Images of Old Hawaiʻi

  • Home
  • About
  • Categories
    • Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance
    • American Protestant Mission
    • Buildings
    • Collections
    • Economy
    • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
    • General
    • Hawaiian Traditions
    • Other Summaries
    • Mayflower Summaries
    • Mayflower Full Summaries
    • Military
    • Place Names
    • Prominent People
    • Schools
    • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
    • Voyage of the Thaddeus
  • Collections
  • Contact
  • Follow

August 10, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Malia

The Malia is a 6-man Hawaiian racing canoe hewn from a single koa log in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii in 1933. Malia is also part of the National Historic Register of Historic Places.

Her builder, James Takeo Yamasaki, designed her expressly for racing, one of the favorite sports of Hawaiian Royalty, dating back to King Kamehameha V (1863-1872).

She was purchased in 1936 by Dad Center of the Outrigger Canoe Club on O’ahu, but by 1948 became the property of the newly formed Waikiki Surf Club and has remained in their care ever since.

When launched she measured 39′-2″, but over time was modified twice. In 1950 she was lengthened to 39′-6″, and in 1973 she was lengthened to her present racing measure of 40′-1″.

Between 1952 and 1954 the Malia won fourteen straight Senior Men’s Races, and she has proven a dominant factor in canoe racing since. Her greatest accomplishments were performed in the very popular, highly prestigious, and very difficult 40 mile race from Molokai to O’ahu across the Molokai channel.

From the beginning of the annual Molokai-O‘ahu race in 1952, the Waikiki Surf Club, paddling the Malia, won first place a total of twelve times, six of which were consecutive, (’53, ’55, ‘58-’63, ’66, ’69, ’72 and ‘73). No other single canoe has ever won as often or for such a long continuous stretch.

In the 1960 race, Malia set a record time of 5 hours 29 minutes that was not surpassed by either a koa or a fiberglass canoe until 1981 when a California club, in the koa canoe Mālama, beat Malia’s record by a scant 4 minutes.

In 1959, two Koa outriggers were shipped to North America for the first Catalina Channel Crossing: one hull named, “Malia” (calm waters) and the other named, “Niuhe” (shark).

There were only two official entries in that first Catalina race, and “Malia,” manned by an all-star Hawaiian crew, won the crossing in a time of 5 hours, just eleven minutes ahead of a relatively in-experienced Californian team in the “Niuhe.”

The Malia’s contribution to canoe racing goes well beyond her own accomplishments. In 1959, the first fiberglass mold was made – actually pirated. (NPS)

“This shell, reportedly taken without authorization while she awaited shipment back to Hawaii was later made into a mold. From this mold, and hulls of canoes that came from it, other molds were made. … thus the Malia inadvertently sired a noble fleet of fiberglass-and-resin canoes.” (Holmes; Mancell)

The 1960 Catalina Channel Crossing Race hosted five, fiberglass Malia’s and the following year there were 8. By 1981, Malia mold canoes had achieved a remarkably wide distribution, including: Samoa, Australia, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, Illinois, Louisiana, Florida, New York, Hawaii and California.

The first mold, since it had been taken from a hand-crafted Koa hull, had some inconsistencies on its surface so better molds were manufactured as the number of Californian clubs grew and built their fleets of malias. Today, the majority of fiberglass canoes in both Hawai‘i and California are progeny of the Malia mold.

One boat from Hawai‘i inadvertently gave birth to outrigger canoe racing in North America. The malia mold is an integral part of Canadian and North American paddling history. Without the malia mold, outrigger racing in Canada may never have taken hold as early as it did.

From a single hull, there are now enough outrigger canoes to support more than 50 outrigger racing clubs throughout North America. There is still a “Malia Class Race” in Southern California. (Mancell) (Lots of information here is from Holmes, Mancell and NPS.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2017 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Malia-Waikiki Surf Club-first Molokai-Oahu-1952-IanLind
Malia-Waikiki Surf Club-first Molokai-Oahu-1952-IanLind
Malia NPS
Malia NPS
Malia NPS
Malia NPS
Abel Gomes shaking hands with another man alongside the Waikiki Surf Club’s canoe, Malia-IanLind
Abel Gomes shaking hands with another man alongside the Waikiki Surf Club’s canoe, Malia-IanLind

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions, Economy, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Canoe, Malia

August 9, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Maritime Massachusetts Meets a Man from the Islands

“Massachusetts has a history of many moods, every one of which may be traced in the national character of America. By chance, rather than design, this short strip of uninviting coast-line became the seat of a great experiment in colonization, self-government, and religion.”

