Template:Nhsc-v1-220
something like saints, angels, and deceased family members in heaven do in the European version of Christianity. (European versions of Christianity themselves take much from pre-Christian European cultural practices; the Christmas tree, Easter bunny, and Halloween are obvious examples, but more subtle influences also exist.) [See also, chapter below on "Native Hawaiian Religion."]
15/ E. S. Craighill Handy and Mary K. Puku'i, The Polynesian Family System in Ka'u, Hawaii (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1972), p. 199.
16/ See Note 10, above.
17/ According to Hawaiian tradition, all Hawaiian ali'i and maka'ainana descend through Haloa from Papa and Wakea who were superhuman/supernatural beings. Haloa was second-born after a miscarriage that developed into the taro plant, thus elevating the lineage of this staff of Hawaiian life above man himself, who derives his strength from the plant. Papa and Wakea also gave birth to the Hawaiian Islands before the birth of Haloa, thus making the Hawaiian people genetically-related to their land and subservient to it by Hawaiian concepts of ranking by birth. Significantly, the name of the first-born island, Hawai'i, is applied to all junior members of the family, giving ka pae'aina Hawai'i ("the Hawai'i cluster of lands" or Hawai'i in the sense of the archipelago) and ka po'e Hawai'i ("the Hawai'i people" or the Hawaiians).
Voyagers mentioned in precontact traditions include Pili, Pa'ao, 'Aukelenuia'lku and others who married into the original Hawai'i lineage. Of course, since Western and Eastern contact many other people have married into the Hawai'i lineage, but its unity has been maintained by recognition of the common lineage at the same time that pride in the other contributing lineages is expressed.
18/ The history of education in most parts of the United States starts considerably later than in Hawai'i. Many people in Hawai'i take pride in noting that Lahainaluna is the first American high school established west of the Rocky Mountains, although this is technically incorrect since Lahainaluna was not politically under the flag of the United States until 1899. It cannot even be counted geographically American because Hawai'i is not geographically part of North or South America. The early establishment of secondary education in Hawai'i speaks well for the academic interests and capabilities of Hawaiians.
19/ Albert C. Baugh, A History of the English Language, 2d ed. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1957), p. 80.
20/ Some have argued that the introduction of writing harmed the Hawaiian people, but there is little evidence to support such an idea and much that contradicts it. Many Hawaiian traditions would be lost today if there was no written Hawaiian language because non-Hawaiians wrote very little about Hawaiian culture, compared to the many writings in Hawaiian on the topic by Hawaiian speakers. The introduction of writing did not affect the native sounds cf Hawaiian, and Hawaiian continues to be spoken by native speakers with the 'okina and kahako, although these were not regularly written for over one hundred years. (See also note 5 on the continuation of regional pronunciations of consonants.)
The only area in which writing may have affected Hawaiian culture negatively is that it may have reduced the heavy dependency on
|
