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October 29, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kūmākena

Leina a Kauhane was where the spirits of the dead could be reunited with their ancestors. The path of the spirits of dead kinsmen led westward.

Every island there existed a prominent bluff pointing westward, bearing the name: leina-a-ka-uhane (leap of the spirit.) The name marked the jumping-off place where the soul of the dead was believed to depart beyond the land of the living.

When an individual lay on the deathbed, his soul left the body and wandered about; if all earthly obligations had been fulfilled, the soul continued wandering, otherwise it was returned to the body. In its continued wandering it then approached Leina a Kauhane. (DLNR)

The Aha‘aina Makena (death feast or feast of lamentation) was a gathering of relatives and friends to mourn the passing of the ‘uhane (spirit.) It was not a festival; rather, a time of grief. (The feasting was simply feeding the people.)

The cries from the family within and from the mourner approaching from without, were an expression of genuine emotion. …

The another mourner would approach and again the cry of welcome from within and the responding cry without are called the kaukau. (Handy & Pukui)

Kanikau is a general term for all forms of mourning. Loud wailing was called kūmākena (ku-make-ana.) (Handy & Pukui)

Kūmākena was a period of mourning that followed the death of a very high chief during which people wailed, knocked out their teeth, lacerated their bodies, and at last fell into universal prostration.

Also ‘ai kapu (foods that were kapu throughout the year) were ‘ai noa (foods free of kapu.) In the past, when kūmākena ended, the new ruling chief would place the land under a new kapu following old lines.

It was believed that if the new ruling chief did not put a kapu on ‘ai noa, he would not have a long rule. He would be looked upon as one who did not believe the god, Kūkaʻilimoku.

It was further believed that should the ruling chief keep up the ancient kapu and be known to worship the god, he would live long, protected by Kū and Lono, a ward of Kāne and Kanaloa, sheltered within the kapu.

‘Ai kapu was a fixed law for chiefs and commoners, to keep a distinction between things permissible to commoners and those dedicated to the gods. ‘Ai kapu belonged to the kapu of the god; it was forbidden by the god and held sacred by all.

In the old days kūmākena, at the death of a ruling chief who had been greatly loved, was a time of license. ‘Ai noa became an established fact and it was the ruling chiefs who established that custom. (Mookini)

it was with the iwi (bones) that the ʻuhane remained identified, and therefore the bones that must be kept safe from molestation, the usual practice was not burial.

Instead, a relative tended the corpse, removing the decaying flesh and organs by hand, to clean completely (hoʻokele) the bones. This was a labour of love, for a devoted relative. The fleshly refuse (pela) was thrown into the sea.

Through a purloined bone, an enemy or a kahuna, even a mere fisherman, could enslave the ʻuhane and make it serve him, as the kahu of an ʻunihipili used a spirit of that type to help in his work, good or evil. (For example, a fishhook made of a high chiefʻs shinbone would have great mana.) Hence the necessity of disposing of the bones secretly, in a safe hiding place.

The cleaned bones were made into a light compact bundle tied with sennit cords, and borne to the place of concealment. It was easily carried on the back by the kahu (guardian), who went alone in the night so that no one but he would know where they were placed.

Sometimes the bundle of bones was buried under the dwelling house; for aliʻi it was a cave that was known only to his kahu. But generally the bones were taken to a place identified with the ʻaumakua of the family, because the ʻuhane is with its ʻaumakua.

It was usually the daughterʻs or granddaughterʻs duty to attend to the body of a woman; and the wifeʻs, sonʻs or grandsonʻs, of a man.

The body of the dead was washed by the nearest of kin, the wife, mother or the children, especially the eldest, and then clothed in a fresh garment. Salt was placed in thin kapa (later, thin cloth) and placed over the navel. This was believed to slow down decomposition.

Other relatives brought in banana stalks trimmed flat on two sides. These were laid on the floor side by side, then a second layer was put on these, then a mat was placed on top. On this bier the body was laid. The banana stalks kept the body cool. They were changed several times a day.

It was the duty of a very near relative to hide the body away in the family burial cave. The hiding away was always done in secret. Then for years, the wife, husband or children went to the cave to keep the place where the corpse was laid neat and tidy.

The various belongings he loved in life were put in the cave with him. Even food was placed near the dead soon after the burial, in order that the spirit might have food on its long journey to the spirit world, or if the body should be restored to life, there would be something to eat before he sought his way out.

The bones, finger nails, hair or some such relic, were kept in a gourd calabash, wooden calabash, or in a bundle or in a box or trunk.

Sometimes the relics were kept in the dwelling houses of their keepers; but sometimes they were put in a separate house built for the spirit. Some-times the body or relics were hidden away, while the spirit was constantly called upon (hea) by worshipping (hoʻomana) and feeding.

Such an ʻunihipili might return and “sit on” a haka, thereby helping its keeper (kahu) by showing what remedy to use for healing and how to prepare it. Such an ʻunihipili was evil only when the kahu who fed it was evil.

