Doctoral Dissertation Research: Hawaiian Place Names: Mnemonic Symbols in a Performance Cartography

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

Hawaiians used place names as mnemonic symbols to encode their knowledge of the environment. Place names performed in daily rituals (such as stories, chant, song, and dance) were a conscious act of reinforcing and making in place genealogical connections, recreating cultural landscapes, and regenerating cultural mores. Those performing these traditional practices deliberately incorporated familiarity, awareness, expertise, and fluency of the spatial relationships of their environments thereby communicating cartographically. This is a form of "performance cartography" that does not fall into a mainstream cartographic domain as defined by the Western scientific platform in the discipline of cartography. This doctoral dissertation research project will investigate Hawaiian "performance cartography," a cartographic tradition cultivated in oral traditions still being practiced today despite the eroding presence of Hawaiian names and cartographic traditions on Western map products (like USGS topographic maps). This project will test the following hypotheses: (1) Cognitive-based Hawaiian performance cartography still exists and is still being practiced. (2) The imposition of a Western cartographic discourse failed to extend, acknowledge, and/or incorporate the Native Hawaiian place naming traditions. In addition, the research will also seek to understand the nature of Hawaiian cartography, its parallelism with Western cartography, its depiction, communication, display techniques. Among critical questions to be explored are: Can Western cartographic techniques map processes such as Hawaiian performance cartography? Are Hawaiian place names mnemonic symbols? How has Hawaiian cognitive cartography evolved? What kept it alive? What kind of place names has been preserved on maps and on the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) for the State of Hawaii? How well can Western cartographic techniques be used to best represent and provide what "people of locality" need? This research a will involve qualitative methodologies (interviews and reflexive writing) to acquire and interpret Hawaiian place names, their meanings, and associated stories from both textual sources and key persons. The field research will consist of cataloging place names, conducting pre-field reconnaissance and exploratory interviews, digitally recording and transcribing key persons' place-name interviews and the researcher's reflections of or responses to the interviews. The intellectual merits of the research are anticipated to be a better understanding of the development of Hawaiian cartography and its cognitive relationships with Hawaiian culture, livelihood, and the landscape. The research will offer a comparison of its scientific paradigms with those of Western cartography. The research also will enhance understanding of why the presence of indigenous Hawaiian place names have been steadily eroding with the standardization of topographic maps and the GNIS database that are maintained by the USGS. The broader impacts of the results of this research is a cooperative effort with the USGS to revive and preserve this important Hawaiian tradition by suggesting and replacing place names back to the Hawaiian tradition and adopt them into the GNIS. The project will help educate mapping agencies as well as future Hawaiian generations about the cognitive, cultural, spatial, cartographical implications of Hawaiian place names. Furthermore, the project should raise awareness of indigenous cartography among practitioners of Western cartography. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.