Menehune

In Hawaiian mythology, the Menehune are said to be a people, sometimes described as dwarfs in size, who live in the deep forests and hidden valleys of the Hawaiian Islands, far from the eyes of normal humans. Their favorite food is the maia (banana), and they also like fish.
The Menehune were said to be superb craftspeople. Legends say that the Menehune built temples (heiau), fishponds, roads, canoes, and houses. Some of these structures that Hawaiian folklore attributed to the Menehune still exist. They are said to have lived in Hawaii before settlers arrived from Polynesia many centuries ago.
In Beckwith's Hawaiian Mythology, there are references to several other forest dwelling races: the Nawao, who were large-sized wild hunters descended from Lua-nuu, the mu people, and the wa people.Beckwith 1970, pp. 321-323
Some early scholars theorized that there was a first settlement of Hawaii, by settlers from the Marquesas Islands, and a second, from Tahiti. The Tahitian settlers oppressed the "commoners", the manahune in the Tahitian language, who fled to the mountains and were called Menahune. Proponents of this theory point to an 1820 census of Kauai by Kaumualii, the ruling Alii Aimoku of the island, which listed 65 people as menehune.Joesting 1987, pp. 20-22
Folklorist Katharine Luomala believes that the legends of the Menehune are a post-European contact mythology created by adaptation of the term manahune (which by the time of the settling of the Hawaiian Islands had acquired a meaning of "lowly people" or "low social status" and not diminutive in stature) to European legends of brownies.Luomala 1951 '"It is claimed that "Menehune are not mentioned in pre-contact mythology, although this is unproven since it was clearly an oral mythology; the legendary "overnight" creation of the Alekoko fishpond, for example, finds its equivalent in the legendNordhoff 1874 about the creation of a corresponding structure on Oahu, which was supposedly indeed completed in a single day — not by menehune but, as a show of power, by a local alii who demanded every one of his subjects to appear at the construction site and assist in building.
No physical evidence for the existence of a historical peoples that fit the description of the Menehune has been discovered. p. 142, Pukui, Mary Kawena, Elbert, Samuel H., and Mookini, Esther T. Mookini. Place Names of Hawaii: Revised & Expanded Edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1974.
==Structures attributed to the Menehune==
* Alekoko fishpond wall at Niumalu, Kauai
* Kīkīaola ditch at Waimea, Kauai
* Necker Island structures
* Pa o ka menehune, breakwater at Kahaluu Bay.
* Ulupo Heiau at Kailua, Oahu
==Other uses==
* In the experimental 1970s Aloha network developed at the University of Hawaii, the packet controllers were called Menehune, a pun on the equivalent IMP (Interface Message Processor) in the early ARPAnet. Modern Ethernet was based on the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) methodology pioneered by ALOHAnet.
* It is the name of a popular brand of water bottled locally in Hawaii.
* The Menehune is the school mascot of Waimea High School on Kaua'i and Makakilo Elementary School, Maunawili Elementary School, Moanalua High School and Mililani Waena Elementary School on O'ahu.
* United Airlines used the Menehune in brand advertising for their service to Hawaii in the 1970s through the 1980s. The figurines and travel agency displays are now retro collectors items.
* Disney has a Menehune Adventure Trail at Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa.
* Carl Barks wrote a story with Scrooge McDuck helped by Menehunes, The Menehune Mystery.
* Menehune was also the name given to the 'aggressors' in the Vietnam training POW camp used by the ASA (Army Security Agency) at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.
* There is a band from Shenandoah, Iowa called The Minnahoonies. The name was inspired by Menehune.
* The Menehune play a key role in the Rocket Power TV movie, Island of the Menehune.
==See also==
*Little people (mythology)
*Nawao, another legendary Hawaiian people
*Paupueo, whose owls chase away the Menehune
*The Moriori in New Zealand, a supposed pre-Maori population.
*Homo floresiensis, a race of small Polynesian people in Indonesia
==Notes==
==References==
* www.sacredtexts.com
*
* Luomala, Katharine (1951): "The Menehune of Polynesia and Other Mythical Little People of Oceania". Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin Vol. 203; Kraus Reprint, Millwood, N.Y., 1986
* Nordhoff, Charles (1874): Northern California, Oregon and the Sandwich Islands, Chapter V, p. 80: "The Hawaiian at Home: Manners and Customs". Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, London; available free online at 
*
* Schmitt, Robert C., "Early Hawaiian Statistics," The American Statistician, Vol. 35, No. 1, pages 1–3, February, 1981; (Retrieved on 2008-02-16)
==External links==
*The Three Menehune of Ainahou
Category:Oceanian legendary creatures
Category:Hawaiian mythology
Category:Hawaii culture
Category:Deities, spirits, and mythic beings
Category:Dwarf-like creatures