Mary Kawena Pukui (1895–1986)

History made fade, rituals may be discarded, and customs changed with the passage of time. Yet many of the basic values of Hawai'i's past remain vital and true and applicable in the present day.

Nana I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source) describes Hawaiian beliefs and customs, bridging Hawai'i's past with the present. In the early 1970s, workers at the Queen Lili'uokaliani Children's Center, to better understand and meet the needs of the Hawaiian families they served, began to research authentic Hawaiian culture. Much of the books' material was distilled from seven years of the Center's Hawaiian Cultural Cimmittee's weekly meetings.

Senior author Mary Kawena Pukui believed that 'the Hawaiian needs to understand and appreciate the soundness and beauty of his culture.' Pukui was an ideal participant in this project, having been raised in two cultures, the Hawaiian familiy line of kahuna on her mother's side and the New England heritage of her father. She contributed valuable information from her life experience.

Volume One interprets specific Hawaiian words and phrases and was meant to 'clarify distorted beliefs, suggest the rationale behind Hawaiian ritual, and convey some of the poetic imagery of anicent rites and their underlying concepts.'

Volume Two deals with broader concepts and relationships, including such topics as the child, man and woman, dreams and symbols, holiness and healing. It restates the theme of understanding more fully the influences of Hawaiian culture on life today.

Contents

Foreword
Author's preface
Acknowledgments
Hawaiian topic index and reference
(Bold face type indicates terms of concepts listed and discussed as separate topics. References which define terms or provide some significant information within topic listings are in light-face type. Hawaiian terms merely repeated or used in translated conversations are not indexed.… (more)