Hawaiian
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Who are the Hawaiian people?
The Hawaiian people are the aboriginal inhabitants of Hawaii and descendants of Polynesian migrants. The first wave likely came from the Marquesas Islands around 400 CE, followed by a second from Tahiti in the 9th or 10th century.
At the time of Captain James Cook's arrival in 1778, the population numbered around 300,000. By the late 20th century, however, only about 10,000 full-blooded Hawaiians remained, though many part-Hawaiians exist today.
Traditional Hawaiian society was structured around the ahupuaa, a self-sufficient land division extending from the mountains to the sea. They were skilled in agriculture and aquaculture, with elaborate systems for water management and fish ponds. Though lacking metal tools, they crafted remarkable items from stone, wood, shell, and bone, and their featherwork was unparalleled.
The Hawaiian language is still present in songs, place names, and street names.
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Where do Hawaiian people originally come from?
The first Hawaiians were aboriginal people descended from Polynesian migrants. These migrants arrived in two waves; the first from the Marquesas Islands around 300 CE, and the second from Tahiti in the 9th or 10th century.
These early Hawaiians did not have a written language, so their culture was oral, passing down myths, legends, and knowledge. They were skilled in using wood, shell, stone, and bone, and were known for their double and outrigger canoes. They also had well-developed navigational methods and an elaborate calendar.
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What language do Hawaiian people traditionally speak?
The Hawaiian people traditionally speak the Hawaiian language, a Polynesian language related to Maori and other languages of the Pacific. Most anthropologists believe that Hawaii's original settlers were Polynesians who migrated from the Marquesas Islands between the 4th and 7th centuries CE, followed by a second wave from Tahiti in the 9th or 10th century.
Although the Hawaiian language was nearly extinct in the early 1990s, immersion schools have revitalized it, and it is now taught from kindergarten through graduate school. The two official languages of Hawaii are English and Hawaiian.
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What are some important customs or traditions of Hawaiian people?
The culture of Native Hawaiians is rich with customs and traditions. Here are a few of the most important:
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Hula Hula is a sensuous, mimetic Hawaiian dance, performed sitting or standing, with undulating gestures to instruments and chant. The hula was a religious dance performed by trained dancers to promote fecundity, to honor the gods, or to praise the chiefs.
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Lei The lei is a garland or necklace of flowers given in Hawaii as a token of welcome or farewell. They are bestowed with a kiss as a sign of hospitality.
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Aloha Spirit The “Aloha Spirit” is reflective of the way many diverse groups live together on the small islands. Aloha oe is a Hawaiian phrase that means love to you, welcome, or farewell. Aloha is used as a greeting or farewell.
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How did contact with outsiders change Hawaiian society?
Contact with outsiders dramatically altered Hawaiian society after Captain James Cook's arrival in 1778. The introduction of foreign diseases decimated the native population, reducing it from approximately 300,000 to fewer than 40,000 by the 1890s. This collapse, combined with the impact of outside cultures, caused a crisis that sparked social and political change.
The complex kapu system was overthrown in 1819, and many Hawaiians adopted Christianity following the arrival of American missionaries in 1820. As the native population declined, laborers from China, Japan, the Azores, and other regions arrived to work on plantations, creating a multiethnic society. This influx of diverse cultures broadened the Hawaiian way of life beyond its Polynesian origins.
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How do Hawaiian people continue to preserve their culture today?
Since the 1970s, a renaissance has led to a vibrant expression of traditional Hawaiian culture. This resurgence is evident in the emphasis on the Hawaiian language, with instruction now offered from kindergarten through graduate school.
Key elements of Native Hawaiian culture, such as the voyaging canoe, the art of tattooing, traditional music, kapa (bark cloth) making, and especially the hula, have also seen a resurgence in interest and practice. Most Hawaiian inhabitants know some Hawaiian words and observe cultural practices like giving the lei.
Cultural institutions such as the Bernice P. Bishop Museum contribute to the study, preservation, and display of the history, sciences, and cultures of the Pacific and its peoples.
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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.
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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.
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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.