DOCSLIB.ORG

Yosihiko Sinoto and the Hawaiian Fishhook Typology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Yosihiko Sinoto and the Hawaiian Fishhook Typology Amanda Landis ANTH 464: Hawaiian Archaeology Dr. T. Hunt 10 April 2007 The Quiet Revolutionary: Yosihiko Sinoto and the Hawaiian Fishhook Typology Yosihiko Sinoto is not an international anthropology superstar. He is not famous - - or, at least his name is not instantly recognisable. Even his mentor Kenneth Emory is more illustrious. It is difficult to find his work in public and popular forums, such as the internet, unless you know exactly what you are looking for. However, with Yosi Sinoto first impressions -- even the lack of them -- are deceiving. Sinoto is, arguably, one of the most important archaeologists working in Oceania. Many modern accepted wisdoms of the ancient long distance-voyaging are based on the work Sinoto did throughout the Pacific. Sinoto’s definitive work throughout the Hawaiian Islands and French Polynesia established not only a chronology of settlement for Hawaii, but for migration in the Pacific as well. In Hawaii, however, Sinoto is most famous for his work with fishhooks. Sinoto believed that fishhooks could be used as a marking point on a cultural sequence -- specifically, using fishhook types to create a relative chronology. With fellow archaeologists Kenneth Emory and William J. Bonk, Sinoto was able to use fishhooks to create a settlement timeline for Eastern Polynesia as well as prove origins and inter-island interactions of the ancient people of Oceania. Even though some of Sinoto’s methods and 1 theories may have fallen out of favour, Yosi Sinoto’s work with Hawaiian fishhooks remains influential to this day. Born in Japan in 1925, Yoshiko Sinoto, the son of a scientist, became entranced by archaeology at a young age. As a teenager, he worked as a student-assistant to an archaeologist excavating shell mounds near his school in Ubayama, just outside of Tokyo. Sinoto left Japan in 1954, and sailed for the University of California-Berkeley, with a plan to study paleolithic Native American culture. While on the boat, Sinoto received word that the “Bishop Museum was conducting its first dig in Hawai’i” (Carroll, 29). Curious, Sinoto decided to visit the excavation, situated on Hawaii’s South Point area. There he met Dr. Kenneth Emory, the man who would later become his mentor. Sinoto’s decision to remain in Hawaii -- despite his worries that he would be deported -- proved pivotal. While working at the shelter sites in Ka’u, Sinoto developed a theory -- that would later turn into a thesis, which he would pursue at the University of Hawaii- Manoa -- about the artefacts he and his fellow archaeologists were unearthing: the thousands of fishhooks could be utilised to create a chronology of Hawaiian settlement. He created a typology -- a grouping of artefacts based on similar features -- to organise the fishhooks and began to answer a question the question “where do Hawaiians come from?” It was long believed that Tahiti was the dispersal centre for Polynesia, “depicted … legend as an octopus' head, with legs going out — where voyagers landed and went about their way” (Ritz). Sinoto believed otherwise: he theorised that Hawaiians were in fact, settled by the people of the Marquesas. 2 Before Sinoto and his fishhooks, archaeologists had used pottery -- specifically Lapita pottery -- to help understand the settlement by and interaction between islands in Oceania. However, Hawaii had no such pottery. Naturally, Hawaiians had have originated from somewhere -- but where and how to prove it? Yosi Sinoto looked at one artefact that Hawaii did have a lot of: fishhooks. Sinoto theorised that fishhooks could stand in for Lapita pottery. He believed that fishhooks were, “in the absence of pottery, the most promising means of tracing the ancient culture through artifacts” (Emory, “Fishhooks” vii). He could look at the similarities between fishhook types and their places in the stratified soil to determine when people came and, comparing the styles to those found on other islands, where they came from. Sinoto, in his very first archaeological survey, was able to test his theory at Ka’u -- specifically at Waiahukini shelter. Waiahukini, also referred to as site H8, is “doubtless an archaeological site of significance in Hawaiian prehistory” (Sinoto, “Survey of Coastal Sites” x). It is about 300 acres in size, and the soil is primarily consists of hardened aa and pahoehoe magma. The eastern edge of Waiahukini is bordered by