E Hoʻi I Ka Piko - Nā Piko ʻehā - I Piko Hou No Nā Piko ʻekolu

Abstract

Native Hawaiian traditions explain how people share a link to the mana of the divine through three metaphysical connections, or piko. The piko of the body, namely the fontanel, the umbilicus, and the genitalia, are introduced in the book Nānā I Ke Kumu. The triple-piko concept, as coined by Pukui are the three areas of the body by which an individual in old Hawaiʻi is linked to their forebears, and their descendants yet unborn through shared spiritual and emotional bonds. While this concept is widely accepted and used in Hawaiʻi educational institutions today, Pukui states that the knowledge itself is fragmented and therefore incomplete. The result of the implementation of this concept in its current form is the creation of a neurosis among Hawaiian students in which a lack of grounding conflicts with their role and sense of purpose in turn breeding confusion. This thesis paper named E Hoʻi I Ka Piko is the re-introduction to a fourth piko that addresses and resolves the lack of grounding neurosis of the triple-piko concept.