Glossary · Term · title

Kahuna

Also known as kahuna nui, kahuna lapaʻau

Kahuna is a Hawaiian word for an expert in any field, used historically for doctors, surgeons and dentists as well as priests, ministers and sorcerers, and for masters of crafts such as canoe building, navigation and carving; it is glossed as 'keeper of hidden knowledge', from kahu, 'caretaker', and huna, 'secret'. According to Fornander the priesthood had ten branches, and a master of all ten could become kahuna nui, high priest, as Hewahewa was to Kamehameha I. Some kahuna practices were outlawed from 1831 to 1863 and from 1887 to 1919; since then all have been legal except sorcery, which was decriminalised in 1972.

Kahuna
Image: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kahuna. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kahuna
MLA
“Kahuna.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kahuna. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Kahuna.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kahuna.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kahuna’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kahuna (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