Title: romanticizing cultural anthropology
Product review: The author provides an anthropological account of Huna- anthropological in the worst sense of the word, in my opinion. While she pays lipservice to the pitfalls of colonial romanticization of native Others, I found her account of "Hawaiian spirituality" to fall into that same trap. As others have pointed out, she provides some interesting linguistic interpretations, but the whole thing had an intrepid-New-Agey-European-explorer feel to it that I found really off-putting. In fact, nowhere in the book do I recall her pointing out that so-called Huna was in fact founded by non-Hawaiian folks. Strange, considering she has a doctorate in something called Hawaiian Shamanism.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