collapsed lava tubes, which served as habitation shelters (Sinoto, “Archaeological and Historical Survey” 4). The archaeology done at H8 was conducted through a CRM process: C. Brewer and Company, Ltd., who wanted to build a fishing resort at Waiahukini “needed to know the location of all the archaeological and historical sites in the area and … about their historical significance so that important sites could be identified and preserved or salvaged without destroying significant information concerning Hawaiian culture and history” (Sinoto, “Archaeological and Historical Survey” 1). The survey continued in two phases -- the 3 first in January 1970, the second from June to July 1970 with Sinoto acting as the project director for both phases. A total of 125 sites were uncovered, 45 of which were lava tube shelters. The largest shelter, and arguably the most important site, Ha B21-61, was excavated decades earlier by the Bishop Museum. B21-6 “contained evidence of the earliest known occupation in the Hawaiian chain. Its radiocarbon dates indicate occupation as early as A.D. 750” (Sinoto, “Archaeological and Historical Survey” 15). The site was thought to be the first settled in the Hawaiian Islands and remained occupied until the time of European contact. Sinoto discovered that the fishhooks unearthed at B21-6 revealed culturally-appropriate typological changes that helped him construct a timeline. Sinoto and Emory would continuously return to the fishhooks found at B21-6 as comparisons. Four test shelters were uncovered during the second phase: B21-20, B22-64, B22- 70, and B22-248. Using the fishhooks found at B21-6, Sinoto and his team were able to infer that two of the shelters, B21-20 and B21-70, had a late occupation. Of the four test shelters, B22-248 had the earliest occupation: “its lowest layer contained notched two- piece hook points without association of knobbed points” (Sinoto, “Archaeological and Historical Survey” 15). When Sinoto and Emory compared radiocarbon dates from these four test shelters it became abundantly clear that the chronology that they had constructed based on the fishhooks at site B21-6 was viable. This was especially evident with shelter B22-248, which proved to have a later occupation than B21-6, but was still occupied earlier than 1 Ha = Island of Hawaii, B = Ka’u, 21 = Pakini-iki, 6 = number of the individual site 4 the other test shelters. This makes geographical sense: B21-6 is much closer to the coast, thus people would settle there quickly and easily adopt a fishing-based lifestyle. Additionally, the evidence suggested that occupation of the shelter at B22-248 had begun by the end of the occupation of Layer II at B21-6. Most all artefacts found at site H8 were fishing-related. “Practically in all the test pits where there was evidence of human occupation, there was also fishing gear” (Sinoto, “Archaeological and Historical Survey” 50). Interestingly, there was a definite lack of adzes or other strong construction tools for activities such as canoe-building or house- making strengthened the notion that Waiahukini was primarily a fishing village. Based on Sinoto’s research, people arrived in Waiahukini around 750AD and quickly settled in the largest shelter, B21-6. “These people were early Hawaiians who still had more Marquesan cultural traits than the Hawaiians with a fully-developed Hawaiian cultural assemblage” (Sinoto, “Archaeological and Historical Survey” 56). Sinoto backs up this assertion by pointing out that “some of the one-piece fishhooks are similar to and indicate a relation with those found in the early cultural layers of sites in the Marquesas Islands” (“Archaeological and Historical Survey” 56). Shelter B22-248 was occupied at approximately 1100 AD; the other shelters in the area were then quickly occupied. However, it wasn’t until 1600 AD that people began to construct permanent dwellings and lived in the Waiahukini area year round. The fishing village was abandoned in 1861, long after contact, and did not resume any activity until modern times. After Sinoto and his team established a timeline for Waiahukini, they compared the radiocarbon dates to dates established for neighbouring sites in the Ka’u area. H8 was 5 one of three sites surveyed; the other two were Sand Dune site (H1) and Makalei Shelter (H2). Along with radiocarbon dates collected at the respective sites, Sinoto used fishhooks to prove that all three sites were contemporaneous. Sinoto found a plethora of fishing gear at all three sites, establishing the Hawaiians who lived there solely as