Posted on 08/03/2006 7:42:40 PM PDT by Marius3188
Ancient Hawaiians started building their monumental temples at least three centuries earlier than previously thought, a new study suggests.
They also spent more time building them, renovating and constructing new temples in waves depending on the island's political situation.
"This research provides conclusive evidence that the Maui temple network grew and expanded over a period at least five centuries," said Michael Kolb, an anthropologist at Northern Illinois University and author of the study. "It's clear that the temple system evolved as part of a long trajectory of social and political change that also saw a shift from ancestral to sacrificial worship."
Kolb spent more than a decade on the island of Maui gathering samples from the ruins of 40 separate temples, which Hawaiians call heiau. Because the land under each temple was scorched to make way for building, Kolb was able to use radiocarbon dating to assert that the first stones were laid on the earliest around the beginning of the 13th century.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
btt
The latest scheme is they want to develop a "Native copyright," protected by law, that means only those with Hawaiian blood can make what they deem "native products," or incorporate native elements or themes.
This is a scarey, if not racially predjudical, idea. Not to beat a dead horse but this smacks of limits on freedom of speech and expression by non-natives. Liberals will love the concept.
You can read about it here:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060730/NEWS23/607300356/1173/NEWS
I agree with you, it seems to me there are some real problems with this concept.
well, if you ARE curious the 'science' had been saying that the temples started at a period much later than the Hawaiian oral histories said when they were built..ie, when the preist Paoa brought the cut people up cult and heavy social stratification to the islands...but 'official' archaeology is now discovering what many archs believed all along..that the Hawaiians knew what they were talking about..and the movie included wars between the Hawaiians and Samoans..even Hawaiians don't like to paddle THAT much..do you really blame the native people for being paranoid about outsiders ideas? after all they didn't even get barren reservations from stealing unca' sam.
Darrel
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