Audiobook - Narrative - Warm - Real Person - The Hawaiian Islands
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
Hawaiian North American (General) North American (US West Coast - California, Portland)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
The Hawaiian islands are remote specks of land in the largest ocean on earth Europeans had been exploring the Pacific for 2.5 centuries before Captain James Cook happened upon the islands in 17 78. Although Hawaiians had navigated to the archipelago more than 1000 years years before Europeans found it and had continued their voyages. For hundreds of years, the Hawaiians cook encountered had long since lost contact with other cultures from their Polynesian roots. They had evolved their own version of the creation and workings of the cosmos, the origins of life and the nature of the gods. The Hawaiian gods were givers of life. Their power was everywhere in the rush of the winds, in the crashing of the waves and above all in the land, the Aena the gods guided every aspect of life. Hawaiians lived secure in the faith that if they observed the Kau the gods strict prohibitions and if they obeyed the high chiefs as gods on earth and made proper offerings and sacrifices, then they would prosper. Their language was filled with layers of subtle meaning. A single line of a chant could be about nature, human beings the gods or all three at once, the Hawaiian vocabulary was capable of great precision in naming and classifying things in nature. There were more than 30 descriptive names for clouds, 40 for land, more than 80 for rain and mist, 200 for wind and more than 200 for the plant taro the Hawaiian staff of life, but Hawaiians did not have ways to alter their world on a large scale. That was the province of the natural world. A volcano erupted at the will of a goddess. A hurricane roared in at the bidding of a God.