Talk:Menehune

Menehune folklore
I would like to add folklore items, such as the the respects paid to Menehune by locals when driving through a tunnel on Maui. They beep their horn and lift their feet.--Thomas Veil 18:25, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Theory on origin of legend
Could the Homo_floresiensis be the origin of this legend?


 * I've added some links including one to Loren Coleman's discussion on the subject - suggesting they could be. I'm not so onvinced but... (Emperor 22:37, 12 May 2006 (UTC))


 * Emperor, I've removed the paranormal tag. Menehune aren't paranormal. They're just Hawaiian folklore. If I recall correctly (IIRC), historians believe that menehune myths "explain" large building projects of past times whose history is no longer remembered, such as a Kaua'i irrigation ditch, fishpond, etc. No one but gullible mainland visitors believes in menehune. Locals believe in Pele and night marchers, but this is supernatural pure and simple, not paranormal. Zora 02:46, 13 May 2006 (UTC)


 * No relation to Homo floresiensis. Time is not a factor (there are some Native American tales which appear to refer to mammoth hunts and Central Asian legends of what seems to be Ice Age rhinos, suggesting that mythology can conserve events for 15.000 years), but place is: any modern humans that would have encountered floresiensis were not ancestral to the Polynesians. Dysmorodrepanis 22:28, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Skeletons of miniature hominids that lived between 1,400 and 3,000 years ago found on the South Pacific island of Palau. This has to raise the question of whether or not the Tahitians ever encountered these folk.  Whether or not it was on Hawaii they could still be the source of the legend.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080312/sc_afp/safricascienceanthropologyhobbit;_ylt=AjMTrXN10xPdG25pWd2xrI0PLBIF  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.109.144.216 (talk) 02:20, 13 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I doubt that they are Homo Floriensis, but they could be some earlier Polynesians with dwarfism, Hawaiians with dwarfism. Despite this, I still believe it to be some sort of folklore. 85.210.216.109 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.210.216.109 (talk) 15:30, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

Major revision
I removed all the "cryptozoology" references; there is no reason to believe that this is anything but a myth. The text seemed to be taken from the Encyclopedia Mythica entry, which is unreferenced and just plain bad. I rewrote according to Beckwith and Luomala. Zora 02:35, 15 May 2006 (UTC) I think the question of real anthropology versus cryptozoology should be addressed via some account of the remaining stone work. It is absurd to talk as if these were fairies or lost hominids without thinking clearly through the technology evident, dating it to the extent possible, etc. I don't have a reference, unfortunately, so am only stating that it is needed.Cyranorox (talk) 20:21, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Homo floresiensis
Added a see also link to the article on the species of extinct hominids recently discovered in the PI, Homo floresiensis.Trilobitealive 12:43, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Personal account
They are not folklore or legend, I had the fortune of seeing three Menehunes up close and personal, scared the hell out of me, I thought like many people do, just some kind of spooky stories told by elders to keep the children in check, the catch to this is unless you have Hawaiian blood you can't see them and that was proven in my encounter, I'm Part Hawaiian and the two passengers that was with me that night had NO Hawaiian blood and they did not see them, I almost ran over them and it happened so fast I thought they were little kids, but at 3:00 am in the morning running out of a forest across a road was highly doubtful, so I stopped where they entered the tall California grass and they pushed down the California grass so they could look at me and I have never felt fear to that level, I'm the kind of person that fears nothing I can kill and that mean anything but looking at these Menehunes freaked me out and this would be only my first encounter through the years, were they friendly I don't know and wasn't about to find out, I panicked and I was the drive of a Buick 88 and put the peddle to the metal the two guys were as scared as I was but not from seeing the Menehunes but from my driving I nearly killed us from the sheer fear I felt, they never saw them, I asked around because that bothered me, why was I the only one that saw them and was told about the Hawaiian blood, I still don't understand how that would affect a persons ability to see them, they visited me a couple of times years later, We didn't sit around and have tea or coffee they just would run over a warehouse I worked at in the night the funny thing is there was no way a person could clime onto that roof and NO I'm not some kind of fruit cake, just a person that had his reality checked. So people need to change the Legend or folklore theory because they do exist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.160.211.11 (talk) 14:14, 8 August 2014 (UTC)


 * OK, I'm sorry for your experience and a spooky encounter like this would probably scare anyone, but, regardless of possible mundane explanations, I fear that this kind of experience is simply not amenable to science (in the modern, western sense), which Wikipedia is all about. Personal anecdotes have no place in Wikipedia articles and while I appreciate you offering your experience here, I'm sorry to say they are not accepted as valid proof for the reality of an alleged phenomenon or myth for our purposes ... But should a pattern ever turn up, with lots of people of Native Hawaiian descent (especially when they are not aware of it at the time, now that would be interesting!) reporting encounters with what they believe to be menehune despite not being intoxicated in any way, sleeping or in a psychotic state (or whatever else can lead to hallucinations), and with other alternative explanations also excluded, scientists will take note, but Wikipedia isn't a place to collect evidence, nor engage in original research, so you're at the wrong place here anyway. Wikipedia only popularises accepted knowledge. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 16:39, 27 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Cool story, brruhh47.154.81.208 (talk) 00:49, 23 April 2020 (UTC)