Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 12, 1 December 1987 — He Mau Ninau Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

He Mau Ninau Ola

Some Health Questions by Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D. S 7

Kahuna 'Ana'ana. Mokuna Elua

Ninau: If 'ana'ana is not "praying to death by a witch doctor," what is it? How did it eome to be?. And why does it persist? Pane: As explained i ka Mokuna Ekahi (Part I) i kela mahina aku nei (last month), 'ana'ana is commonly defined ma ka 'olelo Pelekania (in English) as "sorcery," "black

magic" or "witchcraft." Then Western or other nonHawaiian concepts of these terms are misapplied to 'ana'ana. Similarly, "praying to death" is a narrow and thus, misleading description of 'ana'ana. Likewise, the term "witch doctor" reveals laek of cultural appreciation of the learning and skills of the kahuna 'ana'ana and his role in traditional Hawaiian society.

However, when the topic of 'ana'ana is studied seriously within the historical context of na mea pono Hawai'i (Hawaiian culture), a more meaningful definition emerges, 'o ia ho'i: distinctly Hawaiian methods of influencing the course of events of man and nature, through psychospiritual means, sometimes, but not necessarily, with unfavorable outcome.

The origin and literal meaning of the word "'ana'ana" are obscure. Minamina (regretfully), explanations by our knowledgeable kupuna were not recorded in early times. Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck) in 1936considered the term to be unique to Hawai'i. At present, Prof. Samuel Elbert also believes 'ana'ana is probably not Proto-Polynesian. However, he points out that the word "anaana" in John Davies' Tahitian-English dictionary of 1851, is listed as meaning "bright, shining," and the word "anaanaea" as "revived, recruited, refreshed." Quite the opposite of "black magic" or "necromancy"!

As also indicated īn last month s He Mau Ninau Ola, Sir Peter considered 'ana'ana to refer to the Hawaiian form of "Eastern Polynesian sorcery," whieh he characterized as having these basic features in eommon: "a material object in contact with the proposed victim was subjected to a magical process, afflictingthe victim with malicious spirits whieh entered his body and caused various symptoms. . .whieh preceded death." It is probably significant that Dr. Buck's publication of 1936 cited only David Malo's 1898 translation by

Nathaniel Emerson as the source of his information on Hawai'i. Te Rangi Hiroa, then director of the Bishop Museum, did not refer to the writings of other early Hawaiian scholars, such as Samuel Kamakau and John Papa 'I'i, whose papers were then stored in the Museum, but were published in English translation only after 1959.

Kamakau, in his Hawaiian nupepa series of 1870, included the following 10 'ana'ana practices whieh do not fit the usual Western definition of black magic nor Sir Peter's description of Eastern Polynesian sorcery given above: 1. Kia i ka pule (concentrate prayer) on a cliff until it crumbled. 2. Kia i ka pule on a grove of trees whieh would then wither. 3. Kia i ka pule on a mano (shark) that had eaten a man, and "the wicked shark and the man would land on the shore." 4. Make ahi (fire) eome out of a pohaku (rock) or out of a green growing tree. 5. The kahuna 'ana'ana could drink 'apu koheoheo ("poisonous" 'auhuhu) as if it were water without po'ino (harm).

6. The kahuna 'ana'ana kuni would wehe (remove) the make (affliction) sent by another kahuna 'ana'ana, openly, not in secret. 7. The kahuna kuni 'o's work was ho'ola (to heal), using his mana to free those who had been harmed. 8. Kamaka recorded witnessing this "good thing" in Waialua in the early 19th Century: A kahuna 'ana'ana's pule ho'ola (healing prayer) to 'aumakua was so intense that fish pa'a'ia (stuck) in the throats of a kanaka and a wahine near death were promptly softened and expelled. 9. Although the Kalaipahoa "sorcery gods of Moloka'i were poisonous and death-dealing," when the gravely-ill Kamehameha 'Ekahi slep against them, he did not die, he was healed! (See Fig. 1). 10. The kahuna 'ana'ana used the umu loa (long imu) to remove causes of grievances and to counteract death.

Thus, we have listed 10 examples of 'ana'ana that were clearly not "praying to death," did not involve Hawaiian "sorcery" as defined by Peter Buck, and most of whieh could be interpreted as hana maika'i (favorable), rather than hana 'ino (evil). In future columns, we will recount various classes of kahuna 'ana'ana, some famous examples of alleged 'ana'ana, an analysis of these practices in old Hawai'i and their probable mechanisms, and speculations eoncerning their origins. 'Oiai, e ho'omau mai nei i kou mau ninau ola, ke 'olu'olu.

Fig. 1 . A Kalaipahoa "sorcery and death-dealing" ki'i akua (image god) from Moloka'i. When ailing Kamehameha I slept against this ki'i, he was healed, rather than kllled, by the "ana'ana." No ke aha mai?