How Chiefs Became KingsDivine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai'i

Abstract

This book addresses a central problem in anthropological archaeology—the emergence of “archaic states,” whose distinctive feature was divine kingship—taking as its focus the Hawaiian archipelago, commonly regarded as the archetype of a complex chiefdom. Integrating anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, traditional history, and theory, and drawing on significant contributions from four decades of research, it argues that Hawaiian polities had become states before the time of Captain Cook's voyage (1778–1779). The status of most archaic states is inferred from the archaeological record, but the book shows that because Hawai'i's kingdoms were established relatively recently, they could be observed and recorded by Cook and other European voyagers. The book contributes to the literature of precontact Hawai'i and illuminates Hawai'i's importance in the global theory and literature about divine kingship, archaic states, and sociopolitical evolution.

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