Pigs in Hawaii

Topher asked a good question in response to yesterday's post on the Hawaiian Luau, "As I understand it, pigs were brought to the islands relatively recently, yet they're the core of a luau. What did they have before that?"

I'd always thought that the earliest arrivals from Polynesia had brought pigs with them, and yet I remember hearing that Captain Cook traded pigs to the Hawaiians when the Western world arrived in 1799. Did Hawaiians have pigs first, or did Captain Cook trade pigs to the Hawaiians?

The answer is "both." The earliest Polynesian canoes probably didn't have pigs along for the ride; the trip across unknown oceans was too long and uncertain to risk bringing livestock. According to Islands in a Far Sea: Nature and Man in Hawaii, it was on later voyages that they brought pigs, dogs and inadvertantly, rats, once the route was known. These first island pigs were a Polynesian variety, much smaller than typical European pigs.

When Captain Cook "discovered" Hawaii in 1778, he received several of these Polynesian pigs in trade, noting at one point, "we could seldom get any above fifty or sixty pounds in weight." On another trip, Captain Cook presented to inhabitants of Niihau the first European pigs in Hawaii. Within about fifty years, the larger pigs had gone feral and wild, overcoming and replacing the smaller Polynesian variety.

Back to Topher's original question, pigs have been an important part of Hawaii and Hawaiian feasting for a long, long time. Although families today may sometimes cook turkey in place of pig in their imu, especially for Thanksgiving, all evidence points to pig as the traditional centerpiece of the luau celebration.