Peter T Young

August 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Eclipse

“On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.”

Said to refer to the solar eclipse of June 15, 763 BC.
From: Amos, Chapter 8, verse 9 (Old Testament)

An eclipse is the obscuring of light from one heavenly body by another. When the moon blocks the sun we have a solar eclipse; when it goes into the earth’s shadow we have a lunar eclipse. Solar and lunar eclipses occur with about the same frequency, about twice a year.

Everyone on the darkened side of earth can see a lunar eclipse because the earth casts a large shadow. In a solar eclipse, however, the moon’s shadow is only a few miles in diameter, and only a relatively few observers are in the path of totality.

Solar eclipses are of three kinds. In a total eclipse the moon completely covers the sun, revealing solar streamers and coronal flashes. For a thousand miles or more on either side of the path of totality is a region of partial eclipses where the moon takes a bite out of the sun without swallowing it.

And in an annular eclipse the moon appears smaller than the sun because its elliptical orbit takes it farther from the earth. Then it is too far to completely cover the sun, so the moon is ringed with a thin rim of sunlight. (Kyselka)

Hawai‘i averages an eclipse a decade. Using a figure of 10 per century, that’s about 100 in Hawai’i in its approximate 1,000 years of human habitation.

Thirty-two ‘notable’ solar eclipses (when the moon covers at least half the sun) have occurred in Hawai’i in the last 300 years

Adding Easter Island, New Zealand Tonga, and Tahiti to that figure, and extending time back 3,000 years to the arrival of the first settlers, we find that 1,500 solar eclipses have taken place in Polynesia over the last 30 centuries. (Kyselka)

“I had announced to the people that there would be an eclipse of the sun at mid-day on the 26th of June (1824), at fifty-seven minutes after twelve o’clock, and gave a brief account of its extent and duration, with which the event accorded.”

“During its progress, this phenomenon, which they had been accustomed to regard with superstitious awe and forebodings of evil, I endeavored to explain as the mere passing of the moon between us and the sun, so as to throw a shadow upon us for a time.” (Hiram Bingham)

“The old time Hawaiians viewed eclipses of the sun and moon with astonishment and great fear, believing them to be a token of the displeasure of their gods; and hence presaging the death of a high chief or some other public calamity.” (Baldwin; Keyselka)

“The people asked (Bingham) what event it was a sign of, and he told them it was not a sign of anything about to happen, according to the ideas of his country, but an occurrence when happened naturally from time to time and was not everywhere visible at the same time.”

“They told him that it was the Hawaiian belief that this was a sign from God foretelling some great event like war, the overthrow of the government, the death of a ruling chief, and that they believed war was imminent.” (Kamakau)

“Some, supposing me to be able perhaps to take the place of their old astrologers, demanded of me the ‘ano’, purport of the wonder, or to tell the event indicated by it.”

“But I could not, from that phenomenon, predict either war or peace, famine or plenty, death or prosperity, as their pretending astrologers had been accustomed to do.”

“Some, however, prognosticated war, and this was thought by others to be an indication that war was desired, or was already meditated.”

“The gloom of the moon’s shadow on the islands corresponded with the political gloom that then hung over Kauai, while many of the inhabitants lived in apprehension of evils, against which they had no competent protection.”

“Some feared oppression from the windward chiefs, should their control be undisputed. Others feared oppression or destruction from Kauai chiefs, now divided into parties.”

“Some, decidedly favoring the new order, provoked the envy and hostility of those who disliked to yield to windward supremacy. The want of integrity, and of the means of intelligence and intercommunication, magnified the difficulty; and distrust, disaffection, and danger, seemed to envelope the island in clouds.” (Hiram Bingham)

Hawai‘i has had two total eclipses in the last 300 years, one in 1850 and another in 1991. The next total will occur at 5:49 on the morning of May 3, 2106. South Point will be at the edge of totality, so for best viewing, travel 60 miles farther southward to be in the path of centrality. (Kyselka)

A total solar eclipse is coming to the US on August 21, 2017 – in the Islands, folks will be able to see two different types of eclipse phenomenon.

A couple weeks earlier (starting at 5:50 am, August 7, 2017), in the Islands, there will be a partial lunar eclipse (Earth’s shadow darkening about 25% of the setting Moon).

Then, again at sunrise (5:50 am, August 21, 2017), while folks across a swath on the continent will see a full solar eclipse, in the Islands, a partial solar eclipse will start – with maximum coverage (about 27%) at 6:35 am.

