L'Aigle and HMS Blonde, the Use of History in the Study of Ethnography

Abstract

My intent in this essay is to stress the importance of historical accuracy for interpretation of ethnographic materials and to point out how "facts" can be bent by interpretations and wishful thinking and how easily historical detail can be lost by the withholding of information.These points will be presented in the context of objects transported on the two ships L'Aigle and HMS Blonde and associated with Kamehameha II, Kamamalu, and their retinue, as well as the officers and men of these two ships.I have been interested in these two ships and this period of history since 1969 when I brought the Kintore cloak back from Scotland and took part in arranging the exhibition of material from Bishop Museum's collections from HMS Blonde at Hulihee Palace in 1973.Although my research is only partially complete, it seems appropriate to present same preliminary thoughts because of the recent interest in the so-called "lost" painting of Boki and Liliha which has now come to Hawaii.In this context there are three themes of particular interest.The first and most important strand is the attempt to locate ethnographic objects associated with these two ships because they give us definite dates of collection which can, in turn, tell us about Hawaiian objects of 19th Century use-"use" here being interpreted in a broad sense which includes to "give away."This is important in the study of evolution and change in Hawaiian material culture and the eventual definition of the style that I have termed "evolved traditional."The second strand is my insistence on the necessity of historical accuracy rather than guesswork in ethnographic research of all kinds and the necessity of going to original

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