Ancient Hawaiian Culture

Words: 1730
Pages: 7

Ancient Hawaiian Culture
The ancient Hawaiians had many and activities that were crucial to their spiritual ideals and way of life. Most of the activities were culturally important, two ancient past times have now been diagnosed on a worldwide stage: surfing and hula. The uniqueness of these activities has made them iconic of Hawaiian subculture and has created a strong sense of pride and culture. The purpose of my research is to present history on the Hawaiian activities of surfing and hula and their importance to Hawaiian lifestyle. The significance of such activities in relation to Hawaiian lifestyle is a crucial subject in anthropology and using primary and secondary sources can be my field of data in this paper. The research will begin
…show more content…
The Tahitians offered their favorite aquatic game in which they rode the incoming waves while in a wa'a ("canoe"), an interest they called paka. Like many aspects of ancient Polynesian culture, surfing was stratified based on social rank. Filosa explains, "the Hawaiian nobility, the alii, used the great olo ("heavy") board, the makaainana, the commoners, used the alaia ("thin") board the nobles liked slow, undulating waves such as those found at the mother beach of surfing, Waikiki; the commoners preferred fast-breaking steep waves such as those at Waimea Bay" (Kahiko). Surfing reached its pinnacle in ancient life with King Kamehameaha II who abolished the tabus on surfing. Each Hawaiian from that point on could surf however they pleased. Surfing became a nation wide sport and was important to the society. Like many Hawaiian activities the ancients would create competitions primarily based on talent and mastery of the craft. The relation of surfing to ancient Hawaiian's way of life are based totally on these competitions which in flip had an impact on the economy. In terms of the gambling aspect of the game, (Kahiko) states that: "Surf riding was a national sport of the Hawaiians, on which they were very fond of betting, each man staking his property on the one he thought to most skillful". It was due to gambling and the contact of Congregationalist missionaries from Boston that the activity nearly became extinct. The religious taboos on gambling and the confiscation of land by way of the missionaries brought on a dramatic drop in the population of Hawaiians and which directly impacted the sport of surfing, filosa describes the decline and motive for its revival: With the death of so many Hawaiians, the sport of surfing slowly declined, till about