From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sat Dec 14 2002 - 09:57:37 MST
I wrote about Hawaii on 29Nov2002:
>
>And the melting pot still isn't melting well...
>
>Statehood: A Second Glance
>http://www.hawaii-nation.org/statehood2.html
>
>How Statehood violated Kanaka Maoli Self-Determination
>http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/history/statehood.htm
>
>Is Hawaii a Really State of the Union?
>http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/154.html
>
>Hawaii is not legally a state
>http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/HAWAII/hawaii.html
>
>UNPO Ka Lahui Hawai'i.
>http://www.unpo.org/member/hawaii/hawaii.html
>
>
>And to add to the papaya and mango juice ...
>
>Writ of Prohibition to the United States of America
>from Majesty Akahi Nui, King of the Hawaiian Islands,
>indigenous aboriginal inhabitants
>http://www.freehawaii.org/writofproh.html
I picked up the December National Geographic at the train
station today, and it has a long feature article about the Hawaiians.
("The Hawaiians" by Paul Theroux, December 2002)
"A century after Hawaiians lost their kingdom and much of their
culture, a new generation is discovering its roots,
and some of them want their islands back."
The article focused on just them (the Hawaiians), and didn't discuss
anything about the dozen or so other ethnic groups who share the same
small space in the Hawaiian Islands.
Overall I liked the article. Even though Hawaiian history was poured
into our young minds for several years in elementary school (in
addition to learning ukulele, hula dancing, poi balls, etc.) in the
60s and 70s, I learned a few historical aspects about the culture
that I didn't know before, and I learned how the U.S. came to have
possession of the islands in the first place: this was definitely
_not_ taught in school when I was growing up there-- at school we
learned how wonderful the missionaries were to teach and civilize
the Hawaiian people and give their language a written form for the
first time... According to one of the persons featured in the
article, the U.S. came into possession of the Islands when Queen
Lili'uiokalani was overthrown and imprisoned in 1893 at the
instigation of a group of American businessmen, and then islands
were illegally annexed in 1898. (Other sources on the web above
describe what happened in 1959 with the U.S. president, the U.N. and
how the vote about Hawaii into the Union did not permit the vote of
the indigenous people living there.)
The article also hammered home one aspect of the Hawaiian culture as
a sea-faring people. I grew up as a water child because of my sailing
family (not Hawaiian) and our life on our boat, but I had forgotten
that sailing was implicit in the life all around the islands, and a deep
part of the Hawaiian culture.
---------
I am terribly curious why sea-faring is not part of every culture
that develops on an island. One would think that, if a human can see
another land mass on the horizon separated by a body of water, that
the human would be drawn to learn what was 'over there', and learn
how to build boats and sail. However this is not at all true in the
Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands are an archipelago of many volcanic islands/islets
(principal islands: Tenerife, Grand Canary, La Palma,
La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura) that are similar
in size and separation from each other as are the Hawaiian Islands.
On Tenerife on a clear day you can see easily see Gomera -- it is as
close (10 nautical miles) as Molokai looks to someone standing on
windward side of Oahu.
Yet the original populations of the Canaries were ignorant of the
art of navigation, and developed in isolation of each other, and at
different rates of cultural (religious and technical too) evolution,
based on different population triggers that brought the different
peoples to the islands in the first place.
This leads to the question of how the people arrived in the Canary
Islands in the first place- in Hawaii, the migration looks pretty
clear to the historians, (from Tahiti, Samoa, etc.), but it's not at
all clear the case in the Canary Islands. The Guanches, that is, the
original people in the Canaries, arrived with their animals: goats,
sheep, dogs, with them as if colonizers, and these people dedicated
themselves totally to agriculture and pasture, and not to the sea.
Even though there is not alot of information available about the
Guanches, there is _something_ and the archeologists and historians
have pieced together some aspects of the life,and are still actively
trying to find answers. In the little book below that I found in a
archeological museum in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, last year, I read
the following about the marriage customs on the different islands that
made me smile, so then a smile for your Saturday:
<begin quote, pg. 66, 67>
"In Grand Canary, men were monogamous. Wives were subjected one month
before matrimony, to a fattening diet, to strengthen them, so that
later they would have strong and robust children.
During the wedding night, the woman could, if she wished, sleep with
a noble of her liking, and if as a result of this union a child was
born, he would be named "Caballero" (gentleman).
The legitimate husband, meanwhile, waiting for the news of a
pregnancy brought about by this irregular union, was not permitted
any carnal contact with her.
In La Gomera, things were easier. There free love existed and so
there were few problems encountered in finding an ideal partner,
either for the man or the woman.
The sacredness of the conjugal condition was not felt here as it was
in the other islands, and in fact there existed a strange custom
called "hospitality of the bed" in which any husband could offer the
delights of his wife to house guests.
It seems that this usage, which it must be said is sometimes found
towns of other nations was also found Grand Canary.
In Lazarote polygamy was normal, and so women there had three
husbands, who alternated each month in their marital duties.
During the abstinence period, the other two husbands were obliged to
revere and serve the wife in all her necessities and desires.
In El Hierro, marriage was contracted by the delivery, as payment,
of a certain quantity of cattle to the parents of the wife.
It is a fact that in almost all the islands a quasi-matriarchy
existed, which made the condition of being a woman always most
favourable.
Respect for women was so high among these people that, on meeting
one in your path, you were obliged to wait until she had passed. You
had to avoid speaking, or look at them without permission. Insulting
a woman was considered a crime worthy of punishment of the utmost
severity."
<end quote>
Reference:
Tenerife: From its Origins to the Spanish Conquest, by Paolo Ludovisi
and Elizabeth Blue, Paolo Ludovisi Publications, Los Realejos,
Tenerife, 1998.
Amara
-- through December 2002: Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Cosmic Dust Group, Heidelberg, Deutschland from January 2003: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, Roma, Italia
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