Ideology, ceremony and calendar in pre-contact Hawai‘i: astronomical alignment of a stone enclosure on O‘ahu suggests ceremonial use during the Makahiki season

Gill, Timothy V.; Ruggles, Clive; Baer, Alexander

doi:10.15286/jps.124.3.243-268

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Additionally, as Gill et al (2015) have demonstrated, sites of significant size (in their case, the O'ahu site of Pälehua, measuring >1500 m 2 ) may be deemed "ritual" without also being a heiau. Despite the substantial footprint of the enclosure they describe, the lack of all traits associated with temples separates a site such as this from other sites featuring the traditional characteristics of a heiau.…”

Section: Monumentality and The Proscription Of Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Ceremonial architecture and the spatial proscription of community: location versus form and function in Kaupō, Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Baer¹

2016

jps

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Recent work in the district of Kaupö, Maui, has demonstrated the presence of a highly intensified dryland agricultural system, extensive residential sites and a range of ceremonial structures that include some of the largest temples (heiau) in the Hawaiian Islands. In this paper I discuss the ritual sites of Kaupö and how their placement on the landscape demonstrates a unique expression of elite power. Using formal architectural features to define two basic classes of ritual sites, I show that the nutrient-rich core of the district is bounded on either side by a network of monumental temples, effectively proscribing the highly productive interior. In contrast to these major heiau around the exterior, the interior of the district is dominated almost exclusively by small, relatively simple ceremonial spaces. Understanding the differential distribution of the ritual structures in Kaupö offers insights into how pre-contact Hawaiian rulers sought to centralise and control highly productive regions.

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Section: Monumentality and The Proscription Of Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Ceremonial architecture and the spatial proscription of community: location versus form and function in Kaupō, Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Baer¹

2016

jps

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“…More recently, archaeological scholars have considered heiau in relation to the role of Hawaiian religion in providing ideological force or legitimation for rulers. Recent studies focus on the role of priests as keepers of the social order (Kirch et al 2010, McCoy 1999, McCoy et al 2011; archaeo-astronomy practices (Gill et al 2015, Kirch 2004, Kirch et al 2013, Ruggles 2000; and temple construction chronology, with high-precision uranium series dating of coral offerings indicating a notable boom c. AD 1580-1640 (Kirch et al 2015, Kirch andSharp 2005).…”

Section: A Brief History Of the Archaeology Of Hawaiian Sacred Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

After the missionaries: Historical archaeology and traditional religious sites in the Hawaiian Islands

Flexner

McCoy

2016

jps

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Globalisation has a simple mythology. As the story goes, beginning in the 15th century, Europeans began exploring the world. Within a few centuries, the major powers of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Great Britain and France had established expansive colonies and empires. Wealth flowing back to Europe from the colonies provided the capital to fuel the Industrial Revolution, and thus the inequalities between the West and the rest of the world were established. Missionaries provided the moral means to rationalise conquest and colonialism through wholesale conversion to Christianity. Anthropologists, historians, and many others, including generations of indigenous peoples, know that this simplistic story does not reflect reality, and yet, many aspects of it continue to shape approaches to archaeological research. We know that people continued to practice traditional religions in various ways long after the missionaries arrived and through to the present. In archaeological studies of indigenous religion in Polynesia, with a few laudable exceptions, the implicit purpose of studying marae, heiau and langi (Polynesian sacred sites) is as a window to the pre-European past, and not as a window to how life changed in a post-European world. In the life history of sites of religious ritual, there is the pre-contact period when they were built and maintained for generations, and there is the modern-day; but the time in-between the traditional and the modern is lost or at least unacknowledged. In this paper we outline several ways to bridge the "prehistory/history divide" (Lightfoot 1995) via religious architecture in Polynesia. We argue that the study of the long-term evolution of indigenous religious practices of Känaka Maoli or Native Hawaiians, including those of the post-contact era, offers a way to take steps towards replacing colonial just-so stories with a more realistic analysis of the past built on archaeological facts (Flexner 2014). Känaka Maoli continue to practice traditional religion in various forms in the present, particularly in engagements with heiau 'temple' sites, and will continue to do so in the future (Kawelu and Pakele 2014, Tengan 2008). What historical archaeology offers is a set of links for understanding

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Celebration as a source of power in archaic states: archaeological and historical evidence for the Makahiki festival in the Hawaiian Islands

McCoy

2018

World Archaeology

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Ideology, ceremony and calendar in pre-contact Hawai‘i: astronomical alignment of a stone enclosure on O‘ahu suggests ceremonial use during the Makahiki season

Cited by 6 publications

References 18 publications

Ceremonial architecture and the spatial proscription of community: location versus form and function in Kaupō, Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Ceremonial architecture and the spatial proscription of community: location versus form and function in Kaupō, Maui, Hawaiian Islands

After the missionaries: Historical archaeology and traditional religious sites in the Hawaiian Islands

Celebration as a source of power in archaic states: archaeological and historical evidence for the Makahiki festival in the Hawaiian Islands

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