Most American archaeologists have not heard of Kenneth Emory, even though he is one of the senior American archaeologists. The problem is that he lives and did much of his work in the only state not in North America, an area not normally included in overviews or histories of "American" archaeology.

Emory was raised in Hawaii (his parents moved there from Massachusetts when he was two), but received an Ivy League education (Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale). A biology major as an undergraduate at Dartmouth, he had developed an interest in Hawaiian language and folklore when growing up in Honolulu. The year he graduated (1921 ). a meeting with Herbert Gregory, the new director of the Bishop Museum, netted him a $75 per month job as assistant ethnologist. According to his biographer, Emory had to look the word up after the interview!

Gregory, a geologist and noted southwestern explorer, had grand plans of major ethnological research in the Pacific and Emory was one of the several people to be hired as part of this program (others included Robert T. Aitken. E.S. Handy, Ralph Linton, and E. W. Gifford).