Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 6, 1 June 1989 — He Mau Nīnau Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

He Mau Nīnau Ola

Some Health Questions by Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D.

Na Iwi 0 Ke Kino Kanaka (The Bones of the Human Body) Mokuna 'Ekahi (Part I)

Ninau: E ke kauka, although I am 37, unmarried and not a grandparent, I am called a "kupuna" in an elementary school with only limited teaching materials on things Hawaiian. During the recent furor over excavation of ancient Hawaiian burials, our

students and fellow teachers have asked for basic information on human anatomy in Hawaiian. Where ean I find some pictures of the human skeleton with the bones labeled in Hawaiian? Pane: Pololei no 'oe. There is need for a modern, standardized lexicon of hua 'ōlelo Hawai'i (Hawaiian terms), such as for ke kino kanaka (the human body) with appropriate ki'i (illustrations), for reference and teaching, especially as revitalization of our culture and language acquires increasing momentum. Perhaps professor Larry Kimura's UH Manoa Hawaiian Language Immersion Curriculum and Training Program, the newly-funded UH Hilo Hawaiian Language Center under professors Pila Wilson and Kauanoe Kaman"ā, kumu Gordon Pi'ianai'a's Kamehameha Schools Hawaiian Studies Institute, the Department of Education's (DOE) Hawaiian Studies Program directed by kumu Lokomaika'iokalani Snakenberg and OHA-fostered Organization of Hawaiian Educators (OHE) will coordinate their efforts to develop such materials. The newly-organized Papa La'au Lapa'au (Council of Native Hawaiian Traditional Healers) will need the most sophisticated of such palapala in their proposed curriculum for training their haumāna (students) in traditional medical arts. 'Oiai (meanwhile), here is a ki'i of nā iwi o ke kino kanaka from the first puke (book) printed on human anatomy in 'ōlelo makuahine, Anatomia, by mikanele (missionary) kauka Gerrit Parmalee Judd in 1838 for the native haumāna at Lahaināluna School (Fig. 1). I have inserted nā inoa (the names) of the main iwi ma ka 'ōlelo Hawai'i (in the Hawaiian language) as given in kauka Judd's puke, and provided the standard Western names in parentheses. Additional ki'i with more iwi inoa will follow in future columns. Kauka Judd did not indicate the kumu source(s) of his Hawaiian hua 'ōlelo for nā iwi in his puke. However, his descendant biographer, Gerrit P. Judd IV, recorded that the kauka "contributed almost all of the anatomical words in the Hawaiian language," and that the copperplate engravings, including the kneeling skeleton (Fig. 1) eame from Jerome V.C. Smith's Class Book of Anatomy of 1834. It is reasonable to assume that the kauka must

have had native assistance for his Anatomia in Hawaiian of 1838. One year earlier, in 1837, he acknowledged three contributors to his book on Hawaiian medicine, whieh, however, was not published until 1858-1859 in the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Hae Hawai'i, as recently reported by modern Hawaiian scholar Maleolm Naea Chun. These cited natives were the informant Kekaha, and two writers, Kaho'ohana and Kalama. For a time, kauka Judd also had another assistant, Kalili. How mueh, if any, these natives or others eon-. tributed to Anatomia, must remain speculative. This also means that from the available limited information, Judd's Anatomia does not provide reliable evidence on the extent of pre-Western natives' knowledge of anatomy, physiology, surgery and the other medical sciences.

The following summarizes my analysis of nā hua 'ōlelo iwi ma ka 'Ōlelo Hawai'i whieh kauka Judd used in his puke: • Some of the hua 'ōlelo iwi are not Hawaiian in origin, although they are Hawaiianized, e.g., kubita for the ulna in the forearm; hamare for the malleus (hammer) in the middle pepeiao (ear). • Some names are distinctly Hawaiian and, thus, may have been used in pre-Western times, e.g., iwi lei for the clavicle; iwi hoehoe (eanoe paddle) for the scapula; iwi huamoa (ehieken egg) i ka lua (pit) for the head of the femur in the acetabulum. • Some bones have multiple names, e.g., iwi lei and iwi lae for the frontal; iwiā and iwi 'ālalo for the mandible. • Different bones or structures have the same name, e.g., iwi lei for the clavicle and the frontal; iwi hoehoe for the scapula and an ear ossicle. • Some "Hawaiian" hua 'ōlelo are clearly postWestern contact in their applieahon, e.g., wa'apā" (rowboat) for the shape of a carpal bone; ke'ehi (stapes or stirrup) for the stirrupshaped middle-ear iwi. • Many hua 'ōlelo iwi deserve further study for their probable origin, e.g., 'ōpe'ape'a (bat) for the sphenoid;' uluna (pillow) for the humerus; hilo for femur. Some of these will be eonsidered in future columns. In later columns we will also pane i na ninau eoncerning uses of human bones, beliefs about iwi, and burials of skeletal remains. 'Oiai, e ho'omau e hā'awi mai nei ai i he mau ninau ola, ke 'olu'olu.

Fig. 1. Hawaiian and Western names for the principal bones of the human skeleton, from Kauka Gerrit P. Judd's Anaiomia of 1838.