Kapu

Kapu was the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct, a system of laws and prohibitions reaching into daily life, gender roles, politics and religion; the word, related to the Polynesian tapu that gave English 'taboo', means forbidden but also sacred, and its opposite is noa. Breaking a kapu, even by accident, often meant immediate death. Commoners could not touch a chief's hair or nail clippings, look directly at him or hold their heads higher than his, and under the ʻai kapu men and women could not eat together and women were barred from pork, most bananas and coconuts. Kamehameha II abolished the system in 1819 by sharing a meal of forbidden foods with the women of his court.