“For a generation, Massachusetts shared with her elder sister, Virginia, leadership in the American Revolution. For another generation, with her off spring Connecticut, she opposed a static social system to the ferment of revolutionary France.”

“With the world peace of 1815 she quickened into new life, harnessed her waterfalls to machine industry, bred statesmen, seers, and poets, generated radical and revolutionary thought.”

“For two hundred years the Bible was the spiritual, the sea the material sustenance of Massachusetts. The pulse of her life-story, like the surf on her coast-line, beat once with the nervous crash of storm-driven waves on granite rock; but now with the soothing pour of ground-swell on golden sands.”

Captain John Smith, in 1614, was the first Englishman to examine the Massachusetts coast, and to give it that name. (Morison)

“After Jamestown, Smith pushed the English to settle the northeast, identifying Plymouth as a suitable harbor four years before the Pilgrims landed there. He coined the region ‘New England’ in 1616.” (Smithsonian)

Shortly thereafter (1620,) the Plymouth Colony arrived. “The Pilgrim fathers sailed with high hopes and a burning faith, but with few preparations and no clear idea of how to make a living on the Atlantic coast.” (Morison)

“In 1630, ten years after its settlement, the Plymouth Colony contained but three hundred white people. At that time the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, founded only at the end of 1628, had over two thousand in habitants.”

“Within thirteen years the numbers had reached sixteen thousand, more than the rest of the English colonies combined; and the characteristic maritime activities of Massachusetts – fishing, shipping, and West India trading – were already commenced.”

“God performed no miracle on the New England soil. He gave the sea. … The gravelly, boulder-strewn soil was back-breaking to clear, and afforded small increase to unscientific farmers. No staple of ready sale in England, like Virginia tobacco or Canadian beaver, could be produced or readily obtained.”

“Massachusetts went to sea, then, not of choice, but of necessity.”

“These colonial merchants lived well, with a spacious brick mansion in Boston and a country seat at Milton Hill, Cambridge, or as far afield as Harvard and Hopkinton, where great house parties were given. They were fond of feasts and pageants”.

“The backbone of maritime Massachusetts, however, was its middle class; the captains and mates of vessels, the master builders and shipwrights, the ropemakers, sailmakers, and skilled mechanics of many different trades, without whom the merchants were nothing.”

“Boston became the headquarters of the American Revolution largely because the policy of George III threatened her maritime interests.”

“Then came the worst economic depression Massachusetts has ever known. The double readjustment from a war to a peace basis, and from a colonial to an independent basis, caused hardship throughout the colonies.”

“It worked havoc with the delicate adjustment of fishing, seafaring, and shipbuilding by which Massachusetts was accustomed to gain her living. By 1786, the exports of Virginia had more than regained their pre-Revolutionary figures.”

“At the same date the exports of Massachusetts were only one-fourth of what they had been twelve years earlier. … (However,) By 1787 the West-India trade was in a measure restored.”

“Some subtle instinct, or maybe thwarted desire of Elizabethan ancestors who, seeking in vain the Northwest Passage, founded an empire on the barrier, was pulling the ships of Massachusetts east by west, into seas where no Yankee had ever ventured.”

“Off the roaring breakers of Cape Horn, in the vast spaces of the Pacific, on savage coasts and islands, and in the teeming marts of the Far East, the intrepid shipmasters and adventurous youth of New England were reclaiming their salt sea heritage.”

“One bright summer afternoon in 1790 saw the close of a great adventure. On August 9, Boston town heard a salute of thirteen guns down-harbor. The ship Columbia, Captain Robert Gray, with the first American ensign to girdle the globe snapping at her peak, was greeting the Castle after an absence of three years.”

