Noiʻ i ʻ ike hana lima kilo lani o ka poʻ e kahiko ...
"Speaking both generally and for myself personally, cultural astronomy requires knowledge of the culture under study to a greater extent than archaeoastronomy does. "
Martha H. Noyes, M.A Cultural Astronomy at University of Wales Trinity Saint David; M.A. Communications at University of Hawai`i; Punahou Graduate and Lālā Ho‘okama, Associate Member of the Hawaiian Civic Club of Wahiawā since 2012.
Ki`i na Vicki Pakele
na Martha H. Noyes
My research and writing focus is about the Cultural Astronomy of Hawai`i. Cultural astronomy, formerly and often still called ethnoastronomy, is the study of knowledges associated with astronomy and the characteristics and functions of celestial objects and events in a specific culture, in my case that of pre-contact Hawaii. Cultural astronomy can and frequently does include archeological sites and elements of archaeology, but does not involve invasive techniques such as excavation. Archaeoastronomy is the study of astronomy apparent at an archaeological site or by structural elements, walls, doors, windows, paths, streets, and so on, and often does include excavation and other invasive techniques.
Apart from the Pleiades as markers for the beginning and end of the annual Makahiki period, there isn’t very much published material about the meanings/functions of celestial objects and events in Hawaii. There is some published archaeoastronomy, but it is sparse and only addresses alignments or orientations of sites (usually temples) or of parts of sites with a star or constellation.
I have had the great fortune to have spent decades researching Kūkaniloko’s astronomical relationships, to have learned that some of the mountains of the Koolau and Waianae ranges are named, using kaona or no‘a huna, for sun stations and the rise/set of the stars O‘ahuʻs months are named for. Kūkaniloko has also shown the importance of relationships between/among stars, with Sirius and solar nadirs being but one example.
Most Hawaiian temples are generally oriented to particular stars or celestial events. This is especially true for Kūkaniloko. It is definitely, quantifiably, oriented to the two solstices: its northwest end pointing to the June solstice sunset and its southeast end pointing to the December solstice sunrise. The west side of the Birth Stone is oriented to, Kolekole where the sun sets on the days of the November and January solar nadirs. Kolekole, is also where Sirius, the January rise and November set of which signal the nadirs and which, like the solar nadirs, has to do, among other things, with an opening/access to pō and Kolekole/TeKore.
Although there isn’t any previously published material about Kūkanilokoʻs astronomical associations, there is an unpublished paper Aunty Rubellite Johnson wrote from Harry Kurthʻs notes; an unpublished memorandum by Will Kyselka done in 1991, and perhaps one or two other pieces. The absence of any on-point published material makes me check, recheck and check again
all of my data.
I know that I have inadvertently been the first to do what I do. And I know how profoundly fortunate I am to have Kūkaniloko as my Kumu, my source and my teacher, and how profound my debt, spiritual and intellectual, is to kapuahuawa Kūkaniloko.
Readings in anthropology, including ethnography of the culture whose astronomy is the subject of research matters. That reading, though, is not enough. It usually stops short of addressing cultural epistemology and ontology, the cultureʻs concepts and practices regarding birth and death, its cosmogony not only as creation stories but also as represented by social structure, geographical boundaries, land use, local terrain, availability of fresh water, agriculture, annual weather patterns, governance, the cultureʻs principle deities and its culture heroes and their symbolic, metaphoric, and allegorical references, deities associated with specific kinds of events and times of year, and, most importantly, the cultureʻs philosophic and metaphysical understandings.
Reliance on the usual canon of regional anthropology is never enough. In the main, recent scholarly publications draw from the canon and its progeny, thus still, though once or twice or thrice removed, do not widen the field of knowledge sets that interact with astronomy. Non-judgmental immersive experience is an important element of cultural astronomy research. Suspension of disbelief, suspension of judgment, acceptance of experience and of knowledge offered is crucial.
Here is an excerpt from Martha's research "Kūkaniloko, what it means as the the piko of O`ahu."
Years ago an older man from Arizona well-versed in indigenous astronomies went with me to Kūkaniloko. He asked me, “there are seven directions – what are they?”
