"Natural Healing with Herbs for a Healthier You"
THE BENEFITS OF THE USE OF KAVA KAVA
IN HERBAL PREPARATIONS
HISTORY OF KAVA KAVA
IN HERBAL PREPARATIONS
HISTORY OF KAVA KAVA
It is thought that the frequent consumption of Kava Kava is partially why the people of the South Pacific Islands are known as the happiest and friendliest people in the world. Traditionally on the islands it is used before important religious rites and other ceremonies. Kava Kava was always served at full formal ceremonies, meetings of village elders and chiefs, and at the less formal kava circle common at social occasions. The full Kava Kava ceremony was reserved for very honored guests. The guests are led to a platform. A group of young men arrive dressed in ceremonial attire, carrying a bowl of prepared Kava Kava and any necessary utensils. The bowl is placed between the guests and the preparers. The Kava Kava is placed in a cup by a specially selected individual, the cup bearer, who then turns and faces the visitor and delivers the beverage to the chief guest. The guest is instructed to hold the cup with both hands and drink from it. If the whole cup is drained without stopping, everyone says “a maca” (which means it is empty) and claps three times with cupped hands. The cup bearer then refills the cup and proceeds to serve the next person in rank or importance. These ceremonies still take place today. In 1992 Hillary Clinton participated in a Kava Kava ceremony conducted by the Samoan community on Oahu, Hawaii. Pope John Paul II also participated in a Kava Kava ceremony when he visited the Pacific.
A description of the classic process of Kava Kava preparation was given in 1777 by George Forster, a young naturalist on Captain James Cook's second Pacific voyage:
[Kava] is made in the most disgustful manner that can be imagined, from the juice contained in the roots of a species of pepper-tree. This root is cut small, and the pieces chewed by several people, who spit the macerated mass into a bowl, where some water (milk) of coconuts is poured upon it. They then strain it through a quantity of fibers of coconuts, squeezing the chips, till all their juices mix with the coconut-milk; and the whole liquor is decanted into another bowl. They swallow this nauseous stuff as fast as possible; and some old topers value themselves on being able to empty a great number of bowls.
Upon discovery of Kava Kava, James Cook gave it the name “intoxicating pepper.”
Some cultures preferred the Kava Kava mixture to be prepared by young children or young women. According to Lebot, Merlin and Lindstrom, who have done a lot of research on Kava, a preferred traditional way of preparing the beverage is the ceremony as conducted in Samoa: 'which required the girl who chewed and infused the kava to sit cross-legged and bare-breasted on a mat behind the kava bowl, with flowers carefully arranged in her hair and her hips swathed in a grass skirt. This presented an image of beauty that added to the aesthetic dimension of kava preparation.' (Rudgley)
The Samoan’s say that Kava Kava originated when a Samoan girl went to Fiji, where she married a great chief. After some time, she returned to Samoa, but before she left Fiji she noticed two plants growing side by side on a hill. A rat was chewing on one of the plants, and had fallen asleep. She decided that the plant must be a comforting food, and took it back to Samoa with her. This plant was Sugar cane. Then she noticed that the rat awoke, and began to chew the root of another plant-Kava Kava. The rat became bold, strong and more energetic. She decided to take this plant back to Samoa as well. The plants grew very well in Samoa, and soon a chief from a neighboring island exchanged two laying hens for the roots of the two plants. This is how Samoa explains the spread of sugar cane and Kava Kava.
In Tonga, there is a more grisly explanation for the origin of Kava Kava. The legend is told of a great chief named Loau, who lived on the island of Eua Iki and was visited by his servant, Feva Anga. Feva wanted to serve a great feast for the chief, but it was a time of great famine. In desperation, he and his wife killed and cooked their only daughter. The chief recognized the human flesh in the food when it was served, and would not eat it. He told Feva to bury his daughter and to bring him the plant that would spring forth. On receiving the mature plant, Loau instructed that a drink be prepared from it and consumed with due ceremony. That plant was Kava Kava.
Colonial governments and missionaries were so disgusted with the traditional preparation of Kava Kava, that they made this process illegal, and forced the natives to prepare the beverage by grinding or grating the root stock. There seems to have been no difference in the medicinal action of the grated root versus the chewed root. Fortunately, today we can get Kava Kava in a more sanitary condition, through commercially available extracts and capsules; extracted with machinery rather than human mastication.
Interestingly enough, the Island Communities of the Pacific were one of the few areas of the world that did not have alcoholic beverages before European contact in the eighteenth century. The use of Kava Kava began to decline when alcohol showed up.
