Origin of Hawaiian pigsWhen the great Pacific voyages brought Polynesians to Hawai'i, the Polynesian domesticated pig was brought with them. And of course, the pig itself was and is a traditional Hawaiian food, but traditions indicate that pigs were for males only, and sometimes restricted to male ali'i (chiefs). [For more detail see Malo, Kamakau, etc.].Distinction between Hawaiian pigs and domestic swineThe Polynesian pig is quite distinctive, being relatively small and black, in marked contrast to larger domesticated swine (pua'a haole), often pale or multicolored, and achieving weights up to three hundred pounds or more. Hawaiian pigs were smaller, and even pigs sacrificed to gods at heiau were of a size that allowed for a traditional method of killing of the sacrifice: the pig was lifted overhead and dashed to the ground (Malo).Symbology of pigs in Hawaiian cultureThe pig is a traditional symbol of male sexuality and virility. The snout of a pig is fed ritualistically to a male infant to ensure later sexual vigor. Kamapuaʻa, discussed later, is as ribald and virile a character as one can find in Hawaiian tradition. Moreover, Kamehameha is praised as:He keʻa makaʻīʻō lelepāhe puaʻa ʻeku ikaika...A wild-eyed, wall-leaping studa forcefully-rooting pig...The pig was also an agricultural figure. Sweet potato farmers ask Kānepuaʻa (and rarely, Kamapuaʻa) to come root in the sweet potato mounds to soften them for planting. Appropriate to the fertility symbolism, the snout of the pig is described as:ʻO ke kanokano o ka ihu nuku ʻeli honuaLarge-firm snout digging the earth
The pig's association with kalo (taro) farming has pigs, a male symbol, wallowing and rooting in the loʻi or agricultural fields, a traditional female symbol. One story describes the leaves, long stem, and corm of the harvested kalo as the pubic hair and genitals of Kamapuaʻa. Another describes unabashedly how Kamapuaʻa was rooting in a loʻi kalo, up and down the furrows, rooting, rooting, rooting, until, at the last furrow, he looks up, sees a beautiful woman standing on the bank of the loʻi, and is so excited from his rooting and the sight of her that he ejaculates, and his semen overflows the loʻi. Thus the pig-male mates with the earth-female and fertility is given to the land for kalo farming.The traditional "place" of pigsPigs were domesticated animals in Hawai'i, highly valued, carefully controlled, tended after closely. There were special enclosures for pigs, and great care given to pigs in the village setting, and were not allowed to run free, lest they cause damage to agricultural crops [see material from Pukuʻi and others]. Of the wide body of literature, written and unwritten, there are relatively few references that place pigs of old Hawaiʻi in upland forests. One of the few such general references can be found in the Kumulipo:...'O ke kama a pua'a i hānauHo'ohale uka i ka nahelehele...... The child of the pig was bornmaking house upland in the shrublands...Others can be found in the travels and adventures of Kamapuaʻa, an important and popular pig-diety, discussed below.Kamapuaʻa
The tradition of Kamapuaʻa (pig-child) tells us that he was from Kaluanui [Kaliuwaʻa] on the windward side of Oʻahu, and that he was a kupua, a supernatural being capable of extraordinary things. He could assume many forms, primarily that of a pig, and of a man, but as the need dictated, that of the fish humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-puaʻa, or any of many plant forms, including kukui, ʻamaʻu, etc. The concept of kino lau, or multiple body forms, is a basic one in Hawaiian tradition. The kino lau of Kamapuaʻa also included turning into multitudes of pigs, or growing into a gigantic eight-eyed, forty-legged pig-monster, becoming pig-shaped clouds in the sky, or stretching to the height of a waterfall as a giant pig-ladder to aid his relatives' escape.