fishermen. However, at H1, there was no conspicuous change in any of the artefacts. Namely, there was no progressive change in fishhook types or any other artefact, which would indicate that the occupation of the site was “extended over one period or a single cultural horizon”; however, the vast number or artefacts “suggest an occupation of long duration” (Emory, “Age of the Sites” 3). This would lead one to assume that the people who lived at H1 lived there for a “single cultural horizon” and were very prolific workers. At any rate, the site was abandoned as fishing village and later, the sand dune that subsequently covered the village was used as a burial ground. Sinoto and his team found no artefacts of European origin or influence at the site, leading them to believe that H1 had been abandoned before contact. Sites H2 and H8, however, yielded a small amount of metal fishhooks, pointing to occupation post- European contact, if only for a short duration.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Center for Pacific Islands Studies Newsletter
    University of Hawai'i at Manoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies Newsletter sept¢mber/Octotier LIBRARY TO CLOSE SUMMER 1989 ~thro_Pology, University of British Columbia, spoke on Hamilton Library, which houses the U.H. Pacific Col­ Quantity as a Cultural System: Some Problems in the In­ lection, will be closed from May 15 to August 15 of 1989 terpretation of Kiribati Language and Culture." to allow removal of ceiling material containing asbestos. On November 4, Lei'ataua Vaiao Ala'ilima gave an Hamilton Library is one of the few remaining buildings "Overview of the Political and Economic Situation in on the U.H. campus from which asbestos has not been Western Samoa"; and Fay Ala'ilima presented "Commen­ removed. The project for the summer of 1989 is to taries on the Life of Aggie Gray." remove the ceiling material on the makai half of the 2nd UPCOMING SEMINARS floor which has suffered serious water damage over the On Tuesday, November 29, from 11:30 to 1:00 in Por­ past few years. teus 704F, Dr. Robert Aldrich, Senior Lecturer in The materials in the Pacific Collection will not be avail­ Economic History from the University of Sydney, will able. However, there is a general collection of Pacific speak on "The French Presence in the South Pacific." literature available in Sinclair Library and hours will be extended to assist faculty and students. Pacific Curator OTHER CENTER ACTIVITIES Karen Peacock and Pacific Specialists Lynette Furuhashi Dr. Kiste visited Washington to attend the National and Renee Heyum will be engaged in special projects for Resource Centers' annual meeting October 16 to 26.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    THE JOURNAL OF THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY VOLUME 127 No.3 SEPTEMBER 2018 VOICES ON THE WIND, TRACES IN THE EARTH: INTEGRATING ORAL NARRATIVE AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN POLYNESIAN HISTORY PATRICK VINTON KIRCH 2018 Nayacakalou Medal Recipient University of California, Berkeley The Polynesian peoples have long been noted for their propensity to encode the rich traditions of their ancestors in oral narrative accounts, often memorised by priests or other specialists, and passed down orally from generation to generation. Anthropologists refer to these as oral traditions, oral history or oral narratives, although they are also often categorised as “legend” or “myth”, terms that tend to dismiss their value as witnesses of real human affairs—that is to say, of history. In this lecture, I focus on a particular form of Polynesian oral narrative or oral history—one that is fundamentally chronological in its structure in that it is explicitly tied to a genealogical framework. Now I confess that I am not a specialist in oral tradition, a subject that is sometimes subsumed under the discipline of “folklore”. I am by training and by practice, over nearly half a century now, an archaeologist first and foremost. But I am also an anthropologist who believes in the holistic vision of that discipline as conceived by such disciplinary ancestors as Alfred Kroeber and Edward Sapir at the beginning of the 20th century. While this may make me something of a living fossil in the eyes of younger scholars who hew to narrower subdisciplinary paths, my holistic training and predilections incline me to see the value in working across and between the different branches of anthropology.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix a Cultural Impact Assessment
