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Marie Alohalani Brown
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PURCHASE
DESCRIPTION
January 31, 2022 by University of Hawaiʻi Press
​Reptiles are a global phenomenon—snakes, crocodiles, alligators, and lizards are found in most parts of the world. Revered or reviled, across place and time they have held and continue to hold a prominent place in the religions or cultures of many peoples. Whether land or water dwellers, or a bit of both, they have slithered, glided, crawled, and climbed their way through the human imagination and into many belief systems. Collectively, supernatural reptiles may be entirely reptilian, humanoid, composite creatures, possess multiple forms, previously human before their reptilian transfiguration, or born as a reptile from a human mother. Ka Poʻe Moʻo Akua: Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities is about the fearsome and fascinating Hawaiian deities known as mo`o who embody the life-giving and death-dealing properties of water, the element with which they are associated. Mo`o are not ocean-dwellers. Instead, they live primarily in or near bodies of freshwater. As a class of deities, they vary greatly in size—as huge as a mountain or as tiny as a house gecko. Many moʻo have alternate forms. Predominately female, those mo`o who masquerade as humans are often described as stunningly beautiful. Tradition holds that when you come across a body of freshwater in a secluded area and everything is eerily still, you should not linger for you have stumbled across the home of a moʻo. When the plants are yellowed and the water covered with a greenish-yellow froth, the moʻo is at home. If so, you should leave quickly lest the moʻo make itself known to you to your detriment. It might eat (ʻai, to eat) you or take you as a lover (ai, to have sex)—either way, you are doomed because it will consume you completely. 
            During an earlier period in Hawaiian history, moʻo akua held different roles and filled a variety of functions in overlapping sectors—familial, societal, economic, political—but religion was the foundation upon which these roles and functions were established as it was the belief in moʻo akua that engendered them. Brown’s extensive research in primary Hawaiian-language archives has recovered knowledge about more than three-hundred moʻo. An overview of reptilian entities around the world and in Polynesia offers readers the context for understanding how moʻo akua, while uniquely Hawaiian, have certain features in common with them. This work makes major contributions beyond a comprehensive treatise on moʻo akua in terms of the politics and poetics of reconstructing ʻike kupuna (ancestral knowledge); genre analysis and metadiscursive practices; Hawaiian aesthetics; the nature of tradition; theory and methods for the study of the genres known as moʻolelo and kaʻao, which includes an exhaustive analysis of their value; and an invaluable discussion on what researching Hawaiian-language newspapers entails based on her decades-long experience. While this is a scholarly work, Brown’s writing is easily accessible. The result is an extraordinary monograph on a class of Hawaiian deities.
PRAISE
"A stunning feat of scholarship. This book is not just a narration and catalog of moʻo akua, but an analysis and cogent explanation of Hoʻomana, Hawaiian religion. Based on an enormous number of moʻolelo in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, together with oral histories, translations, manuscripts, and a full reading of secondary sources, this book takes us a huge distance towards actual understanding of our kūpuna's philosophies and belief system. It sets a new bar for studies of nā mea Hawaiʻi."
—Dr. Noenoe K. Silva, professor of political science and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
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purchase
PRAISE 
“Notable for its wide scope, both in terms of region and time period . . . [and its] highly perceptive introduction . . . We still crave supernatural creatures. The Penguin Book of Mermaids definitely satisfies that craving, drawing us into their narrative depths with alluring promises.”
--Los Angeles Review of Books

“Accessible yet rigorous, passionately diverse, and thoroughly spellbinding . . . Many-voiced, irresistible, and essential . . . [with] insightful story notes, generous attributions, and tantalizing bibliography. The desires and dangers of the shape-changing sea have rarely been so intelligently and inclusively showcased.”
--Publishers Weekly, starred review 

“Readers fascinated by myth and diverse cultures will find much to enjoy and ponder in this gathering of mermaid tales and assessment of how these beings reflect the complexities of human nature.” 
--Booklist

“A perfect gift for the mermaid lover in your life. This nuanced and comprehensive look at mermaids and water deities includes stories I had never heard of; I found it enchanting.”
--Zoraida Córdova, author of The ViciousDeep trilogy

“Superb: the first substantial anthology of mermaid stories. Nobody knows what mermaids are, but there is great enjoyment in reading tales that make us believe in them. They are alluring, demonic, vengeful, innocent, hypnotic, enchanting, and divine, and you can find all of them and more in The Penguin Book of Mermaids.” 
--Jack Zipes, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota

“Tapping into the seductive sorcery of mermaid lore, The Penguin Book of Mermaids reminds us why these aquatic beings—who awaken both dread and desire—continue to attract our attention.”
--Maria Tatar, Harvard University
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PURCHASE
DESCRIPTION
May 2016 by University of Hawaiʻi Press 
Facing the Spears of Change takes a close look at the extraordinary life of John Papa Ii. Over the years, Ii faced many personal and political changes and challenges in rapid succession, which he skillfully parried or grasped firmly and then used to fend off other attacks. He began serving in the household of Kamehameha I as an attendant in 1810, when he was ten. His early service took place in a time when alii nui (the highest-ranking Hawaiians) were considered divine and surrounded with strict kapu (sacred prohibitions); breaking a kapu pertaining to an alii meant death for the transgressor. As an attendant, Ii was highly familiar with the inner workings of the royal household. He went on to become an influential statesman, privy to the shifting modes of governance adopted by the Hawaiian kingdom. Ii's intelligence and his good standing with those he served resulted in a great degree of influence within the Hawaiian government, with his fellow Hawaiians, and with the missionaries residing in the Hawaiian Islands.At the end of his life, he also became a memoirist and biographer, who published accounts of key events in his own life and in the lives of others during the sixty years that he served his kings, his nation, and his people. As a privileged spectator and key participant, his accounts of alii and his insights into early nineteenth-century Hawaiian cultural-religious practices are unsurpassed. In this groundbreaking work, Marie Alohalani Brown offers a meticulously researched, elegantly written, and compelling portrait of an important historical figure in nineteenth-century Hawaii. Brown's extensive archival research and use of Hawaiian and English language primary sources from the 1800s allows readers to access information that would be otherwise unknown but to a very small circle of researchers. While recent scholars have to varying degrees noted Ii's importance in Hawaiian history, his life has been largely neglected as a topic of study. The few scattered lines devoted to him have been merely tombstone epitaphs in relation to the vast archive available about his life, his political achievements, and his cultural contributions as a writer.

