People and Cultures of Hawai’i Book Updated
Posted on | June 9, 2011 | Comments Off
The Department of Psychiatry at Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine held a book launch at the Waikīkī Aquarium during the 164th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association to celebrate the publication of People and Cultures of Hawaiʻi: The Evolution of Culture and Ethnicity, edited by emeritus professor John F. McDermott and department chair Naleen Naupaka Andrade.
The book is a significant update to the highly influential text that first published in 1980. Since then, the immigrant groups it discusses in depth have matured and new ones have been added to the mix. The present work tracks the course of these changes over the past 20 years, constructing a historical understanding of each group as it evolved from race to ethnicity to culture.
Individual chapters begin with an overview of 1 of 15 groups. Following the development of its unique ethnocultural identity, distinctive character traits such as temperament and emotional expression are explored—as well as ethnic stereotypes. Also discussed are modifications to the group’s ethnocultural identity over time and generational change—which traits may have changed over generations and which are more hardwired or enduring. An important feature of each chapter is the focus on the group’s family social structure, generational and gender roles, power distribution, and central values and life goals.
Readers will also find a description of the group’s own internal social class structure, social and political strategies and occupational and educational patterns. Finally, contributors consider how a particular ethnic group has blended into Hawaiʻi’s culturally sensitive society.
People and Cultures of Hawaiʻi will, like its predecessor, fill an important niche in understanding the history of different ethnic groups in Hawaiʻi.
People and Cultures of Hawaiʻi: The Evolution of Culture and Ethnicity is available on the UH Press website.
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