Mark D. McCoy

The role of agricultural innovation on Pacific Islands: a case study from Hawai'i Island

Abstract Agriculture was essential in providing for food security, population growth and surplus social production on Pacific Islands. This paper discusses innovations first seen between ad 1400 and 1650 that opened up roughly 60 per cent of the available farm land in the Hawaiian Islands. These innovations include terraced fields in narrow gulches, some using simple flooding to take irrigation water to adjacent lands, and permanent rock and earthen alignments that served as windbreaks, retained soil moisture and lessened erosion. The resulting expansion pushed agriculture into increasingly marginal areas and helped the transition to a surplus-driven agrarian economy. Elite competition for territory promoted the production of surplus and the resulting increased geographic scale of polities helped reduce the burden of supporting the non-producer class by spreading the cost over a broader area.

Introduction of Breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis ) to the Hawaiian Islands

Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg, commonly known as breadfruit, is a tree from the Moraceae family grown on the islands of Oceania and primarily used as a food source. It was domesticated in equatorial New Guinea or Western Melanesia over 3,000 years ago and carried by Lapita peoples (Kirch 1997:38; Kirch 2000:78– 79) and their ancestors as they settled the most remote islands of the Pacific (Fig. 1) (Fosberg 1960; Jarrett 1959; Quisumbing 1940; Ragone 1987, 1991, 1995, 2001, 2006; Ragone and Paull 2008; Zerega 2003; Zerega et al. 2004). Breadfruit reaches heights of 10 to 20 m, bears fruit at seven years and continues to produce for 30 to 40 years, and grows best where annual rainfall is between 1,500 to 3,000 mm (Abbott 1992; Neal 1965:303). While yield is variety dependent, on average a tree will produce 150 to 200 fruits annually and, at 160–500 kg per year, provided an important, reliable source of carbohydrates in the era before European contact (Meilleur et al. 2004; Purseglove 1968; Ragone 2006). It was baked and mashed into a paste and on some islands was stored and fermented in underground pits to buffer against seasonal variations in food supply (Ragone 1991). In Hawai‘i it also provided wood for house construction, canoes, surf boards, and drums; its bark was made into cloth; and breadfruit latex was used for caulking canoes and to trap birds (Allen and Murakami 1999:103; Malo 1951:21; Neal 1965:303; Rock 1974:117). Historical linguistics and genetics of modern breadfruit from across the Pacific have been useful in tracing the long-term history of regional translocations (Kirch and Green 2000; Zerega et al. 2004), however similarities among Eastern Polynesian cultivars make it difficult to reconstruct the immediate origins of the single variety found in Hawai‘i. For example, Zerega et al. (2004) examined AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) data from Oceania using three primer sets yielding 149 polymorphic markers across 254 individuals and found Eastern Polynesian cultivars were the “least genetically diverse and probably originated from a much reduced gene pool” (Zerega et al. 2004:226). Indigenous terms used for the Hawaiian variety of breadfruit—mei maoi in the Marquesas, kuru maori in the Cook Islands, ‘uru maohi in Society Islands, ‘ulu e‘a in Samoa, and ‘ulu in Hawai‘i (Ragone 1991)—are also extremely similar to one another since they derive from the same ancestral terms in Proto-Polynesian (*kulu or *mei) rooted in Proto-Oceanic (*kuluR) (Kirch 2000:110; Kirch and Green 2000:123). Domesticates were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands either with initial human colonization or through secondary introduction after settlements were established. Colonial introduction of domestic plants and animals began with the arrival of the archipelago’s first people who set sail from the 1 Received 8 February 2010; accepted 6 October 2010; published online ___________.

Strategies for Obtaining Obsidian in Pre-European Contact Era New Zealand

Archaeological evidence of peoples choices regarding how they supply themselves with obsidian through direct access and different types of exchanges gives us insight in to mobility, social networks, and property rights in the distant past. Here we use collections of obsidian artefacts that date to a period of endemic warfare among Maori during New Zealands Late Period (1500–1769 A.D.) to determine what strategies people engaged in to obtain obsidian, namely (1) collecting raw material directly from a natural source, (2) informal trade and exchange, and (3) formal trade and exchange. These deposits represent a good cross-section of Late Period archaeology, including primary working of raw material at a natural source (Helena Bay), undefended sites where people discarded rubbish and worked obsidian (Bream Head), and a heavily fortified site (Mt. Wellington). We find that most of the obsidian described here was likely obtained directly from natural sources, especially those located on off-shore islands within about 60–70 km of sites. A smaller amount comes from blocks of material transported from an off-shore island a greater distance away, called Mayor Island, in a formal trade and exchange network. This study demonstrates the value of conducting tandem lithic technology and geochemical sourcing studies to understand how people create and maintain social networks during periods of warfare.

