Early Settlement
Polynesians settled the island of Maui in at least three gradual waves; the earliest possibly from the Marquesas sometime before 450 AD., then others from the Marquesas about 450 AD., and lastly settlers from Tahiti from 700 AD. The Tahitian arrivals introduced the core pieces of Hawaiian traditional culture: language, economic activities, the hereditary class system, land tenure, religion, and customs such as the strict kapu system that affected all aspects of life. Hawaiian oral tradition lists an unbroken chain of twenty-five rulers (the Moʻi of Maui) beginning with Paumakua the first Ali'i Nui of Maui.
Maui's oldest known temple enclosures (heiaus) are at Halekiʻi and Pihana from about 1200. The structures were, according to legend, built by the Menehune in a single night from stones on Paukukalo Beach. More likely they began as small structures and were expanded as the prestige of the Wailuku grew. The last additions were thought to have been made by King Kahekili. Pihana, also called Pihanakilani and Piʻihana, was a luakini where human sacrifice was carried out. According to accounts written by outsiders, victims were most often kapu breakers or war captives.
Read more about this topic: History Of Maui
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