Spatial Similarities and Change in Hawaiian Architecture: The Expression of Ritual Offering and Kapu in Luakini Heiau, Residential Complexes, and Houses

Abstract

Pre-Contact Hawaiian architecture reflected the cultural beliefs associated with ritual offering and adherence to the kapu system. Similarities in morphology and the use of space were evident in a range of architectural phenomena, from luakini heiau, to residential complexes, to houses. Interaction between Hawaiian and European cultures in the early nineteenth century began to de-emphasize the importance of spatial segregation associated with kapu. Architectural structures and the activities that took place in them began to undergo a fundamental change. These changes destroyed the structural parallels that had once occurred between religious and residential architecture. KEYWORDS: Hawaiian archaeology and ethnohistory, architecture, structural anthropology.