Study of the legal and cultural effects of the "fifty-percent blood quantum" rule first instituted in the 1920s
An assessment of the legal and cultural effects of the arbitrary correlation of blood and race imposed by the US government on the indigenous peoples of Hawai'i. It demonstrates how blood quantum, a system originally intended to restore land to Native Hawaiians, has in fact become an extension of US imperial power in Hawai'i.
In the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) of 1921, the U.S. Congress defined "native Hawaiians" as those people "with at least one-half blood quantum of individuals inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778." This "blood logic" has since become an entrenched part of the legal system in Hawai'i. Hawaiian Blood is the first comprehensive history and analysis of this federal law that equates Hawaiian cultural identity with a quantifiable amount of blood. J. Kehaulani Kauanui explains how blood quantum classification emerged as a way to undermine Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) sovereignty. Within the framework of the 50-percent rule, intermarriage "dilutes" the number of state-recognized Native Hawaiians. Thus, rather than support Native claims to the Hawaiian islands, blood quantum reduces Hawaiians to a racial minority, reinforcing a system of white racial privilege bound to property ownership.
Kauanui provides an impassioned assessment of how the arbitrary correlation of ancestry and race imposed by the U.S. government on the indigenous people of Hawai'i has had far-reaching legal and cultural effects. With the HHCA, the federal government explicitly limited the number of Hawaiians included in land provisions, and it recast Hawaiians' land claims in terms of colonial welfare rather than collective entitlement. Moreover, the exclusionary logic of blood quantum has profoundly affected cultural definitions of indigeneity by undermining more inclusive Kanaka Maoli notions of kinship and belonging. Kauanui also addresses the ongoing significance of the 50-percent rule: Its criteria underlie recent court decisions that have subverted the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and brought to the fore charged questions about who counts as Hawaiian.
“"This work is an ambitious and carefully argued account of how the peoples of Hawaii moved across multiple modes of being: from a self-ruled polyglot community to becoming conquered United States colonial subjects and, eventually, transformed into culturally and legally segmented 'American' citizens made to submit to 'blood quantum' rules. . . . [A]n exceedingly well written and well argued work on a complex case."”
"Appearing as one of the inaugural volumes in Duke University Press's new 'Narrating Native Histories' series, Hawaiian blood is a triumph of scholarship from an emic perspective and a powerful indictment of the institutionalized form of racialism known as the 'blood quantum' as practised in the United States and especially in Hawaii...Kauanui's is the first work to tie Hawaiian identity to land in this way, helping to provide a legal foundation for ongoing claims to Hawaiian sovereignty as described in her final chapters, and enabling Hawaiians and others to understand better the internal conflicts that have often divided the indigenous community. This highly important study of how natives think and why enriches and challenges us all." Kaori O'Connor, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute "Hawaiian Blood is an important work that addresses the racialization of Hawaiians in a way that no other work has done. J. Kehaulani Kauanui reveals how the 50-percent blood quantum continues to divide the Native Hawaiian community and how it is affecting current court decisions and legislation. These analyses are crucial for the Hawaiian community as it continues to move to define itself and to exercise self-determination and sovereignty."--Noenoe K. Silva, author of Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism "Hawaiian Blood tells a fascinating and important story that has not received sufficient attention in the historical research on Hawai'i nor in the work on indigenous peoples more generally. Well written, accessible to students, and sophisticated in its analysis, this book offers provocative new insights and theoretical perspectives on how we think about and use notions of race, blood, and belonging."--Sally Engle Merry, author of Colonizing Hawai'i: The Cultural Power of Law "An excellent analysis" - Salon
J. KΔhaulani Kauanui is Associate Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at Wesleyan University.
"Hawaiian Bloodis an important work that addresses the racialization of Hawaiians in a way that no other work has done. J. KΔhaulani Kauanui reveals how the fifty-percent blood quantum continues to divide the Native Hawaiian community and how it is affecting current court decisions and legislation. These analyses are crucial for the Hawaiian community as it continues to move to define itself and to exercise self-determination and sovereignty."-Noenoe K. Silva, author ofAloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism
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