The Hawaiian View of Marriage

In the Hawaiian culture, family is a very important component. Yet the forms of marriage could take various forms. There could be one man and more than one wife. There could be one woman and more than one husband. The children born into these families are loved and cared for by all the parents involved.

For people who were unable to take care of their own children, the parents shared their children with family members in the hanai system. The children were loved and cared for despite their hanai status. The biological parents would often still keep in touch with the children.

When looking at the status of each gender, each was considered equal although each gender had its specific responsibilities. The men did the heavy cooking like pounding the taro to make poi, the staple food for the families or making the imu. The women gathered seaweed and vegetable shoots. In the old days, men ate separately from the women. Certain foods were taboo for the women to eat. Later, Hawaiian ali'i or royalty disbanded such taboo to equalize the status of men and women.