Polynesian Gallery @ the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Feather cloak ('Ahu'ula). Olonaa (Touchardia latifolia) knotted netting, red and yellow feathers. Hawaii, 19th century. Whale-tooth necklace (Lei niho palaoa). Human hair, olonaa cord, and whale ivory. Collected in Hawaii in 1840 or 1841 by Titian Ramsey Peale of Philadelphia, a naturalist with United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-42.

Polynesia is a region of widely scattered islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The Polynesians are a people whose ancestors discovered and settled all the habitable islands of the region. Europeans knew nothing of Polynesia until several centuries after the last Polynesian community had been firmly established and their migrations had ceased. Polynesian societies were subdivided into social classes and had theocratic political systems. Populations of the different island groups varied greatly, according to the abundance of natural resources. The large Polynesian societies were more socially stratified than the smaller ones. The largest society was in the Hawaiian Islands, where at European contact over 200,000 people lived in several large islands with abundant agricultural lands Hawaiian society was the most stratified and the most theocratic in all of Polynesia. Hawaiians believed that their entire material and social universe had evolved, over hundreds of generations, from a common procreative force. In the beginning of time, the darkness gave birth, and from this dark genesis came forth, era by era, the light, life in the sea, life on the land, the gods and finally humans. Gods were the offspring of natural forces; humans were the offspring of gods. Those humans descended most directly from the gods were aristocrats (ali'i); those descended indirectly were commoners and outcasts.

In Hawaii, feather-covered cloaks and capes ('ahu'ula), feather-covered helmets, and whale ivory pendants (lei niho palaoa) were insignia of the aristocratic class (ali'i). The higher the rank, the more lavish the garments and ornaments. Men and women of the highest ranks (ali'i kapu) were regarded with great deference and their personal possessions considered sacred. Lei niho palaoa were worn on ceremonial occasions by men and women, and in battle by men. They were seen as embodying part of the essence and power (mana) of a man: when a leader was killed in battle, it was important for his enemies to take possession of his niho palaoa as well as his body in order to vanquish his spirit completely. The necklace (lei) consists of loops of 8-strand square braids of human hair. [Quiz Clue!] Only a few of the many braids making up the two sides of the necklace pass through the center of the pendant. Hook-shaped pendants were originally carved from the tooth (niho) of the sperm whale (palaoa). In later days, as trade with Europeans increased, Arctic walrus ivory was used for lei niho palaoa. Feather cloaks and capes, 'ahu (garment) 'ula (red), were an essential part of aristocratic regalia. They were made and worn only by men. Red symbolized the highest aristocratic ranks and gods; however, since yellow feathers were especially rare, yellow became the most highly prized color. The foundation of these garments is a net of olonaa (Touchardia latifolia), a vegetable fiber; the surface is made up of bundles of feathers tied to the foundation in overlapping rows. Red feathers came from the scarlet honey creeper, 'i'iwi (Vestaria coccinea), or from a crimson and black honey creeper called 'apapane (Himatione sanguinea). Yellow feathers came from a black honey eater with yellow tufts under each wing called 'oo'oo (Acrulocercus spp.), or a black honey creeper with yellow feathers above and below the tail called mamo (Drepanis pacifica).

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