H. Arlo NimmoReseñas

An excellent book, being a biography of Pele and how she fits in to the ancient and current religion in Hawai’i. There are details for the anthropologist, and stories for those with just a passing interest. And as Goddess of Volcanoes, Pele gets regular attention every time one of the volcanoes in the Big Island erupts.

Today’s Hawai’i is probably the most diverse place on the planet, and the author provides some insights into the beliefs of the ancient and current Hawai’ians, the attitudes of the local non indigenous kama’aina population and some pointers for the visitor whose interests go beyond the theme park image of the islands.

The snippets of history are interesting. There are many gods and demi-gods, all of whom quarrel and fight among themselves. According the one story, “Pele loved Maui but for unspecified reasons they fought and Pele tore him asunder. Today his head and torso is one island known as Maui … Lana’I is Maui’s left arm. Moloka’I is his strong right arm… Molokini is the piko, or navel, of Maui”

The chapter I found most revealing is Chapter 7, The Pele Religion in Contemporary Hawai’i.

It starts of: “During the 1980s and 1990s Pele and some of her followers spent considerable time in the courtrooms of Hawai’i and the headlines of its newspapers. At issue was a proposal to drill for geothermal energy at volcano sites.”

It would be hard to think of anything more likely to rile Pele. A Pele Defense Fund was set up. The litigation was not successful, but the accompanying publicity was, and eventually the proposals were abandoned. The saga takes ten pages to describe, but it does show that Pele and the Pele religion is still an active force to be reckoned with in Hawai’i.

Trying to read this felt so much like a chore that, in the end, I had to give up. The author couldn't seem to decide upon a target audience. The pages were littered with footnotes that could easily have been included in the main body of text or moved to one of the three (!) appendices. A substantial portion of the book was dedicated to a section for notes, an index, and a bibliography that may or may not have pointed to more interesting reading, but I have yet to mine the references. The formatting was terrible. The writing was so dry that I was unable to take in more than three sentences at a time without choking. I'm afraid that, at least for me, this book was a no-go.½

For fans of Hawaii, anthropology and mythology, this book is a jewel of information. Written as a "biography" of the goddess Pele, it covers her origins in (perhaps) Tahiti, her worship as the goddess of fire and volcanos, her place in the pantheon of Melanesian deities, her survival of the zeal of Christian missionaries, as well as the revival of her religion as it integrates into modern Hawaiian society. H. Arlo Nimmo's thoroughly researched book offers fare for both the casual reader and the anthropologist. Appendices and notes are available for further research if one wishes, but are best ignored if you don't want to get sidetracked.

For those of us without a scholarly bent, it is a fascinating read. And, it is a happy circumstance that Pele's cultural manifestations continue to prosper; that our techo-civilization has not diluted her being to little more than a folk-tale. I definitely recomment this book!½

A well-researched and enjoyable survey of beliefs and practices concerning the goddess Pele. The author begins with a good discussion of the traditional mythologies and religion of the islands, and proceeds through early-contact accounts, to 20th-century attitudes (and new “mythologies”.) The assorted stories of Pele’s manifestations, whether benevolent or terrifying, were quite interesting; some may have been apocryphal or exaggerated, but the majority seem to have been reported by folk who honestly believed they had encountered Her.

I found the concluding chapter on Madame Pele’s new cultural roles, and the resurgence of indigenous religion both interesting and heartening.

This is an interesting book on several levels. It is an anthropology of Pele worship in Hawai'i. It is a biography of the goddess Pele, with a family tree and history of their travels over the Pacific Ocean. It is a theology of the Pele's place in indigenous religion. It is a history of an unexamined part of Hawaiian history, especially in a tidbiting through history sort of way.

The Goddess Pele is the goddess of earthquakes and volcanoes, and thus is still worshipped in volcanic areas of the islands. Many people, even of other faiths such as Christians and Buddhists, routinely make sacrifices to the Goddess to appease her wrath.

My favorite anecdote was the Lions Club, which did not allow female members until after 1984. "In 1934, Pele joined the Lions Club and became the only female member of the international service club. During a local Lions Club meeting in Kona, an earthquake shook the meeting hall while members were singing a club song. Immediately a motion was made to extend membership to Pele. It passed unanimously."

There is also an interesting discussion of the "Pele Curse", where rocks or other objects taken from the Hawaiian volcanoes would cause bad luck until the items were retrieved and replaced on the island. I did not know this story went back so far, or was so well documented.

