Influence

Pick on Someone Your Own Size

Ethnocentrism, term attributed to Professor William Graham Sumner of Yale, describes the tendency of individuals to place a disproportionate value on the beliefs and customs of their own culture or nation. This isolated perspective is found in all aspects of interaction with the world, including trade, war, religion and virtually every social and political engagement. When a large ethnocentric group encounters a smaller ethnocentric group, the interests of the larger group often prevail. Typically, larger, more industrialized nations intervene in the affairs of the less developed nations, or islands in the case of Hawaii. Larger nations, who possess the means, tend to aggressively push their beliefs and ways of living on the smaller nations. When a larger nation intervenes in the affairs of a smaller nation, often defended as being and motivated by self-interest. However, ethnocentric views held by those from the intervening nation often dictate what is considered ‘good’ for the smaller nation and its people. In the history of our world, many occasions are noted in which a large imperialistic nation invades a smaller nation in an order to gain control and spread the ethnocentric views and institutions of the conquering imperialists. Many times, this includes the imperial powers pledge to ‘protect’ the nation from the rest of the world on one condition: that permanent military bases be established within the borders of the ‘helpless’ nation. An example of this occurrence is when the white European culture and religion was carried overseas to the islands of Hawaii.

The first recorded occasion in which an outside influence negatively impacted the islands of Hawaii was in 1776 when whaler Captain Cook and his crew sailed from the shores of England. Captain Cook and the sailors who accompanied him have been referred to by the Hawaiian people as “adventurers to steal their lands, petulance's to ravage their countryside” and devils in the shape of whalers to take advantage of their women, per Keoki. Keoki, who is native to the islands of Hawaii, also spoke about a disease with an unpronounceable name, which the Europeans brought with them. It was promised to the Hawaiian people by Captain Cook that they would again send missionaries to teach them to read and write. Captain Cook died in Hawaii during his third voyage there. His death in a conflict with the native Hawaiians underscores a central danger of ethnocentrism, which is that the inability to understand the values of a foreign culture can lead to conflict.

It wasn't until 1819 that Christian missionaries set sail from Massachusetts Bay for the islands of Hawaii. For an entire generation, the men, women and children of Hawaii had anxiously awaited the sight again of the weapons, the tall ships and the systems of numbers, books and religion the Christian mad had maintained. During this anxious wait the Hawaiian people had even torn down their pagan temples and stood curiously waiting for the white Europeans and the word of God to come. The intention of the Brother Hale and his fellow preacher men was to bring the Lord's word to the people of Hawaii. Systematic persistence prevailed as Brother Hale had insisted that the islands original inhabitants, “savages and filth” adopt the Christian values by covering their nakedness, renouncing their gods and abandoning the practice of filial marriage. Even after Queen Malama led her people to adapt to the changing times due to the haoli (white people), the people of Hawaii were still looked down upon as heathens, filth and savages and still stood inferior to the missionaries.

This was not the only occasion in which the smaller islands of Hawaii were negatively affected by the larger and more industrialized European influences. The Americans had brought with them disease, rats and a force of religion and culture. They also brought with them the widely accepted alcoholic beverages of the more 'developed' nations. Along with al the tools and knowledge to produce more, the beverage was willingly consumed by the native men of Hawaii, devouring them whole as Keoki had mentioned in the beginning of the movie, Hawaii. The culture and ancestral traditions of the Hawaiian people were not only devastated and in some cases, destroyed, by drastic changes in religion, clothing and moral values but also by the alcoholic beverage the white man had knowingly brought with them to the islands, addicting the Hawaiian people to and encouraging mental devastation.

It was in fact the invasion of the white man and Christian missionaries that ultimately resulted in the islands of Hawaii becoming a U.S. territory and later the fiftieth state of the United States. It was the invasion of the white imperialists and Christian missionaries that arguably had a long term, positive influence on the culture of the Hawaiian people by teaching them the necessary skills such as reading and writing and arithmetic. It was also this invasion that taught the Hawaiian people one of the most widely spoken language in the world today, English. Unfortunately, it was also this ethnocentric invasion that set up a nation for sickness, both mentally and physically through a complete transformation of faith and the spread of alcoholism and other diseases throughout the islands. It was the larger nation, the United States of America that invaded the much smaller, nonthreatening and isolated Hawaiian Islands. In essence, some intentions of the American imperialists were arguably good, in that they were trying to spread the Lord's word and teach a small nation to speak a common language. However, a sort of egotism and pride, spawned by their assumed sense of superiority, interfered with this intention and left the American invaders without concern for the traditions, feelings or reactions of the Hawaiian people. As long as the Americans were successful, it did not matter.