Polynesian Archaeology
Kahn, J.G. 2020. Settlement Patterns and Networks: Secondary Centres and Elite Ritual-political Power in the Society Islands Chiefdom. In Theory in the Pacific, the Pacific in Theory: archaeological perspectives, edited by T. Thomas, pp. 234–257. Routledge, New York.
This chapter utilises settlement pattern data and landscape analyses to identify minor ritual-political centres in the ‘Opunohu Valley of the Society Islands (Central Eastern Polynesia). It argues that the identification of inland ceremonial centres has dramatically changed our perceptions of Society Islands political history, site organisation and hierarchy. Examining temporal changes in the distribution and centralisation of elite political power through social interactions, scalar dynamics, and organisation changes highlights the creation of materially inscribed relationships between Ma?ohi elites in secondary ritual-political centres. Such analyses effectively chart organisational changes in socio-political networks through the Classic period (1650–1767 ce) and point towards the important role that religious ideology had in ongoing political centralisation in Polynesian chiefdoms and perhaps other middle-range societies.
Kahn, J.G. 2020. Maʻohi Hinterlands: Investigating Regional Variability and Multi-scalar Socio-economic Networks in the Pre-Contact Society Islands. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 11(1): 41–52.
This article combines ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological data to provide a holistic understanding of near and far hinterland locales in the Society Islands. Drawing upon current research highlighting the agentive role that hinterland zones could have on both local and regional dynamics, I emphasize how near and far hinterlands had diverse socio-economic roles and relational qualities.
Kahn, J.G. 2018. Colonization, Settlement, and Process in Central Eastern Polynesia. In The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania, edited by T. Hunt and E.E. Cochrane, pp. 351–374. Oxford Press, Oxford.
This chapter explores the long-term processes whereby settlers moving into Central Eastern Polynesia (CEP) adapted to new island environments and social landscapes. Over a thousand-year period, CEP societies instigated environmental change and subsistence intensification, in addition to developing localized styles of material culture and affecting great change in their sociopolitical complexity. In comparing the cultural sequences from three CEP archipelagoes (Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, Austral Islands), the chapter demonstrates shared patterns in demographic change and shifts in subsistence and exchange, while at the same time highlighting inter-archipelago variation in terms of pathways to emerging elite power. Trends in CEP regional variation provide broad support for models positing a relationship between the evolution of social complexity in CEP chiefdoms, and the effects of island size/age and the availability of natural resources.
Kahn, J.G. and Y. Sinoto 2017. Refining the Society Island Cultural Sequence: Colonization Phase and Developmental Phase Coastal Occupation on Moʻorea Island. Journal of the Polynesian Society 126 (1): 33–60.
We report on a dating and redating program of four coastal sites on the island of Moʻorea, Windward Society Islands, aimed at refining the archipelago’s cultural chronology and its place within larger settlement trends for East Polynesia. Our new corpus of 14C dates provides evidence for two well-studied Mo‘orea Island sites dating to the Colonisation Phase (GS-1 and ScMf5). Results point to established Society Island populations from the 11th to 13th centuries AD, supporting both the Conservative Model of East Polynesian settlement and more inclusive synthetic models. Developmental Phase dates from ScMf2 illustrate that new parts of the Moʻorea north shore were inhabited at this time, while other earlier coastal sites continued to be occupied, tentatively suggesting population increase. The redated M5 site, with its elaborate temples of the ‘Oro cult style, fits well into accepted dates for the Classic Phase. Our re-dating program has not only allowed us to refine the Society Islands cultural sequence, but has permitted precise identification or confirmation of two sites dating to the Colonisation Phase.