ABSTRACT
The title of this chapter, lifted from a work on images of women in Australia (Summers 1975), describes well the ambiguous or even liminal position of archaeologists in Hawaii. An archaeologist might be seen as an unnecessary evil to a real-estate developer anxious to get a project started and, at the same time, a useful ally to Native Hawaiians or environmental groups seeking to stop the same project; the same archaeologist might also be seen as having been ‘paid off by the developer depending on what is found on a parcel of land slated for development, and what is recommended to be done with the finds. A new discovery by an archaeologist might be seen as providing a fascinating window on the past or as sacrilegious grave robbing. Archaeological sites themselves partake of an ambiguous status: as fragile cultural resources to be preserved and revered, or as having more sinister characteristics. One recent headline in relation to sites discovered in the path of the proposed H3 freeway read ‘Archaeological sites threaten H3’.
