Muskets, Anthropomorphs and Hawaiian Culture

These particular ki'i pōhaku are interesting as they are part of a large arrangement of elements that include three flintlock muskets, 12 anthropomorphs, consisting of 1 female, 5 male and 6 indeterminate figures and two abstract geometric designs. Is this a single scene? Something added to over time?

The National Park Service material on-site argues that the muskets represent war, masculinity, power and status and were associated with the god Kū, while the female images represent aspects of the goddess Hina and were placed later to balance the mana of the Honokōhau after a series of battles after the arrival of James Cook but before the establishment of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

An alternative explanation, and one I favor after examining the site in person, is that the anthropomorphic figures are older than the flintlock musket ki'i pōhaku. Supporting this is that they are executed in a style generally proposed as belonging to the earlier Pre-Contact Period, with a triangular shaped anthropomorph favored in the late Pre-Contact Period and early Post-Contact and Kingdom of Hawaii Periods. While the "stick figure" style is used, it is not as common. This ki'i pōhaku field has both styles. In addition, the anthropomorphs here are fainter and appear somewhat more eroded than the flintlock muskets, suggesting a greater age for those elements. Finally, two flintlock musket elements appears to superimpose around earlier anthropomorph elements supporting an assertion they were carved later. If this is the case, the exact meaning becomes less certain as the ki'i pōhaku are pushed further back in time and further away from memory of the kūpuna. Though perhaps the muskets were placed there to balance the mana of the place toward the masculine, and bring it into balance with the feminine and not the opposite way the Park Service proposes. Or the flintlock muskets commemorate a battle or even the simple spread of such weapons into Honokōhau in the wake of the British arrival. This case highlights the difficult of interpreting rock art, even in cases where the culture that made the art is still extant, with elders who have deep knowledge. Also, one possiblity the NPS seems to discount is that the knowledge is privileged and kūpuna informants gave them erroneous information to get them to quit asking, as simply saying something is privileged informat rarely seems to stop archaeologists working in colonized areas.

Another interesting facet of these ki'i pōhaku panels is in their use of sexed anthropomorphs. On-site information states that 20% or so of anthropomorph ki'i pōhaku in the Hawaiian Archipelago show indications of sex (erroneously called gender in the on-site material). However at Honokōhau, across all ki'i pōhaku in the makai section of ahupua'a, some 40% of figures show indications of sex, including one of the largest absolute amount of female images. As with the panel as a whole, the exact reason for this is certainly not known to non-Hawaiians, though it was for a reason. Motifs used, where they are placed and how they relate to other motifs on the same panel were all very important concerns to the Hawaiian people who made the ki'i pōhaku. Even if placed later or earlier, any of these elements were placed with these concerns in mind.

As a whole, this series of panels (one can argue each section of pahohoe is a panel, with cracks dividing panels) is notable for combining Post-Contact Period images with earlier style of anthropomorphs into one unique segment of a cultural landscape. Even if the exact meaning is lost, that fact alone, visible to anyone, Hawaiian or not, makes them important cultural objects of a living culture, Hawaiian culture.

References Cited

Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park
2001 Ki'i Pōhaku o Kaloko-Honokōhau. Hawaii Natural History Association, Hawaii National Park, HI.