The Polynesian Family System
in Ka'u, Hawai'i
E.S. Craighill Handy and Mary Kawena Pukui
Mutual Publishing 1998, sixth printing 2022
The importance of the extended family in the Hawaiian community can be easily seen on any weekend at public
parks, churches, and yards throughout the Islands as the 'ohana regularly gather to celebrate their connectedness to
one another, to affirm their common past, and to nurture the future generations.
The values, relations, and psychic bonds that are the sinew of the Hawaiian family fortunately attracted the interest of two
researchers who went to live in the community of Ka'u on the Big Island of Hawai'i in the 1930s. The collaboration of anthropologist
E.S. Craighill Handy and Native Hawaiian cultural specialist Mary Kawena Pukui resulted in the seminal study The Polynesian Family System in Ku'a, Hawai'i.
This insightful study of the Hawaiian family, first published in the 1950s, explored the manners and customs
accompanying the cycles of life - from birth, marriage, sexual practices, religious beliefs, and family relations through death
and afterlife. Most importantly, Pukui was able to persuade her kupuna of elders who resided in Ka'u to publicly share for the
first time their insights of the Hawaiian worldview. The result is an indispensable study which combines scientific methodology
with Native Hawaiian sensitivities in a way which is invaluable to modern readers who seek to understand the inclusiveness, love
and durability of the Hawaiian 'ohana.
(The text above comes from the back of the book)