Links to the Past The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans

338 Pages·2011·34.35 MB·English

by  Wendy S. Arbeit

L P
INKS AST
to the
t w e h a
he ork of arly awaiian rtisans
Wendy S. Arbeit
L P
INKS AST
to the
t w e H a
he ork of arly awaiian rtisans

L P
INKS AST
to the
t w e H a
he ork of arly awaiian rtisans
Wendy S. Arbeit
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
In loving memory of my mother, Ethel Arbeit.
Her early example and guidance became the foundation for this book.
© 2011 Wendy S. Arbeit
All Rights Reserved
Printed in China
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arbeit, Wendy S.
Links to the past : the work of early Hawaiian artisans / Wendy S. Arbeit.
p. cm.
Documents shapes, patterns, and motifs of Native Hawaiian artifacts found in private collections and museums
around the world.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3476-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Hawaiians—Material culture—Catalogs. 2. Hawaiians—Material culture—Private collections—Catalogs. I.
Title.
DU624.65.A73 2012
745.09969—dc22
2011016701
Printer-ready copy and typesetting for this book were provided by the author.
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by Wendy S. Arbeit
Printed by Golden Cup Printing Co., Ltd.
C
ontents
1 Introduction
The works 4 WOODEN BOWLS
36 GOURDS
80 STONE VESSELS
90 BASKETS
96 FANS
112 H
ELMETS
126 CAPES & CLOAKS
170 LEI
186 KA¯HILI
196 CLUBS
206 PIERCING WEAPONS
214 SHARKTOOTH IMPLEMENTS
224 IMPLEMENTS
240 HOOKS
248 BURDEN POLES
253 SUPPORTS
258 DRUMS
268 TAPA BEATER PATTERNS
278 MAKALOA MATS
298 KITES
302 STRING FIGURES
Appendix 309 Museum Abbreviations
311 Plant and Animal Names
313 Tapa Beater Pattern Names
315 Object Glossary
317 Introductory Quotations
321 Readings
323 Notes to Introduction
325 Acknowledgments
329 Photograph Credits
Ka po‘e kahiko [the people of old] were rich in possessions, they
found their riches and provisions in the natural resources of the
land. Their skill and knowledge are proven by their works.
Samuel Kamakau, 19th-century Hawaiian cultural historian
Those [things] that were hand made were called treasures.
David Malo, 19th-century Hawaiian cultural historian
1
I
ntroduction
When the famed British explorer and navigator Captain James Cook landed in Hawai‘i in 1778, the
Islands had been isolated from the rest of Polynesia for some five hundred years. The objects he collected
reveal that in half a millennium Hawaiians devised art styles very different from those of their ancestors
and their Polynesian contemporaries. Cook’s officers described the workmanship and artistry of the
utilitarian creations of Hawaiians in superlatives. Because so many of these early works are now scattered
across the globe, we can no longer readily experience the appreciation and awe that Cook must have
felt when he witnessed an abundance of feathered objects, wooden and gourd containers, and fine mats
and tapa. Also no longer readily apparent is the degree of diversity present in the shapes and motifs —
especially since most books and museum exhibitions display only a few examples at a time.
My research for this book began with the hope of recreating the experience of viewing early
Hawaiian objects in their multiplicity and variety. In the five years that followed I uncovered objects
rarely or never exhibited — and certainly never presented in print before. This volume of more than a
thousand extraordinary works from over seventy institutions reflects the range of Hawaiian artistry during
the first century after Western contact and the first fifty years in particular.
I focused on the earliest-collected artifacts because of the rapid change in Hawaiian material culture
almost immediately following the arrival of the first Europeans. The objects Cook first encountered
represented an integration of many aspects of the traditional culture, including its religion, hierarchy, and
lifestyle, and were constrained by availability of local materials. But even before Cook’s ships sailed from
the Islands, his crew observed the wooden daggers and bone fishhooks being replaced with iron ones. The
arrival of more Western explorers, as well as whalers and others with commercial interests, over the next
forty years introduced more new materials and goods, which led to the modification or displacement of
traditional ones.
Other forces of change were at work. Hawaiians of the highest rank, captivated by the novelty
of Western apparel and household items, used the goods created by their own artisans less. Early on,
Kamehameha’s conquest of the Islands — made possible by Western arms — demanded that men spend
much of their time fighting, thus neglecting their normal activities. The participation of Kamehameha
and later his chiefs in the lucrative sandalwood trade began a twenty-year period (1810–1830) during
which men further neglected their farming and fishing as they were required to cut sandalwood instead.
The excessive amount of time spent on fighting and cutting down trees and dragging them to the sea
forced the populace to rely on imported food when it was possible to obtain it, with starvation as the
alternative. In addition, the kapu system began to break down under Kamehameha. Soon after his death,
Ka‘ahumanu, his queen, and her advisors formally rejected the old religion by publicly breaking the food
kapu (the prohibition against women eating certain foods and eating alongside men). This act signaled
the end of the need for such religious accoutrements as temple drums and feather, wooden, and stone
images. Contributing further to the disruption of everyday activities, Western diseases had rapidly and
radically weakened the Hawaiian population.
