Colonizing Hawai'i
The Cultural Power of Law
Will be published approx. on 10. January 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
432 pages
978-0-691-00932-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
Winner of the 2002 Williard Hurst Prize in Legal HistoryMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
1 Maps
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
631 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-00932-2 (9780691009322)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2020
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€51.99
Available for download
Person
Sally Engle Merry is Class of 1949 Professor of Ethics in the Anthropology Department at Wellesley College. Her books include Urban Danger: Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers, Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal Consciousness among Working-Class Americans, and The Possibility of Popular Justice: A Case Study of American Community Mediation, coedited with Neal Milner. She is currently president of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology.
Content
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi A NOTE ON LANGUAGE AND TERMINOLOGY xiii ONE Introduction 3 PART ONE: ENCOUNTERS IN A CONTACT ZONE: NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARIES, LAWYERS, AND THE APPROPRIATION OF ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW, 1820-1852 TWO The Process of Legal Transformation 35 THREE The First Transition: Religious Law 63 FOUR The Second Transition: Secular Law 86 PART TWO: LOCAL PRACTICES OF POLICING AND JUDGING IN HILO, HAWAI'I FIVE The Social History of a Plantation Town 117 Six Judges and Caseloads in Hilo 145 SEVEN Protest and the Law on the Hilo Sugar Plantations 207 EIGHT Sexuality, Marriage, and the Management of the Body 221 NINE Conclusions 258 APPENDIXES A CASES FROM HILO DISTRICT COURT 269 B ACCOMPANYING TABLES 325 NOTES 331 REFERENCES 349 INDEX 365