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The ʻAi kapu was the kapu system governing contact between men and women. Many aliʻi obtained their power through this system, and then would give thanks to the god of politics Kū.[2] ʻAi means "to eat" and Kapu means sacred. Therefore, it is translated to "sacred eating". In this particular practice, men and women could not eat meals together. Furthermore, certain foods such as pork (the body form of the god Lono), most types (67 of the 70 varieties) of bananas (body form of the god Kanaloa), and coconuts (body form of the god Kū) were considered kapu to women. This not only prohibited women from eating these, but also their contact in contexts such as the manufacture of coconut rope. Taro (body form of the god Kāne) was kapu for women to cook and prepare. Some large fish were also kapu for women to eat. Isabella Abbott, a leading ethnobotanist of Hawaii, theorizes that because of the limited "noa" (free) diet for Hawaiian women, seaweeds were relied upon more heavily for Hawaiians than other Pacific islands.[3]

The kapu system was used in Hawaii until 1819, when King Kamehameha II, acting with his mother Queen Keōpūolani, his father's other queen Kaʻahumanu, and Kahuna-nui Hewahewa, abolished it by the symbolic act of sharing a meal of forbidden foods with the women of his court. Abolishing the ʻai kapu assured political power to the line of Kamehameha rulers as monarchs because it limited the power of the rulers below them. Originally, it was from this political system that the rulers throughout the island would gain rank, power, and prestige.[4]