Cristina Bacchilega

Marie Alohalani Brown

A treasury of tales about merfolk and water spirits from different cultures, ranging from Scottish selkies to Hindu water-serpents to Chilean sea fairies. All tales are accompanied by commentary that explores their undercurrents, showing us how public perceptions of this popular mythical hybrid--at once a human and a fish--illuminate issues of gender, spirituality, ecology, and sexuality. -- adapted from back cover.

The Penguin Book of Mermaids

Tradition holds that when you come across a body of fresh water in a secluded area and everything is eerily still, the plants are yellowed, and the water covered with a greenish-yellow froth, you have stumbled across the home of a mo‘o. Leave quickly lest the mo‘o make itself known to you! Revered and reviled, reptiles have slithered, glided, crawled, and climbed their way through the human imagination and into prominent places in many cultures and belief systems around the world. Ka Po‘e Mo‘o Akua: Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities explores the fearsome and fascinating creatures known as mo‘o that embody the life-giving and death-dealing properties of water. Mo‘o are not ocean-dwellers; instead, they live primarily in or near bodies of fresh water. They vary greatly in size, appearing as tall as a mountain or as tiny as a house gecko, and many possess alternate forms. Mo‘o are predominantly female, and the female mo‘o that masquerade as humans are often described as stunningly beautiful. Throughout Hawaiian history, mo‘o akua have held distinctive roles and have filled a variety of functions in overlapping religious, familial, societal, economic, and political sectors. In addition to being a comprehensive treatise on mo‘o akua, this work includes a detailed catalog of 288 individual mo‘o with source citations. Marie Alohalani Brown makes major contributions to the politics and poetics of reconstructing ‘ike kupuna (ancestral knowledge), Hawaiian aesthetics, the nature of tradition, the study and appreciation of mo‘olelo and ka‘ao (hi/stories), genre analysis and metadiscursive practices, and methodologies for conducting research in Hawaiian-language newspapers. An extensive introduction also offers readers context for understanding how these uniquely Hawaiian deities relate to other reptilian entities in Polynesia and around the world.

Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities

Ka Po‘e Mo‘o Akua

Facing the Spears of Change takes a close look at the extraordinary life of John Papa `Ī`ī. Over the years, `Ī`ī faced many personal and political changes and challenges in rapid succession, which he skillfully parried or seized, then used to fend off other attacks. He began serving in the household of Kamehameha I as an attendant in 1810, at the age of ten, and became highly familiar with the inner workings of the royal household. His early service took place in a time when ali`i nui (the highest-ranking Hawaiians) were considered divine and surrounded with strict kapu (sacred prohibitions); breaking a kapu pertaining to an ali`i meant death for the transgressor. He went on to become an influential statesman, privy to the shifting modes of governance adopted by the Hawaiian kingdom. `Ī`ī’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. As a privileged spectator and key participant, his published accounts of ali`i and his insights into early nineteenth-century Hawaiian cultural-religious practices are unsurpassed. In this groundbreaking work, Marie Alohalani Brown offers an elegantly written and compelling portrait of an important historical figure in nineteenth-century Hawai`i. Brown’s extensive archival research using Hawaiian and English language primary sources from the 1800s allows access to information which would be otherwise unknown but to a very small circle of researchers.

Marie Alohalani Brown

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