This book is a study of Hawaiian sacrificial rituals in their social and cosmological
context. But since sacrifices accompany every important social
act and reproduce mental and social strucrurcs, it is also, by necessity, a
study of Hawaiian culture and society in general.
The book is divided into three parts. In the first I attempt to give a systematic
account of Hawaiian religious notions, the most important of
which is nlmn, "deity." A deity is the personified and naturalized concept of
a human subject defined by his predicates, the most important of which is
the aptitude to perform certain actions in certain social contexts. Thus a
deity includes the interrelated concepts of a subject, his actions, and their
social contexts. A concept is a general idea; bur this idea is personified,
given a concrete (albeit imaginary) form; therefore it becomes a type. Indeed,
the latter is defined as an "crre c01Jcret, recl ou imaginaire, qui CSt
reprcsentatif d'une classc d'ctrcs" because it is "ee qui cn presente In forme
la plus characteristique ou la plus parfaite" (Lalande 1960, 1155-56).
Since as types the deities personify classes of moral, social beings, I consider
them as moral, social species as well. In sum, "concept," "type," and
"species" can all be used, depending on the context, to designate what the
deities stand for.
Author(s): Valerio Valeri
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Year: 1985
Language: English
Pages: 483
Tags: Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii, Valerio Valeri
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Sources
Part 1. Sacrifice and the Gods
ix
xv
A-vii
1 Summary of Hawaiian Theology 3
Cosmogony 4
The Pantheon 9
The Notion of AI"m: Preliminary Conclusions 31
2 The Elements of Sacrifice 37
3
Part 2.
4
Preliminary Definition 37
Classification of Sacrifices according to Their End
or the Occasion on Which They Arc Made 38
The Symbolism of the Offering 45
The Role of Prayer 52
The Offering as Food 56
Remarks concerning the Vocabulary of Sacrifice 59
Theories of Sacrifice 62
A Model of Hawaiian Sacrifice 70
Firstfi:uits Sacrifice 75
Conclusion 81
Gods and Humans
Pure and Impure 84
Kapil and Non 90
Mana 95
Conclusion I 104')
Sacrifice and HiCr'archy
The Hierarchy of Sacrifices
The Hierarchy of the Gods and the
Hierarchy of Men 109
84
109
viii Contents
Sacrifice and the Hierarchy of the Sexes III
Sacrifice and Rank 124
Conclusions 128
5 Sacrifice and Kingship
The "Sacrificer": Kahuna and Ali'i 130
The Priesthood 135
Kingship 140
130
6 The Hierarchy of Temples 172
Introduction 172
The Concept of"Hci,,"" 173
Functional Types, Architectural Types 173
The Temple System 183
Part 3. The Sacrifice of the Hawaiian King
Introduction
Remarks on Method 191
The Calendar 194
191
7 The Makahiki Festival 200
The Makahiki Festival 200
Transitional Rites 227
8 The LII"ki,,; Temple Ritual 234
Preliminaries 234
The LII,,/li,,; Temple and Its Furnishings 235
Hlli/ml" Rites 256
Rites for Appropriating the Haku 'ohi'a 262
The 'A/m Hcle/;oll1m Rite 279
The Knllil" Nil; Rite 281
Rites for Incorporating the God into the Temple 288
Rites for the Final Transformation of the God 308
The Rite of Kall0ali'i and the Halla Rite 318
The Final Hale a Pap" Rites 327
The Ritual Syntagma according to 'I'i
and S. M. Karnakau 332
The Treatment of Human Victims 336
Conclusion 340
Notes 349
Glossary 405
References 409
Index 437
