Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 2, 1 February 1986 — Men Only Hawaiian Religion Course Gets Good Response [ARTICLE]

Men Only Hawaiian Religion Course Gets Good Response

A for men oniy course on ' The Ancient Hawaiian Religion of the Men" surpassed the expectation of its instructor when 62 signed up and 40 have attended classes one night eaeh week since September. Professor Kioni Dudley, who is now Dr. Kioni Dudley since receiving his doctor of philosophy degree at the Dec. 22 University of Hawaii graduation exercises, reported how exceedingly pleased he is at the response. Dudley's doctoral work was in ancient Hawaiian philosophy and the topic of his dissertation was "A Philosophical Analysis of Pre-European-Contact Hawaiian Thought." "We've had a renewal of interest in Hawaiian navigation and in the arts. Hopefully, this work will spark interest fn the great bodies of 'intellectual' development of ka po'e kahiko," Dudley observed. Dudley, who teaches ancient Hawaiian religion and Hawaiian literature at Leeward Community College, said his current for men only class runs through May. In starting the class, Dudley noted that the religious practice by men in ancient Hawaii was quite different from that of women, even on the personal level. "Formal ritualistic worship of the gods was reserved almost exclusively to men. Women prayed to different gods and goddesses than men. While there were women mediums and sorceresses, and even female kahus (keepers or "priestesses") for some goddesses, the men alone performed the family rituals, they participated in the formal heiau services, and men filled the ranks of the recognized priesthoods. "So exclusively reserved to the men was the formal workship that women were forbidden under pain of death from entering the men's eating house (where he conducted his daily worship) and from entering the heiau. The religion of the men was passed down from generation to generation among men. "This course passes on the men's religion in that traditional way — among men alone," Dudley explained.