Buddies!

I would think that Tahiti and Hawaii had good political, social, and cultural relations.  The two way voyaging signifies these relations between the two islands.  The people of Hawaii were not opposed to Mo'ikeha marrying two of their princesses.  If there were political and social issues then he would not have been accepted and the marriage wouldn't have happened.  Their cultures were probably similar because there weren't any problems with the marriage mentioned.  The Hawaiians also respected Mo'ikeha's other wives and didn't have some uproar about it.  To be honest, if I was one of the princesses, I'd probably be pretty mad but that seems to be culturally accepted in Tahiti and Hawaii. The Hawaiians also accepted one of the Tahitians' gods when Mo'ikeha's son came. Hawaii also seems more open-minded because it easily took Tahiti's hula dancing and drumming.  Overall, Hawaii and Tahiti seem like they would (metaphorically) sit at the same lunch table because they seemed to have good relations with each other. 

Justinian's Code

The role of women is this empire is pretty minor just like in the other societies that we have studied.  Women are just there for babies(omitting angry feminist-like comment.)  But women do have some rights of divorcing and repudiating.  But overall, they are just there so there are children running around.  There is nothing in the document that says that women get any power.  All they are needed for is producing more people because the possession of children is discussed throughout the document. 
Justinian's background matters for this because it determines why he was emperor Justin's nephew.  His blood relation is important for him to keep his power over the empire.  If he is not able to provide a reason to why he is related to Justin, then he loses his position. The reader should know that the code is important because it protects his rights of being emperor.