Feudal Social Organization
Internecine warfare between heirs of rulers was common in ancient Hawaiʻi. Warfare between chiefs was also common.
Commoner or lesser Aliʻi served the higher-ranking Aliʻi, not for pay, but instead, due to their duty to allegiance to the nation.
The caste organization facilitated a feudal system that resembles other feudal societies, for example the feudal systems found in Europe circa 1000 AD, in feudal Japan, Ethiopia, and so on.
Higher aliʻi gave lesser aliʻi parcels of land, which would in turn be governed them. The lesser aliʻi divided the land into plots to be farmed and cultivated by makaʻainana families. Harvests were returned to the lesser aliʻi, each taking a portion before being sent to the supreme aliʻi.
Both the reigning dynasties of the united Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (1810–1893) were of aliʻi class. As each relative of those dynasties was entitled to the title aliʻi, they have later, posthumously, been popularly labeled (mostly erroneously) princesses and princes, although only a limited number of royal relatives ever received the princely title from the monarch.
Read more about this topic: Alii, Hawaiian ali'i
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