Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses what we have chosen to call "Ethnographic Encounters," ones that contributed to Anthropological knowledge. It explores the rich interactions between the Kingdom of Hawaii, an independent polity until the early 1890s, and the British Empire, or more appropriately, the United Kingdom. The book focuses on prominent individual Victorians and their interactions with, and effect on, the Hawaiian Kingdom. It considers encounters between Hawaii and the surging nearby colossus of the United States. The book considers Victorian encounters in Oceania associated with issues of the emerging sciences of geology and evolution. It engages with the allegedly "primitive" ideas and practices within the region. It draws by virtually all Victorian commentators is that indigenous conceptions of science and evolution are "wrong" because they are grounded in primitive superstition and ignorance.