Hawaiians

By JOCELYN LINNEKIN AND JOHN BEIERLE

Hawaiian Islanders.

Hawaiians are the indigenous people of the Hawaiian Islands. Now a disadvantaged minority in their own homeland, they are the descendants of Eastern Polynesians who originated in the Marquesas Islands. The name “Hawai'i” is that of the largest island in the chain. It came to refer to the aboriginal people of the archipelago because the first Western visitors anchored at that island and interacted predominantly with Hawai'i Island chiefs.

The populated Hawaiian Islands are located between 15° and 20° N and 160° and 155° W. The climate is temperate tropical, and weathered volcanic features dominate the terrain. Rainfall and soil fertility may vary significantly between the windward and leeward sides of the islands.

The aboriginal population is estimated at 250,000-300,000. Because of recurrent epidemics of introduced diseases, the native population had been reduced by at least 75 percent by 1854. In the late 1880s Hawaiians were outnumbered by immigrant sugar workers. According to the state's enumeration, Hawaiians today number about 175,000, or 19 percent of the state's population. Because of historically high rates of Hawaiian exogamy “pure” Hawaiians number only about 9,000.

Hawaiian is closely related to Marquesan, Tahitian, and Maori. The use of Hawaiian was suppressed in island schools during the territorial period, and the language fell into disuse during the mid-twentieth century. Few Hawaiians can speak the language today. The colloquial language of most Hawaiians is Hawai'i Islands Creole, informally known as “Pidgin.” Since the 1970s the University of Hawaii has been the center of attempts to revive the Hawaiian language through education. A few hundred children are enrolled in language-immersion preschools where only Hawaiian is spoken.

The date of first colonization is constantly being revised, but Polynesians are believed to have reached Hawai'i by about A.D. 300. There may have been multiple settlement voyages, but two-way travel between Hawai'i and other island groups was never extensive. By the time of Captain James Cook's arrival late in 1778, the Hawaiian chieftainship had evolved a high order of political complexity and stratification, with the Maui and Hawai'i Island dynasties vying to control the eastern portion of the archipelago. In their first encounters with the Hawaiians Cook's men introduced venereal disease. At Kealakekua, on the leeward side of Hawai'i Island, Cook was greeted as the returning god Lono, but he was later killed in a skirmish over a stolen longboat. Europeans nevertheless began to use the islands as a provisions stop, for Hawai'i was uniquely well situated to supply the fur trade and, later, North Pacific whalers. The Hawaiian chiefs became avidly involved in foreign trade, seeking to accumulate weapons, ammunition, and luxury goods. In 1795 Kamehameha, a junior chief of Hawai'i Island, defeated the Maui chiefs in a decisive battle on O'ahu Island, thereby unifying the windward isles. This date is taken to mark the beginning of the Hawaiian kingdom and Hawai'i's transition from chiefdom to state. An astute and strong-willed ruler, Kamehameha consolidated his rule and established a bureaucratic government. His successors were weaker and were continually pressured by foreign residents and bullied by colonial governments. High-ranking chiefly women and their supporters convinced Kamehameha II to abolish the indigenous religion shortly after his father's death in 1819. Congregationalist missionaries arrived a few months later and came to exert tremendous influence on the kingdom's laws and policies. In the 1840s resident foreigners persuaded Kamehameha III to replace the traditional system of land tenure with Western-style private landed property. The resulting land division, the “Great Máhele,” was a disaster for the Hawaiian people. The king, the government, and major chiefs received most of the land, with only 29,000 acres going to 80,000 commoners. At the same time foreigners were given the right to buy and own property. Within a few decades most Hawaiians were landless as foreign residents accumulated large tracts for plantations and ranches. The 1875 Reciprocity Treaty with the United States ensured the profitability of sugar. Planters imported waves of laborers from Asia and Europe, and Hawaiians became a numerical minority. A clique of white businessmen overthrew the last monarch, Queen Lili'uokalani, in 1893. Although President Grover Cleveland urged that the monarchy be restored, Congress took no action and annexation followed in 1898. While descendants of the Asian sugar workers have lived the American dream in Hawai'i, native Hawaiians suffered increasing poverty and alienation during the territorial period. Hawaiian radicalism and cultural awareness have been on the upsurge since the mid-1970s. Citing the precedent of American Indian tribal nations, activists now demand similar status for Hawaiians, and the movement for Hawaiian sovereignty has gained increasing credibility among the state's political leaders.

