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As spiritual powers were perceived by Hawaiians to imbue all of nature, experts in many fields of work were known as kahuna, a term commonly understood to mean priest. [31] The various types of kahuna passed on knowledge of their profession, be it in "genealogies, or mele , or herb medicine, or canoe building, or land boundaries", [ 32 ] etc ...
Individuals who were ungodly, godless, irreligious, wicked, unbelieving, or careless of observance of taboos, were known as ʻaiā. [23] [24] However, the dominant religion as in many other Polynesian societies, was the kapu/taboo religion. It had a theology, ritual, and a code of conduct. [25]
Hawaii was first discovered and settled by Polynesians originating from the Society Islands or the Marquesas Islands.The exact date of their arrival is uncertain, but high-precision radiocarbon dating in Hawaii using chronometric hygiene analysis, and taxonomic identification selection of samples, suggests that it was sometime between 940 and 1250 C.E. [1]
The sweet potato, which is of South American origin, is widely cultivated in Polynesia. This suggests that some interaction between the Polynesians and the indigenous peoples of South America may have taken place. [11] No Polynesian crops were introduced into the Americas, and there is possible evidence of Polynesian contact only in Chile. [12]
The earliest known settlers of the Pitcairn Islands were Polynesians who appear to have settled on Pitcairn and Henderson Islands by at least the 11th Century, [1] and on the more populous Mangareva Island 540 kilometres (340 mi) to the northwest, for several centuries.
The large islands of New Zealand were first settled by Eastern Polynesians who adapted their culture to a non-tropical environment. Unlike western Melanesia, leaders were chosen in Polynesia based on their hereditary bloodline. Samoa, however, had another system of government that combines elements of heredity and real-world skills to choose ...
Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Southeast Asia and are part of the larger Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, with an Urheimat in Taiwan .
The date when Polynesians first settled the island of Maui is uncertain. Early archaeological studies suggested that they came in multiple gradual waves, the earliest possibly from the Marquesas sometime before 450 AD., and the most recent from Tahiti sometime after 700 AD.