Answer: Seven Directions encompasses everything that exists. The directions of the north, the south, the east, the west, the up-above, the down-below, the center ... and every element that lies in each direction: water, land, wind, plants, animals, earth and all her bounty. We continuously stand in the center of seven directions in every moment we exist.
For about 12 years I've been researching precontact cultural astronomy represented at Kūkaniloko, the site known as the Piko of O‘ahu – the navel, the center of the island. It is also one of only two royal birthing sites in Ka Pae ‘Āina, the Hawaiian archipelago. The piko-ness of Kūkaniloko has been very much at the core of my research data. And that data showed that precontact astronomy at Kūkaniloko was about much more than sun stations, star rises and sets, calendrics, and navigation.
Kūkaniloko: What It Means as the Piko of O‘ahu...
Te Kaharoa, vol. 11, 2018, ISSN 1178-6035111structure of space and time – wā and kā – and matters of gender relations, the importance of ao and pō, and other philosophical or metaphysical ideas were embedded in Kūkanilokoʻs astronomy.
The Pukui and Elbert dictionaryʻs definition-translation of piko includes navel, umbilical cord, figuratively blood relative, genitals; the summit of a hill or mountain; crest; crown of the head; tip of the ear; end of a rope; border of a land; center, as of a kōnane board; place where a stem is attached to a leaf; bottom round of a carrying net; thatch above a door.
So – What is a center?
Martha H. Noyes, MA Cultural Astronomy
1. Kūkaniloko, what it means as the piko of O‘ahu
2. From Kūkaniloko: the Celestial Rulers of Time and Space
3. The 2014 Polynesian Star Catalog (revised)
Reliance on the usual canon of regional anthropology is never enough. In the main, recent scholarly publications draw from the canon and its progeny, thus still, though once or twice or thrice removed, do not widen the field of knowledge sets that interact with astronomy. Non-judgmental immersive experience is an important element of cultural astronomy research. Suspension of disbelief, suspension of judgment, acceptance of experience and of knowledge offered is crucial.
Here is an excerpt from Martha's research "Kūkaniloko, what it means as the the piko of O`ahu."
Years ago an older man from Arizona well-versed in indigenous astronomies went with me to Kūkaniloko. He asked me, “there are seven directions – what are they?”
Answer: Seven Directions encompasses everything that exists. The directions of the north, the south, the east, the west, the up-above, the down-below, the center ... and every element that lies in each direction: water, land, wind, plants, animals, earth and all her bounty. We continuously stand in the center of seven directions in every moment we exist.
For about 12 years I've been researching precontact cultural astronomy represented at Kūkaniloko, the site known as the Piko of O‘ahu – the navel, the center of the island. It is also one of only two royal birthing sites in Ka Pae ‘Āina, the Hawaiian archipelago. The piko-ness of Kūkaniloko has been very much at the core of my research data. And that data showed that precontact astronomy at Kūkaniloko was about much more than sun stations, star rises and sets, calendrics, and navigation.
Kūkaniloko: What It Means as the Piko of O‘ahu...
Te Kaharoa, vol. 11, 2018, ISSN 1178-6035111structure of space and time – wā and kā – and matters of gender relations, the importance of ao and pō, and other philosophical or metaphysical ideas were embedded in Kūkanilokoʻs astronomy.
The Pukui and Elbert dictionaryʻs definition-translation of piko includes navel, umbilical cord, figuratively blood relative, genitals; the summit of a hill or mountain; crest; crown of the head; tip of the ear; end of a rope; border of a land; center, as of a kōnane board; place where a stem is attached to a leaf; bottom round of a carrying net; thatch above a door.
So – What is a center?
Martha H. Noyes, MA Cultural Astronomy
1. Kūkaniloko, what it means as the piko of O‘ahu
2. From Kūkaniloko: the Celestial Rulers of Time and Space
3. The 2014 Polynesian Star Catalog (revised)
| kukaniloko_what_it_means_as_the_piko_of.pdf |
| from_kukaniloko_the_celestial_rulers_of__2_.pdf |
| 2014_polynesian_star_catalog_revised.pdf |
“...e kūkaʻawe i nā kapu o Kūkaniloko nō ka mea aloha nō hoʻi kākou iā lākou i nā kau a kau..." “...to guard the kapu of Kūkaniloko because we love them for all time…”