In precontact times Hawaiians lived in dispersed settlements along the coasts and in windward valleys. Inland and mountain areas were sparsely populated. Hawaiian houses were thatched from ground to roof ridge with native grass or sugarcane leaves. Commoner houses were low and sparsely furnished with coarse floor mats. The dwellings of the chiefs were more spacious, with floors and walls covered thickly with fine mats and bark cloth. Because of taboos mandating the separation of men and women in certain contexts, a household compound consisted of several dwellings for sleeping and eating. The most important developments affecting Hawaiians since the mid-nineteenth century have been land alienation and urbanization. Small Hawaiian subsistence communities practicing fishing and farming persist in isolated rural areas of Maui, Moloka'i, and Hawai'i. On O'ahu, the leeward Waianae coast is a center of Hawaiian settlement. Significant numbers of Hawaiians also live on leased house lots in government-sponsored Hawaiian Home Lands communities within the city of Honolulu. Dwellings in the style of plantation housing predominate in working-class communities and neighborhoods throughout Hawai'i, and Hawaiian settlements are no exception to this pattern. In most Hawaiian villages and neighborhoods the houses are of single-walled wood construction, sometimes raised off the ground on pilings, with corrugated iron roofs. Rural Hawaiians may have small houses for cooking and bathing behind the main dwelling, a pattern that appears to be a holdover from Polynesian culture.

The first Polynesian settlers in Hawai'i subsisted largely on marine resources. In the ensuing centuries the Hawaiians developed extensive and highly productive agricultural systems. The staple food was taro, a starchy root that the Hawaiians pounded and mashed into a paste called poi. In wetland valleys taro was grown in irrigated pond fields resembling rice paddies. Intricate networks of ditches brought water into the taro patches, some of which doubled as fish ponds. In the late precontact period, concurrent with increasing political complexity, large walled fish ponds were constructed in offshore areas. These were reserved for chiefly use. The lee sides of the islands supported extensive field systems where Hawaiians grew dry-land taro, sweet potatoes, breadfruit, and bananas. The Polynesians brought pigs, dogs, and chickens to Hawai'i.

Goats and cattle were introduced by Westerners before 1800. In the early 1800s, to avoid the chiefs' growing demands on the rural populace, some Hawaiians turned to seafaring, peddling, and various jobs in the ports. The shift from rural subsistence to wage labor intensified in the latter half of the century. Hawaiians—men and women—made up the bulk of the sugar plantation labor force until after 1875. According to 1980 state figures, about 23 percent of Hawaiians today are employed in agriculture. Some are independent small farmers who produce the traditional staple, taro, for sale to markets. But most Hawaiians are engaged in service jobs. Hawaiians are underrepresented in management and professional occupations and overrepresented as bus drivers, police officers, and fire fighters.

Indigenous Hawaiian crafts included mat and bark-cloth making, feather work, and woodworking.

Although the traditional Hawaiian local group was largely self-sufficient, there was specialization and internal trade in canoes, adzes, fish lines, salt, and fine mats. In the postcontact period Hawaiians have tended to leave store keeping and commerce to other ethnic groups.

Most agricultural labor was performed by men in ancient Hawai'i, as was woodworking and adz manufacture. Women made bark cloth for clothing and mats for domestic furnishings, chiefly tribute, and exchange. Men did the deep-sea fishing while women gathered inshore marine foods. In most Hawaiian families today both spouses have salaried jobs outside the home.