The rate of change from within was hastened by influential foreigners who stressed the importance
of trade with the West and a Western work ethic. In 1792 British Royal Navy explorer George Vancouver
wrote, “The [Hawaiian’s] ability of procuring European commodities for the purpose of imitating our
manners and fashions ... would stimulate them to ... industry and exertion.”1
Into this already transformed environment the Christian missionaries arrived in 1820. Their writings
make clear how much they disparaged and intended to change completely Hawaiians’ beliefs, activities,
creations, and culture. Missionary C. S. Stewart observed “Their naked figures, and wild expression of
countenance, their black hair streaming in the wind as they hurried the canoe over the water with all
the eager action and muscular power of savages, their rapid and unintelligible exclamations, and whole
exhibition of uncivilized character, gave to them the appearance of being half-man and half-beast.”2 Hiram
Bingham, who led the first Calvinist missionaries in the islands, wrote, “The whole policy of Satan there,
seemed to be, to make that to be sin which is no sin, and that to be no sin which is sin. (his italics)”3
Hawaiians’ motivation for change was not purely religious. Missionary William Ellis, echoing
Vancouver, noted, “Their intercourse with foreigners has taught many of the chiefs to prefer [Western
goods and manners]. This we think advantageous ... to the natives ... as it increases their wants, and
consequently stimulates to industry.”4 Queen Ka‘ahumanu received the missionaries enthusiastically
2 Introduction
and soon came under their sway. In 1828 French officer August Duhaut-Cilly, like others of that era,
observed, “They [the missionaries] so dominated the mind of this woman [Ka‘ahumanu] that she saw
only through their eyes and acted only on their prompting.”5 As a result, at her insistance, the last
vestiges of the old religion and economy were soon abolished, taking with them the networks, support,
and controls that formed much of the basis of Hawaiian cultural and material life in the previous century.
Again, the change was rapid. Four years after the arrival of the first missionaries, the Russian
voyager Otto van Kotzebue wrote, “The inhabitants of every house or hut in Hanaruro are compelled
by authority to an almost endless routine of prayers,”6; “People [are] obliged to neglect fields” to learn
reading.7 It seems the manufacture of household objects also fell victim to this change in daily activities.
Kotzebue further observed, “The domestic utensils, formerly in use here [Kotzebue had been in the
Islands only seven years before], have entirely disappeared even from the poorest huts; and Chinese
porcelain has superseded the manufactures from the gourd or the cocoa-nut.”8
In fact, all craft activity did not stop but was confined largely to the creation of items made
especially for chiefs and monarchs. These were required by the annual taxation scheme (ho‘okupu), which
was in place for centuries until about 1839, when currency replaced goods and services.
With the end of the kapu system, people became noa — free of taboo and religious obligations and
restrictions. It was no longer necessary to please the gods with properly and beautifully crafted goods. The
use of traditional religious objects was eventually forbidden, but they continued to be made for tourists.
Expedition artist Robert Dampier noted in 1825, “Observing that several of us were eager to possess
some of these ancient Idols they diligently set to work, and soon fabricated a great number of grim
looking deities. To these they endeavored to give as ancient a look as possible.”9
Some arts flourished briefly. Metal tools and other Western goods inspired craftsmen to continue to
-
evolve tapa, wooden bowls, ahu‘ula (feathered capes and cloaks), and kahili (feathered standards) for the
royals and chiefs — but all of these largely fell into disuse by the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893. On
the neighbor islands, especially in remote valleys, the crafting of ordinary goods for local consumption
continued relatively unchanged for several more years — until the end of the nineteenth century for plain
tapa and the mid-twentieth century for pandanus mats.
Because supporting information was not always collected with artifacts, the exact purpose of many objects
made by early Hawaiians is a matter of debate. Westerners’ limited time, interest, and opportunity to
observe a sufficient number of Hawaiian ceremonies and daily activities, unfamiliarity with the Hawaiian
language, and regard of some works as mere souvenirs are chiefly to blame. As a result, early descriptions
are uneven and sometimes conflicting. Later ones were made by only a few men long after the artifacts
had passed out of use.
Plausible cases can be made for various uses of the same artifact. A large lobed stone object, for
example, could be a canoe breaker, an anchor, a sinker, or a root pounder. Did it serve only one of
these uses? All of them? As Bishop Museum’s first director William Brigham posited, “The simpler the
tool the more varied its uses.”10 The problem of insufficient information regarding an object’s intended
purpose is often apparent in documentation. For example, Bishop Museum stone implement #4788 was
first recorded as a weapon and later catalogued as a plummet sinker. Museum anthropologist Peter Buck
assigned most sharktooth implements with one or two teeth to the category of cutting tools while other
researchers regarded them as weapons.11 A further complication involves broken or worn-out implements
recrafted for other uses. Examples include spears transformed into burden poles and shafts for standing
-
kahili, poi pounders made into oil lamps, mortars, and dye cups, and club heads into sinkers.