Do not look directly at the sun. The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses” or hand-held solar viewers. Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun; they transmit thousands of times too much sunlight.

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Eclipse of the Sun Above Mauna Kea-1991-Serge Brunier

A composition of 29 eclipse images taken between 2nd contact 10:10:40 UT, 3rd contact 10:13:08 UT. The solar corona can only be observed during a solar eclipse.

total-eclipse-sun-hawaii-medallion

NASA map of the US showing path of totality for the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse

August 5, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘History Presents No Parallel’

“History repeats itself” … however, here, “history presents no parallel.”

“(D)estruction of idolatry and the abolition of the Tabu system … is one of the most remarkable events not only in the history of the Hawaiian but of the world. It is without a parallel, either in ancient or modern times.”

“It was altogether an unheard of event in the history of idolatrous nation, for any one to cast aside its Idols, unless others were adopted in their place, or their idols were cast aside for the people to embrace Christianity.”

“Hawaiians cast aside theirs, and did not take others in their place, nor were influenced thereto by the messengers of gospel truth, for as yet the missionaries had not landed on these shores, and it was not known that they were on voyage hither.”

“‘Hath a nation changed their gods, which are as yet no gods?’ asks the prophet Jeremiah. He did not ask, ‘Hath a nation cast aside their gods?’”

Here was a heathen and savage nation, without a written language and far removed and isolated from all the other nations, of the earth, which was led by some mysterious influence to engage in a transaction totally unlike any other upon the world’s records. ‘History repeats itself,’ is the oft-quoted saying, but in this instance history presents no parallel.”

“Viewing this subject from a purely historical standpoint, without reference to a Divine influence, why were the Hawaiians led to abolish their Tabu system and cast their ‘idols to the moles and bats?’ I will mention the following among the causes contributing to this unlooked for result.”

“First. Reports of the abolition of idolatry at Tahiti, had reached these islands and circulated among the people.”

“Secondly. Foreigners from Christian lands had settled upon the islands, and although most of them were utterly regardless of Christianity themselves, yet they did not hesitate to denounce idolatry and the Tabu system.”

“Thirdly. The inhabitants had become convinced of the utter vanity of idolatry.”

“In the very first communication written by the Missionaries to their patrons in Boston, and dated, the day after, their landing on the shores of Hawaii, I find this statement:”

‘The sight of these children of nature, drew tears from eyes that did not intend to weep. Of them we enquired, whether they had heard anything of Jehovah, who made Owhyhee and all things?”

“They replied that Rehoreho (Liholiho), the King had heard of the great God of the white men, and spoken of him; and that all the chiefs but one had agreed to destroy their idols, became they were convinced that they could do no good since they could not save the King.”

“Idol worship is therefore prohibited and the priest hood entirely abolished. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord hath done it.’”

“Reference was here made to the King Kamehameha, who died May 8, 1819, and idolatry was abolished the next November, the month following the embarkation of the Missionaries from Boston.”

“Perhaps another reason may be assigned, in addition to the foregoing, before I speak of that Divine Power and influence, which it becomes us to recognize in this most remarkable transaction. The people, both Chiefs and common people, had become heartily wearied and tired of the system. It was burdensome, offensive, cruel and absured.”

“But what is most remarkable, Hewahewa, the high priest of the idolatrous system, was led to be the very first to light the torch which should burn the nations idols. Unless he had led the van in the rabble of iconoclasts, or idol destroyers, it is doubtful whether the project would have been carried through.”

“‘The tabu is broken burn the idols!’ was the watchword that started at Kailua, Hawaii, and was repeated to the limits of the Kingdom.”

“I have now taken the naturalistic, or the human view of this wonderful event. But are we not justified in the introduction of a superhuman and Divine influence, in bringing about this unlooked for result.”

“At the period when this event occurred, all Christian Missionaries and writers, did not hesitate to recognize a Divine influence. All the Missionary and Religious publications of that period, abound with expressions of acknowledgement to a Divine Providence.”

“The God of Missions – the Great Head of the Church – was every where recognized as having prepared the way for the introduction of the gospel among Hawaiians. Ancient Hebrew prophets had foretold, ‘The isles shall wait for His law.’ Could there be a more complete and exact fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah?”

