Hānai
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''Hānai'' is a term used in the
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
an culture that refers to the informal
adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...
of one person by another. It can be used as an adjective, such as "''hānai'' child," or as a verb, to ''hānai'' someone into the family. Traditionally, ''hānai'' (which translates roughly as "feeding") took place shortly after birth, when a baby's biological parents gave the infant to another couple to raise. In pre-contact Hawaii, paternal grandparents had a claim on the first-born boy, and maternal grandparents on the first-born girl. The practice could serve to expand and strengthen family ties, and was an efficient way for a society to pass knowledge and culture down the generations. However, the adopting couple might be more distant relatives, or not related at all. ''Hānai'' also was used for political alliances to link royal families, and continued among royalty even after Western contact. Lili‘uokalani, Hawai‘i’s last monarch, was the ''hānai'' child of chiefs higher ranking than her biological parents. In her
autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...
, ''Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen,'' she wrote that hānai “seems perfectly natural to us. . . . this alliance by adoption cemented the ties of friendship between the chiefs. It spread to the common people, and it has doubtless fostered a community of interest and harmony.” Hawaiians also traditionally practiced '' ho'okama,'' which was the adoption of older children and adults. In Hawaiian culture, ''hānai'' has historically been a practice of one family ''hānai''-ing their child into another family. It has made tracing genealogical roots somewhat more complicated. When Hawaiian culture expert Winona Beamer spoke about the issue of ''hānai'' and its relevance to admission at Kamehameha Schools, she had first-hand knowledge of the practice in her immediate family. The
linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
Kaliko Beamer-Trapp was born in
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, but emigrated to the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
with his biological mother and later moved to Hawaiʻi. When Beamer decided to ''hānai'' Kaliko into her family, it was with a special ''hānai''
ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil ...
. Other Polynesian cultures, such as the Tahitians and Māori (in which culture the phenomenon is known as '' whāngai''), have similar practices of adoptions. There is also a centuries-old Japanese tradition of adopting adult men to continue the patrilineal line.


See also

* :Hawaiian adoptees (hānai)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanai Hawaiian words and phrases Hawaii culture Hawaiiana Adoption in the United States