Ipu & kōkō
Gourd containers and cordage netting
Hawaiian archipelago
Gourds were used throughout Polynesia as food and water containers, but the many shapes, functions, and designs of those found in Hawai'i put them in a class all of their own. The bitter gourd plant, hue 'awa'awa, was extensively cultivated in Hawai'i, and individual fruits were carefully assessed to determine how best to modify and harvest them. Some fruits were placed on grass mats to flatten their bottoms to ensure that they would stand upright. Some were hung from tripods to lengthen their necks. Others with more irregular shapes were used to stow fishing gear on canoes, or create musical instruments. On the island of Ni'ihau, ipu pawehe, decorated gourds, were produced with striking geometric patterns.
In most cultures around the world, pottery was used for water and food containers. The Lapita people, who were the first to settle the far western islands of Polynesia four thousand years ago, brought along with them a complex pottery technology. But by the time the Hawaiian islands were settled by the Polynesians, descendents of the Lapita people, containers of fired clay were no longer used.
Some researchers speculated that clay was not readily available on the islands that Polynesian voyagers found, leading them to rely more upon gourd cultivation. But the Lapita people had created pottery for a millennium on the volcanic islands of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa before the techniques slowly died out.
It seems more likely that this new material culture developed as food, work, and religious practices changed, while the society slowly evolved to become a Polynesian culture rather than a Lapita one.