Hawaiian Traditions | Page 97 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 26, 2015 by Peter T Young 7 Comments

Infanticide

“I have often wondered why there were no more children here than there appear to be, upon asking a white man who has resided here many years …”

“… the reason he replied that many infants are strangled to death by their mothers, especially if they are not able to support them and many die for want of care when young. We have seen a number of latter case.” (Daniel Chamberlain. July 20, 1820; Tobin)

“A man and his wife, tenants of Mr (John) Young … had one child, a fine little boy. A quarrel arose between them on one occasion respecting this child. The Wife refusing to accede to the wishes of the husband, he, in revenge, caught up the child by the head and the feet, broke its back across his knee, and then threw it down in expiring agonies before her.”

“Struck with the atrocity of the act, Mr. Young seized the man, led him before the king, Tamehameha, … and requested that he might be punished.”

“The king inquired, ‘To whom did the child he has murdered belong?’ Mr. Young answered, that it was his own son. ‘Then,’ said the king, ‘neither you nor I have any right to interfere; I cannot say any thing to him.’” (Ellis, 1826)

“We have long known that the Sandwich Islanders practised infanticide, but had no idea of the extent to which it prevailed, until we had made various inquiries daring our present tour, and had conversed with Karaimoku Kapiolani, the governor, and several other chiefs, who, though formerly unwilling to converse on the subject, have, since their reception of Christianity, become more communicative.”

“It prevails throughout all the islands, and, with the exception of the higher class of chiefs, is, as far as we could learn, practised by all ranks of the people.”

“However numerous the children among the lower orders, parents seldom rear more than two or three, and many spare only one; all the others are destroyed sometimes shortly after birth, generally during the first year of their age.” (Ellis, 1826)

“Several mothers presented their offspring, with the pride of old Roman matrons. We counted the number of those who had living children, and then requested those who had none to rise.”

“The scene that followed I can never forget.”

“Why are you childless? we inquired. Very few had lost children by a natural death. One woman replied in tears, holding out her hands.”

“’These must answer the question: I have been the mother of eight children, but with these hands I buried them alive, one after another, that I might follow my pleasures, and avoid growing old.’”

“’Oh, if I had but one of them back again to comfort me now! If tears and penitence could restore the dead!’”

“She was followed by others, making the same sad confessions of burying alive, of strangling, of smothering, until sobs and tears filled the house.” (Laura Fish Judd, 1880)

“There can be no doubt but that infanticide was prevalent among them and that a very large percent of the children born were disposed of in various ways by their parents, soon after their birth.”

“Generally speaking, it appears that in Hawaiʻi, as throughout Polynesia, the struggle for existence and life’s necessities, was largely evaded by restricting the natural increase in population in this way.” (Bryan, 1915)

“But as we are told that parents were fond of their children and parental discipline was not rigorous, and as children were left largely to their own devices, their care could hardly be regarded as a serious burden …”

“… moreover, more girl children were destroyed than boys, indicating that the former reason was the more economic and, therefore, the more human and logical one.” (Bryan, 1915)

“The extreme skewing of the sex ratio among Hawaiians in the nineteenth century is open to many explanations … Overwork and general exploitation may well have erased more adult women than men, but the likeliest candidate as the chief killer of females was infanticide, either by direct intention or, as is much more common, indirectly and semi-intentionally.” (Crosby)

“(B)y European contact the Hawaiians were actively practicing several methods of population control, including abortion and infanticide, perhaps in response to pressure on local food supplies and the limitations of agricultural land.” (Kirch)

“Several of the early Christian missionaries in the Hawaiian archipelago were sure that infanticide, especially female infanticide, was widespread despite decrees against the practice and assurances that it had stopped circa 1820.” (Crosby)

“Abortion and infanticide, known to exist in pre-contact times, reached new highs in 1819-1825 and 1832-1836.” (Schmitt)

“Artemas Bishop reported in 1838, ‘the majority of children born in the islands die before they are two years old.’ Indeed, the infant mortality rate was so high that microbiologist OA Bushnell uses the term ‘genocidal decline’ in discussing Hawaiian infants in this period.” (Kanahele)

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April 24, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Makanau

“About half-past eleven we reached Hilea, a pleasant village belonging to the governor. As we approached it, we observed a number of artificial fish-ponds, formed by excavating the earth to the depth of two or three feet, and banking up the sides. The sea is let into them occasionally, and they are generally well stocked with excellent fish of the mullet kind.”

