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What does Ahupua a mean in Hawaiian?

What does Ahupua a mean in Hawaiian?

Ahupuaʻa (pronounced [əhupuˈwɐʔə]) is a Hawaiian term for a large traditional socioeconomic, geologic, and climatic subdivision of land (comparable to the tapere in the Southern Cook Islands).

What are the three areas of an Ahupua a called in Hawaiian?

These life support sys- tems were based on three to five biological resource zones. These were the upland/inland forest zone, or the wao nahele, the agricultural zone, or the wao kanaka, and the coastal zone, or the kaha kai.

What are the three Ahupua A?

Today, Hawai’i still recognizes some of these ahupua’a such as Honolulu, Waikiki, Kailua, and Nanakuli.

  • This is the third level of land division, one of the most popular divisions of land.
  • Although many people are familiar with the term, many are not familiar with the history of land divisions in Hawai’i.

Is Manoa an Ahupua A?

For the indigenous peoples, Manoa Valley was part of an ancient Hawaiian land division know as an ahupua’a and where Hawaiians lived a sustainable lifestyle.

What is the purpose of an Ahupua A?

Ahupua’a is the traditional land dividing system that promotes sustainability and conservation of natural resources. Students can further explore the ahupua’a under Hawaiian study.

How many Ahupua A in Hawaii?

ten ahupua’
It includes ten ahupua’a in southwestern coastal Puna district. Ahupuaʻa were usually roughly triangular parcels, with a narrow top at higher elevations and a wider base at the ocean.

How many Ahupua A on Oahu?

Makahiki was an annual religious ceremony that allowed the God Lono to make a clockwise circuit around the island to bless the land with fertility, and to ensure that each of the 81 ahupuaʻa were planted most efficiently with food.

How was the Ahupua a sustainable?

Early Hawaiians adhered instead to an efficient and sustainable land management system called Ahupua’a—wedge-shaped land sections that usually ran from the mountains to the sea. Each was carefully designed to provide within its borders the natural resources a community required to meet its own needs.

What was the philosophy of the Ahupua A to the ancient Hawaiians?

The ancient ahupua`a, the basic self-sustaining unit, extended elements of Hawaiian spirituality into the natural landscape. Amidst a belief system that emphasized the interrelationship of elements and beings, the ahupua`a contained those interrelationships in the activities of daily and seasonal life.

How many Moku are on the Big island?

six moku
The Big Island’s 4,028 square miles are comprised of six moku—Hilo, Puna, Ka’ū, Kona, Kohala and Hāmākua—originally divided from the whole of the mokupuni (island) as districts of rule by Hawaiian chiefs long before European contact.

What was the purpose of the Ahupua A?

Each ahupua`a contained the resources the human community needed, from fish and salt, to fertile land for farming taro or sweet potato, to koa and other trees growing in upslope areas.

What was an Ahupua a used for?

Who was the first person to map the Hawaiian Islands?

This article has been updated with links to high resolution images of S. P. Kalama’s 1837 and 1838 maps of Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei (the Hawaiian Islands). These were the only comprehensive maps known, that were created by a Hawaiian, to map the islands before the Great Mahele and the following introduction of private land ownership.

What was the land division of pre contact Hawaiians?

The traditional land divisions of pre-contact Hawaiians was based on the sustainability and self-reliance within community watershed areas (ahupuaa) as well as within bioregions (moku) and lastly individual sovereign islands (mokupuni). These natural land divisions were the result of the flow of water over the land.

How did the Hawaiians determine their land boundaries?

These natural land divisions were the result of the flow of water over the land. Of course, boundaries were also determined by the political influence and power. We have, to the degree possible, ignored the land divisions based on conquest and private ownership, and kept to the relation of Hawaiians to the aina itself.

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Ruth Doyle