AWARDS AND PRAISE
May 2016, University of Hawaiʻi Press 
​Winner of Ka Palapala Poʻokela biennial award for the categories of Hawaiian language, culture, and history (2016 & 2017)
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"​Brown's fluency with Hawaiian language, and her abilities to comb through all the available archives, both in Hawaiian and English, for the overwhelming amount of details regarding ʻĪʻī's life, are paramount. Never before was this information readily available to the general readership in a way that presents an overall picture of his life activities."
—Hiapo Perreira, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo

" [Facing the Spears of Change] marks a turning point not just in the scholarship about ‘Ī‘ī, but also in the production of literature about Kanaka Māoli (Native Hawaiians). . . . The “Hawaiian Renaissance” of the 1970s has led to a re-examination of long-accepted narratives about Hawai‘i and its past, almost all of which rely exclusively on English-language sources. But because those sources come from a part of society that never represented more than 10 percent of the population in nineteenth-century Hawai‘i, our contemporary understanding of the period is inevitably biased. Brown, though, is among a new generation of scholars who are fluent in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i and who have access to a treasure trove of sources written in the Islands’ mother tongue."
—Hana Hou!

"Brown, a thorough researcher and discerning writer, captures the drama of the tactical battles the enterprising ‘I‘i fought to stay in favor with a succession of rulers and defend the interests of his beloved Hawaiian people. . . . Brown's excellent book casts a long-overdue light upon the personal life and brilliant career of a loyal, modest, courageous man."
—Honolulu Star-Advertiser

​"Brown contextualizes his work (and her own) within Kanaka life-writing traditions, arguing for the importance of adhering to its aesthetic and rhetorical strategies, including the recounting of mo‘okū‘auhau (genealogy) and mo‘olelo (history and story). . . . Aside from the cogent analysis and narrative, readers will appreciate the thoughtful inclusion of a biographical timeline, notes discussing Hawaiian terms, and photos of letters handwritten by and about ʻĪʻī' and of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, in which ʻĪʻī' published his life-writing series. They will also value Brown's caution against relying only on translations to conduct research on Indigenous peoples and histories, as well as her sharing of the rewards and difficulties she faced while assembling and working with an extensive indigenous archive."
—Brandy Nālani McDougall, NAIS: Native American and Indigenous Studies, 5:1 (Spring 2018)

"Facing the Spears of Change offers a critical biography of John Papa ʻĪʻī and a reassessment of ʻĪʻī’s body of writings. His life story is a tracking of his active engagement in, and thoughtful reflections on, the vast social transformations that beset the Hawaiian people. Brown reconstructs overall ʻĪʻī’s intellectual production, not only in considering private writings (such as letters) and in reports about ʻĪʻī’s public activities, but more importantly in contextualizing ʻĪʻī’s writings in conversation with prevailing public discourses. Brown carefully weighs the content of the sources and without fail makes explicit the limitations as well as the affordances of those sources. Brown demonstrates that Hawaiian history must be written with full accounting for the immense archive of Hawaiian-language materials, both published and archival, produced over the course of the nineteenth century."
​—Amy Stillman, University of Michigan
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From the Foreword:
“Crucially, past, present, and future are tightly woven in ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) theory and practice. We adapt to whatever historical challenges we face so that we can continue to survive and thrive. As we look to the past for knowledge and inspiration on how to face the future, we are aware that we are tomorrow’s ancestors and that future generations will look to us for guidance.”
--Marie Alohalani Brown, author of Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa ‘Ī‘ī

The title of the book, The Past before Us, refers to the importance of ka wā mamua or “the time in front” in Hawaiian thinking. In this collection of essays, eleven Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) scholars honor their mo‘okū‘auhau (geneaological lineage) by using genealogical knowledge drawn from the past to shape their research methodologies. These contributors, Kānaka writing from Hawai‘i as well as from the diaspora throughout the Pacific and North America, come from a wide range of backgrounds including activism, grassroots movements, and place-based cultural practice, in addition to academia. Their work offers broadly applicable yet deeply personal perspectives on complex Hawaiian issues and demonstrates that enduring ancestral ties and relationships to the past are not only relevant, but integral, to contemporary Indigenous scholarship. Chapters on language, literature, cosmology, spirituality, diaspora, identity, relationships, activism, colonialism, and cultural practices unite around methodologies based on mo‘okū‘auhau. This cultural concept acknowledges the times, people, places, and events that came before; it is a fundamental worldview that guides our understanding of the present and our navigation into the future. 

This book is a welcome addition to the growing fields of Indigenous, Pacific Islands, and Hawaiian studies.
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Contributors:
Hōkūlani K. Aikau
Marie Alohalani Brown (Foreword)
David A. Chang
Lisa Kahaleole Hall
ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui
Kū Kahakalau
Manulani Aluli Meyer
Kalei Nu‘uhiwa
‘Umi Perkins 
Mehana Blaich Vaughan
Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu
For a full list of Dr. Brown's scholarly publications, download her curriculum vitae on the Home page.
Author photo credit: Dr. Kalei Nuʻuhiwa.
  • Home
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