If the kahu was a “filth eating” sorcerer (ʻai hamu) so the ʻunihipili became, in consequence of being sent here and there on deeds of evil. But if the kahu was good, the ʻunihipili was also good. (Handy & Pukui)

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Hawaiian Rites-DLNR
Hawaiian Rites-DLNR

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Ai Kapu, Ai Noa, Burial, Hawaiian, Kumakena

August 4, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Puaʻa

It will be mixed, this taro of ours
And of Ku-of-joint-action.
Firewood will be chopped
The imu lighted,
The pig strangled,
The bristles of the pig singed off,
The pig disemboweled,
And our pig baked in the imu,
O Ku-of-joint-action.
When the pig is cooked it will be cut up;
Men, women and children will eat
Of the pig, of the poi, of our taro
The mighty planter’s and yours,
O Ku-of-joint-action.
(Kamakau; Kirch)

The Hawaiian Islands supported some edible land animals, such as birds and bats, when first settled. The settlers brought with them, however, domesticated land animals – pigs, dogs and chickens – that they carefully bred and raised as a supplementary food source. (NPS)

“This is the most extraordinary Hog Island we ever met with, take them for Number and size – in the course of this fore Noon my People have purchasʼd on board here 70 head weighing upon an average at least a 100 lb apiece.” (Charles Clerke, Commander of the Cook, off Kauaʻi, February 2, 1779; Mitchell)

“The Natives bring onboard so many Hogs we know not what to do with them, so are obligʻd to give up that trade for the present.” (Clerke; Mitchell)

“We could not indeed but admire the laudable ingenuity of these people in cultivating their soil with so much economy. The indefatigable labor in making these little fields in so rugged a situation, the care and industry with which they were transplanted, watered and kept in order, surpassed anything of the kind we had ever seen before.”

“It showed in a conspicuous manner the ingenuity of the inhabitants in modifying their husbandry to different situations of soil and exposure, and with no small degree of pleasure we here beheld their labor rewarded with productive crops. (Menzies; with Vancouver 1792-94)

These included taro, yams and breadfruit (not successfully transplanted until the 1200s); fiber plants like the paper mulberry whose bark could be manufactured into clothing and decorative items; medicinal plants of many varieties; and a few domesticated pigs, dogs and fowl.

However, careful tending of these food plants and domesticated animals for several years would have been necessary before they could provide an adequate food supply. (NPS) The linkage between pig husbandry and agricultural production is widespread in the Pacific. (Kirch)

Pigs were raised in great numbers for food and for religious and ceremonial purposes; they were used chiefly in important feasts (ʻaha ʻāina] or as offerings in religious rituals, as well as tribute from the makaʻāinana (commoners) to their chiefs. (Kirch)

Pua‘a (Pigs) constituted the male-associated, ‘higher’ category of sacrifice animal; dogs too had their role as offerings to the female deities. (Kirch)

Pigs were cooked and offered in large numbers at the dedication of important temples (heiau.) The gods which were honored or propitiated at these ceremonies were believed to accept the essence of the pork and, in most cases, the flesh was eaten by the chiefs and priests when the ritual was over. (Mitchell)

It was the pig that was the more highly valued item, most suitable for Hoʻokupu tribute to the chiefs and as sacrificial offerings from the chiefs to the gods. (Kirch)

More chiefs than commoners consumed pork and dog meat, the right to the fattest and largest number of pigs and dogs being a privilege of rank.

Taboos in eating (ʻai kapu) required that pork be restricted to men and to boys of 10 or 11 years who were old enough to eat in the menʼs eating house (hale mua).

Pigs to be cooked for food and for ceremonial offerings were killed by strangling. Most of the hair and bristles were singed off by dragging the carcass over rough hot stones. Any remaining hair was removed by scraping the skin with a rough lava stone (pōhaku ʻānai puaʻa).

Chickens and dogs lived near dwellings. Pigs ranged more widely, rooting for food, but also living off sweet potato vine cuttings, taro leaves, sugarcane and garbage. Captain Cook and other European navigators later introduced goats, cattle, sheep and horses.

Pigs were free to roam about the village and its environs. Some women and children took piglets as pets. Stone walls (pā pōhaku) and picket fences (pā lāʻau) kept these animals from areas where they were not wanted.

Mature hogs were penned in stone-walled enclosures and fattened. They were fed cooked taro (kalo), sweet potatoes (ʻuala), yams (hoi), bananas (maiʻa) and breadfruit (ʻulu).

Some pigs escaped to the uplands and fed on kukui nuts, mountain apples (ʻōhiʻa ʻai) in season and the trunks of several kinds of ferns. From time to time these wild pigs came down from the forests and raided the gardens, particularly the sweet potato plots. In the wild the old boars developed long, curved ivory-like tusks (kuʻi puaʻa).

Mature hogs weighed a hundred pounds. They had lean bodies with long heads and small erect ears. The color of the bristles were all black (hiwa), striped (olomea), spotted (pūkoʻa) and combinations of these. Some pigs were hairless (hulu ʻole). Ornamental and useful articles were fashioned from bones and tusks of the pig.

A small bunch of stiff black and white bristles formed the hackle (hulu) of the bonito (aku) fishhook. Shafts of the leg bones were shaped into fish hooks.

The most ornamental of the products from hogs were the pairs of long, curved ivory-like boarsʼ tusks (kuʻi puaʻa) or (niho puaʻa). Bracelets (kupeʻe hoʻokalakala) were made by drilling matching holes in two places in from 19 to 24 full length tusks, each 4 or 5 inches long.

These holes accommodated the olonā cords which held the tusks lengthwise around the wrists. Each man might wear a pair of them while dancing. (Mitchell) (Lots of information here is from Kirch, Mitchell and NPS.)

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Hawaiians_roasting_pig_for_luau,_c._1890
Hawaiians_roasting_pig_for_luau,_c._1890
Imu-pig-PP-49-1-007-00001
Imu-pig-PP-49-1-007-00001
Young men in malo with pig-PP-2-7-009-1939
Young men in malo with pig-PP-2-7-009-1939
Pigs-PP-2-13-005
Pigs-PP-2-13-005
Puaa-white
Puaa-white
Pig-Puaa
Pig-Puaa
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16-pa-pohaku-stone-walls-2

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Ai Kapu, Hawaii, Pigs, Puaa

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