Today most specialists agree that precontact patterns and designs not only were decorative, but also
held significant meaning. Unfortunately, this information, too, was not gathered when it was possible
to do so. Ethnologists Brigham, Buck, Ruth Greiner, and Kenneth Emory examined and catalogued
Hawaiian patterns but did not address meanings or geographic connections. More recently, native
Hawaiian writer and cultural historian John Dominis Holt described the significance of a number of
featherwork patterns, and cultural anthropologist Adrienne Kaeppler deduced the relationship of some
shapes to specific islands and that of the hoaka (crescent) to divinity. Sadly, these revelations represent a
very small part of a rich visual language now lost.
As previously mentioned, members of Cook’s expedition praised the objects they encountered in the
Islands. Cook himself observed, “In every thing manufactured by these people, there appears to be an
Links to the Past 3
uncommon degree of neatness and ingenuity”;12 “their wooden dishes and bowls, out of which they drink
their ava, are ... as neat as if made in our turning-lathe, and perhaps better polished.”13 Commander
James King wrote, “We found [their fishhooks], upon trial, much superiour to our own.”14 Cook’s
surgeon, David Samwell, commended the feather garments: “A more rich or elegant Dress than this,
perhaps the Arts of Europe have not yet been able to supply.”15
These early objects were created within a symbiotic system of deities, chiefs, kahuna (priests,
sorcerers, specialists), and artisans. Many were dedicated to deities, who were invoked during their
creation, thus making them sacred. Some materials were believed to be the embodiment of certain
gods. Consequently, restrictions were placed on artisans, their materials, and their techniques. Experts
believe that subliminal messages were incorporated in techniques such as winding or braiding as well
as in patterns such as crescents. Kaona (secret, hidden, double, or layered meanings), is an integral
part of Hawaiian language, so it is likely that patterns — especially in such highly regarded objects
as feathered cloaks and helmets — conveyed messages that we are no longer able to understand fully.
Social rank, familial connections, and divine protection were probably communicated in patterns and
designs. Essentially, it was the integration of society, politics, religion, and aesthetics that resulted in the
remarkable objects Cook saw.
We can no longer “read” the objects Hawaiians made at the end of the eighteenth century with
the depth of under standing common then. They were seamlessly woven into a culture whose intricacies
are now lost. However, this book — in which a thousand early Hawaiian artifacts are reunited — may
help us regain some sense of the fullness and variety of expression once so common in the Islands. It is
my hope that it will foster a greater appreciation of the aesthetics and technical skills Cook and others
observed and praised and that any application of this extraordinary material will be sensitive to the values
and beliefs of the artisans who created it.
About this book
To focus on objects with the least Western influence, I concentrated on the earliest documented artifacts
collected from the time of Cook to about fifty years later and on pieces that shared similarities with these
-
works. I made an exception, however, for wooden bowls, kahili, and tapa, which I followed through their
period of continued growth. Some categories of objects — fans, spear racks, most helmets, and patterned
baskets and water gourds — largely fell into disuse soon after contact; I have included nearly all extant
examples of these. In the case of patterned baskets and water gourds, selection was limited by extreme
pattern fading of some pieces.
Because relative size is an important aspect of design, each chapter has its own appropriate scale.
(Too-large exceptions are marked with a ‡ after the dimensions). I arranged chapter contents with the
earliest collections, such as Cook’s and Vancouver’s, placed first with the rest according to similarities.
This approach allows the reader to observe stylistic changes over time as well as variations within motifs.
To facilitate comparison similar pieces are shown from the same viewpoint, and I created drawings that
emphasize basic configurations. These are based on accurate computer-traced images from published
photographs, the Bishop Museum Ethnophoto File, and photographs provided by museums and
collectors or taken by me. A few symmetrical objects such as capes and sharktooth weapons have lost
corners or teeth over time. These are presented as they might have appeared originally, with missing
sections or parts replaced, and are indicated with a † after the object number.
Wherever possible, line drawings are accompanied by dimensions, current or last known location,
and identifying number, as well as by island and date of collection, significant person associated with the
work, and important details not depicted in the illustration. In a very few cases I include some recorded
pattern and object names — but with some hesitation because many of these were documented a century
or more after Cook’s arrival. Given intervening changes and influences, one can never be sure if the
names are the same as those used earlier.
Sculpture, objects of personal adornment, petroglyphs, religious objects, and tattoo patterns are
not included in this book because thorough presentations of these have been published elsewhere. In
addition, I have excluded tapa because the patterns are so extensive, their placement so intricate, and their
details so changed over time that a proper review of the topic requires a volume of its own. What remains
is the focus of this book: utilitarian objects. Despite the presentation here of more than a thousand
artifacts, it is very likely that other prime examples exist. I am hopeful that institutions housing such works
will contact me regarding their inclusion in later editions.