Translators, traitors, and traducers: Perjuring Hawaiian same-sex texts through deliberate mistranslation.
In the long history of the West's encounter with Hawaiian culture, which began in the late 1700s with Captain Cook, translators and translations have often been the tools of intentional falsehood, thus demonstrating the truth of the Italian proverb, Traduttore, traditore ("the translator is a traitor")--particularly with regard to same-sex texts. The standards of truth have often been subverted in translation by the demands of foreign religion, hegemony, business, and academe. This subversion continues to this day in the form of the "missionary mentality" in politics and law. The way out of this situation is a brutally honest cleaning-off of the besmirched Hawaiian texts.
Morris
Robert J
RJ
University of Hawai'i, Mānoa, USA.
D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000266:history / Q000592:standards; D002835:Christianity / Q000266:history; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D066189:Missionaries; D012071:Religion and Sex; D008921:Religious Missions / Q000266:history; D014175:Translating; D014342:Truth Disclosure