    APPENDIX A CULTURAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT Volume II: Final Environmental Assessment CULTURAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Management Plan November, 2008 STATE OF HAWAI‘I DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES December 2008 Appendix A Volume II: Final Environmental Assessment TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................3 1.1 Project Background .....................................................................................................3 1.2 Scope of Work ..............................................................................................................4 1.3 Physical and Natural Setting.......................................................................................4 2.0 TRADITIONAL AND HISTORIC BACKGROUND ....................................................8 2.1 Cultural Setting ............................................................................................................8 2.2 Historical Period ........................................................................................................11 2.3 Contemporary Connections to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands ....................12 2.4 Cultural Access for Native Hawaiian Practices ......................................................13 3.0 MONUMENT MANAGEMENT PLAN ........................................................................13 4.0 ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ......................................................................16
    [Show full text]
  • Necker and Nihoa Islands - Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 09/07/2005 03:53 PM
    Necker and Nihoa Islands - Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 09/07/2005 03:53 PM Nihoa and Necker Islands By Dennis Kawaharada In 1822, Ka'ahumanu and a royal party including Kaumuali'i, Liholiho, Keopuokalani and Kahekili Ke'eaumoku, visited Ni'ihau and heard chants and stories about an island called Nihoa, to the west of Kaua'i, the direction from which the winter rains came: 'Ea mai ana ke ao ua o Kona, 'Ea mai ana ma Nihoa Ma ka mole mai o Lehua Ua iho a pulu ke kahakai The rain clouds of Kona come, Approaching from Nihoa, From the base of Lehua, Pouring down, drenching the coast. Intrigued, Ka'ahumanu organized an expedition and sailed in two or three boats under Captain William Sumner to visit the island. They landed on the once inhabited, but long deserted island 150 miles WNW of Kaua'i and annexed it to the Hawaiian kingdom. The waterfront area around Ka'ahumanu Street in Honolulu was named Nihoa in honor of the visit. The island was annexed to the Hawaiian Kingdom again by Kamehameha IV, who landed on the island in 1857. In 1885, Queen Lili'uokalani, with 200 excursionists, visited Nihoa on the steamer 'Iwalani, and brought back artifacts-a stone bowl, a stone dish, a coral rubbing stone, and a coral file (Emory 8-11). Nihoa, jutting up from the sea beyond sight of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, is the westernmost place in this tradition of Kaua'i geography. It has come to stand for "one who bravely faces misfortune": "Ku paku ka pali o Nihoa i ka makani"-"The cliffs of Nihoa stand strongly against the wind" (Pukui, 'Olelo, No.
    [Show full text]
  • Intellectual Roots of Key Anthropologists
    SELECTIONS FROM ASSESSING CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Robert Borofsky, editor (1994) New York: McGraw-Hill FREDRIK BARTH is currently Research Fellow under the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Professor of Anthropology at Emory University. He has previously taught at the universities of Oslo and Bergen, and as a visitor at various American departments of anthropology. He has carried out research in a number of areas, starting in the Middle East with a focus on tribal politics and ecology. His best known works from this period are: Political Leadership among Swat Pathans (1959), Nomads of South Persia (1961), Models of Social Organization (1964), and the edited work Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (1969). Later, he has also done fieldwork in New Guinea and Southeast Asia, and among his publications are Ritual and Knowledge among the Baktaman of New Guinea (1975) and Cosmologies in the Making (1987). A monograph entitled Balinese Worlds will appear in 1993. "After a wartime childhood in Norway, I started at the University of Chicago with an interest in paleontology and human evolution. But the active and rich teaching program of Fred Eggan, Sol Tax, Robert Redfield and others broadened my intellectual horizon and led, after an interlude on a dig in Iraq with Bob Braidwood, to my choice of social anthropology as the focus of my work. My foundations derived indirectly from Radcliffe-Brown, who had taught my teachers during the 1930s. "Like many of my Chicago cohort, I went on to further studies in England. I chose the L.S.E. Autobiographies: 2 and developed a life-long association with Raymond Firth and, even more importantly, with Edmund Leach, whom I later followed to Cambridge for my Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Asian Perspectives
