From Hohokam Archaeology to Narratives of the Ancient Hawaiian ‘State’

Summary

The analysis of material correlates to interpret cross-cultural variation in ancient political economies is a conventional and time-honored tradition in world archaeology. The material correlates that archaeologists use to gauge degrees of social stratification include evidence of subsistence intensification, hierarchical settlement patterns, craft specialization, large-scale monumentality, and differentiated mortuary programs. Ironically, recent claims for the rise of ancient states in the Hawaiian Islands confound prevailing models of political economy among the Hohokam in south-central Arizona. My comparison of Hohokam and Hawaiian archaeology reveals that although their material records were comparable in scale, many archaeologists have concluded that Hohokam society (unlike Hawaiian society) was governed by a marginally stratified non-state political economy. These findings challenge anthropological archaeologists to ponder the theoretical ramifications of relying on material correlates to construct cross-cultural models of ancient political economies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Prehistoric Economies in Middle-range Societies: Papers in Honor of Katherine Spielmann

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14465