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consists of a number of tropical islands about 3000 kilometers
from the west coast of the United States, in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean. Today, of the more than one million Hawaiians,
about 200,000 claim some native Hawaiian roots. About 8,000
people are of full Hawaiian descent.
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HISTORY
All
of the Hawaiian islands were created by the kind of volcanic activity
that continues today. Until two thousand years ago there were no
human inhabitants on these islands. The first people to arrive and
stay were Polynesians who came from Marquesas between the 4th and
the 8th century. A few hundred years later other people came from
Tahiti. The Tahitians enslaved the people they found and created
a new Hawaiian culture.
Although the Spanish navigator Gaetano visited the islands briefly
in 1555, it was not until 1778 that Europeans started to have a
real influence on Hawaii. In this year Captain Cook arrived on the
island of Kauai (he was killed in Hawaii the next year). His sailors
estimated that there were up to 1 million native Hawaiians. At first
the Hawaiians thought the white men were gods, also because of their
guns and mirrors. Soon they realized that the white men could experience
pain and could die, so they could not be gods after all.
The use of guns led to a major change in the Hawaiian political
system. The first king of Hawaii, King Kamehameha, took the throne
(in 1795) after he used the guns given to him from the Westerners
to conquer most of the islands. For almost a hundred years after
this Hawaii was a monarchy.
After the arrival of Captain Cook a lively trade developed with
China and the Pacific Northwest of what is now the United States
and Canada. Trade in fur and sandalwood led to the cutting down
of most of Hawaii's great forests and the destruction of many native
plants and animals. Most of the population fared even worse. Most
native Hawaiians were either killed or died of disease, so that
there very few native Hawaiians left today.
Events took place rapidly at the end of the 19th century. In 1887
King David Kalakaua was forced to give up his power by white businessmen.
As a consequence, the monarchy became a republic in 1894. In 1896
English became the official language of Hawaii and the Hawaiian
language was no longer accepted in schools or elsewhere. A couple
of years later, in 1898, Hawaii became a US territory. Finally,
in 1959 it became the fiftieth state of the United States. The only
people in Hawaii who voted against becoming a state were the native
Hawaiians.
Since then, native Hawaiians have begun to use the old Hawaiian
language again in their schools. They feel proud of their past and
their language. Most recently, in 1993, President Clinton and the
US Congress offered their official apology to the native Hawaiians
for the fact that the Kingdom of Hawaii was illegally overthrown.
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RELIGION
Traditional Hawaiians believed in many gods, and many stone temples
were built to honor these gods. Temples were surrounded by wooden
posts that had images carved in them. Inside were idols of wood,
stone or sea urchin. Wooden platforms that were six meters above
the ground contained offerings to the gods. The offerings were supposed
to keep evil spirits away. The gods were called upon, for instance,
to improve the growth of crops. Not all of the religious activity
was peaceful, however. On important occasions (especially to honor
the war god) human sacrifices took place.
Just before the first missionaries arrived in Hawaii many of the
religious objects were destroyed, and people stopped worshipping
the old gods. The missionaries first arrived from New England in
1820 and tried to turn Hawaii into a Christian paradise. Their strict
system of beliefs was quite different than the more flexible lifestyle
of the Hawaiians. As a result there was great religious chaos on
the islands. Traditional Hawaiian religion fell apart. Hawaiians,
for instance, were used to wearing very little clothing due to the
tropical climate; this was seen as improper by the missionaries.
Though Christianity is the main religion today in Hawaii, many ceremonies
use a combination of Christian prayers and Hawaiian chants.
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SOCIETY,
ECONOMY AND POLITICS
In ancient Hawaii there were different social classes. First, there
were chiefs who had a lot of power and were treated with great respect.
They were allowed to have more than one wife, and their feet were
not supposed to ever touch the ground. There was also a commoner
and an outcast class. The outcasts served the chiefs and it was
not proper to eat with outcasts or to sleep close to them. Men and
women also ate separately in ancient Hawaii.
Hawaiians lived on islands rich with food. Trade between the islands
and fishing in the ocean was made easy because of canoes that were
sometimes 30 meters long. The Hawaiians caught fish in the ocean,
ate coconuts from the trees, and sweet potatoes and yams. A favorite
food, in the past, and still today, is mashed taro root (called
"poi"). In addition to fishing in the ocean, the Hawaiians made
fish ponds. Some of these are now more than 1,000 years old. Traditionally
Hawaiians did not eat bananas or pork. This changed around 1820
when Hawaiian culture went through a crisis due to Western influence.
Westerners gained more and more power in Hawaii in the 19th century.
Early in the 19th century traditional activities were replaced by
whaling and growing sugar cane, economic activities that the Westerners
felt were more important. Native Hawaiians were pressured to give
up their traditional economic activities. Later In the 19th century
the western missionaries and white immigrants claimed most of the
land in Hawaii. Their children quickly became the richest and most
powerful people in Hawaii. The native population lost almost everything
they had and started to live in poverty. |
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CULTURE
Native Hawaiians have a culture and language that closely resembles
other languages found throughout the South Pacific. The written
Hawaiian language (created by missionaries) uses only 12 letters
(a,e,i,o,u,h,k,l,m,n,p, and w). One still encounters the Hawaiian
language in place names and in Hawaiian music.
Though the Hawaiians did not have metal or pottery, they made many
beautiful objects from stone, wood, shell, bone and teeth. Especially
their work with feathers is very famous. Feathers were used to make
robes, capes and the well-known leis. Leis are strings of flowers
and feathers that are put around a person's neck as decoration.
This is still common today. There is very little traditional Hawaiian
architecture and culture left.
There are still some temple ruins, mostly on the Big Island, but
they are not easy to find. What remains of traditional Hawaiian
culture has turned into entertainment for the more than 6 million
tourists that come to Hawaii every year. |
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| "The
Big Myth" © Distant Train 2009 |
