Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity (Narrating Native Histories) [Paperback]

J. Khaulani Kauanui (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0822340798 | ISBN-13: 978-0822340799 | Publication Date: November 7, 2008

In the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) of 1921, the U.S. Congress defined “native Hawaiians” as those people “with at least one-half blood quantum of individuals inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778.” This “blood logic” has since become an entrenched part of the legal system in Hawai‘i. Hawaiian Blood is the first comprehensive history and analysis of this federal law that equates Hawaiian cultural identity with a quantifiable amount of blood. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui explains how blood quantum classification emerged as a way to undermine Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) sovereignty. Within the framework of the 50-percent rule, intermarriage “dilutes” the number of state-recognized Native Hawaiians. Thus, rather than support Native claims to the Hawaiian islands, blood quantum reduces Hawaiians to a racial minority, reinforcing a system of white racial privilege bound to property ownership.

Kauanui provides an impassioned assessment of how the arbitrary correlation of ancestry and race imposed by the U.S. government on the indigenous people of Hawai‘i has had far-reaching legal and cultural effects. With the HHCA, the federal government explicitly limited the number of Hawaiians included in land provisions, and it recast Hawaiians’ land claims in terms of colonial welfare rather than collective entitlement. Moreover, the exclusionary logic of blood quantum has profoundly affected cultural definitions of indigeneity by undermining more inclusive Kanaka Maoli notions of kinship and belonging. Kauanui also addresses the ongoing significance of the 50-percent rule: Its criteria underlie recent court decisions that have subverted the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and brought to the fore charged questions about who counts as Hawaiian.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Hawaiian Blood is an important work that addresses the racialization of Hawaiians in a way that no other work has done. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui reveals how the fifty-percent blood quantum continues to divide the Native Hawaiian community and how it is affecting current court decisions and legislation. These analyses are crucial for the Hawaiian community as it continues to move to define itself and to exercise self-determination and sovereignty.”—Noenoe K. Silva, author of Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism

“Hawaiian Blood tells a fascinating and important story that has not received sufficient attention in the historical research on Hawai‘i nor in the work on indigenous peoples more generally. Well written, accessible to students and sophisticated in its analysis, this book offers provocative new insights and theoretical perspectives on how we think about and use notions of race, blood, and belonging.”—Sally Engle Merry, author of Colonizing Hawai‘i: The Cultural Power of Law

From the Publisher

"Hawaiian Blood is an important work that addresses the racialization of Hawaiians in a way that no other work has done. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui reveals how the fifty-percent blood quantum continues to divide the Native Hawaiian community and how it is affecting current court decisions and legislation. These analyses are crucial for the Hawaiian community as it continues to move to define itself and to exercise self-determination and sovereignty."--Noenoe K. Silva, author of Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism

"Hawaiian Blood tells a fascinating and important story that has not received sufficient attention in the historical research on Hawai`i nor in the work on indigenous peoples more generally. Well written, accessible to students and sophisticated in its analysis, this book offers provocative new insights and theoretical perspectives on how we think about and use notions of race, blood, and belonging."--Sally Engle Merry, author of Colonizing Hawai`i: The Cultural Power of Law

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (November 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822340798
• ISBN-13: 978-0822340799
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Law > Legal History
  • #82 in Books > Law > Administrative Law
  • #97 in Books > History > Americas > Native American

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and Incisive, February 11, 2009

By 

Greg Johnson (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity (Narrating Native Histories) (Paperback)

Hawaiian Blood is the most timely book I have read this year. As of early 2009, the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. federal government are poised to address issues directly relevant to questions of Hawaiian identity and sovereignty. The so-called Akaka bill and the "ceded lands" dispute currently before the Supreme Court are the latest manifestations of a protracted struggle over Hawaiian identities, rights, and autonomy. Kauanui's eloquent book provides an invaluable historical analysis of this history, with particular attention to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1921. Exploring the background of the law, Kauanui illustrates the politically-fraught and often chilling ways Hawaiian identities were reduced to an arbitrary calculus of blood quantum. Kauanui argues convincingly that the legislative process and the blood politics it engendered were principally fueled by non-native real estate interests. The subsequent history of blood quantification in the service of land dispossession has had lasting and compounding relevance in a variety of consequential and frequently detrimental ways for Native Hawaiians. Indeed, one cannot adequately understand the range and diversity of political issues and sovereignty movements in contemporary Hawai`i without studying the fractured and fracturing history of colonization and the legal machinery through which Hawaiian land and political autonomy were usurped. Kauanui is a clear and analytically-focused guide through this complex terrain. Beyond her keen historical work, which entails careful readings of legislative histories, Kauanui pushes readers to re-imagine the past and future of Hawaiian identity. In a persuasive argument against the exclusivistic consequences of blood quantification, Kauanui trains attention upon the quintessential cultural means of reckoning identity in Hawai`i, a capacious and rich tradition of genealogy. While never politically shrill, Kauanui encourages this mode of identification, which simultaneously stands outside of legal code and stands up for tradition. This astute and immensely relevant book will be of interest to scholars in a number of fields, including Hawaiian studies, American Indian studies, indigenous studies, anthropology, and legal studies. Furthermore, because it is a model of clarity and precision, Hawaiian Blood could be used profitably in undergraduate courses.

Greg Johnson
Department of Religious Studies
University of Colorado

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hawaiian Blood, December 13, 2008

By 

Ashley Meredith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity (Narrating Native Histories) (Paperback)

This book raises a lot of important issues the average American is not aware of... like the blood quantum set up by people not native Hawaiian, and the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kindgom by the US government/marines and the forced annexation in 1898. Native Hawaiians are genuine, lovely people, and American presence is destroying their land.