Unearthing the Polynesian Past : : Explorations and Adventures of an Island Archaeologist / / Patrick Vinton Kirch.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus eBook-Package 2015
• VerfasserIn: Kirch, Patrick Vinton,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (400 p.) :; 71 black & white images, 8 maps

Perhaps no scholar has done more to reveal the ancient history of Polynesia than noted archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch. For close to fifty years he explored the Pacific, as his work took him to more than two dozen islands spread across the ocean, from Mussau to Hawai'i to Easter Island. In this lively memoir, rich with personal-and often amusing-anecdotes, Kirch relates his many adventures while doing fieldwork on remote islands.At the age of thirteen, Kirch was accepted as a summer intern by the eccentric Bishop Museum zoologist Yoshio Kondo and was soon participating in archaeological digs on the islands of Hawai'i and Maui. He continued to apprentice with Kondo during his high school years at Punahou, and after obtaining his anthropology degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Kirch joined a Bishop Museum expedition to Anuta Island, where a traditional Polynesian culture still flourished. His appetite whetted by these adventures, Kirch went on to obtain his doctorate at Yale University with a study of the traditional irrigation-based chiefdoms of Futuna Island. Further expeditions have taken him to isolated Tikopia, where his excavations exposed stratified sites extending back three thousand years; to Niuatoputapu, a former outpost of the Tongan maritime empire; to Mangaia, with its fortified refuge caves; and to Mo'orea, where chiefs vied to construct impressive temples to the war god 'Oro. In Hawai'i, Kirch traced the islands' history in the Anahulu valley and across the ancient district of Kahikinui, Maui. His joint research with ecologists, soil scientists, and paleontologists elucidated how Polynesians adapted to their island ecosystems. Looking back over the past half-century of Polynesian archaeology, Kirch reflects on how the questions we ask about the past have changed over the decades, how archaeological methods have advanced, and how our knowledge of the Polynesian past has greatly expanded.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- CHAPTER ONE. Keiki o ka 'Āina: "Child of the Land" (O'ahu, 1950-1963) -- CHAPTER TWO. An Apprenticeship in Science (1963-1968) -- CHAPTER THREE. Moloka'i-Nui- a- Hina (Hālawa Valley, 1969-1970) -- CHAPTER FOUR. The Smallest Polynesian Island (Kolombangara and Anuta, 1971) -- CHAPTER FIVE. Lux et Veritas (Yale University, 1972-1974) -- CHAPTER SIX. Of Pigs and Pondfields (Futuna and 'Uvea, 1974) -- CHAPTER SEVEN .The Isle of Sacred Coconuts (Niuatoputapu, 1976) -- CHAPTER EIGHT. Matou, Nga Tikopia (Tikopia, 1977) -- CHAPTER NINE .The Ghost of Sinapupu (Tikopia and Vanikoro, 1978) -- CHAPTER TEN. Aloha 'Āina (Hawai'i, 1979-1984) -- CHAPTER ELEVEN .The Anahulu Valley (Kawailoa, O'ahu, 1982) -- CHAPTER TWELVE. "Looking for the Lion" (Seattle and the Burke Museum, 1984-1988) -- CHAPTER THIRTEEN .The Search for the Lapita Homeland (Mussau Islands, 1985) -- CHAPTER FOURTEEN. The Secrets of Talepakemalai (Mussau Islands, 1986-1988) -- CHAPTER FIFTEEN. Hawaiki, The Polynesian Homeland (Manu'a Islands, 1986-1989) -- CHAPTER SIXTEEN. Fiat Lux (Berkeley, California, 1989-) -- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. The Gathering Place of Men (Mangaia, Cook Islands, 1989-1991) -- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. Kahikinui, "Great Tahiti" (Kahikinui, Maui, 1995-2000) -- CHAPTER NINETEEN .Forbidden Peninsula (Kalaupapa, Moloka'i, 2000) -- CHAPTER TWENTY. Belly of the Stonefish (Mo'orea, Society Islands, 2000-2010) -- CHAPTER TWENTY- ONE .Roots of Conflict (Hawai'i and Maui, 2001-2009) -- CHAPTER TWENTY- TWO. The Sun Sets at Ana Tetea (Mangareva Islands, 2001-2014) -- CHAPTER TWENTY- THREE. Kekaulike's Kingdom (Kaupō, Maui, 2003-2013) -- CHAPTER TWENTY- FOUR .Reflections -- NOTES -- Appendix :Archaeological Books and Monographs by the Author -- Glossary of Polynesian Words -- Index