Exchange Patterns in Goods and Spouses: Fiji, Tonga and Samoa

Kaeppler, Adrienne L.

doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1978.tb00655.x

Cited by 35 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…Postcolonization voyaging and interaction supported socially mediated imperatives such as the acquisition of high status goods, the fostering and maintenance of strategic alliances, and establishing individual and group prowess or "mana" (14).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia

Weisler

Bolhar

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The Cook Islands are considered the “gateway” for human colonization of East Polynesia, the final chapter of Oceanic settlement and the last major region occupied on Earth. Indeed, East Polynesia witnessed the culmination of the greatest maritime migration in human history. Perennial debates have critiqued whether Oceanic settlement was purposeful or accidental, the timing and pathways of colonization, and the nature and extent of postcolonization voyaging—essential for small founding groups securing a lifeline between parent and daughter communities. Centering on the well-dated Tangatatau rockshelter, Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, we charted the temporal duration and geographic spread of exotic stone adze materials—essential woodworking tools found throughout Polynesia— imported for more than 300 y beginning in the early AD 1300s. Using a technique requiring only 200 mg of sample for the geochemical analysis of trace elements and isotopes of fine-grained basalt adzes, we assigned all artifacts to an island or archipelago of origin. Adze material was identified from the chiefly complex on the Austral Islands, from the major adze quarry complex on Tutuila (Samoa), and from the Marquesas Islands more than 2,400 km distant. This interaction is the only dated example of down-the-line exchange in central East Polynesia where intermediate groups transferred commodities attesting to the interconnectedness and complexity of social relations fostered during postsettlement voyaging. For the Cook Islands, this exchange may have lasted into the 1600s, at least a century later than other East Polynesian archipelagos, suggesting that interarchipelago interaction contributed to the later development of social hierarchies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The major sources of fine-grained basalt, the singular raw material used for adze manufacture across tropical Polynesia, are restricted to a few known localities. Previous studies have shown that these essential tools were sometimes transported more than 1,000 km within interaction spheres involving exchanges of goods and services (11,(13)(14)(15).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia

Weisler

Bolhar

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The ancient Tongan state/ chiefdom was headed by the paramount Tui Tonga (Lord of Tonga) and administered by closely related chiefly families, and it was exceptional in Polynesia for a network of political and economic relationships that extended to other islands and archipelagos (2,6). The control and redistribution of exotic goods is posited as an important source of capital used to support political centralization (7,8), but it has not been feasible to model prehistoric interaction in the expansive Tongan state using archaeological data because of the paucity of excavations at the central places of the chiefdom and the likelihood that most imports were made in perishable materials that tend not to preserve in tropical contexts (9)(10)(11). As a result, it has been unclear how far Tongan influence extended, whether the political economy involved control and distribution of prestige exotic goods by elites and whether the polity's interaction sphere was only one of several prehistoric networks responsible for the movement of people, goods, and ideas in the Central Pacific.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stone tools from the ancient Tongan state reveal prehistoric interaction centers in the Central Pacific

Clark

Reepmeyer

Melekiola

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Tonga was unique in the prehistoric Pacific for developing a maritime state that integrated the archipelago under a centralized authority and for undertaking long-distance economic and political exchanges in the second millennium A.D. To establish the extent of Tonga's maritime polity, we geochemically analyzed stone tools excavated from the central places of the ruling paramounts, particularly lithic artifacts associated with stone-faced chiefly tombs. The lithic networks of the Tongan state focused on Samoa and Fiji, with one adze sourced to the Society Islands 2,500 km from Tongatapu. To test the hypothesis that nonlocal lithics were especially valued by Tongan elites and were an important source of political capital, we analyzed prestate lithics from Tongatapu and stone artifacts from Samoa. In the Tongan state, 66% of worked stone tools were long-distance imports, indicating that interarchipelago connections intensified with the development of the Tongan polity after A.D. 1200. In contrast, stone tools found in Samoa were from local sources, including tools associated with a monumental structure contemporary with the Tongan state. Network analysis of lithics entering the Tongan state and of the distribution of Samoan adzes in the Pacific identified a centralized polity and the products of specialized lithic workshops, respectively. These results indicate that a significant consequence of social complexity was the establishment of new types of specialized sites in distant geographic areas. Specialized sites were loci of long-distance interaction and formed important centers for the transmission of information, people, and materials in prehistoric Oceania.Polynesian archaeology | geochemical sourcing | complex societies A rchaeological evidence for prehistoric interaction is critical to understanding the role of intersocietal contact and the power strategies used by elites in the formation of complex societies. In the first half of the second millennium A.D., a powerful and complex society emerged in the Tonga Islands (Fig. 1) that was unique in the Pacific for the way it aggregated an entire archipelago under a single political system. Considered a maritime empire/chiefdom (1-3), Tonga has recently been categorized as a primary/archaic state that, along with the late-prehistoric polities of the Hawaiian Islands, were the most complex societies in prehistoric Oceania (4, ref. 5, p. 146). The ancient Tongan state/ chiefdom was headed by the paramount Tui Tonga (Lord of Tonga) and administered by closely related chiefly families, and it was exceptional in Polynesia for a network of political and economic relationships that extended to other islands and archipelagos (2, 6). The control and redistribution of exotic goods is posited as an important source of capital used to support political centralization (7,8), but it has not been feasible to model prehistoric interaction in the expansive Tongan state using archaeological data because of the paucity of excavations at the central places of the chiefdom and the li...

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“…Par rapport aux îles Fidji, ce village est de l'autre côté de tout l'archipel samoan. Les nattes samoanes étaient recherchées par les Tongiens et étaient décorées de plumes rouges obtenues de Fidji quand elles manquaient à Samoa (Kaeppler, 1978(Kaeppler, , 1999. Que la première natte samoane soit née à Fiti-uta n'est donc pas indifférent.…”

Section: éChapper à La Vengeanceunclassified

La valeur immatérielle des nattes fines de Samoa : une monnaie au sens maussien

Tcherkézoff¹

2013

jso

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Exchange Patterns in Goods and Spouses: Fiji, Tonga and Samoa

Cited by 35 publications

References 1 publication

Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia

Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia

Stone tools from the ancient Tongan state reveal prehistoric interaction centers in the Central Pacific

La valeur immatérielle des nattes fines de Samoa : une monnaie au sens maussien

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