In the native Hawaiian conception land was not owned but “cared for.” Use and access rights were allocated through the social hierarchy from the highest chiefs to their local land supervisors and thence to commoners. The most important administrative unit was a land section called the ahupua'a, which ideally ran from the mountain to the sea and contained a full range of productive zones. Typically a household had rights in a variety of microenvironments. The introduction of private land titles resulted in widespread dispossession in part because Hawaiians did not understand the implications of alienable property. The lands of the Kamehameha chiefly family descended to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, whose estate supports the Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu for the education of Hawaiian children. The Hawaiian Home Lands, established by Congress in 1920, are leased to persons who can prove 50 percent Hawaiian ancestry. Originally conceived as a “back to the land” farming program, the Hawaiian Home Lands are now used primarily for house lots.

There were no corporate kin groups among Hawaiians at the time of contact. The chiefs could trace their genealogies back many generations through bilateral links, opportunistically linking themselves to particular ancestral lines as the political situation demanded. Commoners recognized shallow bilateral kindreds augmented by stipulated and fictive kin.

In the Hawaiian language no distinction is made between parents and parents' collateral kin. Same-sex siblings are ranked by relative age, but brother and sister are terminologically unranked.

In pre-Christian Hawai'i both sexes enjoyed near-complete freedom to initiate and terminate sexual attachments. Marriage was unmarked by ceremony and was hardly distinguished from cohabitation and liaisons, except in chiefly unions. The birth of children was the more important ceremonial occasion. Marrying someone of higher rank was the ideal for both men and women. Polygyny was the norm among the ruling chiefs, permissible but infrequent among the common people. Postmarital residence was determined by pragmatic considerations.

Both commoners and chiefs lived in large extended-family household groups with fluid composition. The indigenous religion mandated that men and women had to have separate dwelling houses and could not eat together.

Men were more likely to inherit land rights than women, while women were privileged in the inheritance of the family's spiritual property and knowledge. Since the legal changes of the nineteenth century land inheritance among Hawaiians has been mostly bilateral.

In Hawaiian families today grandparents have an especially close relationship with their grandchildren, and they frequently take over parenting duties. As in other Polynesian societies, children may be adopted freely without emotional turmoil or secretiveness. Emphasis is placed on respect for age and mutual caring between family members.

At the time of Western contact in 1778 the Hawaiian islands were politically divided into several competing chiefdoms. Hawai'i was an independent kingdom from 1795 to 1893 and a United States territory from 1898 until statehood in 1959.

Precontact Hawai'i was a highly stratified society where the chiefs were socially and ritually set apart from the common people. Rank was bilaterally determined and chiefly women wielded considerable authority. The commoner category was internally egalitarian.

Each island was divided into districts consisting of several ahupua'a land sections. Districts and ahupua'a were redistributed by successful chiefs to their followers after a conquest. The chief then appointed a local land agent to supervise production and maintenance of the irrigation system. The commoners materially supported the chiefs with tribute at ritually prescribed times. Rebellions and power struggles were common. In legendary histories cruel and stingy chiefs are deserted by their people and overthrown by their kinder younger brothers.

The chiefs had absolute authority over commoners. They could confiscate their property or put them to death for violating ritual prohibitions. In practice, however, chiefs were constrained by their reliance on the underlying populace of producers. In Hawaiian communities today there is no sense of inborn rank and an egalitarian ethic prevails. Pretensions are leveled by the use of gossip and temporary ostracism.

Warfare was endemic in the Hawaiian chieftainship in the century or two preceding Cook's arrival. After Kamehameha's conquest the Hawaiian warrior ethic declined to the extent that the monarchy could be overthrown in 1893 by a company of marines. Interpersonal conflicts among Hawaiians today typify the tensions present in any small-scale community, and they are for the most part resolved through the intervention of family and friends. Hawaiians are very reluctant to call in outside authorities to resolve local-level conflicts.

The religion described in ethnohistorical sources was largely the province of male chiefs. Sacrificial rites performed by priests at monumental temples served to legitimate chiefly authority.

