Hawaiian Traditions | Page 72 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 7, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Gods Who Brought the Plants

“In view of the myth that relates the origin and descent of taro, which was identified with the god Kāne, to that of the ali‘i, or chiefs, of Hawaii, it is surprising that in the pageantry of the Makahiki, or harvest festival, the reigning aIi‘i plays the role of Lono rather than of Kāne.”

“Lono does not have any part in the creation myths of the Hawaiian Islands. This would seem to imply that Lono, with whom were identified the sweet potato, the gourd, and the hog, was a chief who came to these islands after they were already settled.”

“Had Lono come first, we should expect him to appear as a mythological character, and to find Kāne remembered, or recorded genealogically, as subsequent and subsidiary.”

“On the contrary, Kāne is primordial in the creation lore describing the origination of gods and men out of the marriage of Sky and Earth.”

“The sweet potato and gourd were suitable for cultivation in the drier areas of the islands. The cult of Lono was important in those areas, particularly in Kona on Hawaii and ‘Ulupalakua on Maui. At both of these places there were temples dedicated to Lono. The sweet potato was particularly the food of the common people.”

“The festival in honor of Lono, preceding and during the rainy season, was essentially a festival for the whole people, in contrast to the war rite in honor of Kū which was a ritual identified with Kū as god of battle.”

“It seems likely that the four chief gods of Hawaii, with each of whom particular plants and animals that were introduced were identified, represent distinct eras of colonization.”

“Because of Kāne’s place in the religion, his primordial role in the creation mythology, his pantheistic character, and his role as life-giver, it is logical to say that the first colonizers were worshipers of Kāne. With Kāne are identified the taro, sugar cane, and bamboo.”

“Our inference is, therefore, that these were introduced by the first settlers, and that it was these colonizers who established systematic agriculture in those areas that were capable of systematic development by means of irrigation …”

“… in other words, primarily the windward coasts and the valley areas on leeward sides of Kauai, Oahu, and West Maui, where stream systems coming down out of rain-drenched highlands made irrigation feasible.”

“This would have been an era of relative quiet, one of fairly isolated tribalism, before dynastic patterns and aristocratic traditions of ambitious warrior chieftains had become established.”

“Kanaloa perhaps came next after Kāne. The banana is identified with Kanaloa, as it is also in Tahiti. In Tahiti, and in Samoa and Tonga, Tangaloa (or Ta’aroa as the name is there pronounced) was the supreme god, the creator, and the ancestor of the ali‘i.”

“There is no reminiscence of this in Hawaii.”

“In all the southern islands, and as far as New Zealand, this deity is god of the ocean; and this is true also in Hawaii.”

“Here there is an interesting traditional association of Kāne and Kanaloa, in connection with the opening up of springs. Also in the mythological account of the creation of man, Kanaloa is associated with Kāne, although he does not appear at the dawn of creation as does Kāne.”

“It is because of the close association of Kanaloa with Kāne that we infer that Kanaloa and the banana came into the islands next after Kāne.”

“In New Zealand and tropical Polynesia, marine life and reptiles are identified with Tangaroa. In Hawaii this is true of marine life, but not of reptiles.”

“In Hawaii there is more lore relating to reptiles (mo‘o) than in any other island, yet there is no recollection of the relationship of reptiles to Kanaloa.”

“With the god Kū are identified the coconut tree and the breadfruit. Neither of these was planted or utilized, within historic times in Hawaii, nearly as extensively as would probably have been the case had they been in the islands for a long time.”

“It is for this reason that we have concluded that the Kū people were late comers. Kū, although not here regarded as lord of the ocean or particularly identified with it in any other way, was the patron of fishing.”

“Fishing as an organized enterprise was a prerogative of the ali’i, and everywhere in the Pacific the ali’i pre-empted the best fishing localities.”

“On the other hand, they did not by any means pre-empt the best farming localities; instead they depended upon the common people for their vegetable provender.”

