Possessing Polynesians

From their earliest encounters with Indigenous Pacific Islanders, white Europeans and Americans asserted an identification with the racial origins of Polynesians, declaring them to be racially almost white and speculating that they were of Mediterranean or Aryan descent. In Possessing Polynesians Maile Arvin analyzes this racializing history within the context of settler colonialism across Polynesia, especially in Hawai'i. Arvin argues that a logic of possession through whiteness animates settler colonialism, by which both Polynesia (the place) and Polynesians (the people) become exotic, feminized belongings of whiteness. Seeing whiteness as indigenous to Polynesia provided white settlers with the justification needed to claim Polynesian lands and resources. Understood as possessions, Polynesians were and continue to be denied the privileges of whiteness. Yet Polynesians have long contested these classifications, claims, and cultural representations, and Arvin shows how their resistance to and refusal of white settler logic have regenerated Indigenous forms of recognition.

“"This engaging, provocative, and insightful book accomplishes that rare feat of taking the reader down a familiar pathway of social science debates around the 'Polynesian race' while recasting them through a new lens of gendered and racialized settler colonial logics of possession. Elegantly disentangling the knot of indigeneity, race, and gender in the Pacific, Maile Arvin has produced a clear genealogy of science in the history of Indigenous dispossession."”

“In this outstanding book, Maile Arvin brings fresh light and new depth to the scholarship on racial discourse, eugenics, and colonialism through a study of how they operated in Hawai‘i. This intriguing new work brings science studies together with the analysis of visual culture and unites cultural history with contemporary political engagements. She pairs sophisticated readings of colonialist racial discourse with close attention to the political and artistic production of Native Hawaiians who have resisted that discourse. The result is an engaging and important book, and all who are concerned with race, empire, colonialism, and Hawaiian studies will find much to consider in it.” - David A. Chang, author of (The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration) “This engaging, provocative, and insightful book accomplishes that rare feat of taking the reader down a familiar pathway of social science debates around the ‘Polynesian race’ while recasting them through a new lens of gendered and racialized settler colonial logics of possession. Elegantly disentangling the knot of indigeneity, race, and gender in the Pacific, Maile Arvin has produced a clear genealogy of science in the history of Indigenous dispossession.” - Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, coeditor of (Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai'i)

“Possessing Polynesians is a captivating read that casts science of times-past as (unfortunately) science of times-present. Scholars positioned within settler colonialism, Pacifc studies, critical race studies, and women and gender studies will find the analysis in this book useful in contextualizing their own work and in signaling further pathways of research on which to embark. In showing how inclusion-as opposed to exclusion-can result in discursive and material violence, Arvin’s book is also of use to scholars who do work on multiculturalism and recognition.”

- Christine Rosenfeld (Lateral) “Possessing Polynesians by Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) historian and gender studies scholar Maile Arvin, provides an exceptionally sharp critique of settler colonialism in and of Polynesia, from the nineteenth century to the present. This is a scholarly work that is well researched, structured, and written, and that is particularly strong in its meticulous attention to, and analysis of, a diverse set of empirical material, including eugenic scientific texts, parliamentary debates, and Pacific artwork…. For Pacific Island scholars, this book will no doubt become a seminal scholarly work. It will also be of interest to anthropologists and sociologists, as it reviews troubling legacies that still reverberate in these disciplines.” - Mascha Gugganig (Pacific Affairs) “Possessing Polynesians disrupts what is considered as colonial ‘common sense’ notions and moves forward to redefine what comprises genealogy, heritage, race, and traditions. The work has real applications for academia as well as the Native Hawaiian community.” - Nicole Ku'uleinapuananiolikoawapuhimelemeleolani Furtado (American Indian Culture and Research Journal) “Possessing Polynesians argues powerfully about the ways Polynesia and Polynesian peoples are claimed as contingently white, tracking the unsettled convergences of processes of racialization and imperial and colonial regimes writ large.... Asian American studies would benefit greatly from Arvin’s careful examination of asymmetrical and complicated multidirectional relationalities.” - Xine Yao (Journal of Asian American Studies) “Arvin’s Possessing Polynesians ... provides a clear and compelling discussion of the whiteness logic from chapter to chapter. Those interested in settler colonialism, Hawaiian history, and race discourse in Oceania would find this book appealing to read.” - Joseph D. Foukona (Pacific Historical Review) “Possessing Polynesians is an excellent book.... I can only expect that Arvin will continue to be a critical voice in developing conversations about belonging, immigration, and indigeneity.” - Myrna Perez Sheldon (Journal of American History)

“Possessing Polynesians is a fascinating read to understand how settler science has historically been utilized to discredit Indigenous claims to land and body sovereignty. … [A] must-read text for individuals interested in understanding an Indigenous feminist framework and its importance to the growing field of critical Indigenous studies.” 

- Jonathan R. Quenga Borja (Ethnic Studies Review)

Maile Arvin is Assistant Professor of History and Gender Studies at the University of Utah.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.