“The American Minister, Mr. Bancroft, at Berlin, who is acknowledged as one of the most calm, and philosophical of historical writers of this or any age, remarks:

“‘Sometimes, like a messenger through the thick darkness of night, Omnipotence steps along mysterious ways; but when the hour strikes for a people or mankind to pass into a new form of being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity;’”

“‘… an all subduing influence prepares the minds of men for the coming revolution; those who plan resistance find themselves in conflict with the will of Providence rather than with human desires; and all hearts and all understandings, most of all the opinions and influence of the unwilling, are wonderfully attracted, …’”

“‘… and compelled to bear forward the change, which becomes more and more an obedience to the law of universal nature than submission to the arbitriments of man.’”

“How forcibly and aptly this paragraph, describes the event now under consideration. If the philosophic historian had been writing upon this special subject, he could not have employed more fitting and felicitous language.“

“The hour had struck for the Hawaiian people to pass into a new form of being. Internal agencies, and foreign influences, were contributing to this result, and through those agencies and influences, bow clearly maybe traced the first fruits, as ‘Omnipotence steps along mysterious ways, and unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity.’”

“No wonder the enthusiastic Puritan Missionaries were wonder-struck as they listened to the report: ‘Kamehameha is dead – His son Liholiho is King – the tabus are abolished – the images are destroyed – the heiaus of idolatrous worship are burned, and the party that attempted to restore them by force of arms, has recently been vanquished.’”

“In view of this event let no one he surprised at Mr. Bingham’s language. ‘The hand of God! How visible in thus beginning to answer the prayer of his people for the Hawaiian race!’”

“‘In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert, a highway for our God.’”

“Attempts have been made in a review of universal history, to find some parallel to this unprecedented conduct of the High priest Hewahewa, lighting the torch to kindle the flames which should destroy the idols of Hawaii.”

“The nearest approach is that precedent, cited by Mr. Manley Hopkins in his history of Hawaii, when Paulinus, went as a Missionary to Britain in the days of Edwin of Northumbria. The King had embraced Christianity, and he then exclaimed ‘who shall first desecrate the altars and temples?’”

“‘I’ answered the High priest ‘for who more fit than myself through the wisdom which the true God hath given me, to destroy for the good example of others, what in foolishness I worshipped?’”

“There is one essential point wherein the parallel fails. The old British High priest of idolatry acknowledges, that he had been enlightened by wisdom from the true God.”

“Hewahewa, however rushed forth to his work of destruction, ere, the messengers of Jehovah had landed upon Hawaiian shores.” (All of the information here is from a presentation given by Rev Damon and the Jubilee celebration (1870) of the arrival of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaii; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 25, 1870.) (The image by Brook Parker shows Hewahewa and the dismantling of the heiau.)

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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

Imu-pig-PP-49-1-007-00001

Young men in malo with pig-PP-2-7-009-1939

Pigs-PP-2-13-005

Puaa-white

Pig-Puaa

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August 3, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kong Lung Store

The formation of Kilauea Plantation on Kauai goes back to the 1860s when American settler Charles Titcomb bought the ahupua‘a of Kilauea from Kamehameha IV for about $3,000 and moved there from Hanalei in 1863.

He had been growing sugar in Hanalei, but gave it up and built a homestead and cattle ranch at Kilauea which grew into the town of Kilauea. He later bought the adjoining ahupua’a of Nāmāhāna.

Kilauea Plantation began in 1877 with the planting and purchasing of mill equipment. EP Adams and Robert A Macfie Jr. (son of a Liverpool sugar refiner) were majority investors. William Green and Sanford B. Dole (later governor of Hawai‘i) held minority
interests.

In 1880 the four men incorporated the Kilauea Sugar Company as a Hawai‘i corporation, just a few years after the Reciprocity
Treaty between the Hawaiian Kingdom and the U.S. created a boom in sugar plantation development. (MacLennan)

Plantation life throughout the islands was centered on a landscape of buildings that reflected the system of tight control over workers and production. Typically, beyond the fields and mill, there was a plantation store, housing, medical, recreational facilities for the workers.

Ethnic groups included Portuguese, Puerto Rican, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean workers, and haole managers and supervisors. (MacLennan)

Lung Wah Chee was among the first group of Chinese immigrants that arrived on Kauai in 1876 to work for the Kilauea Sugar Company. He was born in Cheong Kong, China, September 15, 1860.

