ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the meaning of the body and health is contested in ways that reflect the struggle between the desires of capitalism's productive body and a body that reflects the historical and cultural conflicts of Native Hawaiian and their efforts to regain political and economic sovereignty. It provides examples of various representations and meanings of Hawaiian bodies, highlighting the need to attend to the socio-historical, political, and economic contexts. The representations of the bodies that used in this chapter are a combination of descriptions from interviews with on- and off-islanders in conjunction with popular representations and interpretations of Hawaiian bodies. The chapter seeks to use the body, one of the most 'natural' and malleable symbols, to examine the potentials and constraints of a Hawaiian view of health. It offers four interpretations of Hawaiian bodies: a productive and depoliticized body, an unproductive and pathologized body, a pathologized and politicized body, and finally the fit and politicized body.
