People
of the Islands
Superb voyagers, Polynesians
from the Marquesas Islands migrated to Hawai`i
over 1,600 years ago. Navigating by the
sun and stars, reading the winds, currents,
and the flight of seabirds, Polynesians
sailed across 2,400 miles of open ocean
in great double-hulled canoes. They brought
with them items essential to their survival:
pua'a (pigs), `ilio (dogs),
and moa (chickens); the roots of
kalo (taro) and `uala (sweet
potato); the seeds and saplings of niu
(coconut), mai`a (banana), ko
(sugar cane), and other edible and medicinal
plants. Polynesians were well-established
on the islands when about 800 years ago,
Polynesians from the Society Islands arrived
in Hawai`i. Claiming descent from the greatest
gods, they became the new rulers of Hawai`i.
After a time of voyaging back and forth
between the Society Islands and the Hawaiian
Archipelago, contact with southern Polynesia
ceased. During the 400 years of isolation
that followed, a unique Hawaiian culture
developed.
D. Howard Hitchcock,
ca 1927 |
Pele-'ai-honua
( Pele, who eats the land) is both creator
and destroyer. She throws molten fountains
into the air, governs the great flows
of lava, and sometimes reveals herself,
for a few moments, in the fires of Kilauea.
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Hawai`i was a highly stratified
society with strictly maintained castes.
The ali`i (chiefs) headed the social
pyramid and ruled over the land. Highly
regarded and sometimes feared, the kahuna
(professionals) were experts on religious
ritual or specialists in canoe-building,
herbal medicine, and healing. The maka`ainana
(commoners) farmed and fished; built walls,
houses, and fishponds; and paid taxes to
the paramount chiefs and his chiefs. Kauwa,
the lowest class, were outcasts or slaves.
A system of laws known as kanawai
enforced the social order. Certain people,
places, things, and times were sacred --
they were kapu, or forbidden. Women
ate apart from men and were restricted from
eating pork, coconuts, bananas, or a variety
of other foods. Kapu regulated fishing,
planting, and the harvesting of other resources,
thus ensuring their conservation. Any breaking
of kapu disturbed the stability of
society; the punishment often was death.
Village life was rich and varied: Hawaiians
fished in coastal waters and collected shellfish,
seaweed, and salt along the shore. They
raised pigs, dogs, and chickens and harvested
sweet potatoes, taro, and other crops.
Men pounded taro into poi (the
staple food of Hawaiians), while women beat
the inner bark of wauke (paper mulberry)
into kapa (bark cloth). They worshipped
akua (gods) and `aumakua (guardian
spirits) and chronicled their history through
oli (chant), mele (song) and
hula (dance). Over several hundred
years the people of Hawai`i cultivated traditions
that were passed on through generations.
But the sounds of taro pounding and
kapa beating, rhythmical signatures
of Hawaiian village life, would fade away
after Captain James Cook arrived in 1778
and introduced the rest of the world to
Hawai`i.
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