During 1894-1895 he had a contract with the Kilauea Sugar Company to load cane into cars with his own laborers. He was also required to furnish houses and firewood for the laborers. (NPS)

In the 1890s, Lung Wan Chee (aka LC Achee) operated a general merchandise store on the site of the Parish Hall (Japanese Language School) in Kilauea.

In 1902, Kilauea Sugar Plantation Co. decided to get out of the retail business and rented Chee their building; a bill of sale dated November 4, 1903, indicates that the plantation company sold to Kong Lung and Company a partnership for the sum of $8,534.29, including ‘all … the goods, wares and merchandise, stock-in-trade, show cases, scales, and Implements, in, upon and about the store.’ (NPS)

Later, Kong Lung Store moved into a former plantation building, it was the last of the stone structures built by the Kilauea Sugar Company. It was constructed around 1941 to replace an older wooden frame building at the same site.

The building measures 117-feet by 67-feet and is constructed of field stone up to the lower portion of the gable. The upper section is built of wood and has five ventilating jalousie windows at each end.

The store and the lanai are on a concrete slab. The front elevation is of five bays. The two end bays step forward, while the central three are an Inset lanai. The lanai has three stone piers which help to support the roof. Entrance to the store is through two screen doors.

The 1941 and later Kong Lung Store contained general merchandise, a barbershop, butcher shop, and post office. During the war, there was a lunch counter/diner to serve the many soldiers in the vicinity. Wages for store employees were about $40/month.

Workers for the store were said to have awoken at 2 am to work in the store. Then, at 5 am, they would go to work in the fields. Merchandise for the store arrived in the cane cars returning from Kahili Bay after delivering cane to freighters.

The raw sugar which was processed and bagged into 125 pounds at the mill was shipped to Honolulu by way of Kahili bay (or Kilauea Bay). The train hauled the sugar to Kahili then it was transferred on small boat then onto the Freighter which was anchored out in the bay.

The supplies for the Sugar Co and merchandise for Kong Lung Co. which was the only store in Kilauea at that time, came back by way of the empty cane cars. (Gushiken)

“Customers in the supermarket were plantation people. Groceries and dry goods, general hardware is what we went into. In those days, people were working six days a week, nine and ten hours a day. They would have no time for shopping. We had a delivery service then. No frozen goods.”

“The Sugar Plantation had its own dairy, between the store and the lighthouse. The slaughter was done there too. We had raw milk, no pasteurized. Everyone had their own vegetables, and rice was grown down in Kahili and Kalihiwai Valley and all the families made their own bread, raised their own chickens and pigs.” (Chow Lung, NOS)

The Store was managed by Kwai Chew ‘Chow’ Lung (son of the founder) and a partner. In 1955 they bought the building from the plantation and operated the business until 1979 when the property was sold to Tim King and Kelsy Maddox-Bell.

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Kong_Lung_Store

Kong Lung Store, now called Kong Lung Trading, being built with field stones-happyhourdesign

August 2, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Intensified Agricultural Systems

Intensified agricultural systems may be defined as those which involve either a significant reduction in fallow length (intensity of cropping) or the construction of permanent agronomic facilities that allow continuous cropping.

Archaeological, ethnohistoric and ethnographic information suggest these intensive systems may be classified into (1) those utilizing some form of water control for the continuous cropping of taro; (2) short-fallow, permanent field systems in dryland areas; and (3) arboriculture (the cultivation of trees and shrubs) associated with long-term storage of starch pastes.

Lo‘i Kalo (terraced pondfields)

A technological invention by Hawaiian Polynesians was the development of their extended stone-faced, terraced lo‘i (pondfields) and their accompanying ‘auwai (irrigation systems) for the intensive cultivation of wetland kalo (taro.) (Kelly)

Here, a water source such as a spring or stream is tapped and diverted to irrigate a set of artificially terraced or bunded, flooded fields. Such pondfield irrigation systems vary in scale and hydraulic complexity, ranging from small sets of 10 fields or less, to extensive valley-bottom complexes with hundreds of fields. (Kirch)

The irrigation ditches and pondfields were engineered to allow the cool water to circulate among the taro plants and from terrace to terrace, avoiding stagnation and overheating by the sun, which would rot the taro tubers.

Lt. King of Captain James Cook’s 1778 expedition noted, “… the inhabitants (of Kauai) far surpass all the neighboring islanders in the management of their plantations.”

