Ancient Hawaiian Civilization

In the early 1930s a group of educators, resource persons and researchers associated with the Bishop Museum were invited to give a series of lectures on ancient Hawaiian civilization at Kamehameha Schools. Representing archaelogists, scientists, Hawaiian elders, Polynesian scholars, medical physicians, and other well-informed persons, the lecturers addressed a wide-range of subjects including Polynesian migration, navigation, land use and ownership, agriculture, religion, arts, carving, warfare, sports, games, amusements, language, riddles, proverbs, astronomy and medicine. Fortunately, their lectures were transcribed and publihed in 1933 as Ancient Hawaiian Civilization. Together with the other nineteenth-century writings of Hawaiian historians and their interpreters it quickly became the most popular English language sources available on Native Hawaiian civilization. When Ancient Hawaiian Civilization was reprinted in 1965, Dr. Kenneth P. Emroy and Marian Kelly wrote updates on Polynesian migration and navigation and land ownership based on more recent scholarship. The spirit of Ancient Hawaiian Civilization was an important departure away from the forced English assimilation then the general hallmark of the public school system. The authors of Ancient Hawaiian Civilization sent out the message loud and strong that the young generation of Hawaiians had a responsibility to perpetuate the culture of the ancient people and to carry the torch as the future “keepers of the culture.” “There ought always to be among you of Hawaiian blood, some persons conversant with the great traditions of Hawaii,” the authors wrote, “and some of you able to speak the language perfectly.” Today Ancient Hawaiian Civilization still serves as an excellent primer and introduction to the Hawaiian culture.

E. S. Craighill Handy, Ph.D., is an ethnologist and has been with Bernice P. Bishop Museum since 1920. After making two expeditions to Tahiti and the Marquesas, Dr. Handy has, since 1930, actively concerned himself with Hawaiian ethnology, particularly with the fundamental aspects of the life of the Hawaiians. He has carried on field work on all the islands of the Hawaiian group, and is the author of numerous publications of the Bishop Museum.

Edwin H. Bryan, Jr., is Curator of Collections, Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Close association with the Museum's collections and with distinguished scientists working upon them, has given Mr. Bryan a good opportunity to view many aspects of Hawaiian ethnology and natural history. Field trips throughout Hawaii and the central South Pacific have given him practical experience in these studies.

Mrs. Lahilahi Webb is the Guide to Exhibits, Bernice P. Pauahi Museum. A friend, companion, and nurse to the late Queen Liliuokalani, Mrs. Webb has lived an active life in surroundings especially favorable for acquiring a knowledge of Hawaiian history, lore, and culture. She has answered the questions of many thousands of visitors to the Museum.

Peter H. Buck, M. D. (Te Rangi Hirta), is an ethnologist with Bernice P. Bishop Museum and at present Bishop Museum lecturer at Yale University. Dr. Buck is a distinguished Maori. Humanitarian impulses led him into the field of medicine. He served during the World War as a major in the medical corps, with Maori troops. As a medical officer in New Zealand, he found that a knowledge of native culture was essential to successful work, and he became an ethnologist as a direct means of serving his people. He is author of many authoritative studies in Polynesian culture.

Kenneth P. Emory is an ethnologist and has been with Bernice P. Bishop Museum since 1920. He has written reports on the archaeology of Haleakala, Lanai, Nihoa, and Necker. He is making a study of the culture of southern Polynesia, where he has spent most of his time since 1924. He is studying the question of cultural contacts between Hawaii and southeastern Polynesia, and Bishop Museum has published several of his studies thereon.