Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-30T00:49:02.654Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ideal distribution models and the tempo of agricultural development in a windward valley of Hawaiʻi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2023

Seth Quintus*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Hawaiʻi
Timothy M. Rieth
Affiliation:
International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Thomas Dye
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Hawaiʻi
Alexander E. Morrison
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Hawaiʻi
Christopher W. Filimoehala
Affiliation:
International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Darby Filimoehala
Affiliation:
International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Jon Tulchin
Affiliation:
Wahi Kūpuna Program, Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Trever Duarte
Affiliation:
Wahi Kūpuna Program, Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, Hawai‘i
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ squintus@hawaii.edu

Abstract

Across the Pacific, agricultural systems have used two main complementary cultivation regimes: irrigated farming of wet environments and rain-fed cropping of drylands. These strategies have different productive potential and labour needs, which has structured their temporal and spatial distributions. Although these approaches have been studied a great deal at a general level, there has been less work on the local use and significance of these strategies. Here, the authors evaluate ideal distribution models of agricultural activities in the Punalu‘u valley on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, to assess how habitat suitability changed as a result of infrastructural investment and dynamic environmental, social and demographic change. The results are of relevance for contemporary initiatives to revive Indigenous agricultural systems in Hawai‘i and beyond.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allee, W.C. 1931. Animal aggregations, a study in general sociology. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.7313CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, M.S. 2004. Bet-hedging strategies, agricultural change, and unpredictable environments: historical development of dryland agriculture in Kona, Hawaii. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23: 196224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2004.02.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Athens, J.S., Rieth, T.M. & Dye, T.S.. 2014. A paleoenvironmental and archaeological model-based age estimate for the colonization of Hawaiʻi. American Antiquity 79: 144–55. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.79.1.144CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrau, J. 1965. L'humide et le sec: an essay on ethnobiological adaptation to contrastive environments in the Indo-Pacific area. Journal of the Polynesian Society 74: 329–46.Google Scholar
Bayman, J.M., Dye, T.S. & Rieth, T.M.. 2021. States without archaeological correlates? A report from Hawaiʻi. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 4: 4771.Google Scholar
Bell, A.V. & Winterhalder, B.. 2014. The population ecology of despotism: concessions and migration under the ideal despotic distribution. Human Nature 25: 121–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-014-9190-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bliege Bird, R., McGuire, C., Bird, D.W., Price, M.H., Zeanah, D. & Nimmo, D.G.. 2020. Fire mosaics and habitat choice in nomadic foragers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 117: 12904–14. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921709117CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dye, T.S. 2014. Wealth in old Hawaiʻi: good-year economics and the rise of pristine states. Archaeology in Oceania 49: 5985. https://doi.org/10.1002/arco.5034CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dye, T.S. 2016. Long-term rhythms in the development of Hawaiian social stratification. Journal of Archaeological Science 71: 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2016.05.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fretwell, S.D. & Lucas, H.L.. 1969. On territorial behavior and other factors influencing habitat distribution in birds. Acta Biotheoretica 19: 1636. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giambelluca, T.W., Chen, Q., Frazier, A.G., Price, J.P., Chen, Y.-L., Chu, P.-S., Eischeid, J.K. & Delparte, D.M.. 2013. Online rainfall atlas of Hawai'i. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 94: 313–6. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00228.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Handy, E.S.C., Handy, E.G. & Pukui, M.K.. 1972. Native planters in Old Hawaii: their life, lore, and environment (B.P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 233). Honolulu (HI): Bishop Museum Press.Google Scholar
Hommon, R.J. 2013. The ancient Hawaiian state: origins of a political society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199916122.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jazwa, C.S. & Jazwa, K.A.. 2017. Settlement ecology in Bronze Age Messenia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 45: 157–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2016.12.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennett, D., Anderson, A. & Winterhalder, B.. 2006. The ideal free distribution, food production, and the colonization of Oceania, in Kennett, D.J. & Winterhalder, B. (ed.) Behavioral ecology and the transition to agriculture: 265–88. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520932456-015Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 1977. Valley agricultural systems in prehistoric Hawaii: an archaeological consideration. Asian Perspectives 20: 246–80.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 1994. The wet and the dry: irrigation and agricultural intensification in Polynesia. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 2002. From the ‘cliffs of Keōlewa’ to the ‘sea of Papaloa’: an archaeological reconnaissance of portions of the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Molokaʻi, Hawaiian Islands. Berkeley: Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility.Google Scholar
