Template:Nhsc-v1-42
Summary
C. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION After the arrival of foreigners, the native population of the Hawaiian Islands began a drastic decline. The major causes of this depopulation were epidemics and disease. The population of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a whole began to increase in the second half of the nineteenth century, largely through the importation of immigrant laborers to work in Hawaii's sugar fields. The result of this immigration, along with the continuing decline of the native Hawaiian population, was a decrease in the proportion of native Hawaiians in the total population. By the end of the century, native Hawaiians accounted for less than one-third of Hawaii's total population.
The part-Hawaiian population began to increase dramatically after the turn of the century. The primary reasons for this were better health and increased inter-marriage with other racial groups. Today, the native Hawaiian population of Hawaii can be characterized as follows:
- According to the State of Hawaii, there are 9,366 full-Hawaiians and 166,087 part-Hawaiians, constituting about19 percent of the State's population;
- Native Hawaiians are a young
p o p u l a t i o n — i n 1980, the median age for males was 22.0, and the median age for females was 2 3 . 2 ; and
- The male/female r a t i o for
n a t i v e Hawaiians is f a i r ly e q u a l — i n 1980 males accounted f o r 49.5 p e r c e n t of the n a t i ve Hawaiian p o p u l a t i o n , and females accounted for 50.5 p e r c e n t . P r i o r to the a r r i v a l of f o r e i g n e r s, t h e geographic d i s t r i b u t i o n of the n a t i v e p o p u l a t i o n among the eight major i s l a n d s of Hawaii was a d i r e ct consequence of the a b i l i t y of the land a r e a to s u s t a i n necessary crops and f i s h . Estimates at the time of c o n t a c t placed the g r e a t e s t native numbers on the i s l a n d of Hawaii, followed by Maui, and then Oahu. (Not c o i n c i d e n t a l l y , t h i s ordering is also i n d i c a t i v e of the p h y s i c a l area of each i s l a n d .) P r e - c o n t a c t s e t t l e m e n t was organized within the ahupua ' a: . . . t h e basic landholding unit was the ahupua'a, which ranged in s i ze from 100 to 100,000 a c r e s and u s u a l l y had n a t u r a l boundaries. The i d e a l ahupua'a was an economically s e l f - s u f f i c i e n t pieshaped unit which ran from mountain tops down ridges to the s e a . Most ahupua'a were in turn d i v i d e d i n t o i l i , some of which were v i r t u a l l y independent 'while o t h e r s were mere o p e r a t i n g subd i v i s i o n s of the a h u p u a ' a . A h i e r a r c h i c a l s o c i e t y p a r a l l e l ed t h i s p a t t e r n of land d i v i s i o n . At the top, a chief c o n t r o l l e d each a h u p u a ' a ; land agents (konohiki) and subchiefs subordinate to the c h i e f c o n t r o l l e d smaller amounts of land; and at the bottom of the h i e r a r c h y , common farmers worked t h e land for the benefit of the c h i e f . Commoners had other p l o ts f o r t h e i r own use and had c e r t a in g a t h e r i n g r i g h t s in the nonc u l t i v a t e d lands of the ahupua'a . . . . 1 6/ 1778 to 1850 During the period from 1778 to 1851, each of the islands experienced a decrease in population roughly
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