    ASIAN PERSPECTIVES THE BULLETIN OF THE FAR-EASTERN PREHIS1'ORY ASSOCIATION VOLUME VIII. I SlJMMER I 964 Ed£tor WILHELM G. SOLHEIM II HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS 19 66 © Hong Kong University Press, I966 Printed in April I966, I200 copies THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, ELY HOUSE, 37 DOVER STREET, LONDON, W.I ARE THE EXCLUSIVE AGENTS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT ASIA EAST OF BURMA Printed in Hong Kong by CATHAY PRESS 3I Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen ASIAN PERSPECTIVES Bulletin of the Far-Eastern Prehistory Association Editor: Wilhelm G. Solheim II; Regional Editors: Northeast Asia-Chester S. Chard; Korea-Kim Won-Yong; Japan-Ichiro Yawata; RyGkyG-Allan H. Smith; China Mainland-Kwang-chih Chang; Hong Kong-S. G. Davis; Vietnam-Truong Buu Lam; Cambodia-Bernard P. GrosIier; Thailand-Chin You-di and Vidya Intakosai; Burma-U Aung Thaw; India-B. B. Lal; Pakistan­ A. H. Dani; Ceylon-P. Deraniyagala; Madagascar-Pierre Verin; Malaya­ Alastair Lamb; Indonesia-R. Soekmono and R. P. Soejono; Malaysian Borneo­ Barbara Harrisson; Philippines-Alfredo E. Evangelista; Formosa-Kwang-chih Chang; Micronesia-Allan H. Smith; Polynesia-Yo H. Sinoto; New Zealand­ Owen Wilkes ; Melanesia-Richard Shutler, Jr ; Australia-Frederick D. McCarthy. Topical Editors: Trans-Pacific Contat.ts-Gordon F. Ekhohn; Linguistics-Milton E. Barker; Geography-Ooi Jin Bee. Occasional Contributors: Hallam L. Movius, Jr. THE FAR-EASTERN PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION International Officers: Council Members: Chairman-Wilhelm G. Solheim II,* Secretary-Roger Duff* (New Zealand), Ichiro Yawata* and Namio Egami (Japan), BernardP. Groslier* (Cambodia), Frederick McCarthy and Jack Golson* (Australia), A. P. Okladnikov** (Russia), Yu-ho Toh** (North Korea), Che-won Kim (South Korea), Li Chi (Republic of China, Taiwan), Hsia Nai** (China, Peking), F.
    [Show full text]
  • Eastern· Asia and Oceania
    I Eastern· Asia and Oceania WILHELM G. SOLHEIM II TENTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS A general notice of the Tenth Pacific Science Congress was presented in this section of the last news issue of Asian Perspectives. There are to be four sessions jointly sponsored by the Section of anthropology and Social Sciences of the Congress and the Far-Eastern Prehistory Association. The organizer of this Division is Dr Kenneth P. Emory, Department of Anthropology, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu 17, Hawaii and the Co-organizer is Dr Wilhelm G. Solheim II, FEPA, Department ofAnthropology and Archreology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. Three ofthe sessions are symposia; these are: 'Geochronology: Methods and Results', Convener-Wilhelm G. Solheim II; 'Current Research in Pacific Islands Archreology', Convener-Kenneth P. Emory; and 'Trade Stone­ ware and Porcelain in Southeast Asia', Convener-Robert P. Griffing, Jr., Director, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii. The fourth session will be 'Contri­ buted Papers on Far Eastern Archreology', with its Chairman Roger Duff, Director, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand. There are a number of other symposia in the Anthropology and Social Science Section which will be of particular interest to the archreologist. A detailed report of the meetings will appear in the Winter 1961 issue (Vol. V, No.2) of Asian Perspect£ves. UNIVERSITY PROGRAlVIMES IN FAR-EASTERN PREHISTORY Academic interest in the inclusion of Oceanian and Southeast Asian prehistoric archreology in the university curriculum is continuing to increase. In 1960 the Australian National University indicated their intention of including this in their programme with the selection of Jack Golson as a Fellow on the staff of their Department of Anthropology and Sociology.
