Monday, May 25, 2020. Then at Mokumanamana...

Perhaps as a consequence of being pulled, tugged, and otherwise wandering in many different directions yesterday, howʻs if we just GoLook at one of our islands... But first, a Note:  My photography skills are limited, thus some of the pictures I present are crooked, out-of-focus, etc., but I trust that youʻll get my drift...

Mokumanamana.  Moku = island, while Manamana, as found in Pukui and Elbert:

mana.mana

1. Redup. of mana 1. hoʻo.mana.mana To impart mana, as to idols or objects; to deify; superstitious. (PPN manamana.)

2. Redup. of mana 2; appendages, claws, branches, rays, forks; to branch out. Lā manamana, sun with rays. (PPN mangamanga.)

3. n. Finger, toe.

Many meanings, likely layered, and, yes... We didnʻt name it, and cannot know the intended meaning.  But we study, become informed, and make guesses...

Below is found in the 3rd Edition of the Atlas of Hawaiʻi, published in 1998.  We talked about this yesterday.  It took me awhile to figure out where it was, and that I might share a pertinent picture with you.

Primary source material for Mokumanamana comes from "Archaeology of Nihoa and Necker Islands", Kenneth P. Emory, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin 53, Tanager Expedition, Publication Number 5.  

Emory did field work on the island in 1923 and 1924.  He was 27 years old when the field work was completed.

https://bishopmuseumpress.org/products/archaeology-of-nihoa-and-necker-islands?_pos=1&_sid=19c8b3596&_ss=r

The book is a steal at $18.95!

Mokumanamana is as far from an idyllic tropical isle as one can get.  Dry, rocky, noisy and smelly (all those birds!), but as we saw yesterday, it lies on Ke Alanui Polohiwa a Kāne (the Tropic of Cancer) at 23.5 degrees North Latitude.  TrySquint and look the tiny numbers at the bottom of the Google Earth image above.

A map in Emoryʻs publication.  There are 34 "sites of religious structures", what he calls "marae", a term associated with other Polynesian island groups, that in Hawaiʻi are called heiau. 

Wikimedia Commons

Again, Emory noted and mapped 34 marae.  They are all similiar to those sketched above.

Kekuewa Kikiloi

 The photo above, and its caption came from Flickr.

Some researchers posit that the manamana, the upright stones, figure into ritual.  Some may mark the rising and setting of stars and planets, and/or be part of ritual involving intergenerational transference of mana.  Iʻll leave it to those better informed than I to mull and discuss further.

Itʻs thought that because Mokumanamana is bisected by Ke Alanui Polohiwa a Kāne, the island is geographically positioned to be, was, and is, a place of great ritual importance.  

How the kiʻi pōhaku (stone images) were incorporated into ritual, or who or what they represent, remain shrouded in mystery.  I understand that they are unique to the island.

And if we believe everything we read, or find on the internet, well...

https://www.nps.gov/articles/archeology-of-the-mystery-islands.htm

Whoever wrote the bolded line is woefully uninformed.  Of course the sun is directly overhead Ke Alanui Polohiwa a Kāne only on the Summer Solstice.  Then it travels south and is directly overhead Ke Alanui Polohiwa a Kanaloa (Tropic of Capricorn, 23.5 degrees South Latitude) on the Winter Solstice.  And I hope we donʻt need to point out the misspelling on the last line of the quote.  Auē...

That does it for today...

As always, with aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com