Cceltic Soul, I'd never heard that meaning for kahuna. I'd always heard it referred to the shamans, male and female. Anyway, I went looking for more info and found this, which I thought might be of interest: kahunakui.com, with several definitions. Main definition of "kahuna" is "an expert in any profession." I couldn't get the definitions to copy, but here is some of the rest of what it posted there. There is some other good info, too, which I did not copy.Many people have asked me to define the word Kahuna. The definitions above were from the Hawaiian Dictionary © by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert and published by The University of Hawaii Press. The word Kahuna literal means theHuna. Huna being the ancient religion of the kanaka maoli (Hawaiians) before the death of King Kamehameha (circa 1817).
kat - who still likes the amazonian implications, too:-)