Conversely to what we expect of the Hawaiian Islands today, Hawaii was once ruled with a caste system akin to system India employs today. The lowliest of the caste were the kauwa. This caste was primarily made up of slaves and pariahs. Though a jokey term used in passing, kahuna used to have a larger connotations for the Hawaiian society. Kahunas were priests and the people proficient in religious and spiritual matters, which included medicine and canoes. They were the highest caste. In between these two is the maka’aina caste, who were, to put it colloquially “the little people,” the blue collar workers who built and farmed and were responsible for other foundational activities of the community.
The laws that ruled them were the kanawi. If something was sacred, it meant other people were forbidden from it, or to employ the Hawaiian terminology, kapu. The laws cover everything from eating arrangements to dietary restrictions. For instance, women were not allowed to eat a variety of things, including coconuts and pork. “Being green” was another natural part of their society. Strictly controlled were fishing and farming. Death was usually applied to those who broke any of the rules. Because many of these rules about environmental regulation were important to keeping the society secure, any rule breaking could have a disastrous result.
Hawaiians had a deep connection with this way of life, but then James Hook, the first outsider to make contact and bring Hawaii into the world’s knowledge, came on the scene, he landed on the Kealakekua Bay of the Kona coast. Some people who have studied the history of this time think the tribal peoples thought that Cook was actually a representative of Lono. He was the Hawaiian’s fertility god. The reason for this probably stems from the fact that it was Makahiki. This was a time during the year in which the Hawaiians stopped any warring or frivolity to pay tribute to the god. As a result, Cook received quite a welcoming from the natives.
When he tried to leave the island, a storm stopped him, forcing to land back where he first moored. Because they took him to be on par with their god, Lono, the Hawaiians did not get why a little thing like a storm could hurt him. Tensions arouse from the situation, tensions that became a mainstay in the troubles that would plague Hawaii for many years. In response to this misunderstanding, the islanders murdered Cook eventually.
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