“We went into the house of the head man, and asked him to collect the people together, as we wished to speak to them about the true God. He sent out, and most of the people of the village, then at home, about two hundred in number, soon collected in his house, which was large, where Mr. Thurston preached to them.”

“They appeared gratified with what they had heard, and pressed us very much to spend the day with them. We could not consent to this, as we had travelled but a short distance since leaving Honuʻapo.”

“As we left Hilea, our guide pointed out a small hill, called Makanau, where Keoua, the last rival of Kamehameha, surrendered himself up to the warriors under Kaʻiana, by whom he had been conquered in two successive engagements.” (Ellis)

(In the late-1700s, this area served as the summer home of Keoua, the last chief of Kaʻu and as the district’s capital in an insurgent war with Kamehameha.)

(Many of Keoua’s forces had been killed by Keonehelelei (“the falling sands” – the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790. (Moniz-Nakamura) Keoua formally surrendered to Kamehameha at Puʻukohola Heiau; there, Keoua was attacked and killed by Keʻeaumoku, one of Kamehameha’s chiefs.)

Hīlea, in Kaʻu was the birthplace of Kohaikalani. He was the most important chief on the island and reigned in royal state at Hīlea.

He ordered the construction of a heiau situated on the great plain of Makanau (‘surly eyes,’) a high promontory, about three miles from the shore.

All men in the district were conscripted to transport stones from Koloa beach at Ninole. They formed a human chain and passed the stones up to the site in baskets. The kapu (taboo) for building such a structure was strict. Not a word could be spoken. If a stone dropped, it could not be picked up. This work took several weeks. (Orr)

Thrum suggests that the pebbles for the pavement of the heiau came from the shore of Kawa. When much stone had been collected, two kahuna (priests) arrived to supervise the erection of the structure. (Rechtman)

As it was the custom in the olden days to worship fishes, birds, stones or wood, Kohaikalani wished to have a wooden god to worship. Kohāikalani was living in the upland of Hīlea.

The kahuna told the people, “It is clear that your chief intends when this temple is completed to offer your bodies as sacrifice. Hence, when he commands you to bring an ʻōhiʻa tree to be used in the building, you must tell him to select one for himself and that you will then help him pull it up here. In this way you may save your lives.” (Keala Pono)

After building the heiau the men were ordered to fell an ʻohiʻa tree for an image. There was a very steep pali to climb. They had to carry up the god on the side towards Ninole, which was best adapted to the execution of their plan.

“The god will never reach the summit of the pali,” said the kahuna, “if the Chief continues to walk before him. The god ought to go first, by right of power, and the Chief below and after him, to push at the lower end, otherwise we will never succeed in overcoming his resistance.”

Kohaikalani complied with the advice of the kahuna, placed himself under the god, and pushed him from below. Instantly the Priests and people dropped the rope, and the huge idol, rolling upon the Chief, crushed him in an instant. They attribute the death of Kohāikalani especially to the Priests. (The Friend, May 1, 1865)

Kohaikalani Heiau consisted of a rectangular structure with walls 4.5 to 5.5-feet high on the inside and 6.5-feet on the outside. The interior pavement of the heiau was covered with ʻiliʻili (sea-worn pebbles.) (Walker)

The heiau was visible to Stokes during his evaluation of Hawaiʻi heiau (1901-1919;) however, later destroyed when sugarcane was planted there.

As you drive this area of Kaʻū, you can look up the side of Mauna Loa and see Makanau, the tabletop hill.

Better yet, April 24- May 3, 2015, Kaʻū Coffee Festival will be celebrated at various venues in Kaʻū; events include star gazing from Makanau summit. The image shows Makanau.

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Makanau

March 21, 2015 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Kakoʻi

“I believe these were the largest workshops in the world for making of stone tools.” (Kenneth Emory)

“Dr Wm Hillebrand ascended to the summit of Mauna Kea … About 1,500 feet below the top, on the side of the mountain seldom visited by either foreigners or natives, they discovered an ancient manufactory of stone implements.”

“It consisted of a cave, in front of which was a pile of stone chips 25-feet high, which had evidently accumulated from the manufacture of stone adzes, maika balls, etc, etc, which lay scattered about in an unfinished state.”

“On reaching Mr Lyons’ residence, the discovery soon became noised abroad among the natives, who flocked to the mission premises to learn the truth of the report.”

“On inquiry among them, no person appears to ever to have heard of the existence of the manufactory, – even the oldest natives were ignorant of it. … (Hillebrand later learned) that that an old native … in his younger days had heard the place spoken of by his fathers, but nothing definite can be earned regarding it.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 23, 1862)

The quarry is an area of roughly 7 ½-square miles on the south slope of Mauna Kea. The main activity was concentrated in a zone that is 1-to-1 ½ miles wide between the 11,000 and 12,400 ft. elevation.