“War rituals, in Hawaii as also in New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Marquesas, seem to have been derived from fishing rituals, and Kū was god of war as well as of fishing.”

“What probably happened was that as the worshipers of Kū became numerous, and rivalry over the best fishing localities such as Kona and Ka‘u brought about predatory wars, the chieftains came to realize that power depended upon population, and that population was a matter of food supply.”

“The epithet for Kū as a war god was Kū-the-Iand-snatcher, and this epithet became the symbol of conquest and the means of reduction of the farmers to the status of serfs.”

“The only one of the four major deities in Hawaii who was traditionally a human being is Lono. His apparent historical existence lends credence to the idea that he was the last of the four to come to Hawaii.”

“With Lono, as we have said, are identified the sweet potato, the gourd, and the hog. The sweet potato was taken to New Zealand by the Maori in the 14th century, and there likewise is identified with Rongo (Lono).”

“The hog was not taken to New Zealand, nor was the gourd; or at least if they were, neither survived.”

“The fact that the sweet potato went to New Zealand in the 14th century does not imply that it may not have been in Hawaii at an earlier date. It is possible that it was transported from Hawaii to New Zealand.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Planter-Herb Kane

January 6, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Morai

Immediately after Captain Cook first landed at Waimea Kauai in January 1778, he and others were taken inland for an ‘excursion of the country’. They had seen ‘pyramids’ or ‘obelisks’ as they passed in their ships. What follows are descriptions of what they saw, as noted in Cook’s Journal.

“A numerous train of natives followed us; and one of them, whom I had distinguished for his activity in keeping the rest in order, I made choice of as our guide.”

“This man, from time to time, proclaimed our approach; and every one whom we met fell prostrate upon the ground, and remained in that position till we had passed. This, as I afterward understood, is the mode of paying their respect to their own great chiefs.”

“As we ranged down the coast from the east, in the ships, we had observed at every village one or more elevated white objects, like pyramids or rather obelisks; and one of these, which I guessed to be at least fifty feet high was very conspicuous from the ship’s anchoring station, and seemed to be at no great distance up this valley.”

“To have a nearer inspection of it, was the principal object of my walk. Our guide perfectly understood that we wished to be conducted to it. But it happened to be so placed that we could not get at it, being separated from us by the pool of water.”

“However, there being another of the same kind within our reach, about half a mile off, upon our side of the valley, we set out to visit that.”

“The moment we got to it, we saw that it stood in a burying ground, or morai (heiau;) the resemblance of which, in many respects, to those we were so well acquainted with at other islands in this ocean … could not but strike us …”

“… and we also soon found that the several parts that compose it, were called by the same names. It was an oblong space, of considerable extent, surrounded by a wall of stone, about four feet high.”

“The space inclosed was loosely paved with smaller stones ; and at one end of it stood what I call the pyramid, but, in the language of the island, is namea henananoo; which appeared evidently to be an exact model of the larger one, observed by us from the ships.”

“It was about four feet square at the base, and about twenty feet high. The four sides were composed of small poles interwoven with twigs and branches, thus forming an indifferent wickerwork, hollow or open within, from bottom to top.”

On each side of the pyramid were long pieces of wickerwork, called hereanee, in the same ruinous condition; with two slender poles, inclining to each other, at one corner, where some plantains were laid upon a board, fixed at the height of five or six feet. This they called herairemy ; and informed us that the fruit was an offering to their god”.

“Before the henananoo were a few pieces of wood, carved into something like human figures, which, with a stone near two feet high, covered with pieces of cloth called hoho, and consecrated to Tongarooa, who is the god of these people, still more and more reminded us of what we used to meet with in the morals of the islands we had lately left.”

“Adjoining to these, on the outside of the morai, was a small shed, no bigger than a dog-kennel, which they called hareepahoo; and before it was a grave, where, as we were told, the remains of a woman lay.”

