Aliʻi

For the plant known as ʻaʻaliʻi or aalii, see Dodonaea viscosa.

The aliʻi were the traditional nobility of the Hawaiian islands. They were part of a hereditary line of rulers, the noho aliʻi.

The word aliʻi has a similar meaning in the Samoan language and other Polynesian languages, and in Māori it is pronounced "ariki".

Background

In ancient Hawaiian society, the aliʻi were hereditary nobles (a social class or caste).^[1][2] The aliʻi consisted of the higher and lesser chiefs of the various levels on the islands.^[3][4] The noho aliʻi were the ruling chiefs.^[5] The aliʻi were believed to be descended from the deities.^[6]

There were eleven classes of aliʻi, of both men and women. These included the kahuna (priestesses and priests, experts, craftsmen, and canoe makers) as part of four professions practiced by the nobility.^[7] Each island had its own aliʻi nui, who governed their individual systems.^[8] Aliʻi continued to play a role in the governance of the Hawaiian islands until 1893, when Queen Liliʻuokalani was overthrown by a coup d'état backed by the United States government.

Aliʻi nui were ruling chiefs (in Hawaiian, nui means grand, great, or supreme.^[9]). The nui title could be passed on by right of birth.

Social designations of noho aliʻi (ruling line)

Samuel M. Kamakau writes extensively about the aliʻi nui and kaukaualiʻi lines and their importance to Hawaiian history.^[10]

• Aliʻi nui were supreme high chiefs of an island and no others were above them (during the Kingdom period this title would come to mean "Governor"). The four largest Hawaiian islands (Hawaiʻi proper, Maui, Kauaʻi, and Oʻahu) were usually ruled each by their own aliʻi nui. Molokaʻi also had a line of island rulers, but was later subjected to the superior power of nearby Maui and Oʻahu during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Mōʻī was a special title for the highest chief of the island of Maui. Later, the title was used for all rulers of the Hawaiian Islands and the Hawaiian monarchs.
• Aliʻi nui kapu were sacred rulers with special taboos.
• Aliʻi Piʻo were a rank of chiefs who were products of full blood sibling unions. Famous Piʻo chiefs were the royal twins, Kameʻeiamoku and Kamanawa.
• Aliʻi Naha were a rank of chiefs who were products of half-blood sibling unions; famous Naha chiefs include Keōpūolani.
• Aliʻi Wohi were a rank of chiefs who were products of marriage of close relatives other than siblings; one famous Wohi chief was Kamehameha I. These chiefs possessed the kapu wohi, exempting them from kapu moe (prostration taboo).
• Kaukaualiʻi were lesser chiefs who served the aliʻi nui.^[11] It is a relative term and not a fixed level of aliʻi nobility. The expression is elastic in terms of how it is used. In general, it means a relative who is born from a lesser ranking parent.^[12][13] A kaukaualiʻi son's own children, if born of a lesser ranking aliʻi mother, would descend to a lower rank. Eventually the line descends, leading to makaʻāinana (commoner).^[14] Kaukaualiʻi gain rank through marriage with higher-ranking aliʻi.

One kaukaualiʻi line descended from Moana Kāne, son of Keākealanikāne, became secondary aliʻi to the Kamehameha rulers of the kingdom and were responsible for various hana lawelawe (service tasks). Members of this line married into the Kamehamehas, including Charles Kanaʻina and Kekūanāoʻa.^[11] Some bore Kāhili, royal standards made of feathers, and were attendants of the higher-ranking aliʻi.^[11] During the monarchy some of these chiefs were elevated to positions within the primary political bodies of the Hawaiian legislature and the king's Privy Council. All Hawaiian monarchs after Kamehameha III were the children of Kaukaualiʻi fathers who married higher ranking wives.^{[11]: 112 [15]}

See also

• Ruling chiefs of Hawaiʻi
• Ancient Hawaiʻi
• Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
• Aliʻi nui of Hawaiʻi
• Aliʻi nui of Maui
• Aliʻi nui of Oʻahu
• Aliʻi nui of Kauaʻi
• List of monarchs of Tonga
• List of monarchs of Tahiti
• List of monarchs of Huahine
• List of monarchs of Mangareva

References

1. Mary Kawena Pukui; Samuel H. Elbert (1 January 1986). Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian. University of Hawaii Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-8248-0703-0.
2. Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Hoyt Elbert (2003). "lookup of aliʻi". in Hawaiian Dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii Press. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
3. Sharon Henderson Callahan (20 May 2013). Religious Leadership: A Reference Handbook. SAGE Publications. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-4522-7612-0.
4. "Aliʻi". Wehewehe. Ulukau. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
5. Juri Mykkänen (January 2003). Inventing Politics: A New Political Anthropology of the Hawaiian Kingdom. University of Hawaii Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-8248-1486-1.
6. John F. McDermott; Wen-Shing Tseng; Thomas W. Maretzki (1 January 1980). People and Cultures of Hawaii: A Psychocultural Profile. University of Hawaii Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-8248-0706-1.
7. Stephen Dando-Collins (1 April 2014). Taking Hawaii: How Thirteen Honolulu Businessmen Overthrew the Queen of Hawaii in 1893, With a Bluff. Open Road Media. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4976-1429-1.
8. Barbara A. West (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-4381-1913-7.
9. Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Hoyt Elbert (2003). "lookup of nui". in Hawaiian Dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii Press. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
10. Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau (1 January 1992). Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii. Kamehameha Schools Press. p. iii. ISBN 978-0-87336-014-2.
11. Kanalu G. Terry Young (25 February 2014). Rethinking the Native Hawaiian Past. Taylor & Francis. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-317-77668-0.
12. Abraham Fornander; Thomas George Thrum (1920). Fornander collection of Hawaiian antiquities and folk-lore ... Bishop Museum Press. p. 311.
13. Davida Malo (1903). Hawaiian Antiquities: (Moolelo Hawaii). Hawaiian islands. p. 82.
14. Kauanui, J. Kēhaulani (17 October 2008). Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity. Duke University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-8223-9149-4.
15. Osorio, Jon Kamakawiwoʻole (2002). Dismembering Lāhui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 80, 11, 147. ISBN 0-8248-2549-7.

Further reading

• Hommon, Robert J. (2013). The Ancient Hawaiian State: Origins of a Political Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-991612-2.
• Kamakau, Samuel (1992) [1961]. Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii (Revised ed.). Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools Press. ISBN 0-87336-014-1.
• Kamakau, Samuel (1993). Tales and Traditions of the People of Old: Na Moʻolelo a ka Poʻe Kahiko. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.
• Kirch, Patrick Vinton (2010). How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawaiʻi. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94784-9.
• Linnekin, Jocelyn (1990). Sacred Queens and Women of Consequence: Rank, Gender, and Colonialism in the Hawaiian Islands. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06423-1.
• Malo, Davida (1903). Hawaiian Antiquities: (Moolelo Hawaii). Translated by Nathaniel Bright Emerson. Honolulu: Hawaiian Gazette Co, Ltd.
• Osorio, Jon Kamakawiwoʻole (2002). Dismembering Lāhui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2549-2.
• Stokes, John F. G. (1932). "The Hawaiian King". Hawaiian Historical Society Papers. Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society (19): 1–28. hdl:10524/975.
• Tuimalealiifano, Morgan (2006). O Tama a ʻāiga: The Politics of Succession to Sāmoa's Paramount Titles. Suva: University of the South Pacific. ISBN 9789820203778.
• Young, Kanalu G. Terry (1998). Rethinking the Native Hawaiian Past. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8153-3120-9.