"Who are you to tell us our history?" Kultur och religion i ... - Anpere

the way the missionaries had in mind. Problems arose when the Hawaiians did not understand
or accept the message in all of its aspects. One example of this type of selection is
the Hawaiians’ attitude toward the dress codes that applied at the missionaries’ church
meetings and services. The Hawaiians adapted to the given situation by either wearing the
prescribed clothing in connection with different partaking or simply elected to show up
wearing only a selection of paraphernalia such as headgear and gloves. The moment the
meeting or service was over, the clothes were removed. In several cases, traditional
clothing was worn outside of the new.
In addition to changing the Hawaiians’ clothing and perception of the body, the
missionaries spent much time and energy on reorganizing the Hawaiian social structure.
The missionaries’ thoughts on marriage, the family and social relationships, in other words
how men, women, the old and the young should behave toward each other, were very
different to those of the Hawaiians. The Christian family was a private constellation
consisting of a married man and woman with children living in a proper house with
separate rooms for children and adults. The Hawaiian family was an extended family,
‘ohana, with family members consisting of old, young and children living together.
Interaction between the different generations was fundamental to the passing on of traditions
and knowledge.
One of the missionaries’ methods for achieving efficacy with the Hawaiians in these
matters was through legislation. Some of the highly-positioned, such as Ka‘ahumanu, came
to sympathize with the missionaries, and thus some important prohibitions, such as those
that figured among the Ten Commandments, were able to have effect in the Hawaiian
Islands. These prohibitions also came to involve important Hawaiian tradition-bearing
cultural components such as the hula and Hawaiian medicine. In time, several of these rules
came to be institutionalized in the form of laws, and the effects of this were that the abovementioned
traditional activities came to be restricted and marginalized.
One of the missionaries’ central aims and goals was to build a well-functioning school
system. Education, or “instruction”, was considered to be an important aspect and played
an important role in the Hawaiians being able to read Biblical texts and assimilating the
Christian doctrine and faith. Schools were thus an important component in the conversion
process. A “proper” education, including learning to read and write, served furthermore as
a natural basis for that which was considered moral and civilized. It was precisely this
knowledge that a good Christian and, not least, a civilized Christian possessed, according to
the missionaries. The relationship and connection between science, literature and religion
were underlined to the extent that science and literature must expand the mind and religion
must hallow it.
Elaborating a written Hawaiian language was, in addition to starting schools, an
achievement. The production of written material in the Hawaiian language came to
constitute a breakthrough in the efforts of the missionaries. Palapala, the art of mastering
written language, became extremely popular among the rulers, ali‘i, and soon also among
the people, maka‘āinana, and they thronged to the schools throughout the islands.
Although the Hawaiians were delighted by the arts of reading and writing, it was a
considerably more difficult task for the missionaries to get them to stay in school. They
turned to educating the children instead of the adults, but the Hawaiian children soon
spurned their lessons also. The missionaries went on to develop secondary schools and also
boarding schools. An important reason for the failure of school activities was that the
missionaries had missed the fact that the Hawaiians had their own design for learning, for
knowledge and for skill. Children accumulated knowledge by actively taking part in
everyday life and by observing how people around them, chiefly the elderly, performed
chores and other things. Special competence was encouraged and children with special
competence or talent were trained by other specialists, usually within the ohana unit. The
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