    [Show full text]
  • HA Vol. 7 For
    hawaiian archaeology 7 Volume 7, 1999 Society for Hawaiian Archaeology hawaiian archaeology Volume 7, 1999 Society for Hawaiian Archaeology Editor’s Note 3 Elaine Rogers Jourdane Obituary for Catherine Cooke Summers 8 Papers Patrick C. McCoy Neither Here nor There: A Rites of Passage Site on the Eastern Fringes of the Mauna Kea Adze Quarry, Hawai‘i 11 Tim Denham, Francis J. Eblé, Palaeoenvironmental and Archaeological Barbara Winsborough, and Investigations at ‘Öhi‘apilo Pond, Leeward Jerome V. Ward Coast of Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i 35 Forum Patrick V. Kirch Hawaiian Archaeology: Past, Present, and Future 60 C. Këhaunani Cachola-Abad and He Pane Ho‘omälamalama: Setting the Record Edward Halealoha Ayau Straight and a Second Call for Partnership 73 Ross Cordy Thoughts from the Chaotic Midst of Hawaiian Archaeology 82 P. Bion Griffin Hawaiian Archaeology: A Post-Colonial History 89 Yosihiko H. Sinoto Some Comments on “Hawaiian Archaeology: Past, Present and Future” 99 hawaiian archaeology 7 Tom Dye, Editor Production of this volume was made possible with the generous financial assistance of Scientific Consultant Services, Inc. Cultural Resource Management Services issn 0890–1678 Contributor notes and subscription information can be found on the second to the last page of this volume. Editor‘s Note It is difficult to remember the state of Hawaiian archaeology before the Society’s Annual Conferences began over a decade ago. Begun at a time when the center of archaeological activity had nearly completed its disper- sal to the many cultural resources management firms from its old centers at Bishop Museum and the University of Hawai‘i, the conferences brought together archaeologists whose daily work rarely, if ever, did so.
    [Show full text]
  • Kon-Tiki Theory’
    Melander, V. 2019. David’s Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Reception Bofulletin the History of Archaeology of Thor Heyerdahl’s ‘Kon-Tiki Theory’. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 29(1): 6, pp. 1–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bha-612 RESEARCH PAPER: ASIA/PACIFIC David’s Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Reception of Thor Heyerdahl’s ‘Kon-Tiki Theory’ Victor Melander From the late 1930s to his death in 2002, Norwegian adventurer and amateur ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl struggled to find academic acceptance for his Pacific Islands settlement theory. He even went as far as using the biblical story of David and Goliath as a metaphor for his struggle against academia. However, there are numerous reasons to question the accuracy of Heyerdahl’s description of his relationship to the scientific community. This paper discusses the reception of Heyerdahl’s ‘Kon-Tiki theory’ among Pacific scholars in the late 1940s and early 1950s. By analysing contemporary reviews of Heyerdahl’s 1952 book American Indians in the Pacific and comments on early drafts of the theory, this paper demonstrates that the material substantially differs from Heyerdahl’s own claims. He was not excluded by the Pacific scientific community, but welcomed and encouraged. Above all, reviewers of Heyerdahl’s theory praised the importance of the challenge he had posed to the established research narrative. However, Heyerdahl’s academic amateurism failed to convince the scientific community of the accuracy of his theory. Introduction 170–214). The theme was hardly new and had already From the late 1930s to his death in 2002, Norwegian been adopted by Heyerdahl as a narrative driving force in adventurer and amateur ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl the 1940s (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Oceanic Prehistory
    Introduction: E. W. Gifford, New Caledonia, and Oceanic Prehistory Patrick V. Kirch This special issue of the Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers is devoted to a restudy of archaeological collections obtained by Professor E. W. Gifford of the University of California, Berkeley, during his pioneering excavations on the island of New Caledonia in the southwestern Pacific, conducted in 1952. As described in the Preface to this volume, the restudy was a collaborative student project, made possible by Gifford's meticulous cataloging and subse- quent curation of these materials in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley. In order to understand the signiflcance of Gifford's path-breaking research and the collections resulting from it, and how a restudy of the latter may contribute to current issues and debates in New Caledonian and Pacific Islands prehistory, this Introduction reviews the background to Gifford's field research, his excavation and laboratory methods, and the contribution his work made to revitalizing archaeology in Oceania. I also review subsequent archaeological research in New Caledonia as a context for interpreting the new analyses presented in this volume. E. W. Gifford and the Revitalization of Pacific Prehistory Professor Edward W. Gifford was already in the twilight years of a long and productive career in anthropology when he undertook to revolutionize the field of archaeology in the Pacific Islands. It is unclear whether he thought of his new project as 'revolutionary,' but there can be no doubt that such was its effect. At the age of 60 when most faculty think of winding down their careers and writing up their memoirs, Gifford and his wife Delila took advantage of a sabbatical leave from the University of California in 1947, to spend six months on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji.
