Patrick Vinton Kirch
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267251
- eISBN:
- 9780520947849
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267251.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
The thesis of this book is that Hawai'i consisted of three to four competing archaic states, each headed by a divine king. Hawai'i offers a “model system” for how differences in rank originally ...
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The thesis of this book is that Hawai'i consisted of three to four competing archaic states, each headed by a divine king. Hawai'i offers a “model system” for how differences in rank originally dictated by kinship gave way to a durable inequality legitimated in new cosmogonic and religious ideologies, how control over the means of production passed from the domestic to political economies, and, ultimately, how chiefs became kings. This chapter uses a comparative ethnographic and linguistic approach to situate Hawai'i within its broader Polynesian context. The controlled linguistic analysis reveals that Hawai'i does not conform to the patterns typical of other Polynesian chiefdoms, that it had been transformed into something qualitatively different by the time of contact with the West. An overview of the chapters included in the book is provided.Less
The thesis of this book is that Hawai'i consisted of three to four competing archaic states, each headed by a divine king. Hawai'i offers a “model system” for how differences in rank originally dictated by kinship gave way to a durable inequality legitimated in new cosmogonic and religious ideologies, how control over the means of production passed from the domestic to political economies, and, ultimately, how chiefs became kings. This chapter uses a comparative ethnographic and linguistic approach to situate Hawai'i within its broader Polynesian context. The controlled linguistic analysis reveals that Hawai'i does not conform to the patterns typical of other Polynesian chiefdoms, that it had been transformed into something qualitatively different by the time of contact with the West. An overview of the chapters included in the book is provided.
