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Ka Po'e Kahiko, May 28, 2007
In 1931 Bishop Museum sponsored the systematic translation of all of Samuel Kamakau's articles on Hawaiian history and culture that had appeared in the weekly newspapers Ka'oko'a and Ke Au 'Oko'a from October 20, 1866, to February 2, 1871. Two manuscripts resulted; one, containing his historical mamerial, was published in 1961 by The Kamehameha Schools, under the title
Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii. It is prefaced by a review of the life of Kamakau. The other manuscript contains Kamakau's account of the material and social culture of the Hawaiians before and during the early period of acculturation to Western ways, and is in the library of the Museum.
As in the case of the history series, the culture series was translated piecemeal by a group of Hawaiian scholars and the translations were gone over by Mary Kawena Pukui, the main contributor, and Martha Warren Beckwith, Professor of Folklore, Vassar College. Their work was completed in 1934 and is a completely literal translation, worded and annotated by Miss Beckwith. The present volume is a revision of the portion of their translation that deals with the customs and beliefs of "the people of old," ka po'e kahiko....
Almost all the topics covered by Kamakau are expositions on aspects of the old culture. However, Kamakau was an ardent, vehement, and highly vocal Christian convert, and his own well-founded knowledge of the traditions of his people concerning their gods and their creation myths led him into willful interpretations and equations in his zeal to show a comparable background of beliefs between the Hawaiian and Christian concepts of god and man. He reiterates the theme of a supreme god, Kane, who with Ku and Lono becomes a threefold god, and who creates heaven and earth and "the things that fill them both," including "first man," Hulihinua (or Kanhuilihonua), and the "first woman," Keakahulilani. He alters the Hawaiian concept, similar to the Tahitian, of a nether region presided over by Milu, and displaces Milu with Manu'a, a "Satan" who rules over an underworld with strata comparable to the hells of the Christian teachings of his time.
David Malo, in the classic work
Hawaiian antiquities (Moolelo Hawaii) (Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. Special publication), gave a broad outline of the ancient culture; John Ii's personal experiences, recounted in Fragments of Hawaiian history,, revealed the functioning of that culture. Ka Po'e Kahiko now adds those details which give new depth and meaning to those two works. The three are a composite picture of Hawaiian beliefs and customs as they were in the ancient days and in the transitional period of acculturation to introduced thoughts and concepts.
--- excerpts from book's Foreword
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