Prehistoric Distribution of Stone Adzes on Hawai'i Island: Implications for the Development of Hawaiian Chiefdoms

Abstract

POLYNESIAN CHIEFDOMS, including those of Hawai'i, have been the focus of classic research concerning the development of cultural complexity.Service (1962) defined a chiefdom as characterized by permanently centralized redistribution of resources' administered through the hereditary office of chief as well as social stratification in which all individuals are ranked according to kinship distance from the chief.At the time of European contact, Hawai'i consisted of several chiefdoms, each divided into districts, which in turn consisted oflocal territorial units or ahupua'a.This territorial hierarchy was accompanied by a hierarchy of chiefly offices.The head of the chiefdom was a paramount chief who appointed lesser chiefs to administer the districts and ahupua'a.At each level of the hierarchy food and other materials were periodically collected to support the chiefs, who did not engage in subsistence activities, and to enable them to subsidize warfare, feasts, and ceremonies, or other public projects.The chiefly class, or ali'i, traced their ancestry to a senior ruling line.Rituals organized by a hierarchy of priests, material symbols of status, and an elaborate system of taboos all served to legitimize and maintain their political power (Earle 1978;Sahlins 1958).Service (1962, 1975) proposed that chiefdoms develop in areas with marked environmental differences where centrally located settlements with preferential access to varied natural resources emerge as redistributive centers.Social stratification follows redistribution, as individuals prominent in economic activities come to hold hereditary offices and maintain or increase their influence through the efficient management of regional specialization and exchange.Service's hypothesis was followed by others that proposed that complex societies develop in response to environmental

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