Hawaii Becomes Literate

While at the Native American Museum, I saw a text on Hawaiian literacy that I paid special attention to because of our focus on oral peoples. I was stunned to see how quickly literacy changed Hawaiian culture, making them uniformly like literate cultures. In 1822, reading and writing, as well as the printing press, was introduced to native Hawaiians by Congregationalist missionaries. Just four years later in 1826, Hawaii adopted its first written laws. By 1831 reading and writing had swept the island so profoundly that Hawaii became one of the very few countries in the world with nearly universal literacy. Interestingly, when the first Hawaiian newspaper was published in 1834, it became an important new medium for perpetuating the oral tradition. In 1840, they adopted a constitution that included a declaration of rights and established three government branches, legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Their system was modeled after the British system and included a House of Nobles and House of Representatives.

It surprised me how quickly the introduction of reading and writing affected Hawaiian culture and society. Within a few years, the construct of the Hawaiian government shifted from chiefs over tribes to a democratic system that represented the people of a unified nation. Soon after adopting written laws, a constitution and established democracy had taken over. I found myself curious about how much of the native Hawaiian spirit, culture, belief system, and way of life was lost in translation or forgotten in the period of transition from orality to literacy. Did literacy provide a way to preserve their traditions or did it alter them? The introduction of reading and writing seems to be something that they embraced and were excited about, judging by how quickly it swept the nation with no apparent resistance. Were they glad for it later? I wonder if their sense of identity remained the same and strong or somehow seemed faded and distant. I wondered how it affected their pattern of thought about things. In “The Ritual Process,” Victor Turner writes about how rituals reveal values at their deepest level and provide the people with an ordered reality. I wondered if some of their values were lost or if they felt slightly disoriented by the change. In “Original Visions” by Carmody and Carmody, they discuss how the assimilation of oral peoples into literate culture may mean the loss of myths, rituals, and the ability to interact with nature spontaneously, finding it full of wonder. I wondered how their view of their environment and the world around them may have changed. Did they experience a weakened connection and kinship to the earth beneath their feet and its inhabitants? Did the earth become less sacred and revered, less awe-inspiring? While we likely will never know the full impact of literacy on the once oral society, it’s interesting to wonder about.