Photographing Matrilineal Power and Prestige in the Hawaiian Kingdom

This article analyzes three portrait photographs from the 1850s that visually emphasize the importance of kinship and genealogy for the aliʻi (chiefly class) , through their representation of two high-ranking women: Queen Kalama and Princess Victoria Kamāmalu. It argues that during this period, portrait photographs became a new way of displaying and manifesting meaningful matrilineal connections that had political consequences for elite Hawaiians, particularly the connection between aliʻi wahine (chiefly women) and political power in Hawaiʻi. This research indicates that aliʻi engagement with photography, rather than merely copying Euro-American visual forms, used Hawaiian ontologies and epistemologies as its crucial starting points.