Pele worshippers today can halt a geothermal energy plant on the island, and many Hawaiians still leave scarifies on the edge of the volcanoes in order to prevent, diminish or stop eruptions and earthquakes. I would have enjoyed a discussion about appeasing gods which judge and punish in the after-life, and gods who punish on earth. Since Pele punishes people who transgress herself on earth, I would think that any believer would be willing to see those who practice sacrilege against her punished publicly by the goddess, rather than going through a court of law.

Included in the book are a number of contemporary images of the Goddess in art, sculpture and religious artifacts. Some of these and quite good, and it startled me to recently see a framed image of Pele dancing in a lava flow by Katia Krafft in the bathroom in the home of a friend in Baltimore, MD.

I do like the extensive footnotes and bibliography in the text, although not all forms of literature were searched by the author. Missing from the bibliography were references from mainland newspapers and other popular magazines. However, due to the anthropological intent of this book, keeping to more current resources was advisable.

An interesting and well documented read, and I do recommend this for all personal and library collections of Hawai'i and Pacific Island cultures and art; theological collections of indigenous religions; and anthropological and sociological collections as well. And for anyone who has stood on the edge of a volcano in Hawai'i, and have felt the power of the earth when she moves in earthquakes.

Anybody who stays in the Islands more than a week or so hears something about Pele. It seems likely to me that this books says pretty much what there is to be said about her. It's a little like reading about the Greek myths: you keep thinking that somehow they ought to make sense, but they just don't and I suppose never were intended to. The beginning of the book shows that the author does have an idea about critical evaluation of sources and about the problems that arise in trying to understand and evaluate reports of the religion of pre-literate cultures. In the end, though, this work peters out in a collection of gossip. What struck me is the sameness of what we might call "folk religion", wherever it is encountered in the pagan world. I forget which G,K. Chesterton book it's in, but somewhere he points out the fundamental unseriousness (from our Western point of view only, of course) of the world's myth-oriented "religions". They're just not asking the same questions that Christians and post-Christians ask themselves. They're a lot more like "tall tales". It seems to me that it would be literally impossible to believe the various stories about Pele, at the same time: they simply are not intended to furnish, and cannot be fitted into, a "coherent world view". How exhaustive Mr. Nimmo's collection of anecdotes and tales is, I couldn't say. I doubt that more information would change the basic story, though.

The author, though clearly a trained anthropologist, refers to the "religion" of Pele without ever defining (unless I missed it) what a "religion" is. From his report, I don't see that it makes a lot of sense to refer to the vague stories about Pele, or the actions of people who assertedly believe in them, as a religion at all. I don't even see that one could properly speak of the "cult" of Pele. that's just not the sort of thing we're talking about here. From the point of view of religion or philosophy, it seems that, to use the always useful phrase of Ms. Stein, there's just no there there.

WOW! I just finished reading the book, [A History of Pele: Volcano Goddess of Hawai'i] and am more than impressed. Although knowledge of the traditional religion is limited, A History recites much of the Pele / Hi'iaka cycle of myths and shows how the Hawaiian ethics and customs relate to that cycle.

Customs as divers as not bragging and sexuality are explained by the myths. The acceptance of heterosexuality, bi-sexuality, and homosexuality (aikane) in Hawaiian culture is very clear. There are clear signs going from monogamous heterosexuality, through polyamory, and including monogamous homosexuality. Other cultural norms, such as the inviobility of promises, the importance of chants and hula dance, and the injunction not to be lazy or arrogant are explained in the mythology. We learn the imporytance of helping the elderly, making sacrifices and being generous with what we have. In the Pele / Hi'iaka cycle we also touch on the geography of the Hawaiian Islands and hear explainations of sites and interesting lava formations. Possession trance is briefly mentioned and I want to check the sources and see how it relates to other ecstatic religious practices.

The second half of the book is weaker, being mainly bibliographic notations of Pele sightings, writings and art about Pele and the commercialization of the religion. The chapter “Pele's New and Ongoing Roles serves to remind us that the gods show remarkable congruence with Her followers bigotries. Whereas the old Pele accepted sacrifices of psychoactive plants and drugs made from those plants, the new one erupts in protest of growing such plants on her ground. People who are not believers in Pele regularly use the superstition of Pele's Curse to blame their misfortunes on their acts of inpiety such as taking rocks from her volcano, instead of recognizing their own blame. The final chapter of the book sets Pele believers who believe in the science of geothermal energy against Pele believers against such usage.

The book includes an index, which is very important in a book on a new mythology, includes pictures from different times in her worship, and includes a bibliography where I can continue my research. The stories are in some kind of order and the explanations make sense and are clear. the writing is concrete and clear. I learned a lot about Hawaii and the mythology of Oceania. Pele is a lot more complex than I had thought.