Kava Kava was also of great religious significance and was seen to connect the user with the ancestors and the gods. It was not merely an offering or sacrifice to the spirits but a way of gaining access to the spirit world. It was used in healing ceremonies and to obtain hidden or esoteric knowledge. In Hawaii native priests would read the bubbles on the surface of a kava brew to predict the sex of an unborn child or the cause of illnesses, much like fortune tellers reading tea leaves. Hawaiians also use Kava Kava at ceremonies where children are named, and also when young girls are initiated into traditional hula and chanting. Being presented with a Kava Kava root means that you have been welcomed and that a gesture of peace has been made. By 1948, Hawaiians were no longer drinking Kava Kava on a regular basis. More than a dozen varieties of Kava Kava are known on Hawaii.
Kava Kava has become an important cash crop to the Pacific Islands. It is particularly suitable for the traditional practices of subsistence farmers. These farmers than sell their Kava Kava crops to dealers who export the plants to supplement manufacturers.
A description of the classic process of Kava Kava preparation was given in 1777 by George Forster, a young naturalist on Captain James Cook's second Pacific voyage:
[Kava] is made in the most disgustful manner that can be imagined, from the juice contained in the roots of a species of pepper-tree. This root is cut small, and the pieces chewed by several people, who spit the macerated mass into a bowl, where some water (milk) of coconuts is poured upon it. They then strain it through a quantity of fibers of coconuts, squeezing the chips, till all their juices mix with the coconut-milk; and the whole liquor is decanted into another bowl. They swallow this nauseous stuff as fast as possible; and some old topers value themselves on being able to empty a great number of bowls.
Upon discovery of Kava Kava, James Cook gave it the name “intoxicating pepper.”
Some cultures preferred the Kava Kava mixture to be prepared by young children or young women. According to Lebot, Merlin and Lindstrom, who have done a lot of research on Kava, a preferred traditional way of preparing the beverage is the ceremony as conducted in Samoa: 'which required the girl who chewed and infused the kava to sit cross-legged and bare-breasted on a mat behind the kava bowl, with flowers carefully arranged in her hair and her hips swathed in a grass skirt. This presented an image of beauty that added to the aesthetic dimension of kava preparation.' (Rudgley)
The Samoan’s say that Kava Kava originated when a Samoan girl went to Fiji, where she married a great chief. After some time, she returned to Samoa, but before she left Fiji she noticed two plants growing side by side on a hill. A rat was chewing on one of the plants, and had fallen asleep. She decided that the plant must be a comforting food, and took it back to Samoa with her. This plant was Sugar cane. Then she noticed that the rat awoke, and began to chew the root of another plant-Kava Kava. The rat became bold, strong and more energetic. She decided to take this plant back to Samoa as well. The plants grew very well in Samoa, and soon a chief from a neighboring island exchanged two laying hens for the roots of the two plants. This is how Samoa explains the spread of sugar cane and Kava Kava.
In Tonga, there is a more grisly explanation for the origin of Kava Kava. The legend is told of a great chief named Loau, who lived on the island of Eua Iki and was visited by his servant, Feva Anga. Feva wanted to serve a great feast for the chief, but it was a time of great famine. In desperation, he and his wife killed and cooked their only daughter. The chief recognized the human flesh in the food when it was served, and would not eat it. He told Feva to bury his daughter and to bring him the plant that would spring forth. On receiving the mature plant, Loau instructed that a drink be prepared from it and consumed with due ceremony. That plant was Kava Kava.
Colonial governments and missionaries were so disgusted with the traditional preparation of Kava Kava, that they made this process illegal, and forced the natives to prepare the beverage by grinding or grating the root stock. There seems to have been no difference in the medicinal action of the grated root versus the chewed root. Fortunately, today we can get Kava Kava in a more sanitary condition, through commercially available extracts and capsules; extracted with machinery rather than human mastication.
Interestingly enough, the Island Communities of the Pacific were one of the few areas of the world that did not have alcoholic beverages before European contact in the eighteenth century. The use of Kava Kava began to decline when alcohol showed up.
Kava Kava was also of great religious significance and was seen to connect the user with the ancestors and the gods. It was not merely an offering or sacrifice to the spirits but a way of gaining access to the spirit world. It was used in healing ceremonies and to obtain hidden or esoteric knowledge. In Hawaii native priests would read the bubbles on the surface of a kava brew to predict the sex of an unborn child or the cause of illnesses, much like fortune tellers reading tea leaves. Hawaiians also use Kava Kava at ceremonies where children are named, and also when young girls are initiated into traditional hula and chanting. Being presented with a Kava Kava root means that you have been welcomed and that a gesture of peace has been made. By 1948, Hawaiians were no longer drinking Kava Kava on a regular basis. More than a dozen varieties of Kava Kava are known on Hawaii.
Kava Kava has become an important cash crop to the Pacific Islands. It is particularly suitable for the traditional practices of subsistence farmers. These farmers than sell their Kava Kava crops to dealers who export the plants to supplement manufacturers.
KAVA KAVA
by Lindsay Wolsey
by Lindsay Wolsey