Eating and Family Under the Kapu System
The task of food-providing and eating under the kapu-system in Hawaii nei was very burdensome, a grievous tax on husband and wife, an iniquitous imposition, at war with domestic peace.…
From: 1903 C.E. To: 1903 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
Eating under the Kapu System
From Hawaiian Antiquities by David Malo, 1903.
The task of food-providing and eating under the kapu-system in Hawaii nei was very burdensome, a grievous tax on husband and wife, an iniquitous imposition, at war with domestic peace. The husband was burdened and wearied with the preparation of two ovens of food, one for himself and a separate one for his wife.
The man first started an oven of food for his wife, and, when that was done, he went to the house mua and started an oven of food for himself.
Then he would return to the house and open his wife's oven, peel the taro, pound it into poi, knead it and put it into the calabash. This ended the food-cooking for his wife.
Then he must return to mua, open his own oven, peel the taro, pound and knead it into poi, put the mass into a (separate) calabash for himself and remove the lumps. Thus did he prepare his 'food (ai, vegetable food); and thus was he ever compelled to do so long as he and his wife lived.
Another burden that fell to the lot of the man was thatching the houses for himself and his wife; because the houses for the man must be other than those for the woman. The man had first to thatch a house for himself to eat in and another house as a sanctuary (heiau) in which to worship his idols.
And, that accomplished, he had to prepare a third house for himself and his wife to sleep in. After that he must build and thatch an eating house for his wife, and lastly he had to prepare a hale kua, a place for his wife to beat tapa in (as well as to engage in other domestic occupations. TRANSLATOR.) While the husband was busy and exhausted with all these labors, the wife had to cook and serve the food for her husband, and thus it fell that the burdens that lay upon the woman were even heavier than those allotted to the man.
During the days of religious tabu, when the gods were specially worshipped, many women were put to death by reason of infraction of some tabu. According to the tabu a woman must live entirely apart from her husband, during the period of her infirmity; she always ate in her own house, and the man ate in the house called mua. As a result of this custom, the mutual love of the man and his wife was not kept warm; the man might use the opportunity to associate with another woman, likewise the woman with another man. It has not been stated who was the author of this tabu that prohibited the mingling of the sexes while partaking of food. It was no doubt a very ancient practice; possibly it dates from the time of Wakea; but it may be subsequent to that.
There is, however, a tradition accepted by some that Wakea himself was the originator of this tabu that restricts eating; others have it that it was initiated by Luhau-kapawa. It is not certain where the truth lies between these two statements. No information on this point is given by the genealogies of these two characters, and every one seems to be ignorant in the matter. Perhaps, however, there are persons now living who know the truth about this matter; if so they should speak out.
It is stated in one of the traditions relating to the gods that the motive of the tabu restricting eating was the desire on the part of Wakea to keep secret his incestuous intercourse with Hoo-hoku-ka-lani. For this reason he devised a plan by which he might escape the observation of Papa; and he accordingly appointed certain nights for prayer and religious observance, and at the same time tabued certain articles of food to women. The reason for this arrangement was not communicated to Papa, and she incautiously consented to it, and thus the tabu was established. The truth of the story I cannot vouch for.
If it was indeed Wakea who instituted this tabu then it was a very ancient one. It was abolished by Kamehameha II, known as Liholiho, at Kailua, Hawaii, on the third or fourth day of October, 1819. On that day the tabu putting restrictions on eating in common ceased to be regarded here in Hawaii. The effect of this tabu, which bore equally on men and women, was to separate men and women, husbands and wives from each other when partaking of food.
Certain places were set apart for the husband's sole and exclusive use; such were the sanctuary in which he worshipped and the eating-house in which he took his food. The wife might not enter these places while her husband was worshipping or while he was eating; nor might she enter the sanctuary or eating-house of another man; and if she did so she must suffer the penalty of death, if her action was discovered.
Certain places also were set apart for the woman alone. These were the hale pea, where she stayed during her period of monthly infirmity at which time it was tabu for a man to associate with his own wife, or with any other woman. The penalty was death if he were discovered in the act of approaching any woman during such a period. A flowing woman was looked upon as both unclean and unlucky (haumia, poino).
Among the articles of food that were set apart for the exclusive use of man, of which it was forbidden the woman to eat, were pork, bananas, cocoanuts, also certain fishes, the ulua, kumu (a red fish used in sacrifice), the niuhi-shark, the sea turtle, the e-a. (the sea-turtle that furnished the tortoise-shell), the palm, the naia, (porpoise), the whale, the nuao, hahalua hihimanu, (the ray) and the hailepo. If a woman was clearly detected in the act of eating any of these things, as well as a number of other articles that were tabu, which I have not enumerated, she was put to death.
The house in which the men ate was called the mua; the sanctuary where they worshipped was called heiau, and it was a very tabu place. The house in which the women ate was called the hale ai'na. These houses were the ones to which the restrictions and tabu applied, but in the common dwelling house, hale noa, the man and his wife met freely together.
The house in which the wife and husband slept together was also called hale-moe. It was there they met and lived and worked together and associated with their children. The man, however, was permitted to enter his wife's eating house, but the woman was forbidden to enter her husband's mua.
Another house also was put up for the woman called hale kuku, the place where she beat out tapa-cloth into blankets, into pans for herself, malos for her husband, in fact, the clothing for the whole family as well as for her friends, not forgetting the landlord and chiefs (to whom no doubt these things went in lieu of rent, or as presents. TRANSLATOR.)
The out-of-door work fell mostly upon the man, while the indoor work was done by the woman that is provided she was not a worthless and profligate woman.
I must mention that, certain men were appointed to an office in the service of the female chiefs and women of high station which was termed ai-noa. It was their duty to prepare the food of these chiefish women and it was permitted them at all times to eat in their presence, for which reason they were termed ai-noa to eat in common or ai-puhiu.
Malo, David. Hawaiian Antiquities: (Moolelo Hawaii). Translated by Nathaniel Bright Emerson, Hawaiian Gazette Co., 1903.
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