When it comes down to it, the travels of Kamapuaʻa were so far and wide that you could find him in remote uplands, in villages, agricultural fields, temples, in the oceans between the islands, and even up in the clouds. You certainly couldn't use the adventures of this supernatural pig-child to indicate that in ancient Hawaiʻi, pigs were abundant in all of these places! Kamapuaʻa's omnipresence was part of his supernatural status, and not reflective of the typical locale of pigs.Characterizing Kamapuaʻa in the larger framework of the four principal Hawaiian gods, Kū, Lono, Kāne, and Kanaloa is not a straighforward matter. A widely-accepted tradition has him (along with pigs in general) a form of Lono, but Kānepuaʻa, from whom Kamapuaʻa is usually clearly distinguished, is the pig god of farmers, and associated with the principal god Kāne. In chants spoken by Kamaunuaniho, the grandmother of Kamapuaʻa, she indeed identifies him directly with Lono, calling him:..>..>ʻO Lono iki ʻoeʻO Lono nuiʻO kuʻu maka,ʻO kuʻu aloha,E Lono!You are small LonoGreat LonoMy belovedMy loved oneO Lono!But in another part of the chant, she equates Kamapuaʻa with Kāne:ʻO Kāneiahuea ʻoeKe akua maka ʻoiʻoi...You are KāneiahueaThe sharp-eyed god...and a little later in that same chant, she identifies Kamapuaʻa with Hiʻiaka!ʻO Hiʻiaka ʻoe i Puʻu o Kapolei...You are Hiʻiaka at Puʻu o Kapolei...This is quite an extraordinary referent, as Hiʻiaka is female, and sister to Pele, who figures prominently as antagonist-lover in the Kamapuaʻa tradition.Kamapuaʻa's association with Lono does not prevent him from fighting with (and sometimes destroying) other principal Lono figures: Lonoaeho, with his eight supernatural foreheads, is killed by Kamapuaʻa, and Pele's brother, Lonomakua, who lights the fires of Kīlauea, fails to burn Kamapuaʻa, who is hidden in a hog-shaped cloud. Thus, the identifications of Kamapuaʻa to any of the other Hawaiian gods is not meant to be simple, restrictive, or exclusive.Nor is Kamapuaʻa's temperament simple. He is aggressive and mischievous to the point of being a destructive symbol, a powerful force of disruption and death; but he is also affectionate of his family and of other companions with which he travels and for whom he would fight battles against armies and supernatural opponents. His complex relationship with Pele and her family include outright combat, rapacious love-making, tender wooing, and negotiated land settlements.Modern claims of pigs and religious rightsLately there are sometimes made claims that pigs are sacred, being forms of Kamapuaʻa, that Kamapuaʻa is a god of pig-hunters, and that therefore control and removal of pigs from the native forest is a violation of Hawaiian religious rights. Some pigs are indeed made sacred via ritual, in preparation for appropriate sacrifice, and indeed, the pig form is primary among the kino lau of Kamapuaʻa, but not every pig one sees, even at Kaluanui [Kaliuwaʻa], is to be construed as Kamapuaʻa, nor considered a sacred item untouchable by humans. In Hawaiian thought, human beings are also sacred, as are all of the native plants, birds, insects, and living things found in the forest. It is not a simple matter of sacred pigs vs profane people and other living things. Such a viewpoint seems intended to manipulate in a Western way, indigenous religious rights to meet a different need: to hunt pigs anywhere one wants, without regard for the arguments or needs of others. In fact, human attempts to protect forest plants and animals from pigs in certain places is entirely reasonable from a Hawaiian religious viewpoint.
Throughout the Hawaiian religious teachings that have come down to us, there is no evidence of Kamapuaʻa being used as a pig-hunter's god. One of the clearest messages emerging from the very complex Kamapuaʻa stories is that, far from being a patron god of pig-hunters, helpful or sympathetic to their cause, he is for the large part, contemptuous of people's attempts to catch him or control his actions. He would very likely scoff at the idea of needing human assistance. He is the unpunished rascal, urinating into the drinking water, stealing the chief's favorite rooster, ruining the agricultural fields, then killing all sent out to hunt or subdue him. He was, and still is recognized as a god, even by those not directly devoted to his worship. But no matter what we do, it seems humans will not be able to subdue Kamapuaʻa, and he will live on as his traditions are passed on through the generations.
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