hawai'i 4

The kahuna [priests, experts...]...

were well respected, educated individuals... 

that made up a social hierarchy class... 

that served the King and the Courtiers... 

and assisted the Maka'ainana [common people]. 

Selected to serve many practical and governmental purposes, Kahuna often were healers, navigators, builders, prophets / temple workers, and philosophers.

Kapu [do/don't...]... 

refers to a system of taboos... 

designed to separate the spiritually pure from the potentially unclean. 

Thought to have arrived with Pāʻao, a priest or chief from Tahiti who arrived in Hawaiʻi sometime around 1200 AD, the kapu imposed a series of restrictions on daily life. Prohibitions included:

* The separation of men and women during mealtimes (ʻai-kapu)

* Restrictions on the gathering and preparation of food

* Women separated from the community during their menses

* Restrictions on looking at, touching, or being in close proximity, with chiefs and individuals of known spiritual power

* Restrictions on overfishing

Hawaiian tradition shows that ʻaikapu was an idea led by the kahuna in order for Wākea, the sky father, to get alone with his daughter, Hoʻohokukalani without his wahine (wife) Papa, the earth mother, noticing. The spiritually pure (laʻa, meaning 'sacred') and unclean (haumia) were to be separated. 

ʻAi-kapu [heilige eten / scheiding man-vrouw] included:

* The use of a different ovens to cook the food for men and women.

* Different eating places.

* Women were forbidden to eat pig, coconut, banana, and certain red foods because of their male symbolism.

* During times of war, the first two men to be killed were offered to the gods as sacrifices.

Other Kapus included Mālama ʻĀina (caring of the land) and Niʻaupiʻo. 

Tradition says that mālama ʻāina originated from the first child of Wākea and Hoʻohokukalani being deformed, so they buried him in the ground, and what sprouted became the first kalo, also known as taro. 

The Hawaiian islands are all children of Papa, Wākea and Hoʻohokukalani so basically meaning that they are older siblings of the Hawaiian chiefs. Second child of Wākea and Hoʻohokukalani became the first Aliʻi Nui (Grand Chief). 

This came to be called Niʻaupiʻo... 

the chiefly incest to create the 'godly child'.

Punishments for breaking the kapu could include death... 

although if one could escape to a puʻuhonua (for example Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park), a city of refuge, one could be saved. Kāhuna nui mandated long periods when the entire village must have absolute silence. No baby could cry, dog howl, or rooster crow, on pain of death.

Human sacrifice was not unknown.

The kapu system remained in place until 1819.

[wikipedia]