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Strategies for constructing religious authority in ancient Hawai'i

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Mark D. McCoy ,
Thegn N. Ladefoged ,
Michael W. Graves  and
Jesse W. Stephen
Mark D. McCoy
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand (Author for correspondence; email: mark.mccoy@otago.ac.nz)
Thegn N. Ladefoged
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand (Email: t.ladefoged@auckland.ac.nz)
Michael W. Graves
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, MSC01 – 1040, Anthropology 1, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA (Email: mwgraves@unm.edu)
Jesse W. Stephen
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai'i, 2424 Maile Way, Saunders Hall 346, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822–2223, USA (Email: jstephen@hawaii.edu)
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Extract

Through intensive archaeological investigation of temples in Hawai'i, the authors reveal a sequence of religious strategies for creating and maintaining authority that has application to prehistoric sequences everywhere. Expressed in the orientation and layout of the temples and their place in the landscape, these strategies develop in four stages over the course of a few hundred years, from the fifteenth to nineteenth century AD, from local shrines associated with agriculture to the development of a centralising priesthood serving the larger political economy.

Keywords

Hawai'ipre-contactpowerreligiontemplesterritories
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 329 , September 2011 , pp. 927 - 941
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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