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

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

September 18, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pig Hunting

Hānai Puaʻa Wahine, Maloko Ka Uku
Raise a sow, for her reward is inside of her
(A sow will bear young)

Pua‘a (pigs) are not native to Hawai‘i. The first pigs were brought to the Hawaiian Islands by the early Polynesians that came to the Islands (approximately AD 1000 and 1200.) (Kirch)

“Originally, pua‘a enjoyed a close relationship with their human families and rarely strayed far from the kauhale (family compound.)”

“Well-developed taro and sweet potato agriculture in ancient Hawai‘i was incompatible with uncontrolled pigs, and there is every indication that pigs were both highly valued and carefully managed sources of protein.”

“Pua‘a were an integrated part of Hawaiian households, and the common presence of pa pua‘a (pig pens) reflects the controlled, physically compartmentalized nature of pig management in traditional Hawai‘i.”

“Notwithstanding, small populations of loosely controlled and free-roaming animals existed in ancient times. Traditional and historic evidence indicates that these animals remained largely domesticated, living mainly on the periphery of kauhale and extending into lowland forests.”

They continued to rely largely on the food and shelter provided by the kauhale. This is because in pre-contact times, native Hawaiian forests were devoid of large alien fruits such as mangos and guava, and major protein sources (including non-native earthworms.) (Maly, Pang & Burrows, 2010)

“We believe that subsistence hunting of feral ungulates by native Hawaiians is NOT a traditional and customary right and therefore not protected under the state constitution or Hawai‘i Revised Statutes.”

“There is no evidence that pigs were hunted in ancient times. The Hawaiian diet was not dependent on pigs and they were only eaten for important occasions or as offerings to gods.”

“It is well documented that feral pigs ranging through Hawaii’s upland forests today bear little physical or cultural resemblance to the smaller, domesticated pigs brought to the islands by voyaging Polynesians.”

“It remains a popular misconception that pigs are native to Hawaiian forests and that pig hunting was a common practice in ancient Hawai‘i.” (Benton Keali‘i Pang, President of ‘Ahahui Mālama I Ka Lōkahi; Environment Hawaii, January 1997)

Hunting of ungulates was not in keeping with Hawaiian cultural traditions. Goats, sheep, European boar, and cattle are all “foreign to the native Hawaiian landscape and culture.”

The Hawaiians themselves used fences to create enclosures to protect native resources. The Hawaiian pig was traditionally raised and fattened in enclosures. (Kepa Maly; Environment Hawaii, January 1997)

“Domestication … is here confined to three species; the hog, dog, and cock; and secondly, it is in fact next to a state of nature in these isles: the hogs and fowl run about at their case the greatest part of the day; the last especially, which live entirely on what they pick up, without being regularly fed.”

“Now and then I observed the house open, but furnished below at the height of about one foot, with a fence of bamboos. Some small houses are likewise included in a kind of partition made of small sticks in the manner of hurdles.”

“The natives commonly keep their hogs during the night, in the house, and have in one corner of it contrived an inclusure (pa booa (pā puaʻa)) covered on the top with boards, on which they sleep.”

“As to animal food from hogs, dogs and fowls, I am certain that their meat is but sparingly eaten …” (Forster’s Observations in Polynesia, 1778)

“Pigs were raised in great numbers for food and for religious and ceremonial purposes. They were free to roam about the village and its environs. 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 of these foods were the scraps and peelings not suitable for human consumption.” (Mitchell)

“In contrast, current feral pigs are largely derived from animals introduced after western contact. Captain James Cook, for example, brought European pigs during his first voyage to Hawai‘i, and many other introductions of European and Asian swine followed. Over time, the Polynesian pua‘a interbred with and were mostly displaced by these larger animals.”

“As feral pig populations grew on all islands, they began ranging more freely in the forests. Concurrent but independent introductions of earthworms and introduced plant species, such as mango and guava, provided reliable protein and carbohydrate food sources and helped expand their range.”

“Omnivorous and without any non-human predators, pigs began to thrive in the native forest and successfully established large populations. Within only a few generations, any escaped domesticated pigs reverted to a feral form, retaining the large body size of European swine, but severing their dependence on human beings.” (Maly, Pang & Burrows, 2010)

“The custom of recreational hunting evolved over the last hundred fifty years as native Hawaiians assimilated western traditions in the context of these introduced game animals.”

“The earliest descriptions of western-style hunting occur in the opening decades of the 19th century, when outings were organized to control wild herds of cattle that threatened agriculture, residences, and forest resources.”

“The practice increased in frequency and in popularity, with island hunters playing a key role in the state’s response to the watershed crisis of the late 19th-century. These state-sponsored control efforts resulted in the removal of over 170,000 introduced mammals in the first half of the 20th century.”

“Although hunting is not widely practiced in contemporary Hawaiian society – only two percent of the state’s residents obtain a hunting license – it is a visible and common occurrence across the state.”

“Pig hunting, in particular, is a cherished modern practice for island sportsmen, including some whose subsistence depends to greater or lesser extent on wild game.”

“Pig hunting in heavy cover is usually accomplished with the use of dogs, and the required training, feeding and care for these animals can be a difficult and expensive task. The dogs locate, chase, grab, or bay the game, which is then typically dispatched by the hunter with a gun or knife.”

“These techniques are derived directly from western and European pig hunting practices, incorporated over the last 150 years in Hawai‘i, and passed down through family generations.” (Maly, Pang & Burrows, 2010)

While cultural authorities note that hunting of pigs is not a traditional and cultural practice, a recent Hawaiʻi Intermediate Court of Appeals decision (December 2015) notes pig hunting is a customary and traditional practice for Kui Palama on the Island of Kauai, prior to 1892.

But the Court noted, “there have been no Hawaiʻi appellate cases directly addressing whether pig hunting is a constitutionally protected traditional and customary practice, and for this reason, we reiterate that our decision here is confined to the narrow circumstances and the particular record in this case.”)

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Wild_Pig-civilbeat
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Pig-Puaa
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Young men in malo with pig-PP-2-7-009-1939
Young men in malo with pig-PP-2-7-009-1939

Filed Under: General, Hawaiian Traditions, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Pigs, Puaa

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