“On the farther side of the area of the morai, stood a house or shed about forty feet long, ten broad in the middle, each end being narrower, and about ten feet high.”

“This, which though much longer, was lower than their common dwelling-places, we were informed, was called hemanaa. The entrance into it was at the middle of the side, which was in the morai.”

“On the farther side of this house, opposite the entrance, stood two wooden images cut out of one piece, with pedestals, in all about three feet high; neither very indifferently designed nor executed.”

“These were said to be Eatooa no Veheina, or representations of goddesses. On the head of one of them was a carved helmet, not unlike those worn by the ancient warriors; and on that of the other, a cylindrical cap, resembling the head-dress at Otaheite, called tomou; and both of them had pieces of cloth tied about the loins, and hanging a considerable way down.”

“At the side of each was also a piece of carved wood with bits of the cloth hung on them in the same manner; and between or before the pedestals lay a quantity of fern in a heap. It was obvious that this had been deposited there piece by piece, and at different times; for there was of it, in all states, from what was quite decayed to what was still fresh and green.”

“In the middle of the house, and before the two images, was an oblong space, inclosed by a low edging of stone, and covered with shreds of the cloth so often mentioned. This, on enquiry, we found was the grave of seven chiefs, whose names were enumerated, and the place was called Heneene.”

“We had met already with so many striking instances of resemblance between the burying-place we were now visiting and those of islands we had lately come from in the South Pacific, that we had little doubt in our minds that the resemblance existed also in the ceremonies practised here, and particularly in the horrid one of offering human sacrifices.”

“Our suspicions were too soon confirmed, by direct evidence. For, on coming out of the house, just on one side of the entrance, we saw a small square place, and another still less near it; and on asking what these were ? …”

“… our guide immediately informed us that in the one was buried a man who had been sacrificed; a Taata (Tanata or Tangata, in this country) taboo (tafoo, as here pronounced); and in the other a hog, which had also been made an offering to the divinity.”

“It was with most sincere concern, that I could trace on such undoubted evidence, the prevalence of these bloody rites throughout this immense ocean, amongst people disjoined by such a distance, and even ignorant of each other’s existence, though so strongly marked as originally of the same nation.”

“The island seemed to abound with such places of sacrifice as this which we were now visiting, and which appeared to be one of the most inconsiderable of them; being far less conspicuous than several others which we had seen as we sailed along the coast, and particularly than that on the opposite side of the water in this valley …”

“… the white kenananoo, or pyramid, of which we were now almost sure, derived its colour only from pieces of the consecrated cloth laid over it.”

“In several parts within the inclosure of this burying ground, were planted trees of the cordia sebestina (kou,) some of the morinda citrifolia (noni,) and several plants of the elee, or jejee of Tongataboo, with the leaves of which the hemanaa was thatched; and as I observed that this plant was not made use of in thatching their dwelling-houses, probably it is reserved entirely for religious purposes.”

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Heiau_at_Waimea_by_John_Webber-1778-79

December 30, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hale Mua

Fishing, the making of fishing gear and canoes, the care and housing of canoes and fishing gear, fighting, and the making of weapons were essentially men’s activities (although there are accounts of famous women warriors).

Every aspect of taro economy and culture was man’s work; the making and tending of fields and irrigated terraces and irrigation ditches, planting, cultivating and harvesting taro, steaming it in the ground oven, peeling it, and pounding the steamed corms to make poi for the womenfolk, as well as for men and boys.

The erection of every kind of house and shed was man’s work. For most family rituals the male head of the family functioned as family priest, just as in the greater rituals of community and state the professional priests were men. (Handy & Pukui)

Kauhale means homestead, and when there were a number of kauhale close together the same term was used. The old Hawaiians had no conception of village or town as a corporate social entity; there was no term for village.

The kauhale were scattered near streams in valley bottoms; each family kauhale was right beside its lo’i. A spring (or springs) was sometimes the reason for a village-like conglomeration of homesteads – again, families focused on the water source.