The landscape is dotted with numerous cinder cones, the principal one of which in the quarry area is Puʻu Koʻokoʻolau. The upper slopes of Mauna Kea have been described as a stony alpine desert. There is little vegetation and the ground surface has the appearance of a desert pavement.

The modern climate is both dry and cold. It is sufficiently cold that glacial features, such as patterned ground, are actively maintained. Evidence of formerly colder conditions can be seen in the summit region in the form of glacially scoured bedrock and surficial glacial drift deposits. (McCoy)

“Visiting this region in the summer of 1937, we located seven caves, and seven shelters formed by the overhanging of bluffs and protected from the wind by stone walls erected by the ancient Hawaiians.”

“The chips and unfinished adzes at this site cover an area of roughly fifty feet long by twenty feet broad, and the thickest part of the pile rises approximately ten feet above the sloping ground. Some of the other piles are nearly as large.” (Emory, 1937)

“Nowhere else in Polynesia are there such accumulations of chips and rejects. … Several hundred nearly finished adzes ranging from two to twelve inches in length, and a few chisels, lay on the pile of chips at Keanakakoʻi site.”

“The ordinary discoidal hammer-stones, which we saw scattered about, were not more numerous than spherical stones of the same vesicular basalt, flattened slightly on one side. These spherical stones puzzled us until we discovered that a number of the rejected adzes had been smoothed and shaped by pecking so as to be gripped comfortably in the hand.”

“We figured that these shaped rejects must have been gripped in the left hand like a stone chisel, one end placed on a stone block to be chipped, and the other end struck a smart blow with the flat face of the spherical stone mallet held in the right hand.” (Emory)

“Such a method has not before been described but no other has been suggested which would explain these two tools certainly employed in the manufacture of the adzes. The use of the mallet-stone and of the chisel-stone, would be effective in the first rough chipping of a large block, but the discoidal hammer-stone would be necessary for the final chipping.”

“Large slabs and blocks of stone had been carried to the workshops from the quarries nearby. The quarries are simply places along the ledges of hard rock where quantities of slabs have been broken off by the scraping of the glacier which once covered Mauna Kea and by the freezing of water penetrating into cracks.”

“There is evidence that the Hawaiians broke some of the stone from the bluffs themselves but generally they simply broke loose slabs into pieces to be carried to the workshops.”

“Acres of ground are strewn with the dark blue, freshly broken rock contrasting with the dull grown surface of the weathered stone. In many places, the rock of the ledges is quite reddish, owing to the oxidation of its iron minerals, and this has led to the supposition that the Hawaiian built fires against the bluffs to split off the stone.”

“The floors of the caves and shelters contain grass-padding and some fragments of seashells, but no accumulation of shells or bones such as would indicate use as living quarters.”

“On calm nights the temperature drops well below freezing. On rainy and windy nights, water drips through the roofs of the caves. During the winter months, snow frequently covers the ground, and the bitterly cold winds sweeping over the workshops would be unendurable to the workers.” (Emory)

Most stages of adze manufacture (kakoʻi – to make adzes; adze maker) were carried out at these sites and that adze preforms or nearly finished but unpolished adzes were the actual products removed from the quarries. (Withrow)

The quantity of food that could be transported from the coast would have effectively limited the length of stay, unless, of course, there were other people who formed task groups responsible for supplying the craftsmen and also, for carrying down selected preforms for finishing by grinding and polishing.

The combination of these factors with archaeological reasoning based on excavated evidence suggests seasons no shorter than two to three weeks. (McCoy)

An adze is an ancient type of edge tool dating back to the Stone Age. Similar to an axe in shape, it was used for cutting, smoothing, and carving wood and other materials.

In the Hawaiian Islands, an adze blade was generally made out of basalt, a common volcanic rock formed by the rapid cooling of lava. Basalt was favored for tool making because of its hardness and ability to hold an edge. (NPS)

“The ax (adze) of the Hawaiians was of stone. The art of making it was handed down from remote ages. Ax-makers were a greatly esteemed class in Hawaii nei. Through their craft was obtained the means of felling trees and of cutting and hewing all kinds of timber used in every sort of wood-work.” (Malo)

The upper and lower sides of the adze blade were then tapered using a grinding stone sprinkled with sand and water. Once the sides had been ground down and the edge was sharpened, the blade was secured to a wooden handle with a fiber cord. The finished adze was then ready to be used or traded for other goods or services.

