Wednesday, May 5, 1999



Prehistory to 1780: Ancient Hawaii to
Western Discovery

The Ancients

Bishop Museum
Violating a kapu often meant death in old
Hawaii, as depicted in this drawing by
Jacques Etienne Victor Arago.



Lifestyle mixed
wisdom, oppression,
godly beliefs

Fragments of old civilization reveal
a society of healing expertise, and of
ritualistic pains and pleasures

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

Tapa

"The king was all powerful," wrote famed Hawaiian historian David Malo, and violation of a tabu or rule brought swift penalty.

"The punishment inflicted on those who violated the tabu of the chiefs was to be burned with fire until their bodies were reduced to ashes, or to be strangled, or stoned to death," wrote Malo, born a few years after Capt. James Cook's death in 1779. "Thus it was that the tabus of the chiefs oppressed the whole people."

The women, especially, bore deep oppressions.

"Among the articles of food that were set apart for the exclusive use of man, of which it was forbidden the women to eat, were pork, bananas, coconuts, also certain fishes," Malo said. "If a woman was clearly detected in the act of eating any of these things . . . she was put to death."

For commoners, life was hard -- but not without its pleasures.

The game ume, for instance, was enjoyed by all Hawaiian groups, Malo wrote. At night, before a huge bonfire, the people would gather in a circle. One man would sing "a lascivious song, waving in his hand a long wand trimmed with bird feathers."

Pairs were selected as the man tapped them with his wand, and "the man and woman went out and enjoyed themselves," Malo reported. "A husband would not be jealous of or offended at his wife if she went out with another man, nor would a wife be angry with her own husband."

Though such details live on, we know but fragments of the prerecorded history of the Hawaiians.

For instance, it was from studies of remains at the Mokapu burial mounds that researchers such as Charles E. Snows were able to make deductions about the medical care of the population.

Few broken bones were found, he said, and those that were had been perfectly set.

"It is reasonable to assume that these Mokapuans had the care of skilled bone-setters whose knowledge of anatomy and the physiological process of repair was extensive," Snows said.

Hawaiian histories also show that the kahuna lapa'au la'au (priests skilled in treating illness) had used in some way the components from 317 different plants, 29 animals and a dozen minerals, to treat various ailments, reported O.A. Bushnell, professor of medical microbiology and medical history at the University of Hawaii.

As the Hawaiian population grew, the density put pressures on the society, which resulted in more wars and battles to control land.

Captured warriors were often sacrificed. Early Hawaiians, though, did appreciate acts of mercy, and places of refuge were created to allow the defeated or kapu violators a chance to escape.

The last quarter of the 18th century, however, saw the entire, relatively stable and isolated islands changed forever.

First, British explorer Cook returned to Hawaii on his third trip through the Pacific, after a futile hunt for a northwest sea passage back to Europe.

FIRST thought to be an incarnation of Lono, one of the Hawaiians' most important gods, Cook was feted, and trade began between the crew of his two ships and the islanders. So did sexual relations, which in just a few months, led to venereal disease raging from Kauai to Maui.

Although Cook tried to stop the contact -- even flogging a crewman caught having sex with a native -- the islands had been infected with the first of several diseases that would rip out the heart of the native culture.

At the same time, Hawaii's greatest leader, Kamehameha, was gathering supporters and troops, becoming a skilled, fearless warrior and a tactician without equal.

It was under Kamehameha that the warring islands would be united: Centuries of fierce native battles would culminate in a final assault that brought more than 1,000 canoes onto Oahu's shores, from Waikiki to Kahala.

Also to come were settlers from the Western and Asian worlds, bringing new, foreign kinds of cultural and political assault.


The caste system

The alii (chiefs): Before Kamehameha, each island was ruled by an alii moi, the head chief above the nobles or alii. Each alii moi had an adviser-administrator, called the kalaimoku or "kingdom carver."

The kahuna (experts): The field specialists, such as the high priest, judge or doctor. They were the intelligent, trained ones who often were the brains behind the kings.

The makaainana (commoners): Among themselves, food and labor were shared. But there was no land ownership, since all lands and yields were in their ruler's name. They went unquestioningly with their chiefs into battle.

The kauwa (outcasts): Personal slaves to the chiefs but otherwise considered unclean. They often were sacrificed as atonement for their master's kapu violations.


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