Traditional hale (‘house’, ‘building’) were constructed of native woods lashed together with cordage most often made from olonā. Pili grass was a preferred thatching that added a pleasant odor to a new hale. Lauhala (pandanus leaves) or ti leaf bundles called peʻa were other covering materials used.

Unlike our housing today, the single ‘hale’ was not necessarily the ‘home.’ The traditional Hawaiian home was the kauhale (Lit., plural house;) this was a group of structures forming the living compound – homestead – with each building serving a specific purpose.

The main structure within the kauhale household complex was the common house, or hale noa, in which all the family members slept at night. It was the largest building within a family compound and the most weatherproof. (Loubser)

Other structures included hale mua (men’s meeting/eating house,) hale ʻāina (women’s eating house,) hale peʻa (menstruation house) and other needed structures (those for canoe makers, others used to house fishing gear, etc.)

The terrain and the subsistence lifestyle and economy created the dispersed community of scattered homesteads. Typically, a Hawaiian family’s homestead stood in relative isolation.

‘At the age of 3 or 4, (a high ranking male child) was placed in the mua and his eating made kapu (or taboo) …’ Non-elite male children were also consecrated in hale mua after birth. (Dixon)

Archaeological investigations conducted on hale mua have identified evidence of presumed male food consumption (bones from pig and some large pelagic fish, species taboo to women) and male domestic activities (stone tool making).

The daily implementation of the kapu in non-elite Hawaiian family life was presumably more complex, as were gender specific activities such as tool making. (Dixon) Near it was the imu or oven in which the men cooked their food.

The mua or menʻs eating house was a sacred place from which women were excluded. It was the place where the men and older boys ate their meals and where the head of the family offered the daily offerings of ʻawa to the family ʻaumakua. Here men and family gods ate together; women, were not allowed to enter here.

The daily offering was never omitted and if the head of the family was unable to perform his duty, he appointed some one to do it. The prayers were for the welfare of the ruling chief and for the family itself.

When a serious problem arose, such as a new venture to be attempted or sickness in the family, the head of the family slept in the Mua, where the family gods would give him directions as to what to do.

Thus the Mua served both as a place for the men to eat and a meeting place with the family gods. At one end of the mua was an altar (kuahu) dedicated to the family ʻaumakua whose effigies stood there.

Here the head of the household prayed and performed necessary rites sometimes without, sometimes with the aid of a kahuna pule, when came the time for the rites of the life cycle such as birth, cutting the foreskin, sickness and death. (Handy & Pukui)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Hale_Mua-Pili-Black

December 17, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Aina Momona

Talk to any rancher and he’ll typically say he’s growing grass, not cattle. The more grass he can grow, the more cattle he can have to harvest it.

So, too, with Hawaiian fishponds; but instead of grass, the pond grows algae. The more algae grown, the more shrimp to eat it, and small animals to eat the shrimp, and small and then larger fish to feed on the pondlife.

Practically every culture in the world has practiced aquaculture (cultivation of aquatic life forms to serve the food needs of man) in some degree.

Ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Assyrians stocked artificial ponds with fish; Greeks and Romans raised oysters, and Romans raised eels. Early Germans bred freshwater fish in ponds. Carp culture spread from Asia Minor and by A.D. 700 was established in Europe. (Apple & Kikuchi)

Hawai‘i had intense true aquaculture. As far as is known, fishponds existed nowhere else in the Pacific in types and numbers as in prehistoric Hawai‘i.

Only in the Hawaiian Islands was there an intensive effort to utilize practically every body of water, from the seashore to the upland forests, as a source of food, either agriculturally or aquaculturally. (Apple & Kikuchi)

There were three main technological advances resulting in food production intensification in pre-contact Hawai‘i: (a) walled fishponds, (b) terraced pondfields with their irrigation systems and (c) systematic dry-land field cultivation organized by vegetation zones. (Kelly)

Hawaiian fishponds are more productive than the natural habitat of coastal reef. The primary fish selected for the ponds were herbivores, usually mullet (‘ama‘ama) and milkfish (awa.)

