// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Kiʻi say? "I'm a statue of limitations.
A kiʻi is a religious image from Hawaiʻi that can hold the presence of a god summoned into it.[1] Kiʻi is also the first man in Hawaiian religion.[2]
Religious images
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A god could be either called on without using an image or summoned into an object. An object used this way gained mana ('power') and kept some of it so the god could be called back there again, even generations later.[4]
The images were made from natural materials, including wood, stone, and feathers.[5][6][7] Anthropologist Adrienne L. Kaeppler argued that before European contact, feathered kiʻi were more important than wooden ones because their creation required the cooperation of several levels of society and depended on genealogical ties, whereas a single artisan could produce a wooden image.[8]
Kaeppler reported in 1993 that three types of wood were believed to have been used to make kiʻi: ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), kauila (Alphitonia ponderosa and Colubrina oppositifolia), and possibly lama (Diospyros sandwicensis), and that laboratory analysis had contradicted this.[9] A 2020 laboratory study of 135 Hawaiian figure carvings identified more than 18 genera that had been used.[7]
Figure in the Kumulipo
[edit source]In the Kumulipo, Kiʻi is a man born alongside the gods Kāne and Kanaloa,[10] and the senior line of human chiefs descends from his firstborn.[11] Martha Warren Beckwith wrote that the name means "image"[12] and identified him with Tiʻi and Tiki, whom traditions across eastern Polynesia treat as the first man.[13]
References
[edit source]Citations
[edit source]- ↑ Kaeppler 1982, pp. 84, 103.
- ↑ Beckwith 1972, pp. 95, 97, 168.
- ↑ Kaeppler, Rudall & Starzecka 1993, pp. 42–43.
- ↑ Kaeppler 1982, p. 83.
- ↑ Kaeppler 1982, p. 104.
- ↑ "Kini Ke Kua: Transformative Images". Bishop Museum. August 2, 2019. Archived from the original on December 4, 2025.
- 1 2 Rudall, Paula J.; Cartwright, Caroline R. (2020). "Ethnobotany of Hawaiian figure sculpture". Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 12 (1): 1. Bibcode:2020ArAnS..12....1R. doi:10.1007/s12520-019-00958-6.
- ↑ Kaeppler 1982, p. 106.
- ↑ Kaeppler, Rudall & Starzecka 1993, p. 45.
- ↑ Beckwith 1972, pp. 95, 99.
- ↑ Beckwith 1972, pp. 103–104.
- ↑ Beckwith 1972, p. 99.
- ↑ Beckwith 1972, p. 168.
Works cited
[edit source]- Beckwith, Martha Warren (1972) [1951]. The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0771-9.
- Kaeppler, Adrienne L. (1982). "Genealogy and Disrespect: A Study of Symbolism in Hawaiian Images". RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. 3: 82–107. doi:10.1086/RESv3n1ms41625301. JSTOR 41625301.
- Kaeppler, Adrienne L.; Rudall, Paula; Starzecka, Dorota (1993). "Wood Analysis and Historical Contexts of Collecting Hawaiian Wooden Images: A Preliminary Report". In Dark, Philip J. C.; Rose, Roger G. (eds.). Artistic Heritage in a Changing Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 41–46. ISBN 978-0-8248-1573-8.
External links
[edit source]- "New Bishop Museum exhibit explores relationships between kiʻi and people", Hawaii News Now, February 20, 2019. Includes video report from exhibition, descriptions of carved wooden kiʻi on display, and the relationship between kiʻi and tiki.
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