Hawaiian

Hawaiian, any of the aboriginal people of Hawaii, descendants of Polynesians who migrated to Hawaii in two waves: the first from the Marquesas Islands, probably about ad 400; the second from Tahiti in the 9th or 10th century. Numbering about 300,000 at the time of Captain James Cook’s arrival at the islands in 1778, full-blooded Hawaiians numbered fewer than 10,000 in the late 20th century (though there are large numbers of part-Hawaiians).

The Hawaiians were a brown-skinned people with straight or wavy black hair. They were large and of fine physique, like the New Zealand Maori, whose language resembled theirs. The ruling classes tended to inbreed. Polygyny and polyandry were practiced, especially among the chiefs. Rank descended mainly through the mother.

Hawaiian society’s basic unit of land, the ahupuaa, usually extended from the shore to the mountaintop, with rights in the adjoining sea waters, so that the occupants had the means of supplying all their wants—the sea for fish; the littoral for coconuts; the valley for taro, their principal food; the lower slopes for sweet potatoes, yams, and bananas; and the mountain for wood. The next subdivision was called the ili; it was either subservient to the ahupuaa or independent. Within the ili were small areas, kuleanas, occupied by the common people, who also had certain rights of fishery, water, and mountain products. Besides open-sea fisheries, there were stone-walled fish ponds, some now 1,000 years old, built semicircularly from the shore. Taro was raised in terraces flooded by conduits from streams. Elaborate systems of water rights were evolved. A conqueror or a successor king often redistributed the lands.

Without metals, pottery, or beasts of burden, the people made implements, weapons, and utensils of stone, wood, shell, teeth, and bone, and great skill was displayed in arts and industries. Their featherwork (capes, robes, helmets, leis, kahilis) has not been excelled. Houses were of wood frames and thatched, with stone floors covered with mats. Food was cooked in holes in the ground, called imus, by means of hot stones; but many foods, including fish, were often eaten raw. Many of the best foods were taboo to women. Men usually wore only a malo, or girdle, and women a skirt of tapa, or paper cloth, or leaves or fibre, though both sometimes wore mantles thrown over the shoulders. Canoes were outrigger or double, sometimes 100 feet (30 m) long. The men were excellent sailors, fishermen, and swimmers. Their year began on November 20 and consisted of 12 lunar months, with occasionally an intercalary month.

The Hawaiians excelled in athletics. Frequent contests were held, even between champions of different islands, in surfboarding on the crests of waves, swimming, wrestling, boxing, spear throwing (at each other), coasting while standing on narrow sleds, bowling, and running. They often gambled, and they made narcotic and fermented drinks of the awa (kava) or ti roots. They were fond of music, both vocal and instrumental, and had percussion, string, and wind instruments, including a nose flute. Their dances were largely the hula of many varieties. They loved flowers, which they wore in leis around their necks and hats. The Hawaiians were also fond of oratory, poetry, history, storytelling, chants, riddles, conundrums, and proverbs. Without writing, knowledge of all sorts was preserved and taught to successive generations by persons specially trained for the purpose.

The Hawaiians held a vague belief in a future existence. They had four principal gods—Kane, Kanaloa, Ku, and Lono—and innumerable lesser gods and tutelary deities. Animals, plants, places, professions, families, and all other objects and forces had their gods or spirits. Temples of stone and idols of wood abounded, and hardly anything was undertaken without religious ceremonies. Priests and sorcerers were potent. On important occasions there were human sacrifices. There were places of refuge to which one might flee and be safe.

The Hawaiian political and religious systems were closely interwoven. During the last period before their discovery by Europeans, the nobility and priesthood tended to become more and more tyrannical, the common people more and more oppressed. The laws, chief among which were the intricate and oppressive taboos, bore heavily upon the masses, especially women, and their administration became largely a matter of arbitrariness and favouritism.

After the arrival of Christian missionaries beginning in 1820, there was a certain liberalization in government, including the abolition of the more repressive laws and taboos. However, the native population was weakened and decimated by Western diseases, and the native royal house came increasingly under the influence of American missionaries and foreign businessmen and planters. The first indentured Chinese field hands arrived in 1851, and the first Japanese in 1868; these and other foreigners eventually overwhelmed the native Hawaiians.