The Hawaiian adze was attached to a bent wooden handle that allowed the user to swing it in a downward cutting motion. Occasionally a small adze blade would be fastened to the tip of a stick, and when the stick end was hit with a stone it would act as a chisel.

The adze was one of the most important tools in the Hawaiian Islands and large adzes were used for cutting trees and shaping canoes while smaller ones were used to carve things such as furniture, bowls, weapons, idols and small tools. (NPS)

Some adzes were undoubtedly storied objects carrying great significance while others were more common domestic tools. Perhaps the adzes of greatest significance were quarried in relatively limited number and reserved for chiefs. (Mills) Mauna Kea Adz Quarry is a National Historical Landmark.

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Adze_Quarry-Cressler

Adze Quarry-Cressler

Tailings for the ancient adze quarry

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Adze-Quarry-Cressler

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Debris pile of basalt chips outside an adze quarry where stone implements were made-IFA

March 15, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

North Shore Na Kiʻi Pohaku

Oʻahu’s North Shore is seasonally dynamic. During relatively calm summer conditions, the beaches are generally flat and wide.

However, with big winter waves, we often read of homeowner concerns for erosion of the beach and homes and associated improvements at risk.

In 1969, the “swell of the century” (the result of three overlapping North Pacific storms) produced 30-foot surf. At midnight on December 1, hundreds of residents were evacuated – sixty North Shore homes were destroyed or badly damaged.

Last year, when 25-foot waves rolled in, coastal erosion near the North Shore’s Rocky Point was considered the worst in decades. (Fletcher; KITV)

Scientists are forecasting that coastal erosion will worsen in the coming years, leaving beachfront improvements increasingly vulnerable. (Cocke)

Rather than focus on this unfortunate situation right now, let’s look at a bit of history that is periodically exposed (rarely, not every year) when the winter swells crash onto the Oʻahu North Shore.

Let’s look back.

Hawaiian was a spoken language but not a written language. Historical accounts were passed down orally, through chants and songs.

This doesn’t suggest however, that the Hawaiians did not communicate through “written” symbols – Hawaiians also communicated through na kiʻi pōhaku, petroglyphs.

Petroglyph is a word that comes from the Greek words “petros,” for rock, and “gypheian,” to carve. Thus, petroglyphs are rock carvings.

Petroglyphs occur throughout the world. Certain shapes and forms appear to be universal. A petroglyph of a man or dog in Sweden looks just like a petroglyph of a man or dog in Hawai‘i.

It is probable that the first settlers to Hawai‘i started carving in the rocks after they arrived here. With no other writing, the ancient Hawaiians used petroglyphs as forms of communication, with the gods, spirits and others who viewed them.

Hawaiian petroglyphs are more often found near or at junctions of trails, or areas when ‘mana’ (cosmic power or force) was found.

It was this mana that was supposed to be absorbed by the petroglyphs to insure the efficacy of the spiritual rite or act of magic along Oʻahu’s North Shore, when some of the sand is washed from the beach, a plot of petroglyphs is exposed near the shoreline.

Weathered and worn by the wave and abrasive action of the moving sand, once hidden petroglyphs, carved into the smooth lava, are periodically exposed. More than 70 images are in the petroglyph field – mostly human and dog figures.

Hard surface petroglyph carving was done with a stone, repeatedly smashing the stone against the surface. Designs on smoother walls in caves can be scraped with a pointed rock.

I want to extend a special thanks to “Ski” Kwiatkowski for his assistance and information on petroglyphs provided in his book “Na Kiʻi Pohaku”.

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North Shore Petroglyphs-(seandavey)

North Shore Petroglyphs-((c)MikeKrzywonski)

North-Shore Petroglyph (Ching)

North Shore Petroglyphs-((c)MikeKrzywonski)

North Shore Petroglyph-scottsharick

North Shore Petroglyphs-((c)MikeKrzywonski)

North Shore Petroglyph-(tripadvisor)

North Shore Petroglyphs-scottsharick

March 7, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Royal Footsteps

To the unsuspecting motorist, travel along Ali‘i Drive is a very pleasant coastal drive filled with scenic vistas, natural features and recreational opportunities.

But look a little closer and discover that these seven miles of roadway hold seven centuries of Hawaiian history and culture revealed in the archaeological sites that have survived over hundreds of years.

Ali‘i, Hawai‘i’s royal class, were the ruler-caretakers of the islands. The great chiefs, through their strong genealogical connections, owned all the land in the areas they controlled.