The influence of religious authority in everyday life: a landscape-scale study of domestic architecture and religious law in ancient Hawai’i

ABSTRACT Public architecture has proven its utility as a metric for the materialization of religious authority; however, archaeologists have been less successful at identifying how ideology is materialized outside formal ritual settings. Here we address the question of how religious laws that dictated separation of people and activities – known as the kapu system – influenced the way homes were built in pre-European contact era Hawai‘i. On the landscape scale, we consider three variables that could be correlated with the influence of religious authority: distance to a local temple marking a district boundary, the degree of daily interaction within the community and investment in household architecture. Our findings suggest religious authority was materialized with a high degree of ubiquity across all house sites without regard to any of these factors, a pattern consistent with pervasive religious authority across daily life.

The Geographic Range of Interaction Spheres During the Colonization of New Zealand (Aotearoa): New Evidence for Obsidian Circulation in Southern New Zealand

ABSTRACT During the colonization of remote Pacific Islands, founding communities forged novel interaction spheres within newly settled archipelagos. We report on new research on the geographic range of interaction spheres in the first centuries of occupation of New Zealand based on geochemical source identifications from obsidian assemblages found along the coast of the Otago region in the southern South Island. Results suggest that while there is evidence for interaction spanning the entire archipelago, logistical limitations on long-distance mobility along the long north-south axis of New Zealand appear to have developed early on and may be important in understanding the development of territories later in Māori culture history.

Celebration as a source of power in archaic states: archaeological and historical evidence for the Makahiki festival in the Hawaiian Islands

ABSTRACT Large celebrations in ancient societies, when viewed through the lens of political economy theory, were opportunities for economic redistribution, elite rivalry and social integration. Metrics to evaluate celebratory behaviour – such as festive gatherings, offerings at temples and shrines, games and memorials – remain underdeveloped. Here the author examines the archaeological and historical evidence for the Makahiki festival in the Hawaiian Islands. He takes a direct historical approach combining independent datasets to classify settings of celebrations and evaluate claims that the Makahiki festival originated, and was most elaborate, on Hawai’i Island, as well as that the festival was practised differently across the archipelago. The author finds that the relevant data collected over more than a century of archaeology are not sufficient to support these claims and that the distribution of tracks for the sledding sport (hōlua) might be a fruitful avenue for future research, especially when investigating elite rivalry. More speculatively, the author argues that it is possible to decipher choices in architectural design and location at royal centres that speak to attempts by the elite to artificially increase the density of crowds at low turn-out events while at the same time leaving enough room to accommodate high turn-out events.

The Difficult Place of Deserted Coasts in Archaeology: New Archaeological Research on Cooks Beach (Pukaki), Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Sites which have been occupied semi-continuously in the past present some inherent difficulties for archaeology. Here we present new research from a coastal site on the North Island of New Zealand at Cooks Beach where anthropogenic vegetation changes are seen using microfossil analysis of obsidian tools, sediments and pit fill. The results indicate the initial presence of people in AD 1300–1400 followed by subsequent periods of disuse or abandonment and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivation. Around the time of initial settlement, obsidian from this location is found at sites across the country. After AD 1400 the area appears to be deserted for a century or more, after which we see evidence for the cultivation of sweet potato in AD 1500 as evidenced by extensive soil modification and numerous storage pits. There is no evidence of a permanent settlement at the site. The geographic distribution of Cooks Beach obsidian was constricted while the site was used for sweet potato cultivation, a pattern often attributed to increased warfare. It appears cultivation was abandoned after AD 1650 marking a second secession of use, a fact confirmed in AD 1769 when Captain Cook visited the area. We consider the possible drivers for the late abandonment of cultivation at Cooks Beach.