Hawaiian Antiquities: Moolelo Hawaii

Hawaiian Antiquities (1898) is an ethnography by David Malo, published in 1838. It was updated through the end of Malo's life and translated into English by Nathaniel Bright Emerson. It was the first in-depth written history of the islands and its people, based on oral traditions and linking the past to the world in which Malo lived.

Format: Hardback
Length: 366 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2022
Publisher: West Margin Press

Hawaiian Antiquities, published in 1898, is an ethnography by David Malo. Originally released in 1838, Hawaiian Antiquities, or Moolelo Hawaii, underwent updates throughout Malo's life and was later translated into English by Nathaniel Bright Emerson, a renowned scholar of Hawaiian mythology. Serving as the culminating achievement of Malo's research on Hawaiian history, overseen by missionary Sheldon Dibble, Hawaiian Antiquities emerged as the pioneering written account of the islands and its inhabitants. In the absence of written records from the ancient lands of their birth, the ancients left no account of the people who drove them out, the guides and leaders who accompanied them, the canoes that transported them, the lands they visited during their wanderings, or the gods they worshipped. However, certain oral traditions do provide us with the names of the idols of our ancestors.

As the inheritor of this ancient oral tradition, David Malo, a recent Christian convert who studied reading and writing with missionaries, offers an essential introduction to the genealogies, history, traditions, and stories of his people. Engaging with the legends passed down from ancient generations as well as the flora and fauna of the islands in his own time, Malo establishes a connection between the Hawaii of the past and the world in which he lived, a period characterized by political and religious transformations brought about by missionaries from the newly established United States. Presented with a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of David Malo's Hawaiian Antiquities represents a classic work of Hawaiian literature reimagined for contemporary readers.

Dimension: 203 x 127 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781513132990