of the effect of law on an emerging culture. It is anything but. It is better described as a muddled attempt to justify the modern political movement that elevates the descendants of 18th century Hawaiians to sacred victimhood enjoyed by Indians and Eskimos. The title should be a warning that this author cannot tell the difference between a colonist and an immigrant. She displays a less than adequate understanding of Hawaiian history and misses the significance of early leaders, both native and immigrant. Queen Kaahumanu, probably the most important force in creating the Hawaiian monarchy, is barely mentioned, and then denigrated as a sort of tool of the Christian missionaries. Sanford Dole, chief justice of the monarchy, head of the provisional government, president of the republic, and governor of the territory, is ignored. The biggest problem with this book is that too many readers will take it seriously.