Sport, Status, and Field Monuments in the Polynesian Chiefdom of Tonga: The Pigeon Snaring Mounds of Northern Ha'apai

Abstract

Socio-political development in the late prehistoric Tongan Chiefdom was among the most complex in Polynesia. Chiefly prerogative extended over a variety of resources and was visibly reproduced in several forms of field monuments. Archaeological research in the northern Ha'apai island group has recorded 14 mound sites that oral tradition reports were used as platforms for the snaring of the Pacific pigeon. This type of site, and the sport itself; are firmly associated with the chiefly elite. Based on construction attributes, pigeon snaring mounds can be classifed into three types. Oral traditions in Ha'apai associate their construction with a specific chiefly line appointed to the position of governor in the mid-15th century A.C.

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