Research : What's an open mind got to do with it?
One of the challenges of teaching students to research in archives is persuading them to adopt fresh approaches to sources, and to suspend their rush towards judgement. So many of them approach the archives as a shopping expedition----everyone is a chef and they set out to create the dish they want to present to their audience. The archives or library for these people is like a supermarket that they visit with their list of ingredients, rarely straying from the list, so that the flavors that are produced are always remarkably the same. Presently we have too many chefs cooking the same dish, and the History of Hawai'i and it's engagement with the rest of the world needs a change of cuisine.
Said another way, many students who are writing research papers for my classes come in wanting to prove an argument that they are convinced is true, even though they have not thoroughly researched the sources available to them---or read very many primary sources (or even secondary sources!) to begin with. Now I met these kinds of students at Harvard and Brandeis, just as I met them at the University of Hawai'i and everywhere in between, so just to be clear, I'm not making this observation about just my students here at UH Manoa.
Now, what would be a better approach to researching and writing history? It's probably a cliche by now in some circles but research is a dialectic. One visits the archives with a general idea or map in mind of the terrain one would like to cover, as well as a set of suppositions one considers to be generally true, but this list of supposed-to-be's should always be provisional.
In short your sources are always and should always be revealing things you have never thought of or heard of----especially if you are studying the under-studied area of Hawaiian History.
Take today for example. I am writing one of the introductions to the new critical edition of Ka Moolelo Hawai'i by David Malo, I know quite a bit about his life, having written an MA thesis on him some fifteen years ago. But I still want to fill in gaps for this shortened version of "a life." So today I went to the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library to read the earliest church records from Lahaina which were recorded from 1823 - 1872. Now while I generally know where Malo was between the years 1823 and 1830, I wanted to see if there were more specifics in this church record, to supplement all of the other records which I've collected which help me locate him during this period.
While I was looking for a specific: David Malo's appearance in these records and what he is doing: I was open to learning much more from the source. The first thing I noticed was how often the minister, the Rev. William Richards made entries, and the kinds of information which warranted an entry.
The record is sparse, not an everyday kind of journal at all. In fact, several years have only two or three entries. Rev. Richards made note of the date, names and number of members accepted into the church. How many people took the sacrament on the Sabbath, days of fasting and prayer. He also made note of church members who violated the rules of the Church, and by studying several years of these lists of names and infractions, the rules governing proper Christian behavior became more legible.
Smoking tobacco, intoxication, improper speech, weakness of character, adultery or moe kolohe, stealing and lying topped the list, but tattooing and watching hula performances came as somewhat of a surprise since I was reading the journal only through 1835. I had not known that these were considered formal cause for concern so early in the history of the Sandwich Islands Mission. Based on my limited reading in this source, I started formulating an idea about the social control exerted by the church-----punishment for such infractions were always public----confession on the part of the accused, suspension and the inability to participate in the sacrament were typical---more severe punishment called for a vote of the church membership, a reading of a public letter in the church and excommunication. I wondered too about the role that the church played in community cohesion and sociability---and how these meshed with, supplemented, or displaced chiefly rule or other forms of community governance at a local level.
When it came to adultery, I was so used to thinking of these as crimes committed by women, that I was surprised to see the number of men in the Lahaina church who were placed on suspension for moe kolohe or adultery, without a named female "accomplice." Some individuals in the mid-30s were inventive, censured publicly for their call of "church members of different sexes to have each other's persons in common."Heck, I even learned a new word today, one of the men in the church was accused of acting as a "weawea," in relation to another person, meaning he brokered a deal for sex---or in modern day parlance, he was accused of pimping out another church member. It strikes me as interesting that Rev. Richards would not write this in the church record in English, but wrote the word weawea instead----since most of this record is in English, though by 1836 Rev. Richards is clearly fluent in Hawaiian.
I'll stop my post here and continue this on another thread. Today I looked at the Lahaina Church Records and took a peek at Lucy Thurston's handwritten diary that begins in 1819 upon the arrival of the first company of ABCFM missionaries (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Misssions) in the islands. Already I know I'm going to have a field day just tracking her use of the word, "kapu."
Said another way, many students who are writing research papers for my classes come in wanting to prove an argument that they are convinced is true, even though they have not thoroughly researched the sources available to them---or read very many primary sources (or even secondary sources!) to begin with. Now I met these kinds of students at Harvard and Brandeis, just as I met them at the University of Hawai'i and everywhere in between, so just to be clear, I'm not making this observation about just my students here at UH Manoa.
