Lexical reconstruction of Polynesian ritual space

Abstract

In the last decade, researchers have attempted to understand the structure of Ancestral Polynesian ritual space through Proto-terms found in lexicons of Proto-Polynesian and Proto-Oceanic.This practice can be seen as a "re-construction" of the marae complex based on linguistic and ethnological data.In this paper I review research that has been done on the Polynesian maraecomplex since the late 19 th century in order to identify how archaeologists have used words and semantics in their interpretations of this history.Comparing words and meanings of words as a source to gain a deeper understanding of past and present phenomena seems to have been a common practice in Pacific research.In the field of research on Polynesian ritual space, the use of words and reconstructed terms may be described under three headings: a relational approach, concerned with meanings of individual features; a conceptual approach, in which various structures are seen as representing individual concepts; and a lexical approach, which reconstructs the historical development of ritual structures based on interpretations of the semantics of Proto-morphemes.The paper ends with a discussion of these practices and the problems and prospects that they entail.

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