Kirch, P.V. 2010. How chiefs became kings: divine kingship and the rise of archaic states in ancient Hawai'i. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520947849CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurashima, N. & Kirch, P.V.. 2011. Geospatial modeling of pre-contact Hawaiian production systems on Moloka'i Island, Hawaiian Islands. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 3662–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.08.037CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, T.N. & Graves, M.W.. 2000. Evolutionary theory and the historical development of dry land agriculture in North Kohala, Hawai'i. American Antiquity 65: 432–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/2694529CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, T.N. & Graves, M.W.. 2008. Variable development of dryland agriculture in Hawai'i: a fine-grained chronology from the Kohala Field System, Hawai'i Island. Current Anthropology 49: 771802. https://doi.org/10.1086/591424CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, T.N., Graves, M.W. & Coil, J.H.. 2005. The introduction of sweet potato in Polynesia: early remains from Hawaiʻi. Journal of the Polynesian Society 114: 359–73.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, T.N., Kirch, P.V., Gon, S.M., Chadwick, O.A., Hartshorn, A.S. & Vitousek, P.M.. 2009. Opportunities and constraints for intensive agriculture in the Hawaiian archipelago prior to European contact. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 2374–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.06.030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, T.N., McCoy, M.D., Asner, G.P., Kirch, P.V., Puleston, C.O., Chadwick, O.A. & Vitousek, P.M.. 2011. Agricultural potential and actualized development in Hawaiʻi: an airborne LiDAR survey of the leeward Kohala field system (Hawaiʻi Island). Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 3605–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.08.031CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCoy, M.D. 2006. Landscape, social memory, and society: an ethnohistoric-archaeological study of three Hawaiian communities. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California.Google Scholar
McCoy, M.D., Browne Ribeiro, A.T., Graves, M.W., Chadwick, O.A. & Vitousek, P.M.. 2013. Irrigation taro (Colocasia esculenta) farming in North Kohala, Hawai'i. Sedimentology and soil nutrient analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 1528–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.028CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McElroy, W.K. 2007. The development of irrigated agriculture in Wailau Valley, Moloka'I Island, Hawai'i. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Hawai'i, Manoa.Google Scholar
Morrison, A. et al. 2022. Colluvial slope agriculture in context: an extensive agricultural landscape along the slopes of Punalu'u Valley, O'ahu Island, Hawai'i. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2021.1998936CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philippe, A., Vibet, M. & Dye, T.S.. 2017. ArchaeoPhases: post-processing of the Markov Chain simulated by ‘ChronoModel’, ‘Oxcal’ or ‘BCal’. R Package Version 1.Google Scholar
Prufer, K.M., Thompson, A.E., Meredith, C.R., Culleton, B.J., Jordan, J.M., Ebert, C.E., Winterhalder, B. & Kennett, D.J.. 2017. The Classic Period Maya transition from an ideal free to an ideal despotic settlement system at the polity of Uxbenkãi. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 45: 5368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2016.11.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quintus, S. & Cochrane, E.E.. 2018. The prevalence and importance of niche construction in agricultural development in Polynesia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 51:173–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2018.06.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quintus, S. & Lincoln, N.K.. 2020. Integrating local and regional in pre-contact Hawaiian agriculture at Kahuku, Hawai'i Island. Environmental Archaeology 25: 5368. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2018.1497833CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rieth, T.M. & Tomonari-Tuggle, M.J.. 2013. Anything but hardscrabble: an archaeological inventory survey of a colluvial slope agricultural complex; Kalaupapa Pali Trail Survey, Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Kalaupapa Ahupua'a, Ko'olau District, Moloka'i. Report prepared for the National Park Service.Google Scholar
Rieth, T.M., Quintus, S., Filimoehala, C.W., Filimoehala, D. & Dye, T.S.. 2021. Archaeological data recovery at site 50-80-06-2936, Punalu'u Ahupua'a, Ko'olauloa Moku, O'ahu. Report prepared for Kamehameha Schools Wahi Kūpuna Program.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1997. Landscape catastrophe and landscape enhancement: are either or both true in the Pacific? In Kirch, P.V. & Hunt, T.L. (ed.) Historical ecology in the Pacific Islands: 80104. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt211qz1v.10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summers, K. 2005. The evolutionary ecology of despotism. Evolution and Human Behavior 26:106–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.09.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitousek, P.M., Ladefoged, T.N., Kirch, P.V., Hartshorn, A.S., Graves, M.W., Hotchkiss, S.C., Tuljapurkar, S. & Chadwick, O.A.. 2004. Soils, agriculture, and society in precontact Hawai'i. Science 304: 1665–9. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1099619CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weitzel, E.M. & Codding, B.F.. 2020. The ideal free distribution model and archaeological settlement patterning. Environmental Archaeology 27: 349–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2020.1803015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winterhalder, B., Kennett, D.J., Grote, M.N. & Bartruff, J.. 2010. Ideal free settlement of California's Northern Channel Islands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29: 469–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2010.07.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Quintus et al. supplementary material

Quintus et al. supplementary material 1

Download Quintus et al. supplementary material(File)
File 23.2 KB
Supplementary material: File

Quintus et al. supplementary material

Quintus et al. supplementary material 2

Download Quintus et al. supplementary material(File)
File 2 MB
Supplementary material: File

Quintus et al. supplementary material

Quintus et al. supplementary material 3

Download Quintus et al. supplementary material(File)
File 12.9 KB
Supplementary material: File

Quintus et al. supplementary material

Quintus et al. supplementary material 4

Download Quintus et al. supplementary material(File)
File 1.9 MB