“… these plantations were divided by deep and regular ditches; the fences were made with a neatness approaching to elegance, and the roads through them were thrown up and finished in a manner that would have done credit to any European engineer.”

In 1815, the explorer Kotzebue added to these descriptions by writing about the gardens and the artificial ponds that were scattered throughout the area:

“The luxuriant taro-fields, which might be properly called taro-lake, attracted my attention. Each of these consisted of about one hundred and sixty square feet, forms a regular square, and walled round with stones, like our basins.”

“This field or tank contained two feet of water, in whose slimy bottom the taro was planted, as it only grows in moist places. Each had two sluices. One to receive, and the other to let out, the water into the next field, whence it was carried farther.”

An acre of irrigated pondfields produced as much as five times the amount of taro as an acre of dryland cultivation. Over a period of several years, irrigated pondfields could be as much as 10 or 15 times more productive than unirrigated taro gardens, as dryland gardens need to lie fallow for greater lengths of time than irrigated gardens. (Kelly)

Dryland Field System

In dryland field systems, field boundaries were permanently demarcated and soil fertility was maintained through labor intensive mulching. Taro was planted in rotation with yams, sweet potato, bananas and other crops. This systematic cultivation of dryland crops in their appropriate vegetation zones are exemplified by the Field Systems in Kona, Kohala, Kaupō, Kalaupapa and Ka‘ū.

Crops were matched with their most compatible vegetation zones, trees had adequate spreading space, and double cropping was utilized where appropriate. (Kelly) Short-fallow dryland systems that were the most demanding of labor inputs. (Kirch)

Captain Charles Wilkes of the American Exploring Expedition, which visited Hawai‘i in 1840, noted: “… a mile back from the shore, the surface is covered with herbage, which maintains cattle, etc; and two miles in the interior there is sufficient moisture to keep up a constant verdure.”

“Here, in a belt half a mile wide, the bread-fruit is met with in abundance, and above this the taro is cultivated with success. At an elevation of between two and three thousand feet, and at the distance of five miles, the forest is first met with.” (Wilkes)

Farmers found, farmed and intensified production on lands that were poised between being too wet and too dry. Archaeological evidence of intensive cultivation of sweet potato and other dryland crops is extensive, including walls, terraces, mounds and other features.

The fields were typically oriented parallel to the elevation contours and the walls; sometimes these were made up of a grid of rain-fed plots, defined by low stone field walls built, in part, to shelter sweet potatoes and other crops from the wind.

Since the dryland technique was away from supplemental water sources, this was truly dryland agriculture. There was no evidence to level terraces as in irrigated pondfield systems (taro lo‘i,) and there was no evidence of water control features or channels; so the conclusion was the system was strictly rainfed.

Arboriculture (the cultivation of trees and shrubs)

‘Ulu (Breadfruit) was the primary Polynesian tree crop. It was a canoe crop – one of around 30 plants brought to the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians when they first arrived in Hawaiʻi.

“The bread-fruit trees thrive here, not in such abundance, but produce double the quantity of fruit they do on the rich plains of Otaheite.” (Captain James Cook, 1779)

“This tree, whose fruit is so useful, if not necessary, to the inhabitants of most of the islands of the South Seas, has been chiefly celebrated as a production of the Sandwich Islands; it is not confined to these alone, but is also found in all the countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean.” (Book of Trees, 1837)

The numerous clones of breadfruit with differing properties of yield, fruit characters, timing of harvest, and other aspects of morphology (leaf shape, etc.) provide a classic example of genetic innovation through selection.

Since breadfruit produces high yields in a short harvest period (usually two times per year), the crop generally cannot be completely consumed at the time of harvest.

In some parts of Polynesia and Micronesia, this problem was overcome by technological innovation of anaerobic fermentation and subterranean storage of the uncooked fruit in silos, where the fermented paste may be kept for periods of several years to be consumed as required. (Kirch)

This emphasis on storage also permitted the accumulation of large reserves, and control of these lay in the hands of the chiefly elite, who deployed these resources to political ends.

Thus, in Polynesian arboriculture we have an example of both genetic and technological innovation providing substantial opportunities for particular individuals within society to increase, concentrate, and gain control over surplus production, without the need for significantly increased labor inputs. (The inspiration (and much of the information) for this post came from research from Dr Marion Kelly and Dr Patrick Kirch.)

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Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei-Kalama 1837