The Ancient Hawaiian State: Origins of a Political Society

Like Christian missionaries, American businessmen, and most modern Hawaiians, this author also makes the case for Hawaiians being nothing but warfighters and human sacrificers. The subchapter on war occupies 200 lines, that for all other governmental activities - 9 lines. Sadly continuing the tradition of the missionaries and all of their American followers (ie, nearly all of Hawaii's population), Ku is treated as a blood god of war and sacrifice. The most telling piece of religious prejudice is the typical heavy treatment of Makahiki as being a time of taxation and fun lasting 3 months, followed by the next 9 months during which nobody does anything except perhaps go to war. Lono reigns for 3 months of fun, Ku has 9 months to do nothing but war. Nobody plans for or does any work worthy of mention.I had hoped this would be an author that would recognize, as did the missionaries, that Ku was the spiritual basis of Hawaiian government, of which war is only one (small) component. Downgrading Ku to nothing but blood and war effectively wiped out Hawaiian government, leaving the spiritual vacuum into which stepped the Western governments. Just as Americans do nothing without obeisance to their God as represented by the flag icon, so did Hawaiian government treat the Ku icon. In contradiction, on page 132 is a list of 16 functions of a high chief, of which 4 have to do with war, leaving 12 functions of government - quite a non-parallel with the numbers of pages dedicated to war and not-war.War was hardly a constant state in old Hawai`i. Liloa ruled the entire island for 20 years (1580-1600) with no wars reported. Umi, except for an attack on Maui, reigned peacefully (Fornander) for 20 years (1600-1620). His successor Keawenui had a brief war against district chiefs, then reigned peacefully from 1620-1640 (Fornander). Lono had a rough 20 years with two big wars, so 10 years of peace to 1660. Sadly the next 20-year reign was boringly peaceful bringing us to 1680. The US, in its first 100 years, had 33 years of wars costing 683,000 lives. Maybe Hawaii and the US should switch icons?

I'm not confident that adding an adjective like "archaic" or "primitive" before "state" is suffiecient to justify the word "state" for the feudalistic kingdom developed in Hawaii. Call that polity what you will, this book presents evedience for its development in Hawaii, drawn from traditional oral history and archaeology and soil science, long after first settlement and only 2 or 3 centuries before Captain Cook's rediscovery in 1778.

This work explores the origin of the Hawaiian kingshsip and draws parallels with developments elsewhere in Polynesia. It is most strongly recommended for anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians.