The History of Hawaiian Homes

Featured post by Celeste Cheeseman in www.localism.com

THE HISTORY OF HAWAIIAN HOMES is an appropriate topic for one who's professional life revolves around residential homes. Don't you think? Though there are no specific dates to speak of residential history before Western Civilization came to the Hawaiian Islands, there are some notations of significance to give some insight into some of our first settlers and our land. Clear pure air, balmy hawaiian sunshine, crystal clear ocean with fine sand beaches. Dense forests, natural springs and a variety of plants known to no other land. What more could one want when looking for a place to settle?

The following events that are noted take place hundreds of years before Captain Cook's arrival (1778) in the Hawaiian Islands and believe that the first settlers took place some 1,600 years ago. By 900 A.D. all of the major Hawaiian islands were occupied. There is also some evidence that there may have been Spanish sailors who came to the islands around 1627 A.D.

Due to lack of information about the earlier settlers of the Hawaiian population we presume that because of the Polynesian background as fishermen and agriculturalists that their settlement started along the coastlines. (kind of like you see when you watch a shipwreck movie out in the middle of no where and they manage to get to an uninhabitable island. Robinson Crusoe!) where there was easy access to none other than FISH!

The selection of these particular sites for settling would most likely depend on the wind factor and also access to fresh water as well. Back in the ancient times water was available in larger valley streams and later used for irrigation. Along coastal plains water was found in volcanic rock, limestone and gravel. Where there was no water they depended on shallow wells dug in the sand and a few feet from shore.

Evidence regarding Hawaiian settlers and their housing arrangements were that:

• At some point they began constructing shelters made from wood and bark and thatched with ti leaves along sandy shores, banks of streams,on ridges and hills and in gulches and wooded areas.
• Some of the settlers living away from the coast of hillsides and valleys where there were many rock caves which most likely were used for housing.
• There is also evidence of small, round -ended huts with stone lined hearths.
• Other types of rectangular shelters may also have been present and rested on stone faced, earth filled rectangular terraces.
• There were also separate dwellings and "cookhouses" and "canoe houses" were established. The "C" shaped dwelling was also present during this time.
• The houses varied in size according to the rank of the owner,with some of the chiefs' houses being up to forty feet long.
• Most of these dwellings had woven grass mats, elevated sleeping platforms covered with mats and rushes, and candles made from the nuts of the kukui tree.
• As noted in HAWAIIAN Spirits and Superstitions all dwellings were blessed and prayed over in order to be fit to build and live in.

Then came a huge population growth and during that time they established new sites and settlements in other unoccupied areas. Economic production grew and Hawaiian society most likely remained structured along an ancestral concept of "chieftainship" and passing it down the line so to speak.

Whoa! Then came the big wars and conflict over land rights and ownership and of course sometime later it was all too inevitable that there would be a severe decline in population.

And the rest is HISTORY!

I give credit for the inspiration to write this article to Abraham Chaffin who suggested I write a post on Hawaiian History stuff (with no western culture). This is just the beginning..... and I have only touched on a tiny portion of one of many Hawaiian topics I have written.

There will be plenty of reading and studying before you come to visit or relocate to our beautiful islands and you can start with a few articles below!

Preservation of Hawaiian Culture, Land and History (localism.com featured)

Preservation AND Development for Ka'u, Hawaii?

HAWAIIAN Spirits and Superstitions

Please watch this following entertaining video for the Little Grass Shack

And ......

Hawaii no ka oi! (Hawaii is the best!)

All information and photos are the property of Celeste Cheeseman copyright 2007