Chiefs were genealogically linked to gods and were believed to have sacred power (mana). Under what was called the kapu system women were denied many choice foods and could not eat with men. Pre-Christian beliefs persisted at the local level long after the chiefly sacrificial religion was overthrown. The indigenous religion recognized four major gods and at least one major goddess identified with the earth and procreation. Kū, the god of war, fishing, and other male pursuits, was Kamehameha's patron deity. Another god, Lono, represented the contrasting ethos of peace and reproduction. Women worshipped their own patron goddesses. Commoners made offerings to ancestral guardian spirits at their domestic shrines. Deities were also associated with particular crafts and activities. Although Congregationalists were the first to missionize in Hawai'i, the sect has few adherents among Hawaiians today. Roman Catholicism has attracted many Hawaiians, as have small Protestant churches emphasizing personal forms of worship.

Before the kapu abolition younger brothers normatively served their seniors as priests. Major deities had their own priesthoods. The volcano goddess Pele is said to have had priestesses. Among the commoners there were experts in healing and sorcery, known as “Kāhuna,” and such specialists are still utilized by Hawaiians today.

The Hawaiian ritual calendar was based on lunar phases. Kū ruled the land for eight months of the year. Lono reigned for four winter months during the Makahiki festival when warfare was suspended and fertility was celebrated.

Chiefly men were sometimes tattooed, but this was not a general custom and most of the details have been lost. The carved wooden idols of the gods are artistically impressive, but few survived the dramatic end of the native religion. The hula, the indigenous dance form, had numerous styles ranging from sacred paeans to erotic celebrations of fertility. Various percussion instruments used included drums, sticks, bamboo pipes, pebbles (like castanets), gourds, rattles, and split bamboo pieces.

Hawaiians today utilize Western medicine but may also consult healers and spiritual specialists, some linked to Hawaiian cultural precedent and others syncretic, drawing on other ethnic traditions. Hawaiians are particularly prone to spirit possession, and many believe that evil thoughts have material consequences on other people. Illness is linked to social grievances or imbalances.

Ancient Hawaiians secreted remains of the dead in burial caves. The deceased's personal power or mana was believed to reside in the bones. Chiefs were particularly concerned that their enemies not find their remains and show disrespect to them after death. Those who broke the taboos, on the other hand, were killed and offered to the gods, and their remains were allowed to decompose on the temple.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Hawaiians collection consists of 27 English language documents dealing with a variety of different ethnographic topics. The time frame for the collection ranges from the late eighteenth century (at the time of first Euro-American contacts) to the 1990s, with particular emphasis on traditional Hawaiian ethnography from approximately 1778 through the nineteenth century. The most comprehensive studies in the collection dealing with this time period are those of Buck (1957, no. 2), Handy and Pukui (1972, no. 4), Handy (1972, no. 5), Kamakau (1968, 1976, nos. 9 and 10), and Ellis (1917, no. 11). Although all of these deal broadly with the general ethnography of the Hawaiian people, Buck's work emphasizes material culture, while Handy adds additional information on traditional horticultural practices prior to Euro-American contacts, and adds further data on land use, mythology, settlement patterns, climate, geography, fauna, and flora. The work by Ellis, a missionary, who spent two months on the island of Hawaii in 1822-1823, is significant because it represents one of the earliest reports in the literature on the transitional changes taking place in Hawaiian society following the abolition of the idols in 1819. In addition to the above, one other major work in the collection is that of Buck (1993, no. 1), which is a study of the politics of Hawaiian history using concepts derived from various theories of social formation and culture change, illustrated through the changing historical contexts of chant, hula, and music. Other major topics discussed in this collection are: myths, legends, traditions, and folklore in Beckwith (1970, no. 3); studies of the community and household in Howard (1974, no. 6), Ito (1999, no. 8), Linnekin (1985, no. 14), Heighton (1968, no. 25), and Gallimore (1968, no. 26); culture change in Buck (1993, no. 1), Howard (1974, no. 6), Linnekin (1990, no. 13), Sahlins (1992, no. 15), and Kame'eleihiwa (1992, no. 16); and childhood and adolescent studies in Jordan (1968, no. 20), Boggs (1968, no. 21), and Howard (1968, 1968, nos. 23 and 24).

