Native Planters in Old Hawaii: Their Life, Lore, and Environment (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 233)

From the back cover: Originally published in 1972, Native Planters in Old Hawaii: Their Life, Lore, and Environment (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 233) remains one of the most important ethnographic works on traditional Hawaiian culture. It has been reprinted here for the first time with an index to subjects and chants, making this edition invaluable for scholars and laymen alike. This pioneering study of cultivation practices, beliefs, and rituals is the fruit of a brilliant collaborative effort between the eminent Pacific anthropologist, E.S. Craighill Handy, and his wife, Elizabeth, and the noted authority on Hawaiian language and culture, Mary Kawene Pukui. The authors maintain that "the Hawaiians, more than any other Polynesians, were a people whose means of livelihood, whose work and interests, were centered on cultivation of the soil," and that horticultural practices and rituals provide keys to understanding the culture as a whole. The book begins by discussing the basic patterns of Hawaiian planting culture, the gods worshiped, class and land divisions, water rights and irrigation techniques, tools, crafts, and general horticultural skills. Considering the different habitats of each island, the authors show how the people shaped their cultivation practices to the varied Hawaiian environment. Descriptions of myth and ritual connected to planting, including the central role of the Makahiki harvest festival, support the theme that Hawaiian identity is closely ties to the land.