Now, what would be a better approach to researching and writing history? It's probably a cliche by now in some circles but research is a dialectic. One visits the archives with a general idea or map in mind of the terrain one would like to cover, as well as a set of suppositions one considers to be generally true, but this list of supposed-to-be's should always be provisional.
In short your sources are always and should always be revealing things you have never thought of or heard of----especially if you are studying the under-studied area of Hawaiian History.
Take today for example. I am writing one of the introductions to the new critical edition of Ka Moolelo Hawai'i by David Malo, I know quite a bit about his life, having written an MA thesis on him some fifteen years ago. But I still want to fill in gaps for this shortened version of "a life." So today I went to the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library to read the earliest church records from Lahaina which were recorded from 1823 - 1872. Now while I generally know where Malo was between the years 1823 and 1830, I wanted to see if there were more specifics in this church record, to supplement all of the other records which I've collected which help me locate him during this period.
While I was looking for a specific: David Malo's appearance in these records and what he is doing: I was open to learning much more from the source. The first thing I noticed was how often the minister, the Rev. William Richards made entries, and the kinds of information which warranted an entry.
The record is sparse, not an everyday kind of journal at all. In fact, several years have only two or three entries. Rev. Richards made note of the date, names and number of members accepted into the church. How many people took the sacrament on the Sabbath, days of fasting and prayer. He also made note of church members who violated the rules of the Church, and by studying several years of these lists of names and infractions, the rules governing proper Christian behavior became more legible.
Smoking tobacco, intoxication, improper speech, weakness of character, adultery or moe kolohe, stealing and lying topped the list, but tattooing and watching hula performances came as somewhat of a surprise since I was reading the journal only through 1835. I had not known that these were considered formal cause for concern so early in the history of the Sandwich Islands Mission. Based on my limited reading in this source, I started formulating an idea about the social control exerted by the church-----punishment for such infractions were always public----confession on the part of the accused, suspension and the inability to participate in the sacrament were typical---more severe punishment called for a vote of the church membership, a reading of a public letter in the church and excommunication. I wondered too about the role that the church played in community cohesion and sociability---and how these meshed with, supplemented, or displaced chiefly rule or other forms of community governance at a local level.
When it came to adultery, I was so used to thinking of these as crimes committed by women, that I was surprised to see the number of men in the Lahaina church who were placed on suspension for moe kolohe or adultery, without a named female "accomplice." Some individuals in the mid-30s were inventive, censured publicly for their call of "church members of different sexes to have each other's persons in common."Heck, I even learned a new word today, one of the men in the church was accused of acting as a "weawea," in relation to another person, meaning he brokered a deal for sex---or in modern day parlance, he was accused of pimping out another church member. It strikes me as interesting that Rev. Richards would not write this in the church record in English, but wrote the word weawea instead----since most of this record is in English, though by 1836 Rev. Richards is clearly fluent in Hawaiian.
I'll stop my post here and continue this on another thread. Today I looked at the Lahaina Church Records and took a peek at Lucy Thurston's handwritten diary that begins in 1819 upon the arrival of the first company of ABCFM missionaries (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Misssions) in the islands. Already I know I'm going to have a field day just tracking her use of the word, "kapu."
I love it, Noe! Keep writing and I will keep reading.
ReplyDeleteTo be a fly on the wall in observation of Dr. Arista's intense and most profound idea of study, research, and examination into the world and lives of the 19th century missionary, mission, and children of both is equally profound as saying, "I am not David Malo!"
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting! 1835 is still fairly early, so it is a bit shocking to see how much influence the church had already. I always believed that they had a pretty difficult time stamping out moe kolohe, so this makes me wonder how seriously the parishioners took the church if the threat of excommunication wasn't enough to make them stop. Hmmm...something to ponder. Thanks for that find!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you decided to blog about the Lahaina Church Records. I remember reading through these for the first time just over a year ago and I was so taken back by the nature of these records, yet equally not surprised. Its such a weird feeling to be hit in the face with something so offensive, then immediately have that feeling subside to what I would describe as tolerant. The tolerance is dangerous, yet the shock can be equally debilitating. What I find even more interesting is that this man had such an extensive role in the initial formation of the kingdom. However, I will take the high road and suspend my rush to judgment, instead allowing these thoughts to permeate with hopes that I will find a fresh approach to this record and many others. Me ka haʻahaʻa wale nō au e kau aku nei i kēia manaʻo ma mua o ʻoukou, ka poʻe aloha hoʻonaʻauao. Aloha nō!
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