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Kahuna (; ) is a Hawaiian word that refers to an expert in any field. Historically, it has been used to refer to physician, surgeons and dentists, as well as priests, ministers, and sorcerers.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine: canoe building, or any other skill or knowledge area. They may be called on by the community to bless new buildings and construction projects or to officiate weddings.
Forty types of kahuna are listed in the book Tales from the Night Rainbow, twenty in the healing professions alone, including kahuna lapaau, a medical priest or practitioner, and kahuna hāhā, "an expert who diagnoses, as sickness or pain, by feeling the body".
There are several categories of kahuna. A craft kahuna, such as the kālai waa is an expert canoe maker, and a hookele is an expert navigator. A kahuna lapaau is a "medical doctor, medical practitioner, or healer. ". (Page 114 in print document, p. 144 in electronic)
To master all ten branches made one a kahuna nui or high priest. Kahuna nui usually lived in places such as Waimea Valley, which is known as the Valley of the Priests. They were given slices of land that spanned from the mountain to the sea. Hewahewa, a direct descendant of Paao, was a kahuna nui to Kamehameha I. A contemporary, Leimomi Mookini Lum is a kahuna nui. David Kaonohiokala Bray was a well-known kahuna.
King Kamehameha IV, in his translation of the Book of Common Prayer, used the term kahuna to refer to Anglican priests, and kahunapule to refer to both laity and ordained Anglican ministers.
After American missionaries went to Hawaii in 1820, they reportedly prohibited kahuna practices. But, in the 100 years after the missionaries arrived, all kahuna practices were legal until 1831, some were illegal until 1863, all were legal until 1887, and some were illegal until 1919. Since 1919 all have been legal except sorcery, which was initially declared illegal but was decriminalized in 1972.Makana Risser Chai (2025). 158178046X, Bishop Museum Press. 158178046X
The first Christian missionaries arrived in 1820. Kaahumanu, one of the most powerful people in the Hawaiian nation, did not convert until 1825. Eleven years after missionaries arrived, she proclaimed laws against hula, chant, kava, and Hawaiian religion.Kamakau, Ruling Chiefs, pp. 298–301.
In the New Age spiritual system known as Huna, which uses some Hawaiian words and concepts appropriated from Hawaiian tradition, kahuna denotes someone of priestly or Neoshamanism standing. The prevalence of these works in pop culture has influenced definitions in English dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster, which not only defines kahuna as "a preeminent person or thing" but also offers "Hawaiian shaman" as a secondary definition. Wells College professor Lisa Kahaleole Hall, a Native Hawaiian, wrote in a peer-reviewed journal published by the University of Hawaiʻi that Huna "bears absolutely no resemblance to any Hawaiian worldview or spiritual practice" and calls it part of the "New Age spiritual industry."Hall, Lisa Kahaleole. " 'Hawaiian at Heart' and Other Fictions", The Contemporary Pacific, Volume 17, Number 2, pp. 404–413, 2005, University of Hawai'i Press.
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