Native Planters in Old Hawaii

Originally published in 1972, Native Planters in Old Hawaii is the fruit of a brilliant collaboration between Pacific anthropologist, E. S. Craighill Handy, his wife, Elizabeth Green Handy, and the beloved expert on Hawaiian language and culture, Mary Kawena Pukui. Today, this classic work remains invaluable to scholars and practitioners alike as both a precious ethnographic resource on Hawaiian planting practices and as an in-depth examination of Hawaiians’ relationship to land. The book discusses basic patterns of Hawaiian planting culture, the gods worshipped, class and land divisions, water rights and irrigation techniques, tools, crafts, and general horticultural skills. It includes an examination of how people shaped their cultivation practices to the varied Hawaiian environment, and documents various myths and rituals connected to planting.