Description
Book SynopsisA story of how gender, culture, class, and personality intersect as a group of indigenous Hawaiian men work to overcome the dislocations of colonial history. It analyzes how middle-aged, middle-class, and mixed-race members assert a warrior masculinity through practices including martial arts, wood-carving, and cultural ceremonies.
Trade Review“
Native Men Remade is a tour de force. Ty P. Kāwika Tengan combines participant observation and archival and oral history in a study of the Hale Mua, a group of Hawaiian men who have revived ancient martial arts, carving skills, and rituals. As both member and ethnographer, Tengan engages passionate debates about the ‘emasculation’ of Hawaiian men by colonialism and tourism, the contested place of men and women in nationalism, and feminist critiques of Hawaiian patriarchy and gender violence. For Hawaiian peoples navigating their future, he suggests there are ‘more islands of hope than of despair.’”—
Margaret Jolly, Head of the Gender Relations Centre, The Australian National University
“This book concerns a distinctive Hawaiian men’s movement dedicated to decolonizing male consciousness by means of ritualized physical disciplines modeled after historically resonant warrior images. The writing is powerful, and the point of view is a compelling blend of interpretive humility and analytical forthrightness. Offering a wealth of insider testimony drawn from detailed interviews and from his own engaged experience in the Hale Mua, Ty P. Kāwika Tengan makes contemporary Hawaiian struggles and sensibilities accessible to non-Hawaiians by contextualizing them historically, culturally, and comparatively. This work will interest scholars of gender, race, and postcolonial cultures, as well as both academic and non-specialist readers interested in the contemporary Pacific.”—
Rena Lederman, Princeton University
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: Lele i Ka Pō 1
1. Engagements with Modernity 33
2. Re-membering Nationhood and Koa at the Temple of State 65
3. Pu'ukoholā: At the Mound of the Whale 93
4. Kā i Mua—Cast into the Men's House 125
5. Narrating Kānanka: Talk Story, Place, and Identity 163
Conclusion: The Journeys of Hawaiian Men 199
Appendix: 'Awa Talk Story at Pani, 2005 219
Notes 229
Glossary of Hawaiian Words 239
References 247
Index 267