A fishpond is essentially a pasture, in which algae (limu) is raised as food for the selected herbivores. Cultivation of algae depends on managing the environment of the pond, including fresh water/salt water balance, adequate sunshine for algae growth and seasonal cleaning to allow a fresh growth of algae. (Hiatt; Kelly)

Since the types of algae that mullet consume grow best in brackish water. Hawaiian walled fishponds were often located (a) on the shoreline near the mouth of a stream, (b) where fresh water escapes in springs along the shore, or frequently (c) in the sea. (Kelly)

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond). Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

Loko kuapā, what we consider the typical coastal fishpond, are artificially enclosed by an arc-shaped seawall and containing at least one sluice gate (mākāhā.)

Loko pu‘uone are formed by development of a barrier beach paralleling the coast, and connected to the ocean by a channel or ditch; it’s a shore fishpond containing either brackish or a mixture of brackish and fresh water.

“The large salt or brackish water ponds, entirely enclosed, have one, two or four gates called mākāhā. These are of straight sticks tied on to two or three cross beams the sticks in the upright standing as closely as possible, so that no fish half an inch in thickness can pass them, while the water and young fry can pass freely in and out.” (McDonald)

“After five or six months fish would begin to be seen in the loko kuapā. During the high tides of ʻOle (ʻOle kai nui) the people who took care of the pond would rejoice to see the fish moving toward the kuapa walls, like waves of a rough sea, until the sluice, makaha, was filled with fish.”

“If the depth of the water at the sluice were a yard or more, the width of the mākāhā an anana, and the thickness of the kuapā walls an anana, this area would be filled with fish, piled one over the other until the fish at the top were dry; if a stone were placed on them it would not sink.” (Kamakau)

Fishponds, loko i‘a, were things that beautified the land, and a land with many fishponds was called a ‘fat’ land (‘āina momona.) They date from ancient times. (Kamakau)

It is not known when Hawaiian fishponds began to be constructed, but some fishpond walls have been carbon-dated to the 1400s. An estimate of 340–360 Hawaiian fishponds was noted for the period before the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778.

An inventory in the early 1900s found 360 loko i‘a in the islands and identified 99 active ponds with an estimated annual production total of about 680,000 pounds, including 486,000 pounds of ‘ama‘ama and 194,000 pounds of ‘awa.

Loko i‘a were extensive operating systems that produced an average of 400–600 pounds per acre per year, a significant amount considering the minimal amount of fishpond ‘input’ and maintenance effort apparent by that time. (Keala)

‘Āina Momona performed by Kawika Kahiapo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH5Jg9l79OM

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Old_photograph_of_the_Heʻeia_fishpond-(WC)

Fish_Ponds_at_Honoruru,_Oahu,_by_John_Murray,_after_Robert_Dampier-(WC)-1836

Fishpond_in_east_Molokai-(WC)

Kaneohe, Oahu. McKeague’s Mill at Lilipuna Road. Kaneohe Bay and fishponds 1880-PPWD-11-7-039

Paiko-Pond-Life-1937

1893_over_GoogelEarth-Streams_Ponds_Taro-Waikiki-broader

December 8, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Written Laws

“(A) small code of criminal law was prepared Dec. 8, 1827. This code was printed on a small hand bill in two forms both bearing the same date, Dec. 8, 1827 ….”

“One has six laws with penalties and the other five laws. The fourth and the sixth laws were practically the same. One referred to Hookamakama (prostitution) and the other to Moe Kolohe (adultery), both according to Hawaiian ideas could be included under the term ‘adultery.’”

