Post #92817 by christiki295 on Tue, May 25, 2004 7:31 PM

[i]On 2004-05-25 10:17, Atomic Cocktail wrote:
It was King Liholiho (Kamehameha II) who abolished the Kapu system for his own political purposes in 1819, before the missionaries arrived in Hawaii. One could argue Liholiho made their work easier by presenting them with a society in turmoil.

For a good overview of Hawiian History check out this NPS site:

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/kona/historyt.htm
. . . .

If I recall correctly, wasn't the true motivation for abolishing Kapu was to increase his mother's political power because of Kapu's gender bias?

Anyway, as your excellent, excellent website states, the missionaries outlawed the hula because they thought it was immoral and lewd. (They probably had not seen the Tahitian style)

But yes, abolishing Kapu and not replacing it with another religion (like Tiki) certainly allowed the Missionaries a religious vacuum to fill.

Nevertheless, it was not all bad - the Mormon Church created the Polynesian Cultural Center.