HAWAIIAN TABOOS

A taboo is a social prohibition that comes from the Polynesian and other southern pacificislands religious traditions. Now, Hawaiian taboos are called kapu, this was originated from an ancient belief, mana, that said that every person had a bit of the gods power in their souls; therefore to avoid loosing it, peoples life must be regulated with kapus.

Some of them are:

·       The food for the men and women had to be cooked in separate imu (underground ovens); also men and women had to eat separately, consequently, a wife was forbidden to enter the eating house of her husband while he was eating.

·       Women were forbidden to eat certain foods, among which were pork, banana, coconut, and certain fishes.

·       A commoner would be put to death if his shadow fell on an ali’i’s (royal class) house or anything that belonged to the ali’i.

·       When an ali’i of high standing ate, the people around him had to kneel.

·       When a tree was cut down to build a canoe, offerings of pig, coconuts and kumu (red fish) must be done to the gods.

·       In time of war, the first two men killed in battle were offered as sacrifices to the gods.

·       The opelu fishers would gather at their special heiau in the evening to spend the night together to worship their god of fishing.

·       During the summer months of Kau, the aku fish was kapu and could not be eaten.

·       Kamehameha I put a strict kapu on the cutting down of ‘iliahi trees (sandalwood), to make sure it’s supplies would not run out.

Since the arrival of the Europeans, the following of kapu was no longer regulated; yet there are some traditions that are still in vigor.

By: Ana María Acevedo

N.A. (N.D.). Kapu System. Research done on Nov. 30^th 2012 on the web: http://kaizenwong.angelfire.com/Kapu_System.pdf

N.A. (2006). Hawaiian Culture & Society. Research done on Nov. 30^th 2012 on the web:

http://mythichawaii.com/hawaiian-culture-society.htm