Royal Centers were compounds selected by the Ali‘i for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored. Structures most likely included heiau (religious temples) and sacred areas, house sites for the Ali‘i and their entourage of family and kahuna (priests).

Four of the seven ancient Royal Centers in use in Kona are located on what is now called Ali‘i Drive: Kamakahonu, Hōlualoa, Kahaluʻu and Keauhou.

Kamakahonu, Kailua – Occupied by Kamehameha I between 1813 and 1819.
Holualoa – Area with numerous heiau and good surf. Associated with Keolonahihi in the ca. 1300, Keakamahana and Keakealaniwahine in ca. 1600 and Kamehameha I in the 18th Century.
Kahaluʻu – Complex of multiple heiau surrounding Kahaluʻu Bay.
Keauhou – This area is noted for the largest hōlua slide in Hawai‘i called Kaneaka, the surfing area called Kaulu and numerous heiau.

Oral traditions that tell us that in the time of Pāʻao, or by western calculations the 1300s, Chiefess Keolonāhihi resided at the Hōlualoa Royal Center.

Keolonāhihi (reported to be either the daughter or niece of Pāʻao) is an essential link to the beginnings of old Hawai‘i’s kapu system – the religious, social and political structure introduced by Pāʻao which lasted for some 500-years until King Kamehameha II defiantly ended it in 1819 at the Kamakahonu Royal Center.

Defending these old traditions, over 300 warriors lost their lives in the fierce Battle of Kuamoʻo and are buried at Lekeleke, the southern endpoint of Ali‘i Drive.

In the early-1500s, ʻUmialiloa (ʻUmi) consolidated his reign by killing off other chiefs to become the sole ruler of Hawai‘i Island. He then moved to Kona, where he was known as a benevolent chief, and during this time the Kahaluʻu area grew in its political stature and religious significance.

Lonoikamakahiki, who also ruled during the 1500s, chose Kahaluʻu and Keauhou for his residence and the seat of government.

The Kahaluʻu Royal Center included the ancient Hāpaiali‘i Heiau that once stood for prayers, along with adjacent Ke‘ekū heiau and Makolea heiau. All have been recently restored.

In the 1600s, Keakealaniwahine, the great-great grandmother of King Kamehameha I, and her mother Keakamahana were Ali‘i of the highest rank and they resided at the Hōlualoa Royal Center. Alapaʻinui and Kalaniʻōpuʻu, 1600s to 1700s, are also associated with several sites and heiau in the region.

The Kamehameha Dynasty ruled for nearly a century from the late-1700s to the late-1800s. During the late-1700s and early 1800s, King Kamehameha I, also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the first to unify the entire Hawai‘i archipelago under a single rule.

He excelled at surfing at Hōlualoa Bay; in the final years of his life, Kamehameha I selected Kamakahonu as his residence and his rule established the first Capital of Hawai‘i here from 1812 until his death in 1819. Shortly thereafter, the capital of the kingdom was moved from Hawai‘i Island, never to return.

Archaeological features of these various sites, for the most part, remain in place along Ali‘i Drive and signal their monumental importance in Hawai‘i’s history and culture. Several heiau have been restored in Keauhou.

It was here, along Ali‘i Drive, over centuries in time where chiefs of the highest rank walked.

Here was the coming of the first Christian missionaries who arrived in Kailua Bay in 1820 and began the transformation of Hawai‘i through rapid religious conversion.

Historic Kailua Village hosts renowned international sporting events (Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, Ironman Triathlon World Championship and Queen Lili‘uokalani Long Distance Canoe Races.)

Historic sites once covered much of the Kailua to Keauhou section of the Kona Coast. It is important for us to honor the Ali‘i by maintaining, enhancing and interpreting the remaining ancestral inheritance.

Recently, TripAdvisor, considered the world’s largest travel site, announced that Historic Kailua Village was the top choice for visitors in the US (the awards annually highlight 54-spots globally that have seen the greatest increase in positive traveler feedback and traveler interest, year-over-year.)

We prepared a corridor management plan for Royal Footsteps Along the Kona Coast Scenic Byway for the Kailua Village Business Improvement District – it runs the length of Aliʻi Drive.

We were honored and proud when the Scenic Byway received an Environment / Preservation Award from the American Planning Association‐Hawaiʻi Chapter; Historic Preservation Commendation and Preservation Media Awards from Hawaiʻi Foundation from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation; and the Pualu Award for Culture & Heritage from the Kona‐Kohala Chamber of Commerce.

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