“The five laws promulgated by the chiefs were as follows:
1. Against murder, penalty hanging.
2. Against theft, penalty imprisonment in irons.
3. Against rum, selling, penalty imprisonment in irons.
4. Against adultery, penalty a fine.
5. Against gambling, penalty imprisonment in irons.” (Westervelt)

“The way was thus cleared for action, but the foreigners brought their influence to bear against certain of the five laws which had been agreed upon and a change was made.”

“It was decided to adopt only three laws at this time, to go into effect in three months (i.e. in March, 1828).”

“These three laws were: first, against murder, ‘the one who commits murder here shall die, by being hung’; second, against theft, ‘the one who steals shall be put in irons’; third, against adultery, for which the penalty was imprisonment in irons.”

“Three other proposed laws, against rum selling, prostitution, and gambling, were drawn up, to be explained and taught to the people before they should be adopted.”

“It was agreed that the chiefs should meet six months later to continue their consultation upon the subject. The three laws adopted and the three proposed were printed together on one sheet, which bears the date December 8, 1827.”

“On December 14, the people were assembled in a coconut grove near the fort; the three enacted laws were formally proclaimed, and the king, Ka‘ahumanu, and Boki exhorted the people, both native and foreign, to obey the three laws which had been adopted and to give attention to the three which were not yet enacted.” (Kuykendall)

“Although these six laws were thus put in writing, signed by the king and printed, they were really enacted by the king and chiefs and proclaimed orally like other previous laws.”

“It was this way: When the first three of these laws had been decided upon, a general assembly was called, which was attended by the king, regent, chiefs and a great concourse of common people, including some foreigners.”

“This was under a grove of cocoanut trees near the sea. Mr. Bingham had been asked to attend and open the exercises with prayer if he did not fear harm from the hostile foreigners, and had replied that he would do his duty even if they burned him for it.”

“He was given a chair by Gov. Boki, and a little later, when the regent handed him a hymn book, he sung a hymn, offered a prayer and withdrew.”

“The king and regent then each addressed the chiefs and people and foreigners, proclaimed the first three of these laws and called on all to hear and obey them. Notice was also given of other proposed laws, which were not to be put in force until the people had been further educated up to them.”

“After adjournment, the missionaries were requested to print on handbills these three laws and the other three, which apparently had been proclaimed on a previous occasion.” (Frear)

“This was the beginning of formal legislation by the Hawaiian chiefs. The contemporary chroniclers considered it a matter of great significance that they had made a start in this important business.”

“The chiefs met again in June, 1828, but we have no record of what was accomplished. It is intimated that Ka‘ahumanu had difficulty in bringing the other chiefs to the task, and one report says they referred the business to David Malo who declined to take upon himself the responsibility.” (Kuykendall)

“Opposition again became threatening and made practically useless for a time the laws against rum selling and gambling, but little by little the chiefs gained confidence, issued proclamations and edicts and met guile with tact …”

“… until in 1829, a number of laws were in force and foreigners as well as the native-born, were proclaimed to be subject to the laws including rum selling and gambling.” (Westervelt)

“We have in fact very little information in regard to the conferences of the chiefs, but we hear of new laws from time to time, and on October 7, 1829, the king, in a formal proclamation, declared …” (Kuykendall)

“The laws of my country prohibit murder, theft, adultery, fornication, retailing ardent spirits at houses for selling spirits, amusements on the sabbath day, gambling and betting on the sabbath day, and at all times.”

“If any man shall transgress any of these laws, he is liable to the penalty, the same for every foreigner and for the people of these islands: whoever shall violate these laws shall be punished.”

“This also I make known: The law of the Great God of Heaven, that is, the great thing by which we shall promote peace; let all men who remain here obey it.”

“Christian Marriage is proper for men and women; but if a woman regard her man as her only husband, and the man regard his woman as his only wife, they are legally husband and wife …”

“… but if the parties are not married, nor regard themselves as husband and wife, let them be forth with entirely separate.” (Kamehameha III, Elliot) (The image shows Kamehameha III in 1825.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Kamehameha_III,_1825