How chiefs became kings : divine kingship and the rise of archaic states in ancient Hawai'i / Patrick Vinton Kirch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kirch, Patrick Vinton.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chiefdoms--Hawaii--History.

Chiefdoms.

Hawaiians--Kings and rulers.

Hawaiians.

First contact (Anthropology)--Hawaii.

First contact (Anthropology).

Hawaiians--Politics and government.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (286 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Divine kingship and the rise of archaic states in ancient Hawai'i

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In How Chiefs Became Kings, Patrick Vinton Kirch addresses a central problem in anthropological archaeology: the emergence of "archaic states" whose distinctive feature was divine kingship. Kirch takes as his focus the Hawaiian archipelago, commonly regarded as the archetype of a complex chiefdom. Integrating anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, traditional history, and theory, and drawing on significant contributions from his own four decades of research, Kirch argues that Hawaiian polities had become states before the time of Captain Cook's voyage (1778-1779). The status of most archaic states is inferred from the archaeological record. But Kirch shows that because Hawai`i's kingdoms were established relatively recently, they could be observed and recorded by Cook and other European voyagers. Substantive and provocative, this book makes a major contribution to the literature of precontact Hawai`i and illuminates Hawai`i's importance in the global theory and literature about divine kingship, archaic states, and sociopolitical evolution.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. From Chiefdom to Archaic State: Hawai'i in Comparative and Historical Context

Chapter 2. Hawaiian Archaic States on the Eve of European Contact

Chapter 3. Native Hawaiian Political History

Chapter 4. Tracking the Transformations: Population, Intensification, and Monumentality

Chapter 5. The Challenge of Explanation

Notes

Glossary of Hawaiian Terms

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612917905

9781282917903

1282917900

9780520947849

0520947843

OCLC:

692797916