The collection in general is well balanced between the traditional Hawaiian society of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and more recent ethnographic studies of the late twentieth century.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this collection, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

This culture summary is based on the article "Hawaiians" by Jocelyn Linnekin, in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 2, 1991. Edited by Terrence E. Hays. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall & Co. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in July 2002. The Human Relations Area Files would like to thank Ty Kawika Tengan of the Department of Anthropology, University of Manoa, for his bibliographical suggestions in the preparation of this collection.

• 'AHA -- ritual -- category 788

• 'AHA'AINA PALALA --the first festivity in honor of the new born child -- category 852

• AHA-ALEE -- a council of nobility -- category 646

• AHUPUA'A -- a type of land division, usually extending from the mountains to the sea, under the control of a chief -- category 634

• 'AHU 'ULA feather cloaks -- 292, 287

• AIKAPU -- traditional religion -- categories 771, 783

• 'AINA -- land -- category 423

• AKUA -- the gods -- category 776

• ALI' I -- the aristocracy -- categories 565, 554

• ALI ' I AIMOKU -- paramount chief of a territory or island -- categories 634, 643

• ALI' I NUI -- generally the paramount chief, but may also include other members of the aristocracy -- categories 643, 565, 554

• ALOHA -- love, generosity -- categories 152, 577

• 'ANA' ANA -- magic and/or sorcery -- categories 754, 789

• A0 -- the three realms of the spirits of the dead -- category 775

• ARIOI society -- category 575

• AUMAKU -- guardian spirit -- categories 776, 787 (sometimes with 775)

• 'AUWAI -- an ancient irrigation ditch which supplied water for pondfield irrigation -- category 312

• 'AWA -- see KAVA

• Board of Land Commissioners -- a board that determines who has the rights to lands in Hawaii -- categories 423, 698

• gourds, growing of -- category 249

• HAKA -- a spirit medium -- 791

• HAKU -- the functioning head of an extended family -- category 622

• HALAU -- the school for learning the HULA -- category 874

• HALEKUKU -- tapa beating houses -- category 343

• HALE NOA -- the sleeping house -- category 342

• HALE NAUA -- family experts in genealogy who tested the claims of persons who were supposed to be kin of the Ali'i (aristocracy) -- categories 173, 814

• HALE PE'A -- the menstrual hut -- category 343

• HANAI -- adopted child -- category 597

• HEIAU -- a place of worship or sacrifice, ranging from simple upright stones to massive temple platforms -- categories 346, 368, 778

• HIHIA -- entanglement -- category 578

• HOLUA -- sled races -- 526

• HO 'OKUPU -- offerings, tribute -- category 651

• HO ' OPONOPONO -- conflict resolution -- category 627

• IKU-PAU -- high chiefs -- category 643

• IKU-NU'U -- ordinary chiefs -- category 622

• 'ILI -- a land division, usually a subdivision of an AHUPUA'A -- category 634

• 'ILI'ILI -- small pebbles or gravel used as paving on a house terrace or floor-- category 342

• IMU -- underground earth ovens -- category 354

• KAHILIS -- feathered staffs of state -- categories 293, 287

• KAHU -- a family member or retainer who was often involved with the burial of the members of the household; also an honored guardian, servant or family retainer -- categories 767, 554, 592

• KAHUA -- the terrace of a temple -- categories 346, 351

• KAHUNA -- individuals of status (priests, craftsmen, mediums, medical practitioners) -- categories 793, 463, 554, 791, 759, 756

• KAHUNA-HO'OUNAUNA -- priests of Milu or sorcerers -- category 754

• KAHUNA-LAPAAU-LAAU -- a herb doctor-- category 759

• KAHUNA NUI -- high priest -- category 793

• KAIKO ' EKE --siblings-in- law -- category 607

• KALANA -- in certain areas, a subsection of 'OKANA -- category 634

• KALO -- taro -- category 244

• KANAWAI ALI' I -- a ruler's edict -- category 671

• KAPU -- taboo; also associated with royal privileges or rank -- categories 688, 784, 554

• KAUHALE -- the permanent home of the family; a homestead or household compound; sometimes a dispersed community of scattered homesteads -- categories 342, 592, 621

