When Kamehameha I gained a monopoly over the sandalwood trade, he ordered his sub chiefs to send their maka‘ inana into the hills to collect it. The white men began to trade ships and guns and other white men's goods for sandalwood, called " 'Iliahi" in Hawaiian.
The working relationships, the religion and the life style changed quickly after Captain Cook came. Sharing, giving and partaking of one's neighbors' goods was an accepted way of living. They developed a nature that was open-hearted.
They had no fear of want or hunger on the morrow. The Hawaiians developed a carefree attitude toward life. During this period there were feasts, fun and games. Once a year there was a Makahiki or gathering which lasted four months. Offenses great or small were generally punished by death.ĭespite the labor commoners were required to render each month to their chief, there was still ample time for leisure activity. Government and religion were one, so breaking a sacred kapu was a sacrilege as well as a crime. Order and discipline were maintained through a strict code of laws, known as the kapu system. The maka‘āinana worked for the chief 6 days each month, fought in the chief's wars, and paid taxes in the form of goods produced. They raised pigs, dogs and chickens to supplement their diet, and they had the right to fish in the sea or in protected fish ponds. Here they planted, irrigated, nurtured and harvested taro, sweet potatoes and other crops. The maka‘āinana, or common people were allotted a plot of ground by their chief. In ancient Hawai‘i a complicated but definite family structure determined a person's place in the class system of society, and religion sanctified and unified the cultural, social and economic order.
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