Anahulu: The Anthropology of History in the Kingdom of Hawaii, Volume 1: Historical Ethnography

by Patrick Vinton Kirch, Marshall Sahlins

From the late 1700s, Hawaiian society began to change rapidly as it responded to the growing world system of capital whose trade routes and markets crisscrossed the islands. Reflecting many years of collaboration between Marshall Sahlins, a prominent social anthropologist, and Patrick V. Kirch, a leading archaeologist of Oceania, Anahulu seeks out the traces of this transformation in a typical local center of the kingdom founded by the Anahulu river valley of northwestern Oahu.

Volume I shows the surprising effects of the encounter with the imperial forces of commerce and Christianity—the distinctive ways the Hawaiian people culturally organized the experience, from the structure of the kingdom to the daily life of ordinary people. Volume II examines the material record of changes in local social organization, economy and production, population, and domestic settlement arrangements.

Genres: History, Indigenous

251 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1992

About the author

Patrick Vinton Kirch, Director of the Oceanic Archaeology Laboratory, holds the Class of 1954 Professorship in Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.

Reviews

[Rachel Spivey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up from the library and didn't realize it was a textbook until I was snuggled into bed - however, I did enjoy a lot of the information that came with it. Unfortunately, very heavy on details and thus, not a great book for light bedtime reading. Three stars for me.