The closing of the commons in Europe is known of course as the pivotal event that was the beginning of the end, I also wish more people, leftists especially, knew about how it happened outside of Europe with the advent of colonization. For example, the Great MÄhele:Â
The MÄhele of 1848 was a legal event chat changed the traditional system of Hawaiian land tenure from communal to private. Before the MÄhele (which means to divide or share), land in Hawai'i was not privately owned. Instead, every Hawaiian had communal rights to use land for living on and growing food. Land was viewed as a source of food and, like water and air, a basic necessity for life. Hence, land should be shared and available for all.
Land was also viewed as an ancestor, because in Hawaiian mythology the islands and people of Hawaii were born from the mating of PapahÄnaumoku, the earth mother, with WÄkea, the sky father. The lands and extensive, sophisticated irrigation systems (lo'i and âauwai) were administered by the ali'i nui, or high chiefs, while farming was clone by maka'Äinana, or commoners.
According to Hawaiian cosmogony, the ali'i nui were the elder siblings or senior lineages, and the maka'Äinana, the younger siblings or junior lineages, all descended from the same divine ancestor, HÄloa. The duty of the junior lineages was to mÄlama âÄina, or care for the land and for the ali'i nui, who represented the first born. It was the reciprocal duty of the elder lineage, both ali'i nui and the land, to hÄnai, or feed, and to ho'omalu, or protect, the junior lineages. Through their prayers and close relationship to the akua, or gods, the ali'i nui protected the people from natural disasters on the land.
When each portion of society behaved in a pono, or righteous, fashion toward the land, then there was harmony in the universe. Hence, in traditional times land was accorded the status of an ancestor and could not be privately owned. After all, how could one buy and sell oneâs grandmother?
By 1848, however, Hawaiians had suffered massive depopulation from epidemics of foreign diseases. The steep and swift population decline (from estimates of up to 1 million in 1778 to 88,000 in 1848) caused a collapse of the traditional religion called âaikapu. In 1820, Calvinist missionaries from New England arrived in Hawai'i and taught that ola hou, or the new life, could be obtained by conversion to Christianity and Western modes of life. Calvinist missionaries were most insistent that among the âmany evilsâ of traditional Hawaii, one of the worst was a lack of individual ownership of land, which they argued was a major cause of Hawaiian depopulation. Coupled with threats of a foreign takeover of the Hawaiian kingdom from British, French, and American warships, and a subsequent loss of land not held in fee simple ownership, the ali'i nui finally agreed to the privatization of lands in the 1848 MÄhele. Under the direction of American Calvinist William Richards, a land commission was established that awarded all land titles, dividing various interests to the land.
The event is often called the âgreatâ MÄhele as it divided all the lands of Hawai'i, but it was a great disaster for Hawaiians because it swiftly led to ownership of land by foreigners. Foreigners had money to buy land, whereas most Hawaiians did not. Also foreigners understood the concept and value of private ownership of land, while such a notion was nonsensical to the vast majority of Hawaiians.
