Environmental Variability and Traditional Hawaiian Land Use Patterns: Manuka's Cultural Islands in Seas of Lava

Abstract

Environmental variability and patterns of Native Hawaiian land use are examined from the perspective of a relatively marginal locality on the island of Hawai'i. The traditional land unit of Manuka Ahupua'a is covered with large expanses of poorly weathered lava flows, but the coastal waters are rich in marine life. Traditional land use was centered within and near klpuka (islands of older substrate surrounded by more recent lava flows). Changing patterns of land use, residence, and mobility are examined. Evidence from Manuka is compared with the early-twentieth-century 'ohana model and found to be at variance. A more general theoretical model that addresses the relationship between environmental variability and an array of traditional Hawaiian residential patterns is proposed. KEYWORDS: Hawai'i, settlement patterns, traditional land use, mobility, environmental variability, 'ohana.