• KAULA -- prophets -- category 792

• KAUWA-- the outcaste class -- category 565 (sometimes with 567, depending on context)

• KAVA ('AWA) -- a stimulant or narcotic subsistence, often used as a drink -- categories 272, 276

• kings -- category 643

• KOA -- warriors -- category 701

• KONOHIKI -- tax collectors; land stewards -- categories 651, 423

• KUKUI -- the candlenut tree (Aleurites moluccana); the oily candlenut kernels provided light when burned in stone lamps and were cooked for use as a relish -- categories 137, 263, 372

• KUPUA -- supernatural beings -- category 776

• KUPUNA -- ancestors -- category 769

• LAPU -- a ghost -- category 775

• LAULIMA -- cooperative enterprises -- category 476

• LEI NIHO PALAOA -- whale tooth pendant suspended from a necklace of braided human hair and a symbol of chiefly status -- categories 301, 554

• LELE -- offering stands; altars; also used for discontinuous land parcels belonging to an 'ILI -- categories 417, 782, 778; 423

• LILI -- jealousy -- category 152

• LOKO I'A -- fishponds -- category 228

• LO' I -- wet land plots -- category 241

• Long God -- the symbol of LONO, a wooden staff surmounted by a carved figure -- categories 778, 5311

• LUAU -- feast -- category 574

• LUAKINI -- a war temple, devoted to the god KU -- categories 346, 778

• MA -- a term used to refer to a "commoner" household group -- categories 592, 596

• MAHELE -- the division of the land of the kingdom in 1846-1855 -- category 423

• MAKA' AINANA -- commoners -- category 565

• MAKAHIKI festival -- festival of the new year -- categories 527, 796

• MALAMA -- watch over land -- category 423

• MALO -- the loincloth -- category 291

• MANA -- supernatural power -- category 778

• MAPELE -- a general term for temple, devoted to the worship of the god LONO -- categories 346, 778

• 'MATAKAINANGA -- a corporate descent group occupying a specific territory -- category 565

• MAWAEWAE festival -- "path clearing"; a ceremony at the birth of a first-born child -- category 852

• MELE -- a chant -- category 533

• MENEHUNE -- the first settlers in Hawaii, according to tradition -- category 173 (?), 773

• MOI -- king, ruler -- category 643

• MOKU -- district -- category 634

• MO' OLELO -- history -- categories 173, 773

• MUA -- a men's eating-house that also contains the family shrine -- categories 344, 345, 346 (depending on context)

• NIELE -- curious, inquisitive -- category 576

• NOHO -- spirit possession -- category 787

• 'OHANA -- the extended family; a dispersed community -- categories 596, 621

• 'OKANA -- districts -- category 634

• 'O'O -- digging sticks -- category 412

• PAEPAE -- the foundation for a dwelling consisting of rock walls filled with small stones -- categories 342, 333

• PAPA ALI'I -- the ranking body of high chiefs -- category 643

• PONO -- perfect equilibrium -- category 772

• PULE -- a prayer -- category 782

• PULUNA -- affines-- category 602

• PUNALUA relationships -- categories 602, 595

• PUNA HELE -- favorite child, sometimes adopted -- categories 597, 593

• PU' UHONUA (POHAKU O KANE) -- the Stone of Kane, a place of asylum -- categories 696, 778

• sleds -- categories 493, 526

• surfboards -- category 526

• TAPA beaters -- categories 287, 412

• TAPA, making of -- category 287

• UHANE -- spirit or soul -- category 774

• 'UNIHIPILI -- the spirit of a dead person -- category 775

• WAUKE -- a plant (or tree) cultivated for its fiber, and in the manufacture of paper and TAPA cloth -- categories 248, 245

Kirch, Patrick V. (1985). Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Kuykendall, Ralph S. (1938). The Hawaiian Kingdom. Vol. 1, 1778-1854. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Linnekin, Jocelyn (1985). Children of the Land: Exchange and Status in a Hawaiian Community. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.

Valeri, Valerio (1985). Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.