| Hawaiian Ancestral Spirits Pre-Christian Polynesians saw themselves as the living edge of a much greater multitude of ancestors who, as ancestral spirits, linked the living to a continuum going back to the first humans, to the major spirits, and hence to the ultimate male and female spirits that created the universe. To Polynesians there was no supernatural; the entire universe and all things in it, including spirits, were natural.
Mana was the force that powered the universe expressed in everything from the movements of stars to the growth of a plant or the surge of a wave. Human mana manifested as life force, charisma, inherited talents, intelligence, and other virtues flowed down the same hereditary channel of seniority from the major spirits (akua) to the ancestral spirits (‘aumakua) to living parents (mäkua) and their children. The inheritance of certain talents within a family was taken as evidence of mana being passed down the line of seniority. Canoe makers would pray to ancestors noted for their skill as canoe makers; physicians would pray to ancestors who were famous healers; kapa makers would pray to ancestors who were outstanding artists in kapa making. Authority was based on seniority descending the channels of mana flow from the major gods to the youngest child. The elder brother’s authority over the younger was challenged only when the elder acted with unwarranted cruelty or against norms of acceptable behavior actions which signified that the elder had lost the mana which gave him the right to rule over his junior. Parents had authority over their children, and clan elders ruled the extended families.
Chiefly clans, by virtue of genealogies connecting them more directly with the major gods, were considered as elder to the clans of commoners. Both chiefs and commoners venerated their more illustrious ancestors as ‘aumakua, and sought their aid. ‘Aumakua were invisible to the living, but able to possess or inhabit many visible forms, animate or inanimate. A rock or a small carved image set up in a family shrine within the home might serve as a resting place for ‘aumakua. The momoa, the pointed stern of a canoe hull which projects aft from below the rear hull covering of a Hawaiian canoe, was regarded as the “seat”for the invisible ‘aumakua of the canoe’s owner. The war club of a famous warrior ancestor might be powered by his mana when wielded by a descendant in battle.
‘Aumakua could also take possession of living creatures. Unusual experiences with certain fish, birds, reptiles, insects or mammals may have led some Hawaiians to regard certain animals as forms favored by their ‘aumakua. Thus it was believed that ancestral spirits could make appearances to express parental concern for the living, bringing warnings of impending danger, comfort in times of stress or sorrow, or in other ways being helpful. This is not to say that an entire species was regarded as ‘aumakua only that an individual animal might be possessed by an ‘aumakua, and then only as the occasion might demand. Some families, for example, believed that the spirit of an ancestor could appear as a shark, perhaps to chase fish into their nets, or to guide a lost canoe to safety. This does not imply that these families regarded all sharks as their ‘aumakua; neither does it mean that a particular shark was an ‘aumakua. To be precise, it means that an ‘aumakua had chosen to take possession of a particular shark for a particular purpose. But for these families, the killing or eating of any shark was an act of filial disrespect, for which the ‘aumakua might punish them by bringing sickness upon the transgressors.
Mr. Kane was a member of the state’s Shark Task Force, and wrote this paper for the other members to explain the cultural significance of sharks.
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