    [Show full text]
  • Society for Hawaiian Archaeology
    hawaiian archaeology 12 Volume 12, 2011 Society for Hawaiian Archaeology hawaiian archaeology Volume 12, 2011 Society for Hawaiian Archaeology Patrick V. Kirch When Did the Polynesians Settle Hawai‘i? A Review of 150 Years of Scholarly Inquiry and a Tentative Answer 3 Boyd Dixon and Floodwater Farming of Ritual Offerings at Kaunolū and Maurice Major Māmaki on Leeward Lāna‘i, Hawai‘i 27 Windy Keala McElroy and Anatomy of an Unfinished Lo‘i System: The Ku‘ele West Steven Eminger Complex in Wailau Valley, Moloka‘i 47 Patrick C. McCoy Signs of a Divine Reality: The Materiality of Bird Cook Stones (Pōhaku ‘Eho) from the Dry Interior Uplands and Mountainous Regions of the Island of Hawai‘i 65 James L. Flexner Bottles, Abandonment, and Re-visitation in the Hansen’s Disease Settlement at Kalawao, Moloka‘i 108 Thomas S. Dye Contemporary Practice of Archaeology in Hawai‘i 125 hawaiian archaeology 12 Windy Keala McElroy, Editor ISSN 0890-1678 Editorial notices and subscription information can be found on the inside of the back cover of this volume. When Did the Polynesians Settle Hawai‘i? A Review of 150 Years of Scholarly Inquiry and a Tentative Answer1 Patrick V. Kirch University of California, Berkeley Departments of Anthropology & Integrative Biology Abstract The question of when Polynesians first discovered the Hawaiian Islands—the most remote archipelago in the world—has engaged scholars for two centuries. Abraham Fornander, Edward Handy, Te Rangi Hiroa, Kenneth Emory, and others proposed theories and projected dates of first settlement based on oral traditions, genealogies, and linguistic comparisons. With the advent of stratigraphic archaeology and radiocarbon dating, new models of Polynesian settlement emerged, seeming to push back the date of Polynesian settlement in Eastern Polynesia.
    [Show full text]
  • Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation
    Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation Volume 20 | Issue 1 Article 3 2006 From the Editors Follow this and additional works at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj Part of the History of the Pacific slI ands Commons, and the Pacific slI ands Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation (2006) "From the Editors," Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation: Vol. 20 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj/vol20/iss1/3 This Commentary or Dialogue is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Hawai`i Press at Kahualike. It has been accepted for inclusion in Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation by an authorized editor of Kahualike. For more information, please contact [email protected]. et al.: From the Editors F~M TH£ £DITO(Z.~ ill ISSUE OF Rapa Nui Journal focuses on both hi toric placed there and from this region, arrows of colonization T and contemporary problem and their connection to pre­ went off in all directions. A quite uncritical, or maybe opti­ hi toric remains. Ceremonial ites in the Pacific were modi­ mistic, view concerning the accuracy of the dated sample fied and changed during their 'lifetime' and such change made it po ible to place the original settlement just before may provide chronological equence. Changes occurred the first century BC in the Marque as I lands, around AD becau e of natural disasters (e.g., t unami, a the ca e with 300 on Rapa Nui, and around AD 100-200 on Hawai'i.
    [Show full text]