“Coming to anchor in the inner harbor, she fired another federal salute of thirteen guns, which a ‘great concourse of citizens assembled on the various wharfs returned with three huzzas and a hearty welcome.’”

“A rumor ran through the narrow streets that a native of ‘Owyhee’ – a Sandwich-Islander – was on board; and before the day was out, curious Boston was gratified with a sight of him, marching after Captain Gray to call on Governor Hancock.”

“Clad in a feather cloak of golden suns set in flaming scarlet, that came halfway down his brown legs; crested with a gorgeous feather helmet shaped like a Greek warrior’s, this young Hawaiian moved up State Street like a living flame.”

“The Columbia had logged 41,899 miles since her departure from Boston on September 30, 1787. Her voyage was not remarkable as a feat of navigation; Magellan and Drake had done the trick centuries before, under far more hazardous conditions.”

“It was the practical results that counted. The Columbia’s first voyage began the Northwest fur trade, which enabled the merchant adventurers of Boston to tap the vast reservoir of wealth in China.”

“The most successful vessels in the Northwest fur trade were small, well-built brigs and ships of one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burthen (say sixty- five to ninety feet long), constructed in the ship yards from the Kennebec to Scituate. Larger vessels were too difficult to work through the intricacies of the Northwest Coast.”

To obtain fresh provisions and prevent scurvy, the Nor’west traders broke their voyage at least twice; at the Cape Verde Islands, the Falklands, sometimes Galapagos for a giant tortoise, and invariably Hawaii.”

“The Sandwich Islands proved an ideal spot to refresh a scorbutic crew, and even to complete the cargo. Captain Kendrick (who plied between Canton and the Coast in the Lady Washington until his death in 1794) discovered sandalwood, an article much in demand at Canton, growing wild on the Island of Kauai.”

“A vigorous trade with the native chiefs in this fragrant commodity was started by Boston fur-traders in ‘the Islands’; leading to more Hawaiian visits to New England”. (Most here is from Morison)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2017 Hoʻokuleana LLC

gray_robert
gray_robert

Filed Under: General, Prominent People, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Sandalwood, Sandwich Islands, Massachusetts, Fur Trade, Robert Gray

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.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2017 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Eclipse of the Sun Above Mauna Kea-1991-Serge Brunier
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.
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
total-eclipse-sun-hawaii-medallion
NASA map of the US showing path of totality for the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse
NASA map of the US showing path of totality for the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse

Filed Under: General, Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Eclipse, Hawaii

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.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2017 Hoʻokuleana LLC

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

Filed Under: Buildings, Economy, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Kilauea, Kauai, Kilauea Plantation, Kong Lung Store

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.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2017 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei-Kalama 1837
Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei-Kalama 1837

Filed Under: General, Hawaiian Traditions, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Dryland, Agriculture, Loi, Kalo, Taro, Aboriculture

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 195
  • 196
  • 197
  • 198
  • 199
  • …
  • 271
  • Next Page »

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Connect with Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • 1804
  • Charles Furneaux
  • Koʻanakoʻa
  • About 250 Years Ago … Committee of Correspondence
  • Chiefess Kapiʻolani
  • Scariest Story I Know
  • Kaʻohe

Categories

  • Mayflower Summaries
  • American Revolution
  • General
  • Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance
  • Buildings
  • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
  • Hawaiian Traditions
  • Military
  • Place Names
  • Prominent People
  • Schools
  • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
  • Economy
  • Voyage of the Thaddeus

Tags

Albatross Al Capone Ane Keohokalole Archibald Campbell Bernice Pauahi Bishop Charles Reed Bishop Downtown Honolulu Eruption Founder's Day George Patton Great Wall of Kuakini Green Sea Turtle Hawaii Hawaii Island Hermes Hilo Holoikauaua Honolulu Isaac Davis James Robinson Kamae Kamaeokalani Kamanawa Kameeiamoku Kamehameha Schools Lalani Village Lava Flow Lelia Byrd Liliuokalani Mao Math Mauna Loa Midway Monk Seal Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Oahu Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Pearl Pualani Mossman Queen Liliuokalani Thomas Jaggar Volcano Waikiki Wake Wisdom

Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Copyright © 2012-2024 Peter T Young, Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Loading Comments...