Hānai is a term used in the Hawaiian culture that refers to the informal adoption of one person by another. It can be used as an adjective, such as "hānai child", or as a verb "to hānai" someone into the family. In the Hawaiian culture, hānai has historically been a practice of one family hānai-ing their child into another family. It has made tracing genealogical roots somewhat more complicated. Other Polynesian cultures, such as the Tahitians and Māori, have similar practices of adoptions.