About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Hawaii Press

ISBN-100824889959

ISBN-139780824889951

eBay Product ID (ePID)6050084476

Product Key Features

Number of Pages288 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameKa Po'e Mo'o Akua : Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities

SubjectIndigenous Studies, General, Translating & Interpreting, Oceania

Publication Year2022

TypeTextbook

AuthorMarie Alohalani Brown

Subject AreaReligion, Language Arts & Disciplines, Social Science, History

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight15.4 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2021-028039

Dewey Edition23

ReviewsA stunning feat of scholarship. This book is not just a narration and catalog of mo'o akua, but an analysis and cogent explanation of Ho'omana, Hawaiian religion. Based on an enormous number of mo'olelo in 'olelo Hawai'i, 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 kupuna's philosophies and belief system. It sets a new bar for studies of na mea Hawai'i., The significance of Ka Po'e Mo'o Akua as a scholarly endeavor cannot be overemphasized. It plays a major role in the 'recovery and reconstruction of Ike kupuna.' It plays this role in terms of the exposure of material written by oiwi from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It plays this role through the mentoring Brown provides in how one must go about responsible scholarly research on things Hawaiian. It plays this role in the analysis Brown brings on oiwi categories of thought, classifications of cultural objects, concepts, practices, and traditions, and it plays this role in terms of opening up further the complicated and intelligent oiwi imagination.

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal299.92420212

SynopsisTradition 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.

LC Classification NumberBL2620.H3B76 2022

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Ka Po'e Mo'o Akua : Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities by Marie Alohalani Brown (2022, Trade Paperback)

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