Ahupuaʻa

An ahupuaʻa is a traditional Hawaiian division of land, usually a slice of an island running from the mountains to the sea and taking in one or more whole watersheds with their marine resources, so that each held a cross section of the island's resources. It ranked below the island and the moku and was divided into ʻili and kuleana farmed by commoners, who paid labour taxes to support the chief. Each was ruled by an aliʻi and run by a konohiki; the name joins ahu, 'heap', and puaʻa, 'pig', for the stone cairns on its boundary where offerings, often a pig, were left for the chief. After the Great Mahele of 1848 most were split up, but many towns keep their names.