Monumental Architecture and Ideology
Kahn, J.G. and P.V. Kirch 2014. Monumentality and Ritual Materialization in the Society Islands. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.
As senior author of this book co-published with Patrick V. Kirch, I discuss archaeological research concerning the materialization of elite power and monumental architecture in the pre-contact Society Island chiefdoms. The emergence of socio-political structures known as “complex chiefdoms” out of smaller-scale heterarchical societies has been an enduring problem in Anthropology. Our manuscript tackles the problem through investigation of a major ritual complex in the ‘Opunohu Valley, investigating the role that ideology and specialization played in the transformation of chiefly control. The majority of structures in this inland chiefly center, and certainly most of the current standing architecture date to the 17th and 18th centuries. This was a period of rapidly escalating changes in Ma‘ohi social and political spheres, of which the Tupauruuru complex is a material manifestation. Our newly developed site chronology strongly supports the hypothesis that religious rituals and ideology elaborated over time in the Society Islands chiefdoms in concert with the development of larger and complex ritual site aggregations. Both processes represent tangible and intangible symbols of the increasing control of elites over surplus production and the ritual calendar. The concluding chapter discusses more broadly the role of ritual complexes within the Society Islands archipelago, turning to the question of how the rise of major ritual centers was related to the rise of complex socio-political organizations.
Kahn, J.G. 2016. Public versus Corporate Ritual in the Prehistoric Society Islands (French Polynesia): A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Religious Practices. Séances de la Société Préhistorique Française 7: 141–161.
Utilizing a spatio-temporal perspective, I compare and contrast evidence for public, corporate ritual versus more private and communal household ritual. In comparing and contrasting evidence for temples, shrines, priests’ houses, and specialized ritual features, I outline similarities and differences in such ritual elements at residential complexes and more isolated aggregate ritual centers in the ‘Opunohu Valley, island of Mo‘orea. The goal is to demonstrate how multi-scalar spatio-temporal analyses can be used to investigate the elaboration of religious practices in the Society Islands. Archaeological data confirms that later corporate ceremonial complexes incorporate spatial aspects of earlier communal sites, suggesting an appropriation of ritual power by Ma‘ohi elites through time. Elaborate corporate sites lack evidence for residential use and represent isolated ritualized zones on the landscape where socio-ritual elites carried out elaborate rites de passage and rituals linked to the annual cycle. For the large part, the general laity community was excluded from these most sacred of rites, other than playing a participatory role as audience members, and importantly, as members of the community providing offerings of food and other goods to the reigning chiefs, the ancestors, and the gods. As a result, corporate rites elevated both elites and ritual specialists to positions of socio-ceremonial power.
Kahn, J.G. 2016. The Functionality of Feasting at Late Prehistoric Residential and Ceremonial Sites in the Society Islands. Journal of the Polynesian Society 125(3): 203–238.
Utilising a spatio-temporal perspective, I investigate the function of feasting at terraces attached to a range of community and familial level temples and communal spaces within residential sites in the Society Islands. My goal is to explore the ways that Ma‘ohi household leaders, chiefs and priests may have utilised feasting to materialise their economic authority, while at the same time facilitating the formation of communal identities. I utilise archaeological data to identify feasting at monumental architectural sites of varying scale and complexity and house sites of differing status. I then turn to ethnographic analogy and social theory to suggest differing functions of feasting at different site types. As I argue, feasting serves as a highly visible social act, representing not only a political leader’s generosity, but delineating boundaries of particular social groups and control over resources.. I conclude that feasting actively solidified local and community level leader’s economic, socio-political and ideological power in varied ceremonial contexts of the late prehistoric Society Island chiefdoms.
Sharp, W.D., J.G. Kahn, C.M. Polita, and P.V. Kirch 2010. Rapid Evolution of Ritual Architecture in Central Polynesia Indicated by Precise 230Th/U Coral Dating. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 107(30):13234–13239.
This article, published in one of the most-cited multidisciplinary scientific journals, discusses how the complex Society Islands chiefdoms constructed elaborate temples (marae), some of which reached monumental proportions and were associated with human sacrifice. We investigated the development of temples on Mo‘orea Island by 230Th/U dating of corals used as architectural elements. The three largest coastal marae (associated with the highest-ranked chiefly lineages), and 19 marae in the inland ‘Opunohu Valley containing coral architectural elements were dated. The 230Th/U dating yielded precise results, allowing us to build a chronology referencing change in a generational time scale. The new chronology indicates that temple architecture on Mo‘orea Island developed rapidly (ca. AD 1620-1760), with the largest coastal temples constructed immediately prior to initial European contact (AD 1767). Our example demonstrates that elaboration of ritual architecture in complex societies was sometimes surprisingly fast, counter to punctuated theories.