Households, Specialization, and Social Production in Society Islands Chiefdoms

在国家科学基金会的支持下，帕特里克·基尔奇博士和詹妮弗·卡恩博士将在一个国际学者团队的协助下，在中东部波利尼西亚社会群岛进行两个野外考古季节的工作。该团队汇集了美国、澳大利亚、法国、新西兰和法属波利尼西亚大学的专家，调查社会岛群岛的酋长社会中新出现的社会和政治复杂性，以及精英权力的集中化。该项目重点关注奥普诺湖山谷的考古遗址，奥普诺湖山谷是莫雷亚岛上的一个主要生产和农业区；该山谷也是居住中心、精英仪式活动的场所和主要政治权力的所在地。社会群岛的史前晚期(公元1400-1800年)是一个重大的社会转型时期，政治和经济权力越来越多地被高级酋长和其他精英控制。这些转变极大地影响了农业生存、剩余生产和仪式活动的性质和强度。这些变化可能对日常生活和人与人之间的互动产生了持久的影响，在普通民众和地位高、经济特权的精英阶层之间造成了更大的鸿沟。历史资料记载，社会群岛是复杂的酋长王国(类似于汤加和夏威夷)的典范，其中社会不平等、等级和地位差异非常明显，但社会地位保持了一定的流动性，类似于不那么复杂的酋长王国。因此，这项研究将提供一个无与伦比的机会，将文献研究和考古研究结合起来，研究一个重大的人类学问题：酋长社会(国家的前身)中社会复杂性、等级制度和地位差异的发展。目标是了解导致不平等和等级和地位差异发展的特定途径，以及这些过程如何反过来影响地方、社区和区域各级的社会关系、资源获取以及日用品和剩余物品的生产。研究的规模要求收集基本数据，主要是住宅区和纪念性寺庙的数据，以制定一个按时间顺序排列的聚落模式序列。遗址将被绘制和挖掘，以重建社会分化、家庭经济和仪式习俗。具体任务是：1)对两个传统政体的主要住宅和宗教遗址建筑群进行测量和绘制地图；2)对房屋结构进行大规模发掘，并对寺庙建筑群和专业精英遗址进行较小规模的发掘；3)完成打捞到的地下特征(烹饪区、食物储存特征)的空间和功能分析；4)分析打捞到的石器和寻找制作石器的原材料；5)将调查数据与发掘数据结合起来。这项研究的学术价值在于，它测试了新出现的社会政治复杂性的模型，以及等级和地位不平等的发展，这是当前人类学考古面临的两个极具争议性的问题。更广泛的影响包括提供关于复杂的波利尼西亚酋长领地--社会群岛的重要信息，该群岛以前缺乏任何重大调查工作。这项工作将提供知识的支持性增长，允许对酋长社会的科学理解进行重大修订，这些社会通常被认为是国家的前身。法属波利尼西亚人、澳大利亚人和美国学生将参加该项目，以加强他们的培训，并增加他们对考古技术和波利尼西亚史前知识的了解。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Patrick Kirch and Dr. Jennifer Kahn, assisted by an international team of scholars will conduct two field seasons of archaeological work in the Society Islands of Central Eastern Polynesia. The team brings together specialists based in U.S., Australian, French, New Zealand, and French Polynesian universities to investigate emerging social and political complexity, and centralization of elite power, in the chiefdom societies of the Society Island archipelago. The project focuses on archaeological sites in the 'Opunohu Valley, a major productive and agricultural zone on the island of Mo'orea; the valley also served as a residential center, loci for elite ritual activities, and seat of chiefly political power. The late prehistoric period (AD 1400-1800) in the Society Islands was a time of major social transformation, whereby political and economic power was increasingly controlled by high status chiefs and other elites. These transformations greatly affected the nature and intensity of agricultural subsistence, surplus production, and ritual activities. These changes presumably had lasting effects on daily life and inter-personal interactions, creating a wider divide between the lives of commoners and those of high status and economically privileged elites. Historic sources document that the Society Islands are an exemplar of a complex chiefdom (similar to Tonga and Hawaii) in which social inequality, hierarchy, and status differences were notably pronounced, however some fluidity in social status was retained, similar to less complex chiefdoms. The study will thus provides an unparalleled opportunity to combine documentary and archaeological research to investigate a major anthropological problem: the development of social complexity, hierarchy, and status differences in chiefdom societies (the precursors to states). The goal is to develop an understanding of the particular avenues leading to the development of inequality, and rank and status differences, and how these processes, in turn, affected social relations, access to resources, and the production of daily goods and surplus items at the local, community, and regional levels. The scale of research requires that basic data, principally in residential areas and monumental temples, be gathered to develop a chronological and settlement pattern sequence. Sites will be mapped and excavated to reconstruct social differentiation, the household economy, and ritual practices. Specific tasks are: 1) to survey and map major residential and religious site complexes in two traditional polities; 2) to conduct large-scale excavations at house structures and smaller excavations at temple complexes and specialized elite sites; 3) to complete spatial and functional analysis of recovered sub-surface features (cooking areas, food storage features); 4) to analyze the recovered stone tools and to source the raw materials from which they were produced; and 5) to integrate the survey date with the excavation data. The intellectual merit of the research is that of testing models of emerging socio-political complexity and the development of rank and status inequality, two highly contentious issues confronting current anthropological archaeology. Broader impacts include contributing significant information on a complex Polynesian chiefdom, the Society Islands, that has previously lacked any major investigative work. The work will provide a sustentative increase in knowledge allowing for major revisions in the scientific understanding of chiefdoms societies, generally acknowledged as precursors to the state. French Polynesian, Australian, and U.S. students will participate in the project to enhance their training and increase their knowledge of archaeological techniques and Polynesian prehistory.